WWE Raw Aug. 30, 2021: 2 things that went right on the show

You won’t be surprised to hear that WWE turned in another lackluster edition of Raw on Monday. At this point, waiting for a good episode of WWE’s flagship show is like waiting for Ben Simmons to develop a 3-point shot. It’s a frustrating experience.

However, that doesn’t mean everything that happened on the show belongs in the trash bin. To be clear, most of it does, but we still saw glimpses of competence from a creative team that often struggles with that concept.

So, what does WWE deserve praise for as it pertains to this week’s Raw? To find out, you’ll have to scroll down to see what got picked.

These are the two things that went right on the Aug. 30 episode of Raw.

Damian Priest pinning Drew McIntyre

To call Raw’s opening segment a mess would be like saying that the Lord of the Rings movies run “a tad long”. Still, it led to a triple threat match between Damian Priest, Drew McIntyre, and Sheamus with the United States Championship on the line.

The match was the highlight of the show, which should surprise no one given the caliber of talent in the match. The finish, though, was a surprise, as Priest hit McIntyre with The Reckoning and pinned “The Scottish Warrior” to retain the US Title.

In a match where Sheamus appeared to be the obvious candidate to get pinned or submitted, seeing Priest get the win over the brand’s top babyface was an encouraging sign for his future. We’ll see how WWE follows up on it.

R-Truth (and Akira Tozawa, somewhat)

These segments where Reggie visits a park and does his four flips to avoid 24/7 Championship challengers have gotten tedious, but imagine how much worse they would be if R-Truth weren’t involved.

This week’s on-location skit — Reggie found himself at another park — followed the same pattern: Reggie told some story about his life, Truth and Akira Tozawa show up in a not-so-elaborate costume, Truth and Tozawa chase Reggie, Reggie “avoids” them with flips.

Nestled in that repetition, however, were some great Truth moments. For example, him quipping that Reggie didn’t need to jump over the gate because “it’s got a handle on it”. How about him stopping at the sight of a spider-shaped jungle gym because of his arachnophobia (as someone who is also terrified of spiders, I don’t blame Truth)? He even snuck in a Chappelle’s Show reference toward the end.

It’s worth noting that these segments are supposed to be getting REGGIE over, yet every week, Truth and Tozawa (who should be doing literally anything else) are the highlights.