3 things that went wrong on the June 13 episode of WWE Raw
In a few weeks, WWE will mosey on down to Las Vegas to broadcast the 13th annual Money in the Bank pay-per-view (or premium live event, if you prefer) from the, in the company’s words, “intimate confines” of the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Before we get there, though, WWE has some promoting to do, and that process continued on this week’s episode of WWE Raw.
On this edition of the promotion’s flagship show, we saw WWE fill out more of the field for the men’s and women’s Money in the Bank ladder matches while adding some juice to Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley and Friday’s WWE Undisputed Universal Championship match between Roman Reigns and Riddle.
We also witnessed plenty of nonsense on this episode, and those missteps are what we’re here to talk about today.
These are the three things that went wrong on the June 13 episode of WWE Raw.
Putting the Bobby Lashley/Theory posedown in the main event
Apparently, WWE’s bright idea to get fans interested in Bobby Lashley facing Theory for the United States Championship was to book them in a posedown segment. Look, we know that Theory and Lashley are in outstanding shape, but even in the best-case scenario, these sorts of angles tend to err on the side of dull, and this one was no different.
If WWE had dropped this during Raw’s first two hours or gotten this out of the way early in Hour 3, it would’ve simply blended in with the rest of the show despite eliciting the same amount of groans. But as the final thing fans saw on the show, it further highlighted how ridiculous the posedown was. When people talk about placating Vince McMahon’s tastes, this is the sort of stuff they’re talking about.
We’ve talked about how ill-equipped Theory is for this push, and segments like these won’t help him, especially if WWE truly plans on having John Cena put him over. As for Lashley, if these are the sort of things they have planned for him as a babyface, then they shouldn’t have split him and MVP up.
Kevin Owens loses to Ezekiel via countout
In an ideal world, the idea of Kevin Owens losing his rematch to Ezekiel because he became so consumed with proving that Ezekiel and Elias are the same people that he will ignore the referee’s 10-count and scold the commentators is a clever way to make a heel look like a goofball.
However, WWE’s over-reliance on these finishes in the name of “protecting” wrestlers has watered them down to a point where even slick uses of the trope become easy to dismiss as more bad booking.
That said, it will be intriguing to see how they pull off having The Grifter and Ezekiel in the same arena at the same time.
Mustafa Ali loses to Chad Gable
If you weren’t sure of WWE’s intentions with Mustafa Ali when they booked him to lose clean to Theory in his hometown, the promotion made it clear with another loss in a heatless match to Chad Gable.
dark. Next. WWE’s Ezekiel: ‘The ultimate dream is for Elias and I to hold the tag team championships’
It is nice to see Gable get a win, but it’s unfortunate that it came as part of an effort to devalue Ali’s aura. We’re all counting the days before Ali gets to leave a promotion that clearly has no interest in pushing him.