WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for January 15
By Bryan Heaton
Photo Source: WWE.com via Twitter (WWE never tweeted out any photos from this week’s episode, so here’s Napoleon inhabiting a goldfish’s body to play chess)
Woken Matt Hardy vs. Heath Slater (w/ Rhyno)
Result: Woken Matt Hardy defeated Heath Slater via pinfall
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Matt Hardy vs. Heath Slater was just another piece of a very uneven episode of Raw. Match quality to this point hadn’t been particularly great. For every Braun Strowman destroying everything in sight, there was a referee stoppage, or a match with a lousy finish.
IT'S OVAAAAAAAAA! @HeathSlaterOMRB has been DELETED courtesy of #WOKEN @MATTHARDYBRAND on #RAW! pic.twitter.com/Shxulgp6mA
— WWE (@WWE) January 16, 2018
Objectively, there was nothing really bad about this match. But there was nothing objectively good about it, either. I feel like that’s the story of the night – not good, not bad, just there.
It is OVAH for @HeathSlaterOMRB as the #WOKEN @MATTHARDYBRAND picks up a DELIGHTFUL victory on #RAW! @Rhyno313 pic.twitter.com/eUr1ju3Rgh
— WWE (@WWE) January 16, 2018
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Like, The Revival took on local talent. This match basically treated Slater as local talent. He got in about as much offense as either Solow or Starks did against Dash and Dawson. Rhyno was out there coaching, as he has been for the past few weeks. But did he really do anything? Nope.
As far as Hardy himself, he’s just laughing like a maniac, doing his thing that no one really seems to get. And it seems like a shell of what the Broken Universe was on Impact – it’s been distilled down to said laugh, and the word “delete.” That’s not what it was at first.
But how about the lack of Bray Wyatt? Isn’t Hardy in some kind of war of words with Wyatt, trying to determine who’s the nuttiest of the lunatics? You would think he would either come to the ring, or magically and spookily appear on the video screen. But nothing. It’s almost like tonight’s Raw was meant to be a standalone episode, instead of part of a larger story.