Opinion: Monday Night Raw Review

Last week on Raw and Smackdown, WWE had the first round of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament. Last night on Monday Night Raw, the quarterfinal matches determined the final four men who are going to “Survivor Series” to determine the next WWE Champion.

Meanwhile, The Wyatts dealt with The Undertaker and Kane’s return to WWE last week. Charlotte and Paige finally get personal, and The New Day invented the word Booty-ade.

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=qVSweS6sI6k

My biggest issue with last night is WWE didn’t push anyone new last night. I made my point for both Cesaro and Kalisto, but both men came up short. I’m concerned about what happens to those two now.

The semifinals at “Survivor Series” will be Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio. Ambrose and Owens is really interesting, but I just don’t find Del Rio vs. Reigns excited, especially since we’ve known Reigns is going to make the finals since the tournament began.

WWE also hyped the potential Ambrose vs. Reigns match-up. My thoughts have been made very clear about how the finals should be booked. Based off last night, WWE is building towards brother vs. brother rather than face vs. heel. In that scenario, my hope is Ambrose loses clean and attacks Reigns to end the night.

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=n_5qZu63mew

It hurts to say this, but this feud has lost some steam for me. I thought the purpose of this feud was to elevate Bray Wyatt to new heights against Undertaker and Kane. For the last few weeks, Wyatt has been all powerful. Wyatt felt dominating and unstoppable with three giants guarding him.

Last week, Undertaker and Kane were able to get through those giants very easily and then this week, Bray’s mind games are thwarted again by the veterans.

It doesn’t look like the Brothers of Destruction have lost a step even though they’ve supposedly been having their souls sucked out of them by Wyatt over the last few weeks.

The Wyatts should have attacked Undertaker and Kane the moment their promo was over. They should have beaten them down in dominant fashion and showed the WWE Universe that they should be taken seriously.

The question going into the match should be, “How do The Brothers of Destruction stop the Wyatt Family?” The way WWE booked it makes it obvious that Wyatt isn’t wrestling, and Undertaker and Kane are getting the win. Turns out this is a short term feud rather than a long term one that it deserves to be.

I hope WWE has something better planned for this match on Sunday.

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=dAt1kk-632s

I was concerned that Charlotte and Paige hadn’t had a personal confrontation in their feud yet. Now I know it was because WWE wanted Paige to drop the Reid Flair bombshell on Charlotte to invoke the emotional response to make WWE fans care about their Divas Champion.

It was a good move, but the execution was off. Charlotte isn’t the strongest talker, but she gets her point across, and she’s likable. On the other hand, Paige did very well being the heel, but her execution is not very good.

She keeps using the same phrases, and it makes her promo feel unnatural. She’s young, so maybe she just speaks that way. That’s something she needs to develop.

Having said that, the feud finally feels personal. Now, they can get into the ring and tell a good story. Personally, I want to see this feud continue. I think it’s just getting started.

I think at some point in the match, Paige is going to lose, and she gets herself disqualified and continues to torment Charlotte. The feud is picking up, and if they have a good match on Sunday, there is no reason not to keep it going.