Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 5/19
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 7.0

The semi-annual U.K. Raw is rarely known for being productive. For every Cena-HBK classic there are five or six episodes of "Tea Time" with Santino. While this week's Raw dragged in spots and never hit any major high points, I thought it was a consistently entertaining three-hour program.

- Bray Wyatt's opening promo was spot on. Just when you think that he can't top himself, he does, and in subtle ways. This week featured Wyatt conquering the dreaded "What?" chant. Instead of maintaining his start-and-stop cadence, Wyatt changed the pacing of his voice to break the crowd's rhythmic chanting mid-way through his promo without ever losing sight of what he was trying to get across.

Tonight was another example of Bray Wyatt proving that he is a once-in-a-generation talker, and one of the two best promos in WWE today. John Cena's interruption at the end was adequate yet a tad jarring and unnecessary, but the opening 10 minutes of Raw are a must-watch to see yet another star-cementing performance from Bray Wyatt.

Verdict: Watch It.

- Speaking of fantastic talkers, Paul Heyman's weekly Undertaker promo was hilariously delivered, but it's also not serving its purpose. Paul Heyman should be repeating his line about The Streak ending to garner heat, not to make people laugh. His humor is great, no doubt, but something as major as The Streak needs to continue being placed on a high pedestal. If not, its credibility and legacy will degrade until it becomes nothing more than a punchline. What Heyman's doing isn't bad per se, but it is missing the point.

On the other hand, Cesaro and Sheamus had the match of the night, which featured hard-hitting offense and a nice slew of spots. Heyman's distraction was logical and Sheamus taking the loss made sense, even if it does begin to enter the "mid-card champion always loses" territory. Remember when mid-card titles were defended in actual feuds?

Verdict: Watch It.

- The Beat the Clock matches weren't the most entertaining, but they weren't awful, either. The first match with Big E. and Ryback did very little outside of continuing to highlight how much Ryback has developed in the past year.

Verdict: Skip It.

- The budding Summer Rae and Layla feud over Fandango is actually pretty interesting and well done. It's not Shakespeare or anything, but it's a mid-card Divas feud that I can really get behind. It's little segments like this that can keep someone interested in a program for three hours. It's hardly a lot on its own, but it's nice to have on the show.

Verdict: Watch It.

- Stephanie McMahon's promo was the third entertaining one of the night. She used suspense well regarding making her announcement regarding the WWE Title, and the crowd played into her perfectly. Everything, from her coming out to Daniel Bryan's theme to suggesting that she'll strip him of the championship was very well done.

Verdict: Watch It.

- This week, Rusev squashes 3MB. Nothing new on this front, though the destruction of 3MB did make me think that they could excel as a mid-card face tag team. Who knows?

Verdict: Skip It.

- RVD vs. Alberto Del Rio was yet another "just okay" Beat the Clock match-up. RVD still isn't shining in his latest run with the company. And what happened to Del Rio's knee pads?

Verdict: Skip It.

- Triple H and Seth Rollins finding ways to get their stablemates out to ringside was cute, and while Seth Rollins vs. Batista wasn't much to write home about, the ensuing brawl afterwards was effective. It does make me wonder what they have planned for Evolution. The Shield have dominated the faction for weeks at this point; Evolution doesn't have much of a choice but to go over at Payback, or else the top three heels in the company will have lost every ounce of their credibility. It's nice to see WWE pushing the younger guys, but there still need to be credible heels.

Verdict: Watch It.

- I really want to like Alicia Fox's weekly meltdowns on Raw, but it isn't doing anything for me. Her actions scream "fake crazy A.J." to an extent and come across as forced. And what's the point? Is she a heel? Is she a face? We don't know because she isn't acting truly bad or truly good, and she isn't entertaining enough on her own merits to alleviate that issue. It's a story for the Divas division, I'll give it that, but it isn't an effective one.

Verdict: Skip It.

- Poor Dolph Ziggler can't catch a break. His match against Mark Henry was fine for what it was, but Wade Barrett doing his schtick in front of his countrymen after the contest was much more memorable. It's honestly surprising that he didn't do more on the show.

Verdict: Skip It.

- The overall reaction to Adam Rose from the non-NXT audience makes me think that a lot of us (myself included at times) are a bit jaded from watching too much wrestling. I hear complaints about Rose not being anything more than an entrance that's destined to be the next "Funkasaurus," but what a lot of people don't remember is that Adam Rose exists just to provide fun. Harmless mid-card fun. And tonight on Raw, Rose was fun. Sure, the gimmick's silly. Yet he fully commits to his character and makes sure to deliver every one of his lines with as much charisma as he can.

A lot of us are worried about what Adam Rose can do in the future without taking the time to enjoy what he's doing now. And at the moment he's a highly entertaining mid-card act that I can't get enough of. Tonight especially was great for Rose, who finally performed in front of a receptive crowd. Rose was a highly popular act when on NXT, and he's maintaining his high quality of entertainment on Raw. Just stop being lemons, guys!

Verdict: Watch It.

- The main event between John Cena and Luke Harper was surprisingly awkward and choppy until Luke Harper got to showcase his move set midway through the match. The Family's beat down of Cena was fine, but it's been done many times before at this point. The main event of Raw was a showcase for Luke Harper and not much else.

Verdict: Watch It.

Several of the recommended segments for the U.K. Raw are light recommendations. There was only one highly entertaining match on the broadcast, but the amount of quality interview segments brought this show up to a solid recommendation. This U.K. Raw was surprisingly both noteworthy and entertaining. Miracles do happen!

Any questions or comments? Message me on Twitter @BTuckertorch!

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