RAM....I mean RAW REVIEW

Last nights episode of WWE RAM....I mean Raw (They really need to tweak that logo) was a lot of fun and a good start.  I think the show had very few low points and kept a great pace for three hours.  My thoughts on the show were mostly positive and I think we saw a few matches we will talk about for years to come.

I thought the show open was good because they didn't make us sit through the entrances of Mic and Stephanie.  Foley was to the point and didn't waste time.  We only got a little bit of Steph which was good.  Of course she calls Roman a loser and then points him in a match to potentially win the new title.  That seems a bit dumb.  They could have cleaned that up with Foley saying that was his choice, but let's not be too critical.

Finn Balor's entrance was excellent.  That's probably the best part of his gimmick.  It's even better when he's the demon, but just like Cass and Enzo are over for their promo's Finn will get some love because of his cool entrance.  The opening match was excellent and well paced.  Finn gets the win and I'm starting to think wow maybe Finn and Roman in the main.  That could be very interesting.

The second qualifying match was also solid and it seemed fairly obvious that Roman was winning.  Roman has always done well in these multi way matches because he only has to go in doses.  He's exposed when he has to sell for an entire match.  He looked really good against Seth at MITB because he got to control a majority of the match.  Something usually reserved for heels, but it made total sense.

This setup an appetizing main event.  I think given the fact that this was the first repackaged Raw it was right to have the match on the same night.  This was a PPV quality show as it was booked.

The New Day segment was kind of the same routine they've been doing.  Since coming back to being faces the New Day have been not as good as they were before.  Anderson and Gallows feel like legit threats coming off of the high profile Cena feud, but losing this one could be bad for their long term perception.

Let's talk about the return of the legit squash match.  Enzo and Cass beat the Shining Star, yes that's a squash.  Nia Jax beat Brook Baker, never heard of her.  The newly repackaged Braun Strauman beat some weird looking dude, and Neville beat Curtis Axel.  These were all a welcomed change from the constant 50/50 matches we watched for the past few years.

Squash matches are the oldest formula in the book.  Give a guy a win, make him seem viable, and let him show off his signature moves.  If you take two talents and put them over for the next three weeks and then match them up at Summerslam it becomes intriguing on who will win.  It becomes important.  Those are called stakes, and that's what makes us watch.

WWE is probably forced to keep doing this because of the smaller roster on Raw and the length of the show, but if done right it will help them dramatically.  This is what will help guys like Cesaro and Owens get over the hump.  Winning will always matter.  Don't let anyone tell you different.

The Women's title match was a surprise and especially considering they gave us a PPV quality memorable match.  What a finish with Charlotte trying to stand tall only to get caught for the Bank Statement.  I think naturally WWE saw money in the idea of having the rematch at Summerslam.  In reality it's more of a questions mark.  It seemed to obvious that if they waited Sasha was going to win at Summerslam.  This way you have to wonder if the belt goes back to Charlotte.  That is the Flair way.  Charlotte also cut a very solid pre-match promo.

The main event was an attention grabber.  Would the WWE put Roman over the new guy the first night out?  Would the WWE beat Roman on back to back nights?  When you create that intrigue people will tune in.  I don't know that this will grab huge ratings out of the box, but continuing to do stuff like this will build them back up.  I have no doubt about this.

The two put on a good match.  I was surprised the way the end happened.  Finn cleanly and clearly beat Roman.  That's a major hotshot move by WWE.  Finn is a somewhat unknown coming into tonight.  This setup a very fresh title match at Summerslam that the WWE has 3 weeks to build on.  At worst we will get a really good wrestling match and we might see the debut of the Demon.

So what are my overall thoughts?  First I pointed out after the draft that the WWE had painted itself in the corner with the Raw roster.  There were no top established baby faces on their roster that were men.  With the show being three hours that's a big deal.  You can't go through weeks of Roman topping that show getting booed as a face.  The ratings would not improve.

My thought was they would try to flip Roman and Seth, or bring someone in from the outside.  I didn't believe they would hotshot Finn, but I thought it might work.  I'm not sure it has worked.  It truly takes weeks for a guy to get really over.  I don't think he's the favorite to walk out of Summerslam, but what they did achieve was a bulk of the vocal majority there last night were cheering the result.  That's something to build on.  The fans were sent home happy.

I'm assuming the approach with Roman is to keep him face.  The WWE is like a dog with a bone when it comes to Roman as a face.  They just can't let it go.  I think the plan is to setup a feud between Steph and Roman.  It's a way to maybe buy some cheap support for Roman since the title might not be in the mix for a while.  Personally I don't like it.  Roman needs to be allowed to spread his wings as a monster heel.  I think the WWE could be holding this up just to allow Steph to keep her place, which is a mistake.  The logic of Roman and Steph being heels on the same show doesn't work.  Also he couldn't turn heel on Finn last night because they are trying to make Seth out to be the top heel.  It would detract from the title match at Summerslam.

I think that this Raw was excellent, but they did throw the kitchen sink at us.  They had four matches on one show that could have easily been the main event on their own.  They had a major title change with the women, and they beat Roman Reigns clean.  Those are all a big deal.  My concern given the roster they have is how do you keep people watching for three hours every week and make it that good without giving away so much.

The one thing that I failed to realize about this all is there is no more air time for these guys. They are now done for the week.  That means you won't see them on Smackdown like you did in the past if you watched.  That probably helps both brands a lot. There's a freshness level there for sure.

On the downside they need to embrace allowing other talents to be on the mic and continuing to be relevant.  I think Cesaro, Zayn, and Rusev are three guys that really need to be allowed to spread their wings.  How about Kevin Owens on the mic in the middle of the ring?  What's the worst that can happen?  I think if you can allow fans to invest in more than Roman and Seth good things will happen.

Also beyond Owens, who rarely cuts in ring promo, who can really deliver some compelling promo's on Raw as a top guy?  Enzo and Cass don't count because they are a tag.  So over the long haul I think Raw will have some issues here.  They will need an injection or an investment in other characters.  Roman saying I'm Samoan is not going to get it done.  HHH returning for the 1000th time is not going to get it done.  The Big Show is not going to get it done.

Here's another bright spot that must be noted.  Beyond the inclusion of Byron who is total overkill, but a good in ring interviewer, Corey Graves is excellent in the color spot.  He's fresh, he's traditional, and he talks with purpose and great sense for what is happening.  That will matter in the long run believe me.

Smackdown doesn't have to do much to be a good show tonight. They get to pick a fresh opponent for Dean and celebrate his win.  They get to push the Cena AJ feud along.  They only have to put on at most six matches and to top it all off they have freaking Daniel Bryan.  I think they might not put on a better show this week, but they have a massive advantage over the long haul.  I'm interested to tune in and watch and that's what this is all about.

The Failings of the WWE Draft

I've certainly been critical of WWE the last few years as have many others.  I want to like WWE product and I've actually chose not to write about it until I'm feeling good about it again.  There are far too many people hating on the company right now and I didn't want to be on that bandwagon, but last night was a bridge too far.  The WWE Draft was a failure on so many levels and here's why.

Let's start with the illogical talents that were left in NXT like Shinsuke Nakamrua and Samoa Joe.  I could name others, but let's look at these two.  Nakamura might only be a big star in the eyes of the hardcore audience, but let's be real he's a bigger star than Nia Jax or Curtis Axel.  He's a guy that will at worst put on a show stealing match every time he goes out.  Samoa Joe is the NXT champion.  Isn't it logical to select the company's champion?  I fail to see how that doesn't make him good enough.

WWE painted itself in a corner by drafting NXT guys.  What they could have done to calm every hardcore fan down was have a statement read before the draft announcing a protected list of guys that HHH has chosen given upcoming events.  This would have helped out the entire draft dramatically.  Then everything would have made a bit more sense.  As it stands we are supposed to think that all four GM's thought that Nakamura guy is nothing compared to Alexa Bliss.

The first big problem that I think this draft created was having no top babyface on Raw.  I think the WWE basically has two top baby's right now.  Cena and Ambrose.  Each one of those guys, love them or hate them, is a passable top baby right now.  If WWE thinks Roman Reigns is passable then they need to talk to Booker T who stated last night the crowd hates Roman Reigns.  Without that one top top guy to create a big pop every now and again what's going to keep Raw compelling?

I realize that Balor and Zayn will probably get pushes and there are some strong face teams like New Day and Enzo and Cass, but you need someone to anchor that spot immediately.  The suggestion is there will be a double turn, but how does that fit with the overbearing Stephanie.  She hates Roman and loves Seth.  I can't see that all changing.  Lesnar is also falling into a weird spot.  His PED scandal is going to shake the confidence people have in him and I doubt he can be a face going forward.

People were not feeling fulfilled enough to watch three hours of Raw each week as it was with all almost all of these stars.  How can it be expected with that big of a void on top that things will be even better now?  That's why not having that safe top baby on Raw is a big blunder.

The draft process itself was annoying.  Raw was giving a major picking advantage in each round.  Why was that really necessary?  They could have easily done that on the bottom half of the draft to overload the Raw roster.  There was no reason to make it so blatant.  The funny part was on the post show both sides were getting three picks a round.  It's just typical WWE logic.

On what planet is John Cena drafted that low?  He's been the WWE's biggest draw for years now and I realize that they want to push new people, but it just doesn't make any sense for him to go that low.  I like AJ, but I would have swapped him and Cena's draft position.  You can make a case for the three guys that went ahead of Cena.  Ambrose and Rollins could be Champions after this Sunday and Brock has to stay on their flagship show.  Roman falling was simply do to his suspension and them not wanting to glorify him.

I can't see how you let Cena go that low.  The rationale is too weak and WWE is poking the stick at people with brain power when they do such illogical things.  I think you could have also made the case for Cena and Charlotte swapping positions.  I don't think Smackdown will be a success because they have Cena.  I think they will be because they have 2 hours to fill.

Stephanie was hard to handle last night as she usually is.  It's like enough is enough already, but I've got equal issues with Mick Foley.  This guy was bashing WWE last summer and calling them out for poor programming.  Now the product is far worse, but his family and himself have jobs at WWE now and he's suddenly the most positive guy in the room.  I've lost a ton of respect for him.

The Women's division was shattered last night.  WWE definitely have enough women to have the best Women's division going, but they don't have near enough built up for it to be split over two shows.  I would have allowed all the women to be on both shows or put them 100% on Raw to fill that 3 hour show with more unique content.

They stated that the Cruiser-weights are exclusively going to Raw, but then they allowed Kalisto to be drafted to Smackdown.  What sense does that make?  Why not put him in a spot where he can excel?  It seems like they threw darts a board with a lot of these picks or I guess Vince really wants him to put that tall guy Baron Corbin over.

Cesaro gave a pure shoot interview.  If it wasn't a shoot then I'm not sure what writer thought to have him say what he said.  Cesaro is dead on, if you don't let him speak for better or worse he will never get over.  Also how is he supposed to get better.  When guys like Nakamura and Cesaro talk I don't expect them to be like Tom Hanks.  They are foreign and that's something that makes them unique.  The WWE is missing the target with their thinking on this.

There were zero surprises last night.  We didn't see a Kurt Angle get drafted or someone from ROH.  As the picks kept coming in it became apparent nothing like that was going to happen.  Perhaps they will make up for this by bringing in some new free agents, but I get the sense there will not be many.

So in the end what show got the better roster.  I would say on paper both rosters have talent and Smackdown despite the picking system did pretty well.  The difference here is that the shows aren't equal in length.  Raw is three hours and they needed a much stronger baby face on top and a much deeper roster.  I just don't think that roster can carry the three hours where Dean, AJ, Cena and Orton with the younger talents will have zero problem doing it on Smackdown.

Raw is setup to fail, but WWE won't let that happen.  They will hit the panic bottom once the initial buzz has worn off and ratings start dropping hard against Monday Night Football.  It defeats the whole purpose of what they are doing, but it's going to happen.

I would have stacked Raw with all the top talent including Dean, Cena, and AJ.  I would have sent Balor and the cruiser-weights over to Smackdown with Orton, Zayn and Owens.  I would have went really young and fresh on Smackdown.  I would use DB for several appearances to prop the show up.  I would have had Nakamura and Joe sent to Smackdown.  I would have sent 6 guys down to NXT to replace the 6 brought up.  I would have made NXT about new faces like Aries and Roode.  I would have signed Jay Lethal away from ROH as soon as I could.

I would have gone with a safe roster for Raw to keep the ratings stable and gambled hard on the young talent in Smackdown.  I would have embraced the two hour format, the younger stars, with a mix of a few vets and tried to develop guys like Zayn, Owens, Balor, and Nakamura into something really big.  I think that's the path to long term ratings success on both shows.

One final note.  Why not have HHH drafted at least to Raw last night.  He just main evented WM32.  Why not at least toss him in the mix to stir up people?  I just think it highlights the lack of vision the WWE has right now.  I think Smackdown will do well, but for what this brand split was supposed to accomplish for WWE, it's going to fail...badly.