Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 8/11
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

When watching Raw, I had this feeling that something felt off. There were some excellent promos and fine in-ring work on the broadcast, but there was a certain facet of the show that wasn't clicking. Looking back through the episode, the one thing I noticed was how erratic WWE was in promoting Sunday's Summerslam. Certainly, the WWE Network was advertised a great deal, as was the WWE Championship match between John Cena and Brock Lesnar.

But, for Sunday's flag match, we saw two men wave their country's colors at each other. Certainly a step back from Rusev and Swagger's big confrontations the last two weeks on Raw. The Intercontinental Title match was promoted via the number one contender losing to Heath Slater. A.J. Lee and Paige's rivalry was furthered via the Divas champion being pinned by Eva Marie and listening to a poem. Not exactly a hard sell.

As is the case with WrestleManias on occasion, several of the stories leading into Summerslam peaked several weeks before the show. So, while the Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt feud may be entering Summerslam with a full head of steam, stories such as the McMahon-Bella saga would have been better off ending a week early. What resulted was a mixed Raw that was a victim of poor planning. It's as if booking three-hour television programs the same day of the show is bad for telling a story properly!

-- Re-match Counter: Tonight's episode of Raw had six matches, four of which were re-matches between wrestlers who have faced each other repeatedly or recently:

-RVD vs. Seth Rollins
-Jack Swagger vs. Cesaro
-A.J. Lee vs. Eva Marie
-Randy Orton vs. Sheamus

What to Watch Later:

- Q1: Paul Heyman's opening promo was one of the biggest highlights of Raw. Heyman has consistently delivered on the mic since Brock Lesnar returned, making the Summerslam main event feel like a truly monumental match. The number of different ways that he can cut a promo about Brock Lesnar being a destroyer is incredible. Just look at John Cena; his promo tonight was good, but it's a rehash of what he said when he feuded with Bray Wyatt. Only a select few people have Paul Heyman's ability to say the same thing over and over again without it ever getting old.

- Q6: Cesaro and Jack Swagger had the best contest of the night on a show that lacked lengthy matches. Both worked well together and Swagger played the sympathy card very well. It didn't do a lot to develop the issues between Swagger and Rusev, but it was at least entertaining.

- Q7: The other promo highlight of the show took place during the backstage confrontation between Bray Wyatt and Chris Jericho. Wyatt was the star of the segment and delivered perhaps his greatest promo yet. He clearly got across what he was trying to say in a convincing manner without making it sound like exposition. Bray is completely in-tune with his character and it's fascinating to watch him at work. Jericho was fine as well, but it's Wyatt who shined in the backstage setting. This promo will be remembered alongside some of WWE's best in-character backstage interviews of all time. Excellent work.

- Q12-Over-run: Hulk Hogan's birthday celebration wasn't the ideal place to hype Summerslam, but it was a fun segment for long-time viewers of wrestling. It was straight and to the point with satisfying surprise appearances and a fantastic Hulk Hogan video package.

Asides:

- WWE had over a decade to figure out that a large number of fans turned against John Cena for how he turned into the wrestling equivalent of Superman. So, how do they develop Roman Reigns on his ascent to the top? By having him destroy tag teams by himself.

- Dean Ambrose attacking Seth Rollins from inside a present was fitting for their feud, but it wasn't anything new. In fact, nothing in the Ambrose-Rollins rivalry has changed since Battleground.

- Apparently Hogan loved Claire Lynch in TNA, because he got a whole new rendition of it for his birthday! The McMahon-Bella saga peaked last week; had the contract signing been on the PPV lead-in edition of Raw, all would have been fine. But, no, WWE came up with a storyline about a fake affair that felt like filler to remind us that Brie and Stephanie will fight on Sunday. Couldn't they have at least found a compelling actress?

- What happened to Bo Dallas, Stardust/Goldust, the Usos, the rest of the Wyatt Family, Xavier Woods's faction, etc? It seems odd that WWE has left so many talents off their marquee show the last two weeks.

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

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