WWE Raw – September 28, 2020 (Review)

Published by Nicholas Holicki

WWE Raw – September 28, 2020 (Review)
WWE

Good Lord, Clash of Champions was incredibly alright. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. I expected nothing from the Sunday pay-per-view – and yet somehow still felt like I was running the risk of being disappointed. But the low-level showpiece actually impressed for the most part.

The triple threat between Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles and Sami Zayn was a beautiful kaleidoscope of disaster. It was like staring straight at the sun, both wondrous and unbelievably painful. And don’t even get me started on that Roman Reigns / Jey Uso masterpiece! Man oh man is Roman Reigns great… and that’s not something I thought I’d be saying this decade.

There’s just one problem though. All of that delicious, scandalous, devastating insanity was contributed by SmackDown. Raw offered precisely the square root of diddly squat in the way of wrestling goodness – unless you count any of the trillion rematches, which I as a matter of principle do not.

So Raw once again found itself in the unenviable position of trying to create buzz. Of trying to generate any semblance of excitement. And so it resorted to the same thing is does whenever it’s looking for a short-term ratings boost: it summoned the old timers.

Christian, Ric Flair, Big Show and Shawn Michaels were all scheduled to make appearances, no doubt in furtherance of the Drew McIntyre / Randy Orton dynamic and likely to set up another rematch.

Would it work? Could Raw chart a new course? Let’s find out in the review.

The Best of Raw

McIntyre’s Open Challenge

Drew McIntyre got things underway by chinwagging with a couple of legendary WWE figures while a pandemic continues to rampage through its locker room. I understand that Big Show, Christian, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair helped McIntyre retain his championship on Sunday, but there was no need to have them (especially Flair) in the ring here. Not at this time.

Randy Orton interrupted to tease another rematch between himself and Drew at Hell in a Cell. McIntyre pivoted to issuing an open challenge for later in the evening, with anyone who hasn’t previously challenged him for the belt being eligible. Out of all of this opening chit-chat, only the open challenge interested me. Although I have a sinking feeling that it will end with Randy Orton-shaped interference.

Black and Owens get Violent

It took ninety minutes, but finally Raw delivered a good wrestling match.

Kevin Owens and Aleister Black fed off their increasingly violent feud to put on a pretty stiff showing last night. They brawled all around the ring, just sticking each other with knees and kicks. Black in particular demonstrated a ruthless streak, desperate to win the match.

But then, because we can never have anything be too good in WWE, the finish did its best to undercut the match. When cocking his arm to punch KO, Black (seemingly accidentally) elbowed the official in the gut. The referee called for the bell, announcing that the Dutchman had been disqualified.

Aleister Black was irate and began arguing the decision, only to be levelled with a stunner from the recovered Owens. This was a dumb ending to a really fun contest.

Aalyah Turns on Dominik

Presumable in defence of his sister’s honour based on earlier (significantly worse) events, Dominik Mysterio fought Murphy. Sure, this represented yet another rematch in a long line of rematches. But the pair have proven chemistry and Dominik needs that familiarity at this point in his development. So I’ll forgive the repetition.

The two men had an absolute war as they sought to expunge the other from existence. Eventually Dominik got a kendo stick, which prompted Aalyah to run out to discourage further violence. Her and Dominik got into an argument, which allowed Murphy to roll Mysterio up for the pin.

Dominik put his loss at the feet of Aalyah, claiming that punishing Murphy was necessary for their family. But Aalyah pleaded that Murphy wasn’t like Seth, he was good. And presumably handsome, if the love angle is still being pursued.

Dominik called his sister naive, which has a similar effect to when Alexa Bliss hears about The Fiend. She slapped Dominik and stormed off. With the exception of this wonky and borderline problematic lovers story, I’m all here for the Mysterio inter-family drama. Both Aalyah and Dominik have also really improved their acting.

Mustafa Ali is Back

After a minor disagreement backstage, Mustafa Ali joined Apollo Crews and Ricochet to take on The Hurt Business. Thirty seconds into the six-man match, the lights flickered, the babyface trio magically evaporated and RETRIBUTION’S logo appeared throughout the arena.

When we returned from the commercial break however, things were back to normal and the tag match continued. Am I losing my mind?

Given the annoying sideshow antics, it was difficult to enjoy the match on display. It seemed inevitable that we’d get some form of shenanigans. Which is a shame, because the six-man was incredibly fun – WWE really does excel as this type of thing. And Mustafa Ali looked incredible, ultimately securing the pin on MVP with a 450 Splash.

Thankfully, the lawless invaders were considerate enough not to spoil the match, which only serves to make their tease all the more impotent.

One Notable Absence

There was no mention of Raw Underground this week. That’s all. Small victories.

The Worst of Raw

Vega is Bad

To build anticipation for the Raw Women’s Title match between Asuka and Zelina Vega, the two women got into a bit of a scuffle backstage. Apparently this was meant to make me forget that Asuka handily beat Vega just 24 hours earlier. It didn’t.

So while the match was generally fairly good, I never for a second bought that Vega had a chance. Not even when she spent the opening few minutes wrapping Asuka up in various submission holds.

And so it was that after a few spirited minutes, the Japanese star again easily won with an Asuka Lock. I really don’t understand what the purpose of this rematch was. Seeing Zelina lose comprehensively twice in a 24-hour span certainly hasn’t boosted her profile.

Andrade is Also Bad

After the match, Andrade came down to the ring to blame Zelina for all his ineptitude. I’m pretty sure this union was splintered last week, but apparently we needed a further reminder of how historically bad this partnership has been on the main roster.

Seconds later, Andrade was squashed by Keith Lee. As much as this should’ve been how Lee was treated from the beginning, it simply wasn’t. And while squash matches are a fine way to rebuild his stumbling introduction, it shouldn’t be coming at the expense of Andrade – who himself requires rehabilitation on Raw.

Akira Tozawa is Back from the Dead

A week ago Akira Tozawa was eaten by one or more sharks. This week he was duping R-Truth with a fake funeral, no hint of an explanation offered. He snuck up behind R-Truth and rolled him up to win the 24/7 Title. Then Drew Gulak, disguised as a ninja, clobbered Tozawa with a briefcase to pin him. Lastly, R-Truth used the briefcase to floor Gulak and escape with his Title.

Segments involving the 24/7 Championship have come to resemble the reigns of those who hold it – unfunny, tedious and somehow overly long despite being exceedingly short.

An Uncomfortable Relationship

The Mysterios appeared on the Kings Court, in the jankiest set-up I’ve ever witnessed. You’d think a billion Dollar company would be able to afford more than a small gold couch for its talk show segments.

Anyway, Jerry Lawler steered the discussion to Aalyah’s relationship with Murphy. She claimed that Murphy needed to reevaluate his dealings with Seth, whom she described as a “bad man”. Fair point, I mean he did extract her father’s eyeball.

Seth appeared on the Titantron to allege that Aalyah was understating her involvement with Murphy, before revealing a text in which she wished the Australian a happy birthday. This somehow sent everyone scurrying into action. Aalyah looked humiliated, Murphy confronted his leader for betraying him and Dominik blindsided Murphy.

We seem to be ignoring the larger topic here though. The clear inference is that there’s some romantic entanglement brewing between Murphy and the youngest Mysterio. The Aussie is 32. Aalyah is 19. WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?

Mandy Night Raw Brings a Friend

Lana and Natalya were in the ring moaning about… something? I wasn’t really paying attention.

Adam Pearce interrupted to inform them that while he couldn’t grant them a shot at the Women’s Tag Team Titles, he could give them a match against the newest additions to Raw. Out came Mandy Rose – who made the jump to the red brand a couple of weeks ago – and Dana Brooke!

We’re less than two weeks removed from the upcoming WWE Draft. Why are we shifting stars around outside of the just announced window? It doesn’t make the tiniest bit of sense and only undermines the integrity of the entire draft process. If anyone can just move at any time, why event have a draft?

Anyway, Mandy and Dana won in two minutes and the match was boring. Next!

Normalising the 24/7 Title

R-Truth was booked to defend the 24/7 Championship in a triple threat also featuring Akira Tozawa and Drew Gulak. That’s right, the title which exists solely to as a gimmick to be defended any time, anywhere is now the subject of a formal match in the ring. And to make things better, the 24/7 nature of the belt is suspended for the duration of the match, essentially making it just like any other random title. What a waste.

R-Truth won after a double Attitude Adjustment – a tribute to his childhood hero, John Cena. This was a pointless diversion.

Bianca’s Athletic Masterclass

Relayed by way of a short insert, Bianca Belair out-sprinted a bunch of anonymous nobodies.

I’m not entirely sure what purpose this all serves. If you didn’t know that Belair was a top notch athlete, then you haven’t been paying attention. And having her crush a group of Average Joes and Jills isn’t the best way to convey that message.

WWE Helping the Enemy

RETRIBUTION was given a video package this week, cued up by Tom Phillips.

WHY?! Why is a lawless, renegade group whose sole intent is to destroy WWE getting a hype package at the company’s expense? It’s just patently ludicrous.

Randy Orton Goes Full Cartoon

Big Show, Christian, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair spent all night playing card in some little room. A suspicious-looking janitor rolled his cart outside the door. It was the dastardly Randy Orton in disguise. Why was he in disguise? Excellent question.

He grabbed a steel chair and donned night vision goggles before cutting the lights in the gambling den. We then heard a bunch of bad sound effects, designed to signify that Orton was wailing on the legends in the dark. When the lights came back on, all four of the men were laid out. Orton re-applied his disguise and left.

This was cartoonish both in concept and execution. I really hated it.

A Glorious, But Flawed Return

Drew McIntyre took to the ring to await his mystery opponent. Out came Robert Roode, making his surprise return after an absence since the start of the pandemic.

As glorious as Roode looked and as good as it was to see him back, there are two significant issues here. First, with commentary’s gushing praise, we were suddenly being asked to accept Roode as a legitimate threat to McIntyre’s title reign. But that’s hard to do for anyone who remembers his prolonged mid-card run since joining the main roster. Secondly – and this feeds off of the first point – it certainly doesn’t benefit Roode to lose his return match, even if it is to the WWE Champion.

Even with the benefit of having Dolph Ziggler at ringside and targeting the Champion’s leg, it took McIntyre about ten minutes to dispatch of Roode. This was a fine, but unspectacular main event. And it certainly didn’t make Roode look like a big deal on his return.

Overall Rating for the Show (From best to worst: RAWsome, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and RAWful)

I know we say this every week, but Raw is so long. But it becomes all the more inescapable when the show makes no effort to keep you intrigued.

There’s just segment upon segment of filler material, designed for no other purpose than to complete the allotted runtime. Why else do we get the weekly 24/7 nonsense or constant rematches? It demonstrates a real lack of imagination and determination to get anyone over with the fans.

So, for long stretches I was bored stiff and longing for the show to end. Thankfully the Mysterio drama (carried by Aalyah and Dominik) as well as the return of Mustafa Ali saved Raw from being a complete abomination. But it certainly wasn’t great by any means and the Randy Orton silliness at the end left a bad taste in my mouth.

Despite that, Raw gets a high Poor from me, with a sliver of optimism that it’ll improve in the coming weeks.

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