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WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for August 21

By Bryan Heaton

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Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, & Noam Dar vs. Gran Metalik, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, & Mustafa Ali

Result: Gran Metalik, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, & Mustafa Ali defeated Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, & Noam Dar via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

You know, this match is emblematic of everything wrong with the Cruiserweight division. There’s eight ridiculously talented superstars in the ring, many of whom haven’t been on Raw in weeks. Now, all of a sudden, the post-Summerslam crowd – in Brooklyn, where they’re going to try and get themselves over at all costs – is supposed to be invested in what they’re doing? I don’t get it – WWE sets up a cruiserweight division, runs a fantastic tournament to establish it, and then does everything in their power to sabotage it being successful thereafter.

Trying to leave that aside, is there really a rhyme or reason to the pairings other than “good guys vs. bad guys”? Gulak and Ali finished their beef, Dar and Alexander should have finished theirs, Gran Metalik was lost in limbo for months, and Tony Nese has lots of abs. Mix in a mid-match commercial break that means the television audience misses half the match, and how is the division supposed to gain traction?

By the time Cedric catches the hot tag, the crowd is knee deep in doing The Wave (which I hate as much as beach balls) and ignoring the good stuff happening in the ring. Chants that on TV sounded like “This guy sucks” serenade the eight competitors, and the only pop came from Metalik’s sick moonsault and Cedric’s Lumbar Check.

The talent on 205 Live is undeniable, but they have no shot at success the way things are going right now. It’s awful.

King Neville II

Keeping things in the cruiserweight division, Neville gets challenged to a rematch by Tozawa. Please don’t hot potato the title every few days – either let Tozawa win the title and be done with it, or have Neville keep it and lose it to, I don’t know, Mustafa Ali at Survivor Series.

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