By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

Enzo Amore and the Cruiserweight Division main eventing Raw? For the second week in a row? It’s so far-fetched that even Enzo had to mention it on TV!

Except the last segment on Raw isn’t really the main event anymore. Traditionally, that’s how you construct a wrestling show. You build everything up to the end, where you put your hottest draws. But that slowly changed when Raw expanded to three hours. Ratings are always down for the last hour. You can chalk that up to a lot of things, perhaps most notably audience fatigue. So now, WWE has had to adjust their formatting to ensure viewers see the main angles. We’ve seen them do this before. But it’s been fairly consistent these past few weeks,

Coming into this week’s Raw we’d had two big matches advertised: Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns vs. The Miz for the Intercontinental Title. They started strong with Rollins vs. Strowman, which traditionally would have been your semi-main event. Then at the top of the third hour, they gave us our main event title match. Strategically, this entices viewers to stick around during that third hour, in the hopes that they’ll keep watching after the match is over. They closed the show with Enzo, who has historically been a pretty solid ratings draw.

Thus, Raw is essentially being formatted like a “main event sandwich.” It’s bookended by two semi mains, with the biggest match near the middle. The show has changed. It really had no choice but to change.

So let’s not make two much of this “Cruiserweights in the main event” stuff. That’s not to say this will always be the way the show operates. But I’d be surprised if this weren’t this status quo going forward.

Ponderings From Raw:

Braun Strowman def. Seth Rollins. Dean Ambrose comes out to make the save, but gets put down as well. Cesaro and Sheamus pick the bones afterward. Is Strowman still supposed to be a heel? Or is he a “tweener” the way Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns are? He worked both this match and the one last week against Ambrose like a monster heel. But watch the fans toward the end of this match as he’s Powerslamming Rollins. The crowd is cheering! That seems to be what Strowman predominantly hears out there.

Not that I can complain much about how Strowman has been booked. They’ve kept him strong despite his loss to Brock. I consistently look forward to seeing him week after week. I haven’t had that relationship with a wrestler in a long time.

Elias def. Titus O’Neil. In talking about Titus not being in the ring as much these days, Booker said in relation to his physique: “Look at the love handles!”

For the record, Titus looks as good as he ever has. Go ahead and take your shirt off on television, Book. Let’s see what you’ve got.

Mickie James def. Nia Jax via disqualification after an attack from Alexa Bliss. James to get her Raw Women’s Title Match at TLC. Mickie James needs some new music. Most of us know she’s a very talented singer with two country music albums under her belt. Why not exploit that talent? She’s been struggling to stand out since she came back. Bringing out her country side couldn’t hurt in that respect.

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson def. Matt Hardy and Jason Jordan. This was disappointing. There are better things for Matt Hardy to be doing than being put in a thrown-together team with Jason Jordan. Here’s hoping this is just a one-week detour on Matt’s trip back to singles competition.

Roman Reigns is attacked by Sheamus and Cesaro during his Intercontinental Title Match with the Miz. The heels hit Reigns with a Shield-style Triple Powerbomb. Pretty good match, which the crowd was very much into. Reigns wailing away on Dallas and Axel before the match was fun. And that staredown between Roman and Miz afterward was great, particularly on Miz’s part.

Last week it seemed like they were building to a Shield vs. Miztourage match for TLC. This is a better course, and will probably give us a better match. Assuming this will be a TLC Match, I would highly encourage Cesaro to wear a mouthguard…

Bray Wyatt to Finn Balor: “Abigail is alive, and she is dying to meet you.” Huh. Well this is interesting. Based on Bray’s wording here, it looks like we’re finally going to meet the mysterious Sister Abigail we’ve heard about for all these years. I’m still not sure I want another Bray vs. Finn match. But if this Sister Abigail thing doesn’t flop, it might just be worth it.

Sasha Banks and Bayley def. Emma and Alicia Fox. This had ZERO interest from me. I’m as over Sasha as I’ve ever been, and my hopes of WWE creative getting a better handle on Bayley have been squashed. Something desperately needs to be shaken up.

After a lengthy Enzo Amore promo, Kurt Angle introduces Kalisto as the next challenger for the Cruiserweight Title. Enzo has now knocked it out of the park two weeks in a row with these promo segments. It didn’t exactly make sense for all the Cruiserweights to come down just to get insulted one by one. But it almost didn’t matter, as Enzo rattled off all those great one-liners.

Why it’s taken this long for Kalisto to be inserted into the Cruiserweight Division is beyond me. You’d think that would have been the sole motivation for moving him to Raw earlier this year. Better late than never, I guess.

Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose come to a silent understanding as Raw goes off the air. This was a cool moment. But the real entertainment value came from someone online inserting “Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore” into the footage. Honest to God, it fits.

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/915055855845773318

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