It’s been a while since I’ve done the Best and Worst of RAW, so I’ve decided to start again. Here’s what I liked and didn’t like about RAW last night. “Best” is what I liked, and “Worst” is what I didn’t. Easy enough right?
Worst: Deja Vu
This week’s opening of RAW was completely unoriginal. We had Kurt Angle come out to complain about Brock Lesnar’s attitude and lack of frequency competing once again. You’d think Angle would remember that he had the power to strip Brock of the title at any time or all of this year at any point, but is just now getting mad about it. Corbin is standing there berating Angle like we haven’t seen him do the same thing a thousand times over by now. Then, out comes Roman Reigns, who’s here to talk once again about beating Brock Lesnar and how he’ll be a champion we can be proud of and we’re all happy. Then, Roman takes a shot at Corbin for standing there while Lesnar F-5’ed Angle last week, and bah gawd we must have a match. But not just any match. An 18-minute match.
Seriously, what’s the obsession with lengthy RAW matches featuring Baron Corbin? He went 20 minutes against Balor last week and 18 minutes with Roman last night, and both of those matches were meh at best. Any match involving Baron Corbin that goes 2 commercials is bound to be lethargic, and this was what this entire segment was. It was unoriginal, things that we have seen before, and far too long. Nothing about this added to the Roman/Lesnar match, and Corbin’s presence here was pretty unneeded. Oh, and if you didn’t get enough of the 20 minutes of Balor and Corbin last week, then you’re in luck because these two will be fighting again for no reason at Summerslam. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
Worst: Mojo Rawley vs. Bobby Roode
I like what they’re trying to do with Mojo Rawley, but my word, what in the hell is going on with Bobby? I’m tired of the camera going into his shiny robe and just having a shot of him smiling. This dude is an absolutely deplorable face, and while I’m not saying he’s the most entertaining guy in the world as a heel, he’s far and away better as that. Some men aren’t meant to be good guys, and Roode is one of the worst good guys I’ve seen. People who smile obnoxiously and excessively are extremely punchable. I actually thought it was a mistake to give Roode the win here, because not only did he not need it, Rawley is the guy that WWE was trying to build momentum for. How are you going to have him bad-mouth the jobber portion of the RAW locker room just to have him lose clean to a more established guy the next week?
Add in the fact that Roode’s matches these days range from bad and boring to passable at best, this was a below average segment. No one came away looking better from this and just felt like a big waste. Back to the drawing board.
Worst: Titus vs. Rezar
Doesn’t that sound like the title of an action movie pitting two huge brutes against each other? That’s because it was, but it was freaking awful. More specifically, Titus O’Neil. My word, Titus O’Neil. This guy is one of, if not, the most awkard and clunky wrestler I’ve seen. I could have sworn I saw Titus try to find Rezar’s wrist for a good 10-15 seconds just to do a simple Irish whip. His punches are cartoony, his moves resemble more of an uncoordinated football center than a competent wrestler, and he’s just, quite frankly, out of sorts. It makes you wonder why Apollo Crews was the one taking all of the pinfalls in their tag matches. Titus has absolutely nothing for him, and while he makes for a terrific WWE ambassador, I’d be completely content if I never saw him wrestle again.
Him giving punches to Rezar’s chest resembled more of a mother disciplining an out of line child with a belt. Meanwhile, the Authors of Pain have about as much heat on them right now as the state of New York in December. They’re just two characters who look like The Shield on HGH. Without Paul Ellering, what are they? Two oversized brutes in military gear that rarely speak English. Oh no, you monsters. Again, another pointless segment that didn’t do anything for anyone. Can anyone remind me what they were fighting over again?
Best/Worst: Summerslam Pre-Show Material
We then got Elias plugging his documentary and album out on iTunes and worked for the crowd like a fiddle as per usual. He was great manipulating all of the camera guys and he did his usual shtick, which was fine. But then Bobby Lashley came out just to say that his sandals were stupid. Is this 4th-grade art class? This feud really has no legs to stand on other than the fact that Lashley made his return at Elias’ expense, and all of a sudden Elias remembers that, and now the two hate each other because Bobby doesn’t like Elias’ singing or whatever. This is quite clearly going to be in the cool-down portion or pre-show slot of Summerslam. While I didn’t hate this segment, it didn’t really add anything to the show. It sort of just existed for the sake of existing, much like a lot of this show.
Worst: Are We Going Somewhere With This?
You wouldn’t think the Kevin Owens show would be such a bore to watch, but man we are surely just wasting time on this edition aren’t we? Kevin Owens comes out to speak to interview Jinder Mahal (he’s actually just talking to himself with Jinder nodding his head in agreement with everything), talking about how both of them beat Strowman and how Jinder’s relaxation techniques have helped Kevin Owens find his fifth chakra or whatever.
Then, a magical earthquake takes place from underneath them, and while it’s not an ambulance, it may do. It’s everyone’s favorite Monster In The Bank (they’re really shoving that down our throats). To keep up with the tune of unoriginal segments and matches, we get a rematch of Jinder and Braun from last week. You see, in case if it wasn’t obvious enough, WWE is pushing the narrative that if Braun loses in ANY fashion, he loses the briefcase. I’d think the stipulation that if Kevin Owens wins, he gets the briefcase, is quite obvious enough, no? Kevin distracted Braun last week, giving Jinder a count out victory. This week, Kevin does the exact same thing, but this time, the briefcase accidentally hits Jinder, giving him a DQ victory before running away.
We get it. Braun can lose by count out or DQ because we all sure as hell know KO ain’t pinning him. Can you actually build something between the two as opposed to shoving down a hollow stipulation? Nothing about this feud has been entertaining, and all they’re doing with this, much like almost everything else on the show, is re-hashing everything in a different way because they have no creative ways to tell this story other than that if Braun loses, he loses the briefcase. How about something between the actual two to give the match a different dimension? We’re all well aware of what’s at stake and how Braun can lose. Enough of it.
Best/Worst: So What Did This Accomplish Exactly?
Next up, we had Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns teaming up against Dolph Ziggler and Drew McyIntyre. Except Stephanie McMahon said that Roman being in this match would ruin his own match against Brock Lesnar for some reason, so instead Stephanie chooses to ruin the Intercontinental Title match instead by having Seth go against Ziggler and Drew solo in a handicap match, even though we’ve seen Seth and Ziggler, like, 32 times in the past month and a half. The match itself was fine. Seth showed great fire as usual and held is own against the tag team, but it goes about as well as you can expect and Seth loses. Of course, what needs addressing here is that Ziggler was apparently not the legal man, so Michael Cole decides to complain about Ziggler pinning Rollins even though Seth was the one who tried pinning him first, so they just rolled with it.
Seth and Ziggler have had a 15 minute RAW match that Ziggler won to win the IC Title, a 28 minute RAW match that ended in DQ, a 30 minute Iron Man match with 9 decisions, and multiple variations of tag team matches featuring Seth on one side and Ziggler on the other. What does one more singles match do for me? The overarching theme behind this feud is that Seth has to find a way to neutralize Drew’s interference in the match. Man, if there were only a former Shield partner Seth used to have. Unfortunately, the surprise may have already been ruined, because at first Seth’s partner for the night was a mystery, but then Cole decided to tell us that it wasn’t going to be Dean Ambrose. Gee, thanks a lot of Michael. It’s not like we will be expecting him at Summerslam or anything. Way to spoil the surprise. Bottom line, this feud has to end soon. It’s been fine, but there hasn’t been a match in the series (maybe other than their second RAW singles match) where the match quality lived up to expectations.
Worst: B-Team, B-Team, NO!, NO!, NO!
It’s just like WWE to take a good thing and make it into something that they can drown out the audience with. Battle Scars was an awesome theme for the tag team, but instead WWE thought it would be better to give them a theme fit for a high school cheerleader’s squad. You just know that they are going to play this till the very end. The worst part is there was a commercial during their entrance. So imagine sitting in the crowd and having to be subjected to listening to that for five minutes. It’s legalized torture. They had a nothing match against The Revival because the Eater of Worlds stepped in at the last minute to cause chaos. You’d think they would save the triple threat RAW Tag Team Title match for Summerslam, but instead we are getting it for free for next week. Whatever. This wasn’t anything special, and once again added nothing to the show. There’s only so much of the same thing you can take before it gets bland.
Best: An Emmy Performance
If there was one bright spot you could find on RAW, it was Heyman’s great interview in which his crying and emotion over Brock Lesnar essentially cutting ties with him seemed real and genuine. What’s important here is the backstory. Heyman has been by Brock Lesnar’s side since he came on to the scene in 2002, and while Heyman has betrayed Brock along the way, they remained colleagues through it all, and especially when Brock made his return to WWE in 2012. So Brock essentially giving the middle finger to Heyman and leaving him high and dry had to be emotional for him, and it now raises questions on what his potential role could be in the Summerslam in the main event. Could he get back at Brock by switching alliances and costing Lesnar the match and the title? It certainly would be a fitting end to this feud. Roman and Lesnar themselves have done diddly squat in building up their Summerslam match, but Heyman has carried it to give a match with a repetitive formula a different dimension towards it. That, I can appreciate.
Best/Worst: More of the same, but Ruby’s back!
At this point, you’d think Sasha Banks, Bayley, Liv Morgan and Sara Logan all know each other’s relatives with how frequently these two tag teams have fought each other this year. It’s like when the two are a pair they have no one else to fight on the roster. This is one reason why I don’t think having a women’s tag team division would be a good idea unless they are allowed to compete on any brand. You can’t conceivably have a RAW Women’s Tag Team Title Division and a Smackdown one without having two teams fight each other for weeks on end with little variety. The match itself was hard-worked and they got into a second gear after the commercial, but it was ultimately every single match you’ve seen between these two pairs and nothing out of the ordinary with the exception of the Riott Squad’s mother returning to interfere. Liv and Sarah are fine as individuals but seem lost as a tandem without Ruby as that third element. Don’t get me wrong, the Riott Squad returning isn’t something that’s going to propel RAW forward in a huge way, but I much rather prefer them as a trio as opposed to two crazy making a mess backstage.
Worst: Padding For Time
If there’s nothing that annoyed me more on the show, it was RAW’s gross padding for time, and it was no more apparent than in the main event of Alicia Fox and Ronda Rousey. From last week, they were making Ronda Rousey’s RAW debut into something magical. I can understand why they’d want to make it into something special, but my word was this way more drawn out than needed. We got vignettes of Ronda throughout the entire night, and they did a little video package of Alicia Fox’s career, giving her some credibility which was nice (though saying Ronda had her work cut out for her because Fox beat Gail Kim was a stretch). So then, when it’s time for the main event, WWE doesn’t even bother giving Alicia her own music because Alexa’s the woman with all of the importance. Instead of just normally cutting to Ronda’s music after the two went out, we get a blathering, nothing in-ring promo. If there’s one pet-peeve I have in WWE, it’s in-ring interviews. Can the women not speak for themselves. Better yet, couldn’t you have just done it backstage?
Alexa got mad she was asked a question about Ronda and then wastes even more time asking Alicia how she prepared for Ronda. This grew increasingly frustrating with every second because it became blatantly obvious that WWE wanted to bait and switch the fans as much as possible from giving them an actual match. Then, when Ronda finally by the grace of Vince finally comes out, they just HAVE to announce the match as if it’s a title match. It’s Ronda Rousey and Alicia Fox. It’s not a special thing. They didn’t do that for Ronda’s mixed tag at WrestleMania, so why do it here? Mind you, we are already 5 minutes past 11, which is when RAW is usually slated to end. Then, we got somewhat of a match, if you consider Ronda tossing around Alicia like a ragdoll a match. Ronda looked fine, and the actual match is okay, but all that unneeded fluff just to pass time away was just embarrassing and far too obvious a ploy on WWE’s part.
Conclusion:
Yeah, this wasn’t a good episode of RAW. Normally, I give RAW the benefit of the doubt because I’m always trying to look for positives in everything I see because I’ve grown accustomed to being overwhelmed week after week. But this week’s edition was completely unoriginal, filled with rehashed versions of the same things you’ve seen the week before, just with different characters in different roles, or with the same people doing the same things, but in different forms. There was nothing new. There was nothing fresh. Everything was just there for the sake of being put in video packages for Summerslam. Other than Heyman’s interview and Ronda getting into the ring, there really isn’t much I’d recommend you re-watch again unless you’re a die-hard WWE apologist. WWE has one more RAW to try and get us excited about Summerslam. Let’s hope for a better try next week.
