WWE RAW 6/27/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that presumably won't be airing again next week because everyone who produces it is dead now. Or at least, that's what the internet is assuming. They could all just be asleep, right? Those head wounds might be survivable? Have the Corpus Christi authorities been notified of a medical emergency? Where are the damn helicopters?

Anyway, we have some stuff to talk about that doesn't involve blue mist and blood on the walls, but we're also definitely going to talk about stuff that involves blue mist and blood on the walls, because WE HAD FEELINGS ABOUT IT. And feelings are what this column is all about. Want the bare bone, objective facts? Check out our "Raw" results page. This is a space for the WINC crew to tell you what we liked, disliked, and had a conniption fit over. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 6/17/24 episode of "WWE Raw."

After all that, after all this time, after some masterful storytelling, just like that, Alpha Academy is presumably no more. The fact that it came during a show that was pretty clearly centered around its final five minutes, immediately making it less than it could have been, oh, I don't know, TWO DAYS AGO WITH MORE THAN ELEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE SCREAMING FOR IT, well, that just falls flat for me.

On top of that, the breakup of Chad Gable and his underlings, Maxxine Dupri, Akira Tozawa, and Otis, comes after a match that didn't mean much against a guy in Braun Strowman who absolutely should beat Gable ten times out of ten. Not in a match with the Intercontinental Championship on the line in a losing effort for the umpteenth time when his frustrations are as high as they could possibly be and that desperation takes his anger and sour grapes to a whole new nevel. They had the chance for that 100 times over and missed. Now, we'll have to be patient and lean into that long-term storytelling safety net WWE has so blatantly laid out for us for some time now. I do hope they know what's happening here, far more for Dupri, Otis, and Tozawa. Gable will be fine (assuming he survived the murder he apparently suffered at the hands of Uncle Howdy and Friends Monday night). When a story falls apart at the end as this one seems to have done, its the supporting cast that tends to suffer most.

So what's next? I suppose a payoff of the looks at Gable interacting with The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile in the background of shots for weeks, for one, and ultimately a Gable/Otis showdown, probably at SummerSlam, one would think. But other than that, I think we're looking at a whole lot of "what could have been" as far as the end of this saga went.

Written by Jon Jordan

Damian Priest is working late, but he's not a singer. Instead, he's the World Heavyweight Champion, a premium live event main-eventer, and the exhausted dad of The Judgement Day. Maybe he needs some espresso.

Ever since "Mami" Rhea Ripley departed from The Judgment Day and WWE programming altogether following her arm injury, Priest has taken on more responsibilities regarding The Judgment Day. Carlito is essentially an intern, Dominik Mysterio is being tempted at every turn, Finn Balor is doing who-knows-what with the stolen hotel room key, and JD McDonagh is being JD McDonagh. With all of the shenanigans going on with The Judgment Day and no help from Ripley, Priest has been tasked with the very fatherly responsibility of keeping all of his slightly unhinged teammates focused on their goal of total "Raw" domination — all while somehow defending his World Heavyweight Championship at every turn. Priest is keeping The Judgment Day together with nothing but duct tape and some hopes and dreams.

It's refreshing to see such a human heel. It's endearing to see Priest step in to stop Liv Morgan from sexually harassing Mysterio (because that's what it is, let's be honest). Even though Priest is aligned with "Raw's" most dastardly faction (well, okay, maybe not now) he is definitely more interesting than the rest of the members because of the way he meshes his exhausted dad energy with his status as a top-tier performer. He's not like Drew McIntyre, who is entertaining in his own right when he takes his trolling and heel rhetoric to social media, or Karrion Kross, who is 100% creepy and evil 100% of the time. Priest occupies two identities: one as a heel in his own right, and another as the exhausted dad of one of the roster's more troublemaking factions. He might not be over the top as the other heels on the roster, but his role as the straight-man is so interesting to watch, and makes what would just be some heel champion a more endearing figure.

As Priest steps into a high-profile feud with a returned Seth "Freakin'" Rollins, I do wonder if we'll have time to get more exhausted Priest energy. Even if we don't, however, I think that Priest has shown that he has the range to not just be a good face and a good heel, but an excellent performer who can deliver varying degrees of heelness. It almost doesn't matter that he's a transitional champion, or not as popular as some of the recent world title holders. If you're paying attention, you will respect Priest's nuanced and dynamic performances that distinguish him from the more dramatic, more one-dimensional villains on either show.

In this house, we rise for The Judgment Day. We also rise for their exhausted dad, who deserves a "world's best dad" mug at least.

Written by Angeline Phu

It is 2024. Actually, no; it's mid-June 2024. Halfway to 2025. And yet, somehow, Carlito Carribbean Cool is among the most prominent characters on "WWE Raw."

Don't get me wrong, I've always enjoyed me some Carlito. I popped when he showed up at Backlash last year and I was stoked to see him re-signed. But like, we couldn't make him a GM or something? Make him a manager? Could he just wander around backstage occasionally spitting apple in people's faces, like Ron Simmons but with masticated produce? I don't really need to see Carlito wrestling regularly, and I've never needed to see him interacting with The Judgment Day like he thinks he's R-Truth. So far in 2024, this 45-year-old has had more matches on "Raw" and "SmackDown" than Dragon Lee. Also he was kayfabe responsible for Dragon Lee inexplicably losing his spot at WrestleMania. Also he beat Dragon Lee this week, what the hell are we doing.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

As the weeks roll on, I can understand Bron Breakker's frustrations on "WWE Raw" and him not being booked in the King of the Ring tournament. Breakker is probably my favorite "WWE NXT" call up this year, with Ilja Dragunov a close second, since Carmelo Hayes seems to be floundering a bit on "WWE SmackDown." This week, even though he won by disqualification when Ludwig Kaiser decided to interfere in Breakker's match against Sheamus, I think Breakker's talents were really highlighted. Usually, Breakker is stuck in simple squash matches that last not even five minutes, but him going up against Sheamus for a shot at Sami Zayn's Intercontinental Championship was excellent during a night where most things weren't that great at all – especially the in-ring. Granted, Breakker did have a minor botch on the ropes, but I didn't think that was too much of an issue with all that we saw go wrong during Clash at the Castle and the many botches on Saturday.

As Michael Cole loves to remind us, Breakker runs the ropes at 23 miles per hour, which is absolutely freakishly insane for a guy his size and I love seeing it. His athletic ability is something to witness and when he's able to cook in these longer matches, it's always entertaining to me. Speaking of Cole, at one point in the match, there was a beautiful move by Breakker from the apron to Sheamus on the outside, bouncing him off and over the announce desk. Cole completely overreacted, which he doesn't often do too much anymore, saying "SHEAMUS MIGHT BE DEAD," then calling it "one of the scariest things he's ever seen" when the show came back from break. It's a minor detail, but I thought it added a little dose of hilarity that I needed on this particular "Raw."

The ending of the match was less than perfect, I realize, with Kaiser interfering, beating the hell out of Sheamus, resulting in a disqualification win for Breakker, which sucked. Breakker's spear to Sheamus on the outside was perfect after, however, and the fact that officials had to come from the back to walk him back up the ramp so he didn't break Sheamus in half was a nice touch. He's getting more and more frustrated – and more dangerous – every time one of these opportunities is ruined for him, and the frustration is really showing.

When Kaiser set up Sheamus on the steps to injure his leg, but Breakker sped around the ring in the opposite direction to deliver a spear to Kaiser, that was just a "chef's kiss" kind of moment. The camera angle was perfect and captured just how fast Breakker was going to catch up to Kaiser, again, showing his freakish athletic ability, but from a really cool angle. I'm currently loving everything about Breakker on "Raw" right now, and I'm invested in him. The story about his failed/missed opportunities isn't getting stale quite yet for me, but I do hope he ends up either in a match with Zayn for the title at Money in the Bank, or in the ladder match itself. Or both – I think WWE can trust Breakker to be excellent in both matches, if they choose to go that route.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Everybody knew that this week's episode of "WWE Raw" was about the debut of the Wyatt Sick6. The first appearance of Uncle Howdy and his Firefly Funhouse friends — the real main event, in all honesty — was nothing short of brilliant, and deserves all the praise and recognition for its incredible production and attention to mood and detail. I just wish that we didn't have to sit through three hours of the worst programming in the Paul Levesque Era to get to it.

Monday night's "Raw" was a drag, full stop. The pacing of the show was odd, Braun Strowman was screaming about how much he hates bullies, Drew McIntyre quit in less than 140 characters, and Otis finally turned on Chad Gable in an utterly underwhelming not-beatdown. For a show immediately following a premium live event as impactful (not good, but impactful) as Clash at the Castle was and one that is just three weeks removed from Money in The Bank, there was startingly little progression in anybody's stories. Normally, this would be just a minor inconvenience — shows are not going to be instant classics all the time, and sometimes the programming just has no aura, despite our best efforts.

However, this week's "Raw" didn't feel like a bunch of segments that unfortunately just fell flat. When one compares the first two hours and fifty minutes (approximately) of programming to the final ten minutes, there is a visible disparity in effort put into the product. The Wyatt Sick6's reveal was intentional and thoughtful — there was deliberate effort put into the production of that segment, and it showed. The rest of the show, however, felt like it was thrown onto a paper with glue on it, with the hopes that something would stick, not unlike an elementary school child's macaroni art project. If we compare the two segments, they are night and day — this incredible discrepancy in product is unlikely to be due to chance and chance alone. The difference is so big, that it feels like there was a certain sense of apathy in regards to the first 90% of the show.

This is not to trash on the Wyatt Sick6's debut — that was the real main event, as it should have been. However, it is unwise to put all of this effort into the main event, and just allow the rest of the show to rot. Main events are impactful and a place of prestige, yes, but when they are preceded by three hours of, honestly, garbage programming and booking, they become less impactful.

A vast majority — too much to ignore in favor of the spectacular Wyatt Sick6 reveal — of this week's "Raw" had no care behind it. Nobody cared about what happened on this episode of "Raw" except for the Wyatt Sick6 reveal! That alone is a drag, because sitting through three hours of poor programming just because somebody in creative cannot budget their effort and resources is not a good look for WWE, especially immediately following a high-profile event like Clash at the Castle. It becomes an even worse look when Money in the Bank is three weeks away, and the first three hours of programming that weren't being taken up by the Wyatt Sick6 reveal — hours that could have been used to hype up the upcoming Toronto-based live event — were wasted, because the powers that be chose to exclusively focus in on making the Wyatt Sick6 segment perfect.

The Wyatt Sick6's segment was perfect, and there should have been more efforts to make this episode of "Raw" watchable. Both realities can exist. With a company as big, powerful, and experienced as WWE, one would assume they'd have the resources to make every segment its best, not just one. Instead, we got a three-hour build-up, and while the event the show was building up to was spectacular, it was three hours of wasted time and, consequently, wasted profits and potential.

Written by Angeline Phu

It's not often that I say this about something in professional wrestling (if ever), but everything –- and I mean EVERYTHING -– about the return of Uncle Howdy and the debut of the Wyatt Sick6 was absolute perfection.

If this was the return of anyone else, I can guarantee that things would've come off looking much goofier with having literally anyone present in and around the gorilla position laid out and the amount of effects that were employed for this between the dry ice, lighting, the sparks, and the fake blood. However, with the amount of work that went into the many, many QR codes and the hype it generated for the Wyatt Sick6, WWE needed to do something big for the debut of the stable. All of the effects worked so well with the panning of the camera through the backstage area as the destruction and damage the group had done was slowly shown and revealed to the audience at home, and created an aura of intrigue as to what's to come next.

Uncle Howdy came off looking incredibly strong as a leader, and you could not have picked four other people who were more perfect to join him besides Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis, Joe Gacy, and Erick Rowan. With their good grasp on the creepy/supernatural/spooky/unhinged kind of character and their underutilization on television (not including the previously unsigned Rowan), the four of them didn't have to say a word to come across that way which is a true testament to their skills. The same thing goes for Uncle Howdy (with the exception of him telling fans that the Wyatt Sick6 were here), and the masks and costumes of all five of them were the extra cherry on top of everything, giving them that extra creepy and intimidating factor.

Windham Rotunda will forever live on in professional wrestling history as having one of the most creative minds in the sport, and his return to WWE as Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules in 2022 will always be one of those moments that fans will always remember because of just how truly special it was for many. Having little things in the opening moments of the Wyatt Sick6 debut call back to his Extreme Rules debut, with the lights being turned off in sections of the arena and the utilization of the same music and door he used, as well as only wearing one glove (that read "Bray") rather than two were subtle things, but a beautiful way to pay tribute to the legacy Rotunda left behind, performed and orchestrated by his brother.

Written by Olivia Quinlan