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.

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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.

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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.

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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