So another Monday Night RAW came and went, and once again significant injury news followed. Thankfully, the latest update is that Braun Strowman is dealing with bone spurs in his elbow that should not keep him out for a prolonged period, but diehard WWE fans have to be wondering one thing by now. Is this show cursed?
Enough with the Injuries
Though RAW Is WAR is no longer the show’s tagline, there’s enough casualties on the roster to make you believe 2018 has declared war on the WWE. The list of Superstars injured or having to step away from the show for medical problems is long enough to start a brand new promotion. Here’s a brief rundown of everybody to miss significant amounts of time this year:
Jason Jordan – Remember him? Nobody really knows when the former RAW Tag Champ will be back.
Dean Ambrose – Man this show needs stars now and it’s good to have his evil twin brother back.
Bray Wyatt – The New Face of Fear missed time due to a car crash.
Ruby Riott – MCL Sprain forced her out of action and delayed The Riott Squad push
Tamina – Back now as a fearsome heel teammate to Nia Jax, but had to bounce back from a torn rotator cuff.
Samir Singh – Back from a torn ACL, but buried again now that Jinder Mahal is back to being a joke.
Fandango – One half of our favorite Fashion Police segment is working his way back from a left labrum tear. His injury effectively ended the year for Tyler Breeze as well.
Kevin Owens – KO’d by injuries to both knees.
Sami Zayn – KO’d by two torn rotator cuffs.
Goldust – The Golden Age fell to surgery on both knees.
Matt Hardy – Stepping away from in-ring action because Father Time has caught up with him.
Roman Reigns – Sadly, the Big Dog is fighting leukemia for the second time.
Alexa Bliss – Concussions, breast enhancement and everybody’s favorite – Nia Jax related injuries.
Braun Strowman – The Monster Among Men will now sit out with surgery on bone spurs.
Heck, SmackDown Women’s Champ Becky Lynch made a cameo on the show and managed to come down with – you guessed it – a concussion and broken nose. Thanks again, Nia.
When you throw in the fact that part timers like John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Nikki and Brie Bella all spent most of their time off WWE TV this year, you have a massive talent void to fill. But injuries aren’t the only culprit in 2018 being a rough year for RAW.
Tag Team Division in Shambles
The promotion of Authors of Pain couldn’t have come fast enough for Team Red. Though they are limited because Akam and Rezar are a pair of 300-pound men who are worthless on the mic, they at least represent a couple intimidating heels that you can slap the belts on and people will take them seriously.
But who are the good guys we are supposed to cheer on to feud with AOP? It appears Bobby Roode and Chad Gable are first up, but is anybody invested in either one of those guys? Roode has fallen flat since his promotion from NXT because he’s been booked as nothing special. Gable is athletic and talented, but not a great mic man. They also are two smaller guys trying to match up with 600-plus pounds of AOP.
The B-Team? I think the WWE got about as much mileage out of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel as it could with The Miztourage run and then their underdog championship reign. Lucha House Party? They don’t even seem to have their gimmick figured out yet. The Revival? They just got booked to lose to Lucha House Party. It doesn’t even seem WWE takes them seriously. Besides, they are best as heels and RAW already has plenty of heels going after each other. The Ascension? They haven’t been booked as serious title contenders since their NXT days.
I have yet to figure out why the WWE seemingly stacked every great main roster tag team on SmackDown. The New Day, The Usos and The Bar are so far above any of what RAW has to offer right now besides AOP. SAnitY can’t even get on TV on Tuesdays and would be a godsend on Mondays. Even Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows would prove better foils for Akam and Rezar right now than Roode and Gable.
Women’s Division Imbalance
Much like AOP in the tag division, Ronda Rousey switching careers to join the WWE couldn’t have come at a better time for RAW. With Alexa Bliss out, the division lacks a comparable star to share Rousey’s RAW orbit. That Rousey has been incredibly talented in the ring and done fairly well in promos this early in her career has made her routinely the best part of each RAW show she’s on.
Ever the opportunists, WWE is taking advantage of the massive amount of Becky Lynch fan hate on Nia Jax to make her a rival for Rousey. It’s actually kind of humorous that people who dislike her so much for the botch that stalled Lynch’s meteoric rise up the WWE talent ranks to the top can’t see that their anger is fanning Jax’s flames as well. Though she makes for an imposing figure, Jax matches tend to be slow because she’s not athletic and have provided plenty of examples of botching moves. The scariest thing for me at this point in Jax and Rousey being the main feud going forward is that Rousey is in the hands of someone who has or could have potentially seriously injured Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bayley and Alexa Bliss with her inability to perform moves properly.
The fact that RAW still features two of the four horsewomen from NXT seems lost on creative. They have turned Sasha Banks and Bayley, who were delivering matches of the year candidates a few years ago, into whimpy versions of themselves who always fall victim to Bliss and her mean girls. Worse, they usually only feature them in brief matches, either against each other or Bliss henchwomen like Mickie James, Alicia Fox, etc. At this point, it would take a major push for either of them to be seen as a credible competitor to Rousey should they want to do some sort of heel turn down the line with their new big star.
For now, Jax and her running buddy Tamina can provide a short-term challenge for Rousey, but to me it’s a waste because all of the matches we are dying to see with The Baddest Bitch on the Planet feature Lynch and Flair. Those are still months away at some of the biggest pay per views of 2019, so until then we have weeks of meh on RAW.
The rest of what the division has going on seems inconsequential. Dana Brooke is technically employed, but you would never know it from her TV appearances. The Riott Squad-Natalya feud seems more out of necessity than anything else because the WWE doesn’t really have anything else for those four women to do on the show. I also couldn’t see the WWE Universe getting hyped for Rousey against any iteration of Ruby Riott, Natalya, Liv Morgan or Sarah Logan.
This roster needs Bliss to be able to make a return or needs for the rumored reunification of the rosters in 2019 due to the TV deals to happen so that the best matches we want to see can happen.
Men’s Division Needs a Fighting Champion
I think everybody – RAW locker room included – is tired of the Brock Lesnar Experience with the WWE. That ride was a nice one, but like most amusement parks it’s usually a long wait for a less than gratifying payoff. It’s truly a shame that Reigns suffered personal tragedy with his leukemia just when he was set up to potentially fill the role WWE had envisioned for him for years. However, the prestige of the Universal Championship is lost because fans hardly ever see it or its bearer but a handful of times per year. Paul Heyman is great, but those long-winded promos about Lesnar’s greatness are getting super tired. It’s a shame that we will have to wait until WrestleMania or later for someone to give RAW a champion.
WWE needs to say to hell with it and get the belt on either Strowman or Drew McIntyre as fast as they can. No matter which way they want to play it, that is the feud that is going to have to carry the RAW men’s division with entertaining, meaningful matches until the rosters potentially reunify. Strowman can be the face crowds want to cheer for his roaring, physically astounding antics. McIntyre is not only the heel we deserve, but the one we need right now. Since Strowman is somewhat limited on the mic because he is a “mindless meatcastle,” the crux of the great shows these two could put on will be carried by McIntyre. The Scottish Psychopath does more with one of his menacing glares than most of the rest of the roster does with 10 minutes of mic time. With the build we’ve had with these two, the Strowman-McIntyre show should carry what is otherwise a pretty nondescript or inconsistently booked group, outside of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose.
However, the WWE seems to believe that the only feud Rollins and Ambrose can do well is one with each other. How many years have these two been fighting each other now? It seems like it’s been forever. The feud has gone on so long that each have now played the heel-face dynamic. I realize Ambrose was supposed to turn on Reigns, not Rollins. However, there could have been some shift of plans beyond just throw these two at each other again. Don’t get me wrong, seeing Ambrose burn his Shield gear was a nice segment, but it just seems like so much of more of the same from these two.
Otherwise, who else is in the same stature of those four? Of the heels, Bobby Lashley is so unbelievably boring in his WWE role right now, that I’m wondering how he’s had a career for this long. I understand he’s an impressive looking man, but you have to have him do something to make most of us care. Dolph Ziggler is basically known as the guy that gets other guys over and any title picture with him would seem predictable by now. Baron Corbin just doesn’t move the needle either. He’s getting a little better by being Commissioner Stephanie McMahon’s smarmy minion, and there is an intriguing angle of having him being able to set the whole roster against Strowman. Yet, I don’t see people being excited by him as a champion, either. They gave him a US Title run on SmackDown, and he fell flat.
On the face side, WWE just doesn’t buy Finn Balor as a big ticket guy. You can see it by how they book him. The only other hope for me is Elias. Fans like him. He’s big enough physically to be a credible challenger, and he’s funny. But the WWE hasn’t consistently put him in the ring or booked him well, either.
Where Does that Leave Us?
If we are to have any promise of some bright spots among the floundering three hours of RAW in 2019, it’s in Rousey and McIntyre. Those are the two performers consistently providing electric moments week in and week out with the show. McIntyre seems like the only choice right now to be a credible guy to give Strowman a run for his money, whether Braun is the champ or challenger. Meanwhile, Rousey is the only compelling part of the women’s division on RAW with Bliss’ health a bit murky. Here’s hoping RAW’s best women’s heel can get back in the ring and stay healthy in 2019. Otherwise, we will have to wait until the big pay per view shows for The Rowdy One to get much competition.