WWE Raw and SmackDown were surprisingly entertaining last week. Does this week follow in the footsteps?

We got War Raiders adjust name last week, we got a few more shakeup reveals and we know that Money in the Bank needs some participants.

Also on SmackDown we had Kevin Owens turn on the New Day to no one’s surprise.

So, some of these things could fall flat, but maybe we’ll get 3 good WWE weeks in a row!

Raw Ratings:

• Braun Strowman & Ricochet vs Drew McIntyre & Baron Corbin: Ricochet wins  via Shooting Star Press – **
• The Usos vs Gallows & Anderson: Usos wins via Uso Splash – **
• Lashley vs The Miz: Lashley wins via Spear – N/A
• Viking Raiders vs Lucha House Party: Raiders win via Thor’s Hammer – *
• Naomi vs Alexa Bliss: Naomi wins via Thicc Legged Moonsault – * ¼
• Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs The Revival: Ryder wins via Back Slide – *
• Samoa Joe vs Rey Mysterio: Mysterio wins via Stack Pinfall – * 1/2

Analysis:

In the most boring way to decide people for Money in the Bank, Alexa Bliss kicks things off by just announcing the 4 Raw participants. And to make matters worse, it’s just all four talking over one another, and people try to run down Ricochet…which isn’t hard since he has the promo skills of a toddler learning the alphabet.  This was bad and the obvious tag match ending made no real sense aside from it being a wrestling trope.

The match itself was painfully uninspired and, save for Drew’s interception Claymore on a rampaging Strowman, who really cares? Yes Drew remembers Corbin sucks after 1 week of getting screwed, not really clever writing.

Now we get a throw away tag match with the Usos and a team that hasn’t mattered in what feels like 6 months or more. Who thought this was a good idea? The match was fine, but again, who cares?

THEN we get some moronic back shaving candid camera moment? I lost IQ points watching this garbage this week.

Lashley comes out and thinks he’s Bo Jackson with the third person stuff. Okay…sure, but then even The Miz wasn’t great. The crowd reacted which allowed Miz to just drop out, instead of trying to carry the bad segment. But come on now…nothing has been good so far. Oh but Lashley insults Miz’s dad, so “impromptu” match time.

The match was just a plot device to get Shane to come out, continue the feud and then instigate Miz into demanding a Steel Cage match.

Lucha House Party is on my TV….that’s always negative for me. They felt embarrassed by Viking Raiders, tried to get the jump…but failed. The House Party sucks. Even if they’re decent wrestlers, they have no real personality and their existence is beyond pointless. This show is pretty damn bad so far.

Alexa is back to announce the Women’s MITB Raw participants. Natty and Dana Brooke aren’t interesting, but at least Dana Brooke needs to be built up, so she’s a good addition. Naomi is third, and we have the same issue as the Men’s MITB. A bunch of worthless bickering that feels forced and poorly scripted, then Alexa announces herself as number 4. Naomi takes a shot at Alexa’s ego which prompts a match.

YOWIE WOWIE! Firefly Fun House! Rambling Rabbit looks like he enjoys Donnie Darko, Abby getting annoyed after the painting was revealed, Sociopath being the Word of the Day and Bray’s mannerisms being a little creepier were all fantastic. Not as good as the first episode, but now this is the best thing on the show so far!

This match wasn’t good, but Alexa tying her shoes and complaining the entire time is amusing. So when her shoes come off and she asks for time to get her shoes back on, Naomi takes advantage of it and wins. Alexa has the built in excuse of not being dressed to wrestle and wearing borrowed shoes, so story wise this was fine…and continuing the momentum of the Fun House.

Becky insinuating that ‘currying favor’ is basically being a whore, is amusingly catty. But the way Lacey responds with “I told you not to let your emotions get the best of you, but you didn’t listen…I’m done talking”. Was a nice mic drop into a solid back and forth brawl. Hey look Sonjay Dutt!

Oh great, another useless tag match. So we tease The Revival for something that’s not even funny and then have them lose in a fluke way to a nostalgia act that are the definition of transitional champions. Ugh…

I’m not completely over Sami’s new gimmick, but if they don’t introduce a foil, I got nothing. I don’t watch Raw for an IWC parody Ted Talk.

50/50 booking pal. Since Mysterio wasn’t announced for the MITB match, it made sense that he would get a win to drag this Samoa Joe feud out further.

Oh our main event is a contract signing with two guys who aren’t good promos. Again, just fantastic, in a laughably sad way. God this was bad.

Overall Score: 3.75/10

This show was crap. It makes complete sense why it fell out of the Top 5 in TV ratings because this sucked hard. Coming off of two shows which I enjoyed and were generally well received, we get this worthless pile of disappointment.

SmackDown Live Ratings:

• Becky Lynch vs Bayley: Becky wins via Disarm Her – **
• Kair Sane & Asuka vs Jobbers: Sane wins via Insane Elbow – *
• Handicap Match: B-Team & Elias special Enforcer vs Roman Reigns : Reigns wins via Spear – **
• Finn Balor & Ali vs Andrade & Randy Orton: Ali wins via 450 Splash – ** 1/4

Analysis:

The show opens with Michael Cole? Why the hell is he on Tuesday? Then Kofi comes out, says a lot of nothing, tries to validate why they gave Owens a chance and Owens interrupts. Owens plays up being an ass, Woods tries to jump him, but Owens lays his out and then bails. Really? Okay I’m already getting that sinking feeling that this show is gonna suck.

Becky faces Bayley! This is actually kinda interesting since Bayley gets a better reaction than the last few places, but she has a different energy about her. The match was fine, but my favorite part was the finish when Bayley got her Elbow Drop disrupted, Becky goes for the Disarm Her and Bayley looks annoyed at herself for being in the situation. The Charlotte attack isn’t surprising and I don’t care.

Aleister Black says a whole lot of nothing, in a deliberate and uninteresting way. Huzzah.

Hardys vacate the tag titles because Jeff is hurt, Lars Sullivan comes out to finish what he started. Ugh..

SmackDown MITB reveals, in such a lame matter of fact way. Go Andrade, McIntyre or Orton.

Kairi and Asuka kill some jobbers. They didn’t even mention their gimmick names because the IIconics and Graves were busy saying nothing and trying to be clever, but failing. This was a heard segment to sit through.

Sonya gives Mandy the MITB slot without an argument. So we’re either going to see them split soon, or Sonya is really just a good friend.

Roman gets put in a handicap match against a joke tag team and Elias. Yeah…was anyone supposed to care about the B-Team? I mean I’m looking around, but I can’t find anyone.

The match was plodding and corny, but I guess some story beats were hit since they’re just trying to stack the deck. I wasn’t impressed but I suppose it was okay.

Heels versus Faces, because that’s what is expected. Imagine a normal tag match, involving these four, no real tension and no excitement for them to clash. Yup, that’s this match.

Women’s MITB SmackDown participants are finalized, and I’ve hit the point of not caring. Love Ember, but I still don’t care.

KO Show – so wait, Raw and SmackDown are both main evented by a crappy talking segment? KO wanted Woods, Woods didn’t come out, but he starts talking to action figures. I had flashbacks of Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair. KO is great, but this segment sucked. Kofi coming out for the attack doesn’t even save this.

Overall Score: 5/10

Lame show. I feel like this wasn’t much better than Raw, but the 2 hour made it easier to swallow and didn’t overexpose the problems. Still just a generally sad and underwhelming episode.

Such a huge let down since the last few weeks were trending upwards. Again, this show ending up outside of the Top 5 didn’t surprise me either, since bad shows with no sense of intrigue, feel like a wasted 2 hours.