Monday Night RAW in Pittsburgh was a tough watch.
There was nothing egregiously bad about the show at all, in fact there was a lot of good things that happened in the ring. However, the fans in the Steel City were having none of it.
Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, a crowd can make or break a show. Go back to the Attitude Era and be honest with yourself — were all those matches and segments as “great” as you thought they were? Absolutely not. But when you’re watching it on television, especially live television, you can’t but help be swept up in the emotion you feel from thunderous reaction of the crowd.
Conversely, a dead crowd can absolutely kill a show, no matter how good the in-ring quality is. A prime example would be the post-AJ Styles/pre-Don Callis era of TNA. Go watch those shows from Orlando’s “Impact Zone” and you’ll see men and women breaking themselves in half to people sitting on their hands, and the occasional “oh you did that move I’m supposed to pop for” applause.
That’s what happened tonight on RAW in Pittsburgh.
Was it as bad as those dog days of TNA? No. But, for a show that was relatively good from an in-ring perspective, this crowd totally derailed it from being one of the better shows WWE has produced in a while. Yet, can we totally blame this crowd? No. With Summerslam around the corner, WWE has not exactly done the best job in building a card people can heavily invest in. In fact, it feels like there’s more apathy around “the summer classic” than in year’s past — even with the loading up of legends on the show, and in the build-up. Hell, NXT Takeover: Toronto seems to have more hype than Summerslam.
Let’s break it all down:
Less Than Stratus-Fying: So, the big news heading into RAW was that Trish Stratus was returning to the ring for the first time in nearly a year. The Pittsburgh crowd, who gave a thunderous ovation to Becky Lynch, didn’t exactly lose their minds for Trish — which is a bit of a shock — since that’s the usual reaction she gets. You’d think, “Eh, whatever” since it’s the opening match. However, WWE did themselves zero favors by having Trish stand on the apron for the entire match. It was until Natalya got herself DQ’ed that we saw Trish enter the ring, only to be shoved by Natalya.
So, how did any of this build up to her match with Charlotte? It didn’t. Not one iota, except for one stare down. How did it help Becky and Natalya? Well, we saw Natalya’s willing to do anything to win, but let’s face it, this match is the Trojan Horse for Ronda Rousey’s return, especially since they mention Ronda constantly in this program. And I think the crowd knows this, or isn’t buying into Natalya. She’s essentially the female Samoa Joe/Dolph Ziggler character who gets pushed only to lose the big match as a serious threat.
Lucha Legends Collide: You know what match was awesome? Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade. These two can literally “fight forever” and I’d be totally fine with it. This was a really strong, fast-paced, high impact match. The cynic in me wonders what this win does for Andrade (he’ll likely be off Summerslam), but in the short term it was just an absolute delight to see them tangle.
Let’s Go to the OBGYN: What happens when one of the most fun things in WWE (the 24/7 Title) meets one of the worst storylines in WWE (Mike and Maria)? You get this mess. So, after weeks of being treated like a bitch, Mike Kanellis gets the 24/7 Title back by “hugging” his wife and the “doctor” turning out to be a female referee. Okay, clever enough. Then we see R-Truth and Carmella swapping roles with Truth pretending to be pregnant, then throwing a toy baby at Mike, and then rolls him up for a pin. I know some will find this funny, but Mike and Maria’s storyline just flat out sucks, and this segment was way too long.
Brock and Seth at it Again: Wash, Rinse, Repeat. How many times are we going to see Brock Lesnar beat the hell out of Seth Rollins? How many times is Seth Rollins “not going to give up?” Too many times is the answer. Last week’s beat down of Rollins was really well done with Heyman pleading for Brock to stop, and then Lesnar virtually shot putting Rollins onto a gurney. Great stuff. Here, it was more of the same this week but less interesting.
You’d think we’d get a moment where Rollins is milking the injury and is able to get something in on Lesnar. And for a second it seemed like Rollins’ limp disappeared, but this was another extended ass kicking by Brock, and the crowd wanted none of it. To compound the negativity, Rollins cuts this really odd promo saying, “I’ve got nothing. This is what I love. I’ll be at Summerslam.  I’ll beat Brock Lesnar. I guarantee it.” There was no emotion in his voice, which I’m assuming was showing his “desperation.” But it just sounded weird, and hollow, and forced. You’ve got nothing? This is the only thing you love? Did you forget about your girlfriend, Becky Lynch? There was a slight “Burn It Down” chant, but man this feud feels like it has no juice at all heading into Summerslam.
The Viking Experience: Hasn’t been great! Steel City, much like other cities, have not cared about them squashing jabrones in 2 minutes. Give them something meaningful.
I Love the Street Profits: The Greek Chorus of WWE just got a little better. Their interaction with Kurt Angle was terrific, and Angelo Dawkins stepping up to Drew McIntyre was a really great, small moment. It showed these guys aren’t just comedy, they’re tough, and they have no fear. Will this moment be capitalized on? Probably not. But for the moment, it was terrific.
Too Many Angles: So you build Cedric Alexander vs. Drew McIntyre with Kurt Angle as your special guest referee. You ramp up the history between Drew and Kurt. And you give it two minutes to bring Bray Wyatt out to slap The Mandible Claw on Angle? Sure. I love the new Bray Wyatt character, but wouldn’t it have made more sense to have this happen after the match had a finish? We got zero conclusion to the match, and this is the second match these two have done that has gone to an unannounced no-finish. People don’t care about this feud, because WWE doesn’t care about this feud. As for Bray, the gimmick works, and I’m hoping he’s booked strongly going forward.
The Match of the Night: The New Day and Ricochet vs. The O.C. was no doubt the match of the night. This was hard-hitting, and fast-paced while telling a good story. I love the fact that The O.C. not only picked up the win, but they did it cleanly, legally, and logically. They were able to capitalize on a mistake made by the faces, and were able to hit The Magic Killer for the win. No one looks bad in this loss, and Anderson and Gallows look super strong in this match, as opposed to the oafs they’ve been for the better part of two years. And man, AJ Styles bumps like a mad man. His bump after Ricochet dropkicked him off the apron was absolutely sick.
The Women’s Tag Match and How a Crowd Killed a Good Match: The crowd in Pittsburgh did not give one damn about this match. Their silence was deafening, and it really derailed the viewing experience for the people at home. If you closed your eyes and didn’t know what was happening you’d think you were watching a WWF Superstars squash match from 1995 where unknown jobber has slapped a reverse chinlock on Aldo Montoya. But here you have four really good women’s tag teams fighting for a title that has been rarely defended on TV. From a creative standpoint it doesn’t make much sense to have built The IIconics ducking the Kabuki Warriors only to put the belts on Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a four way. But, the result is what it is. It was a good match that the crowd decided to chant “CM Punk” twice during. No reason for that at all.
The Nonsensical “Let’s Try Anything to Get Hype for Summerslam” Moment: So we’ve built a Miz and Dolph Ziggler feud for weeks. We’ve, for some reason, added Shawn Michaels to the feud. Has that worked? Yes, it has. His inclusion in the feud has done a nice job of adding fuel to Ziggler’s heel fire. But then…we get this. Instead of fighting Ziggler at Summerslam, Miz pulls a fast one, and has Ziggler sign a contract where he’s going to fight Goldberg. Why? I guess because Ziggler’s been talking about legends, so they’re going to have him get “taught a lesson” by a legend? S U R E. Whatever helps you sleep at night. This was a desperation move done with little to logic behind it. And that monster pop you’d expect for Goldberg? Not quite there. Maybe if you hadn’t burned the dude out at that let’s not talk about it PPV in Saudi Arabia, the shock value would’ve been higher.
Final Thoughts: RAW in Pittsburgh was a good show. It had a lot of flaws in it, that were only exacerbated by a dead to contentious crowd. Is this reflective of bad creative by WWE? I think to some extent, yes. Outside of Becky Lynch, who is the audience connecting to on an emotional level? Maybe that’s going too far and too deep with their problems. So let’s simplify it — what match feels fresh, or unpredictable on this card, or Summerslam? There isn’t much. And given the fact we’ve seen more legends on RAW, and two are now in high profile matches for Summerslam, it seems like WWE is in desperation mode, and I think the crowd is starting to pick up on it.
