Monday brings us the final edition of Raw before Hell in A Cell on October 30th. The following is a list of five things we’d like to see from Raw this week.
#1: A Heated Feud Development Between Sasha and Charlotte.
The lead up to this match has been all about “women deserve to featured the way men are”, which is obviously true. Of course they do. But the build up for this match has been more about WWE patting themselves on the back for doing this than having a compelling story to tell. History feels cheapened when its so obnoxiously self aware. WWE should stop congratulating themselves for doing something now they very easily could have done for decades. Instead, we’d like to see an advancement in this feud so heated that by the end of the show there’s no choice but to have Sasha vs. Charlotte for the Raw Women’s Title be the final match on the show. And stop equivocating about there being 3 main events. It’s nonsense. The lack of commitment is embarrassing. Stop telling us you’re doing something and just actually do it well.
#2: Limited Time/Importance Given to Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar.
WWE has already announced Lesnar for Monday, so it’s too late to give it a week to simmer. This needs to be a show building things up for next Sunday. You’ll have plenty of time to center the show around the likely Survivor Series main event, so give Hell in a Cell the focus it needs this week.
#3: Sheamus & Cesaro Get Focused.
The guys that don’t get along tag team gets tired really fast. It’s time to start moving them into a chapter where the new team starts to get on the same page. WWE is belaboring the point to where it’s tough to get invested or excited. Put them in a match and have them beat a team (not New Day) decisively. Have them do an interview where they make it clear that they’re going to make the most of their championship opportunity. They’ll be much more compelling as a straightforward team of two big, mean bastards beating other people up.
#4: Braun Strowman Has His 1st Big Match Announced for Hell in a Cell.
It doesn’t have to be anything overly dramatic, but since the direction looks to be Sami Zayn as Strowman’s first opponent, make it official along with some mic work to build it up. If the idea is to make Strowman an unstoppable monster for Brock to conquer at Wrestlemania, pairing him with Zayn is a strong choice for getting him used to working longer matches. Strowman’s shown some real explosiveness at times, and I’d hope that over the next five-plus months they put him with opponents that can help cultivate that side of his performance.
#5: Bolster the middle of the show.
The complaints that three hours for Raw is too long are prevalent and understandably so. We also realize that without that third hour, WWE would be much less profitable than it is. With that in mind, there’s about 90 minutes of Raw every week that feels utterly pointless each and every week. The show is a drag to get through, even when the key segments are good. If I didn’t feel obligated to watch it since I’m covering it, I’d just catch up on youtube clips on Tuesday and watch Smackdown live on Tuesdays instead. With the resources at WWE’s disposal, it’s completely ridiculous that the show can’t at least be interesting for 3 hours. The Shining Stars being shady bootleggers isn’t cutting it. Golden Truth acting like man-children isn’t cutting it. Get your shit together, WWE.
That’s it for now, hopefully we can do something like this every week going forward!
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