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WWE Raw Review 10/4/2021: The WWE Draft Night 2
The second night of the WWE Draft happened on WWE Raw this week, with WWE hoping that fans will swallow the shit they produce on a weekly basis more willingly if it's been shaken up first. Will they be proven correct? That remains to be seen, but first, let's slog through a recap of the show and hope we can all stay awake.
WWE Raw 10/4/2021
Smackdown Women's Champion Becky Lynch opened WWE Raw by announcing her own drafting to Raw (what?). Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, who was drafted to Smackdown last week, interrupted, followed by Bianca Belair, to start the feud that can eventually lead to swapping the belts around so that the superstars who belong to a brand can hold that brand's respective title. The end result of all of this was a match booked between Flair and Belair for later in the show.
Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville revealed the first round of draft picks: Becky Lynch moves from Smackdown to Raw. The Usos remain on Smackdown. Bobby Lashley remains on Raw. Sasha Banks remains on Smackdown.
Damian Priest beat Jeff Hardy fairly easily to retain the United States Championship. After the match, Hardy started to cut a promo but Austin Theory interrupted. He acted like he wanted a selfie with Hardy but attacked him instead then took a selfie with Hardy laid out.
Backstage, Riddle and Randy Orton talk about their match against AJ Styles and Omos at Crown Jewel and Orton decided he would fight Omos alone tonight. Do the wrestlers book every match on Raw themselves?!
Pearce and Deville revealed the second-round draft picks: Seth Rollins moves to Raw. Nakamura and Rick Books stay on Smackdown. Damian Priest stays on Raw. Sheamus moves to Smackdown.
Shayna Basler squashed Dana Brooke in about a minute and then tried to break her arm, prompting Doudrop to make the save for some reason. Doudrop shrugged off an attack by Baszler.
Backstage, generic interviewer guy whose name I haven't bothered to learn yet even though he's been on Raw for months talked to Paul Heyman and the Usos. Heyman bragged about the Usos staying on Smackdown but they got mad and left when interviewer guy asked Heyman about helping Brock Lesnar remain a free agent.
Humberto Carillo and Angel Garza beat Mustafa Ali and Mansoor in a battle of the jobbers squash match that lasted about two minutes. It's a complete waste of time to care about anyone on Raw beneath the upper midcard, and even then, it's risky.
Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville revealed the third-round draft picks: AJ Styles and Omos remain on Raw. Shayna Baszler moves from Raw to Smackdown. Kevin Owens moves from Smackdown to Raw. Xia Li moves from NXT to Smackdown.
New WWE Raw star Big E came out for a promo and was joined by new Smackdown star Drew McIntyre, who congratulated Big E on being the WWE Champion and also challenged him to a match for it. But instead, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode come out and it turns into a tag team match, which Big E and McIntyre win when McIntyre tags himself in to steal the finisher and pin from Big E.
24/7 title nonsense.
Time for round four of the draft picks. The Street Profits move from Smackdown to Raw. The Viking Raiders move from Raw to Smackdown. Finn Balor moves from Smackdown to Raw. Ricochet moves from Raw to Smackdown.
For the 100th time, Rhea Ripley and Nikki ASH fought Tamina and Natalya, beating them in about three minutes (which is long for the matches tonight) and retaining the titles. By my calculations, another 300 or so matches between these four, and then they can maybe move onto another feud. Maybe.
In round five of the WWE Draft, Karrion Kross stays on Raw. Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza move from Raw to Smackdown. Alexa Bliss moves from Smackdown to Raw. And Cesaro remains on Smackdown.
Ugh, just when I thought the show couldn't get any worse, Goldberg came out for a promo. He complained about Lashley attacking his dumb kid. Lashley came out and agreed to fight Goldberg at Crown Jewel in a no holds barred match. Goldberg said his catchphrase and then took out Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander when they tried to attack.
Seth Rollins was seen backstage, pretending to be happy about returning to Raw.
The New Day fought an already hurt Benjamin and Alexander and beat them in about two minutes. The Street Profits challenged the New Day after the match.
Riddle and Orton came out for Orton's match with Omos. Styles and Omos came out. Orton just RKOed Styles and left though.
In the sixth-round draft picks, Carmella moves from Smackdown to Raw. Ridge Holland moves from NXT to Smackdown. Gable Steveson moves from just being signed to WWE developmental to Raw. Sami Zayn stays on Smackdown.
Steveson's signing was spoiled by the dirt sheets before the show. He's the NCAA wrestling champion and a gold medalist, so WWE sees him as the second coming of Kurt Angle. Of course, Kurt Angle had a ton of charisma and joined WWE during the height of the company's creativity, so Gable is by no means a sure thing. We'll see.
Finally, in the main event, Bianca Belair faced Charlotte Flair in a pointless match that ended in a DQ when Becky Lynch, on commentary, attacked Belair when Belair seemed about to win. Becky gave Belair the Rock Bottom, butt then Sasha Banks came out and attacked them both. Sasha stood tall as Raw went off the air.
Well, WWE Raw was a drag as usual, even watched at 2x speed on YouTube TV. The Draft shuffled the rosters, but it's still WWE, and there's nothing to indicate any stars who switched brands will get more interesting stories now. Gable Steveson is the big surprise I guess, but as he's unproven and probably can't actually wrestle until his NCAA season is over, I'm not sure what WWE will actually get out of that pick. On the bright side, most of the matches were short, which is preferable when they're meaningless, which they usually are on Raw, so points for that.