WWE RAW 2/19/2024: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that features Netflix executives, UFC fighters, and beardless bull riding star John Crimber! Now, will we talk about any of those things in this column? Actually, yes! One of those three things will be covered in the subjective material below, and only by reading on can you find out which one! If that's not enough of a sell for you, there were also wrestling things that happened on this episode, and several of those will also be discussed. Not all of them (what do you think this is, our live coverage/results page?) but certainly the ones that induced the strongest feelings, both positive and negative, in the WINC staff!

Did Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes live up to the hype? How did we feel about Nia Jax annihilating the entire women's division? And most importantly, is there any power on earth that can prevent Pat McAfee from doodling on the screen? Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 2/19/24 episode of "WWE Raw."

About two-thirds of the way through Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes, I knew there was a chance we could be watching a truly awesome match. It certainly had all the makings of one. But as always, whether or not the match achieved greatness depended on the finish, and I didn't know how WWE was going to solve this one. Rhodes and McIntyre is a high-profile PLE match, not a "Raw" opener, and with both stars likely needing to avoid losing ahead of their actual upcoming PLE matches, I was largely resigned to some sort of unsatisfying non-finish.

Instead, the finish WWE came up with was absolutely perfect.

We did get interference — first from Jimmy Uso, who distracted the referee, and then from Solo Sikoa, who came out of the crowd dressed all in black, clambered onto the ring apron, and spiked Cody in the neck. You know, the exact same thing he did to Cody at WrestleMania 39. And just like Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39, McIntyre took advantage, hitting the Claymore and scoring the pinfall.

That finish does so many things, story-wise. It formally renews hostilities between Cody and The Bloodline while also playing into the story of Cody and Seth Rollins, since Rollins is trying to help Cody avoid the same fate that befell him at last year's Mania. It also adds a delightfully ironic twist to McIntyre's heel character — the man who couldn't handle the idea of forgiving a member of The Bloodline after they interfered to cost him a match has now won a match due to Bloodline interference. Beautiful. And as the cherry on top, establishing Jimmy's presence in Anaheim foreshadowed his interference in the main event, where he cost Jey the Intercontinental title and progressed toward his own Mania match with his brother.

A finish that advances three distinct storylines and simultaneously gives Mcintyre a huge win while still protecting Rhodes? Chef's kiss.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

UFC lightweight fighter Mike Chandler called out Conor McGregor on "Raw" Monday night, and move that — while it may have been driven primarily by the fact that WWE and UFC are the same company now and McGregor has been ducking Chandler for a while — it's also incredibly tone deaf.

Last year, a woman alleged that McGregor sexually assaulted her following Game 4 of the NBA Finals (the state ended up not filing charges due to insufficient evidence). It was only the latest in the long history of charges leveled against McGregor, which include assaulting a woman on his yacht in 2022, indecent exposure and sexual assault in Corsica in 2020, and multiple sexual assaults in Dublin in 2018 and 2019. WWE is currently dealing with the Janel Grant lawsuit, which accuses McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE itself of sex trafficking and sexual assault.

The lawsuit has been an enormous story for WWE and TKO. Even though Chandler said he wanted McGregor in the Octagon, he used WWE as a platform weeks after McMahon resigned due to the lawsuit (even though it was Slim Jim pausing its sponsorship of WWE Royal Rumble that actually made the move happen). Even if Chandler didn't make a connection between the two, it's a terrible look to have a man who has been sexual assault on multiple occasions teased once again on WWE programming.

The WrestleMania 4" sign was shown throughout the segment. Potentially bringing McGregor in for an appearance at the biggest show of the year amidst WWE's involvement in the Grant lawsuit would be terrible optics, and not the PR that UFC, WWE, or TKO might think it would be.

Written by Samantha Schipman

Becky Lynch may be a mom, and Naomi and Belair may be stepmoms, but all women involved in Elimination Chamber were mothers Monday night.

Originating in the Black and Latino queer community, "mother" has been adopted by many to refer to a particularly talented or likable female celebrity, usually with an avid fanbase. Between all six participants in the women's Elimination Chamber match — Lynch, Naomi, Liv Morgan, Tiffany Stratton, Bianca Belair, and a returning Raquel Rodriguez — and Nia Jax, the ring was stacked with both tried and true talent, and the hottest rising Superstars. If you looked at that ring when all six woman's Elimination Chamber participants were in there, I hope you enjoy the damage to your retinas, because they were all shining stars between those ropes and with those microphones. It truly looked like a gathering of mothers, with all of their beautiful and authentic outfits—it was simply so great to see so many capable women in that ring.

When there are that many big personalities in the ring, however, people tend to get lost in the shuffle. Lynch is not the easiest person to talk over, and Jax physically dominates nearly every woman she comes across. How could you draw attention to yourself, when Belair is wearing a beautiful garment she probably made herself? The amazing thing about this segment was that nobody felt lost in that ring. Everybody was there, and they had a purpose.

Some purposes were stronger than others — I'm a particular fan of Morgan's revenge tour and Naomi's general comeback story — but everybody had a chance to shine tonight. So much star power was condensed into that ring, but they all worked together so well. Lynch's increasingly dramatic reactions to each woman showing up in quicker and quicker succession was absolutely great, Belair and Morgan's retorts towards Stratton made sense, and Jax's quick demolition of everybody involved made her look like the last person you would want to cross, despite her very slim chances of walking out of Perth with the title. Girl power, mother convention—whatever you want to call it, there is no doubt that this segment made everybody look good (even if six of them were flopped on the floor by the end of it).

Before the segment, I was skeptical of talent who would be performing in Perth on Saturday—especially Stratton, Jax, and Rodriguez. After tonight, though, I feel a lot more confident that they will be able to put on a great show that will be worth waking up in the middle of the night for, even if the results are glaringly obvious.

I would say good luck to all those involved, but I know that they will show up and show out. That's just what mothers do.

Written by Angeline Phu

So here's the thing: I loved that Andrade El Idolo was given the second half of his name back Monday night, and I thought the actual content of the vignette itself was cool, between the aesthetic, the cinematography and what he was saying. With all that being said, the vignette feeds into a bigger issue at play, which is that Andrade hasn't done much of anything as of late.

Andrade put pen to paper to become an official member of the "Raw" roster on January 29, which was three weeks ago. He had returned to WWE only two days prior in the Men's Royal Rumble and had tons of momentum from the return, given the excitement from fans generated by the reports that had surfaced prior. Since then, he hasn't even had backstage segments, let alone an in-ring promo or a match, and it feels like much of that momentum has been lost.

Andrade is not someone looking to make a name for himself. He has name value, and fans (myself included) want to see him have more screen time doing something other than a vignette. There's no need for WWE to put out vignettes to create more hype around Andrade, as he already has it, and it may in fact be hurting him to a certain extent.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Other than a win over a visiting Trick Williams on an episode of "WWE Main Event" in October, Chad Gable's last televised singles win that didn't come by disqualification or count-out came on the August 14 episode of "Raw" in a win over Giovanni Vinci. I had to quadruple check that because it seems like it's been a long run of positives for Gable, whose personality has shone through as the head of Alpha Academy, mentoring the likes of Otis, Maxxine Dupri, Akira Tozawa, and even R-Truth for a minute or so. To come to the realization, then, that it's been SIX MONTHS since Gable had a decisive singles win before Monday's victory over Ivar pretty much blew my mind for a minute.

Now that I've accepted the cold streak, it's time to look toward the future, and I see only great things for Gable moving forward. This is no fresh take (and not fair) but he's as Kurt Angle as anyone not named Kurt Angle from an in-ring perspective and, as has been exhibited in recent months, he's funny, he can easily be a heel or a face, and he can be depended upon as the talking head in a long-term group storyline amid others who aren't so comfortable in that spot at this point in their careers.

Let's do a little fortune-telling because here's where I see this going at this point, thanks to some context clues later in the evening. With Jey and Jimmy Uso now likely on a path toward each other at WrestleMania, how about Gable gets to be the guy to finally take the Intercontinental gold off of GUNTHER? He got closer than anyone did on two occasions in late August/early September and obviously, "The Ring General" has bigger goals in sight after becoming the longest IC champ of all time already. The latter has done so much for the title that transferring that energy and equity to a guy like Gable, an athlete's athlete, in the vein of a Mr. Perfect, aka the quintessential type of wrestler to hold that particular championship, makes all the sense in the world.

Disagree? Shoosh, please.

Written by Jon Jordan

Editor's note: Despite the validity of everything said below, the distinctly un-Kevin Dunn shot where the camera went through the front door of the building and into the arena was still pretty cool.

Monday night's show felt experimental. From showcasing a bull rider (if they can bring people as special guests from just any sport now, I'm crossing my fingers for a Formula 1 cameo to combine two of my biggest interests) to the documentary-style pre-taped interview for R-Truth, it felt like WWE was throwing a bunch of spaghetti to wall to see what stuck. One of the most glaring things they tried was a football-style post-match recap in which Pat McAfee scribbled over stills of the most recent match in order to highlight certain parts.

Now, the idea works well in theory. It is actually really interesting to highlight some of the small details and nuances that elevate a pro wrestling match into a legitimate story. Given its origins in football programming and McAfee's well-documented affiliation with the NFL, it makes sense that WWE — who has been looking to provide a more sports-like presentation — would want to incorporate it into their show. All of those reasons are valid, and could be incorporated into the product. Just ... not like this.

I am of the humble opinion that the "whiteboard drawing time with McAfee and Michael Cole" segments of Monday's show looked stupid. There are issues from a visual standpoint—the choice of a chunky, yellow line was even more questionable than McAfee's olive shirt. Both of them clashed with "WWE Raw"'s color scheme and overall presentation, but at least McAfee's fashion decisions (and they are certainly decisions) are to be expected. These odd, sometimes messy lines just forced a noticeable mental break; all of a sudden, we're in football territory, and not wrestling. I understand that red might not be the best choice, despite it being "Raw"'s signature color, but if they must have this odd graphing segment, a more neutral color such as white would fit better with the product's presentation.

The narrative issues with this segment are worse than its aesthetic atrocities. Much like how the choice of bright yellow caused a mental shift in the audience, the sudden transition to a distinctively football, somewhat cartoonish presentation felt out of place. It takes us out of the immersion wrestling is supposed to provide. It reminds us that we are no longer in this world in between the ropes, despite the purpose of the segment being to point out details that should immerse us in the storytelling.

It is just a bit too, to use another sport's lingo, out of left field to be viable for WWE. Maybe this is coming from a place of resistance to change — maybe we'll all just get used to it — but as of now, McAfee's whiteboard time was just a weird little detail that distracted us, rather than immersed us.

Written by Angeline Phu