It’s been a minute since I’ve watched Monday Night RAW as I have been recording podcasts on Mondays for the past six to eight weeks. So tonight, due to a scheduling conflict I watched the entire three hour episode of Monday Night RAW 9/21.
It was a massive mistake.
This was easily one of the worst episodes of Monday Night RAW in a long time. In fact, I’ll go as so far as to call RAW 9/21 one of the worst episodes of episodic wrestling television of the past 20 years. It’s up there with Russo-era Thunder, post-Russo-era Nitro, and those waning days of TNA (before Anthem bought it) when they were in front of dead quiet crowds in the “Impact Zone.”
But let’s get one thing out of the way first. Was the wrestling bad? No, of course it wasn’t. WWE has the luxury of being littered with some of the best in-ring competitors in the world. Those individuals can take the stink off of the lousiest of storylines with their wrestling ability.
Yet, while I say this, many of the wrestlers were put in untenable situations where there was no possible way for them to look good.
There is no greater example of this on tonight’s angle with the ANTIFA meets The Dark Order group known as Retribution.
First and foremost, the “unveiling” of the members of the group is one of the biggest slaps in the face to wrestling fans that WWE has delivered in quite some time. Why? Because one of the members of the group is obviously Mia Yim. Now you might call me a cynic, but (and pardon my language and all caps)….MIA YIM HAS FUCKING BLUE HAIR AND YOU BARELY COVERED HER FACE AND YOU HAVE HAD HER ON NXT TV CONSTANTLY HOW COULD WE NOT KNOW WHO SHE IS?
Okay, glad I got that off my chest. So basically WWE is assuming people don’t watch NXT. Or didn’t see Yim at Takeover: War Games. Or maybe they just don’t care what we think. Maybe all of the above?
Back to Retribution … while the leader “T Bar” or “T Var” or “T Pain” or whatever you wanna call him is 99.9% Dominic Dijajovic (his size, gear, and move set is essentially the same), at least they put effort into his costume. They tried to hide his face and mask his voice. As for Dio Maddin (Mace?) the hair is a dead giveaway. However, he’s been barely relevant in WWE outside of his short commentary run that I can see people forgetting him. However, Yim is so blatantly obvious. As is Mercedes Martinez. The fourth member (SLAPJACK) is unrecognizable. Rumors are that it’s Shane Thorne, but he’s been rarely used in a meaningful way in NXT so who would recognize him?
The whole angle, the costumes, the names — absolutely reek of end-of-life WCW and the worst parts of TNA right before Anthem bought it. It’s the absolute drizzling shits of angle that makes nearly zero sense. This random ANTIFA group. Okay, let me address this. You know super Trump supporter Vince McMahon is going to go down this route. You know he’s going to have the corporate kids defeating the “cowardly” anti-establishment group. Oh and all of a sudden Retribution gets contracts? And those contracts allow them to do whatever they want in WWE? Wait … weren’t they doing that already? But at least the contracts allowed the WWE locker room to finally stroll down to the ring and fight them after months of seemingly not giving a shit.
Also, I’ve seen that they want to run this angle to be a main event of Survivor Series? Really? Well, let’s look at tonight’s main event and how that sounds like a terrible idea. The Hurt Business (who are the best part of the show) beat the shit out of Retribution. The only moves Retribution got in were punches, kicks and a double team suplex. Young Lions in New Japan get more moves in than these guys. Retribution looked like garbage. They should’ve gone in there and run rough shod over The Hurt Business — whether by hook or by crook.
In one night this group was completely defanged and made to look like a bunch of hacks.
Speaking of just terrible angles — did they really bring back the “Dominic isn’t Rey’s son” angle? Listen, Eddie Guerrero is a legend and should be cherished forever. That doesn’t mean this was a good angle 15 years or so ago! If you want good Eddie Guerrero/Rey Mysterio content go watch their classic from Halloween Havoc 1997 on the WWE Network. It’s pure wrestling magic. This angle? Pure wrestling dreck. Seth Rollins aka “The Monday Night Monotone” droned through yet another promo that made little to no sense. The resulting bullshit debacle of Rey’s daughter possibly being cool with Buddy Murphy in a Romeo and Juliet-esque angle is just the hottest of garbage.
You know what, I’m wrong. You know what was the hottest of garbage on RAW 9/21? Dabba Kato versus Braun Strowman. This match was hyped to holy hell and holy shit it was a glorified squash match for Braun. This was straight of the 1980s “build a monster then feed him to the babyface” booking style they used for Hulk Hogan in WWF and Jerry Lawler in Memphis. Dabba Kato had a couple of quick and “impressive” wins in RAW Underground and then Braun just beef slaps him around. Oh, and Braun didn’t look impressive. He looked gassed in the first 30 seconds.
Also, what’s the point of RAW Underground? What’s the end game here? Do wins and losses matter? Do you get on the main shows if you rack up enough wins? Title shots? What? Tell me? WWE you tell me EVERYTHING to the point where I can’t stand it, but you won’t explain this God damn concept which has been on your show for months. Is there good stuff here? Oh hell yeah! Arturo Ruas and Dolph Ziggler slapped. Erik and Riddick Moss was fun. But what’s the POINT??? Also, Shane McMahon on commentary sucks so hard. Would I love to see him get in ring and scrap? Of course! Shane, for all his sweaty shortcomings can go, so let’s see.
There was other things on RAW 9/21 that happened to set up Clash of Champions: Gold Rush, but honestly there’s no drama, there’s no build and the outcomes are predictable as all hell. Keith Lee and Drew McIntyre? You knew Randy Orton was coming out and doing something. You knew Lee wasn’t going over, but wasn’t “losing” either. Shayna and Nia (heels) made Riott Squad (faces) look like incompetent cowards. A Street Profits match with Andrade and Garza for the 50th time? Billie Kay and Peyton Royce pretending Peyton didn’t jump Billie last week? Holy. Shit.
RAW 9/21 crystallizes what WWE is doing wrong. They are not only presenting just terribly written, non-compelling television right now, but WWE is just insulting the last remnants of viewers of RAW they have. Nothing is important. History doesn’t matter. Fans’ knowledge of wrestling means nothing. Sure, the wrestling can be good, but moves can only keep you into the show for so long. We all can go watch moves and flips and spots and better storylines a lot of different places — including WWE’s own streaming service and NXT.
WWE needs to start caring about their fans, their stories and their future because the ratings are in the toilet and when you can get someone like me who’s been watching RAW since the beginning to stop watching altogether, you have a problem. This is exactly the reason WCW died. This is the reason TNA nearly died. WWE needs to get their act together and right quick.
