Ricochet getting rocked leads to botched finish in Raw 4way match – Cageside Seats

If something felt off to you about the end of the 4Way Intercontinental title #1 contender’s match on Raw last night (Nov. 6), you weren’t alone. And you and your fellow wrestling fans that felt that way were apparently right — at least according to a report Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer posted on X:

Just a note regarding Raw last night. Ricochet was not supposed to kick out of the Ivar moonsault and it was supposed to be a simultaneous double pin. That’s why it came across so awkward on television. I believe Ricochet was rocked earlier in the match when his head hit the mat.

You can find evidence to support that in the video. The scene was shot the way double pins in multi-person matches usually are. Ivar, the referee, and the announce team of Michael Cole & Wade Barrett all seem to have been expecting Ricochet to stay down for the entire three count in this case.

No word on if Ivar’s post-match beatdown of The Miz (who pinned Bronson Reed while Ricochet kicked out) was always part of the plan or an audible. WWE’s already announced a singles match between Miz & Ivar for next Monday’s show. We’ll probably learn in the days to come if that was at one point going to “break the tie” from last night’s 4Way. If the original script was going to set-up a 3way Intercontinental championship defense for Gunther at Survivor Series, we might get a non-finish or interference next week to justify getting back on target.

More important than they storyline machinations is Ricochet’s health. While discussing the match with Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio today, Bryan Alvarez said Ricochet did suffer a concussion when his head hit the mat earlier in the match. The high-flying star will now need to be cleared by WWE medical before wrestling again.

If that’s right, it’s our latest instance of a wrestler continuing on in a match after sustaining a brain injury. And while even Jon Moxley’s proposed solution for handling in-match concussions might struggle with an instance like this — especially as Raw again featured a kayfabe knockout by Xia Li, this time to Becky Lynch and leading to Adam Pearce informing The Man she couldn’t participate in the Women’s World title #1 contender’s battle royal — the wrestling business needs to continue trying to improve their handling of situations like these before we’re discussing something a lot worse than a possibly botched finish.

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