We’ve been here before…
A WWE pay-per-view that is met with resounding disdain is immediately followed by an episode of Monday Night Raw that elicits unanimous praise. As genuinely disheartened as I was by the Fastlane pay-per-view, as soon as I heard “Here comes the monaaaaaaaay!” and saw Shane O’Mac hit the RAW stage with his reliably fancy footwork, all wasn’t forgiven, but all was certainly forgotten.
Read MoreThis week’s episode of Monday Night Raw perfectly demonstrates why a three-hour running time is (to put it lightly) too long a running time for Monday Night Raw. No matter how good an episode might be, by the end of the second hour, RAW has used up its energy and most of its goodwill, and the audience becomes noticeably exhausted and increasingly disinterested. It is an impossible length of time to contend with, especially for the “average viewer” the WWE relentlessly pursues. Around 10:00 pm, I felt my attention and my emotional investment wane. I was full, but the WWE insisted on serving me another entree, cramming four or five matches into a forty-minute span, building toward a main event that today’s WWE-viewer simply doesn’t want to watch. And that is a shame, because had the show been two hours it would have certainly been the best episode in months.
Read MoreI was twenty-five when I first started writing THE RAW REVIEW in 2012. I was a typical angsty young writer - single, pissed off at the world, envious of “better” generations, and certain that my work was the best in the world. I would tap away furiously at the keyboard, churning out long, irony-laced, condescending, thoughtful critiques of RAW. These early write-ups reflected my state of mind and my state of life.
Read More"Here we, here we, here we fucking go!"
With these words, Glasgow-based independent pro-wrestling promotion ICW declares itself to the world. This is more than a chant.
This is a battle-cry
Read MoreEvery week I look forward to hearing the following words: "Ohhhhhh…don’t you dare be sour, clap for your world famous two time champs and feel the powerrrrrrrrrr!"
It’s often said and written lately that “The New Day is the best part of RAW”. That sentiment is unshakably accurate. Last night, while watching all of RAW's three hours, I desperately sought a muse. I needed a reason to write this Raw Review. It wasn't until New Day showed up in the final segment that I found it.
Read MoreI can’t remember the last time I wanted to boo Triple H.
Although I don’t personally know the man who performs Triple H (Paul Levesque), my maturation as a human being has coincided with his maturation as a performer. When you watch someone evolve over the course of nearly twenty years, you become comfortable with them. You start to notice what they do well, and you start to admire their capacity for reinvention. You appreciate the quality of the performance, not the moral alignment of the character they play.
Read MoreThe Attitude Era wasn't great because it was raunchy, sleazy, blood-soaked, extreme, and testosterone-fueled. In fact, all those segments, matches, and angles from The Attitude Era that weren't good were the ones that could be easily reduced to a set of trendy adjectives.
The assertion many modern professional wrestling fans make is that The Attitude Era was "so much better" than today's TV-PG Era, without offering a worthwhile explanation as to why. This noisy group of armchair critics likes to cite "Better promos", "getting color", "more interesting characters", "cooler stables", and "better angles" as adequate precedent. Working alongside that lack of an explanation is the unavoidably revisionist history that comes with nostalgia. Moments of time that were distinct, perhaps entirely unrelated, get lumped together and cataloged as the same event; Shawn Michaels chopping his crotch, Triple H sitting on a cannon, Chyna giving low blows, The Rock raising an eyebrow, Steve Austin stunning Vince McMahon, and Mick Foley falling off a cell.
Read MoreLast week I found an enjoyable solution to the problem of writing about RAW; ignore everything that was terrible about the episode and focus entirely on the excellence (Bexcellence) of Becky Lynch.
I could employ the same tactic this week. Charlotte & Becky were certainly the best part of the show, and not just because the rest of the episode was so grating. Even on a great episode, Charlotte & Becky’s exchange would have stood out. Becky’s promo was biting & sincere. It’s not easy to throw insults at Ric Flair (even a blatantly heel Ric Flair) and not have the crowd turn on you. Becky managed to walk that tightrope with poise and conviction, continuing to flesh out her character as a fearless competitor quick to speak the truth.
Read MoreSince the summer of 2014, I have been watching a particular class of professional wrestlers ascend through the ranks of the WWE; Adrian Neville, Tyler Breeze, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Ms. Charlotte, Bayley, and Sasha Banks. It has been the most rewarding pro-wrestling viewing-experience of my life to “come up” with this group, to chronicle their exploits in The Raw Review, the former NXT Report, The Work of Wrestling podcast, and the occasional editorial dedicated to their excellence.
As I’ve staked my claim on developing a new form of pro-wrestling journalism, a form that aims to prove that professional wrestling is an art worthy of more than dirt-sheets, rumors, and top ten lists, so too have these pro-wrestlers staked their claim on the WWE, fostering incremental change.
Read MoreFollowing the 2014 Hell in a Cell pay-per-view where a “Ghost” interfered in the main event (bringing Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose’s career-defining feud to an unceremonious close) the WWE’s flagship series gradually devolved into a predictable variety show that served rote promos, frayed story-lines, a disjointed tone, incoherent “comedic” segments, unimportant matches, and inconsistent characterization. These issues led to increased viewer-discontent, the stunted growth of a variety of talents, and stalled Superstar-ascents that were, during the Spring & Summer of 2014, nothing short of meteoric.
These issues persisted all the way through to the final episode of 2015.
Read More
