Opener
WWE Monday Night Raw is live from San Diego, California this evening! Which can only mean the crowd is going to be mental! It starts as usual with Kurt Angle in the ring, now with Constable Corbin. Kurt then announces that Paul Heyman posted on Facebook over the weekend and started rumours about Brock and his status, this I’m assuming is a work. Roman Reigns is out and then Bobby Lashley is out almost immediately after to and then the two men, these two grown men, have an exchange of words about who deserves to hear what Kurt has to say more.. Yeah. Lashley harps on about Roman facing Brock continuously for the last 3 years and they . Kurt stops them and says Brock pulled out of the contract negotiations for his next defense and so there will now be no multi man match at Extreme Rules. Which is obviously not what’s going to happen. Roman and Bobby have another bickering match about that and Roman says they should have a match right now, which absolutely they should! But good old Kurt says they can have a match at Extreme Rules instead. No one wants that. The Revival come out and just as I said last week, whenever the Top Guys are involved in something, I’m invested. Corbin made the match of Roman and Lashley vs The Revival for.. RIGHT NOW! As much as I love The Revival I was caught in a sort of déja vu where I was asking myself “isn’t this the exact same thing that happened last week?” The answer to that is yes AND no.
Roman Reigns & Bobby Lashley vs The Revival – Winners, The Revival
The match was good. The Revival looked great and they really layed the SmackDown on the big dog. Roman eventually got the tag to Lashley and he came in and put a beating on the Revival, which looked good for a change, which was all down to the Revival’s sells, but as Lashley was setting up for the spear, Roman gave him a taste of his own medicine and tagged himself in just like Bob did to Roman last week, I mean.. who saw that coming? Everyone. Lashley tried to tag himself back in and Roman got very upset by that, so once again they had a bit of a squabble, Dawson ran to hit Reigns, Reigns dodged, Dawson hit Lashley, then Reigns spears Dawson BUT Dawson was not the legal man, Dash got a blind tag just before so now he comes up for a Schoolboy Rollup and gets the 3!!!
Roman and Bobby’s toddler like bickering aside, this was a decent match, The Revival looked strong, and I loved the finish! Top Guys!! Lashley’s not happy with Reigns after this Match, he says something smarmy to him after and then left.
Promo
Next, Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhooooooaaaahhhs! The Delete Delete Delete Deleters of Worlds pop up on the tron cutting a weird promo about B Team, talking about Shakespeare and the darkness they have within them and how B Team have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.. Which Bo probably does being the little brother of Bray Wyatt and if they’re anything like my 2 eldest, they’ve waged great wars against one another from as young as 4! Now, once the Deleters came out to the ring to a big pop, the B Team were on the tron dressed as the Deleters of Worlds again and this was absolutely hilarious. Bo got a pop for his Bray impression too. Then they came out to a big reaction too which is the lead into our next match.
Curtis Axel w/ Bo Dallas vs Woken Matt Hardy w/ Bray Wyatt
Weird match. Very short and it ended with Hardy going for a Superplex and apparently his foot slipped and Axel landed on him for the 3 count. Matt then said Axel’s resiliency he used to get the victory was WONDERFUL and have him a standing WOKEN Ovation!
Backstage
Angle is backstage with Sasha Banks bit its muted and sasha looks pretty mad… and then BOOM! AOP are back on Raw!!! I popped! Looks like the VISA issue they had got sorted. They attack a writer and then Titus comes up and says “They come to work here every week just like we do, show them some respect”. AOP said “thanks but no thanks” and walk away. I really hope this doesn’t mean we are going to get AOP vs Titus Worldwide for the next month or two. But it just might..
Backstage
Bayley is backstage with the returning Aliciaaaaa Fawwwx! Kurt then showed up and said she needs to team with Banks and Ember Moon tonight and he’s giving them a last chance as they’re so valuable to Raw. But this isn’t cool with old Bayles. Not cool at all.
AOP vs The Gibson Brothers
Starts with a boot to the face to Rex Gibson. He gets picked up and thrown onto the side of the ring, some more hellish moves and then Last Chapter and pin. Total squash. Then they decide to beat on them some more after and my fears were then realised. Out comes Titus Worldwiiiide, they just stare them down. Pointless squash. Cool moves though, but for a returning AOP, I’d have preferred them staking claim to the tag division instead of beating up a couple of joggers and backing off from Titus and Apollo w/ Dana Brooke
Backstage
This next section was when Corbin and Angle were talking about this Multi Man Match being cancelled. And then Balor comes in to a HUGE pop and he says he’s annoyed it’s cancelled too because he wants his title back. Rightfully so. Corbin says it’s a blessing for Balor that it’s been cancelled as he’s just gonna come up short again. Strowman comes in and says he feels bad for Kevin Owens and wants to try to be his friend this week as his Tag Partner. Kurt asks who he has in mind and he then suggests Corbin and Balor. The match is made. That was it basically.
Promo
Alexa Bliss is out now with Mickie James. They do the normal thing where Mickie hypes up Alexa, but this week she harps on about how Alexa’s celebration was ruined last week by Ronda Rousey. Alexa says she’s glad Angle is okay and that he can see Rouseys true colours now. They talk about how great her cash in was and Nia and Rousey aren’t there for obvious reasons and now Alexa is saying that she’s sick of tired of Nia painting herself the victim in their friendship, which I thought was the whole point of this at the start of the rivalry. San Diego is SO loud tonight! Natalya came out and said the countdown is on and it’s only 23 days until Rousey returns to “deal with” Alexa. Which I’m excited for because I can’t wait to see Rousey Alexa berates her for her social media presence and her just having arrived back from Lake Tahoe from the casf of Total Divas and tells Nattie that she’s dismissed and she can go now, but Nattie says she talked to Angle and got a match with her and James and that she didn’t come back Lake Tahoe alone. Nia Jax comes out to a big Pop from the crowd and they start walking to the ring.
Alexa Bliss w/ Mickie James vs Natalya w/ Nia Jax – Winner – Natalya!
Looots of working holds and ground submissions at the start of this Match, which is fine but doesn’t always make the match feel exciting. Then it all changed! They began with the strikes and the grapples and it was beginning to heat up. There was an awesome spot where Nattie stood up whilst in a Guillotine and somehow maneuvered Bliss into a Michinoku Driver! Just brutal! Nattie had the upper hand through most of this match but then Alexa’s Mum, Mickie James, gets involved and Nattie turned around into a bloody vicious right hand from Bliss, it sounded like it hurt! But then Nia grabs Bliss’ legs and the crowd cheered, but then Bliss walked straight into a Nattie By Nature and then taps to a Sharpshooter. I wasn’t expecting Nattie to get a win over the champion, but it was a nice match from both women.
Next Jinder is having his picture taken and The Riott Squad walk up to him and break the camera. Still doing their Mean Girls impression then. I’d have said Liv Morgan would have fit the profile of Regina George a bit better than Ruby, but hey. That’s just me.
Riott Squad vs Ember Moon, Sasha Banks and Bayley
This match was, again, great! I had a lot of fun watching it, lots of hard strikes and suicide dives and rolling elbows that know Sarah Logan’s head clean off her shoulders (nice sell too, Sarah) but the real treat is what followed that match. It ended with Ruby Riott rolling up Banks for the 3 count (I loved the in ring style of the Riott Squad this week, they were like a pack of Hyenas. Really cool.) 68and then as soon as that bell rang, Bayley was straight on Sasha like a tramp on chips! Had her in a full back mount and was just wailing on her and I just about jumped out of my seat. The San Diego crowd LOVED it too! This crowd was nuts! Chicago who? Bayley continued her beat down on Sasha. And she just smashed her face into the ring post. Bayley then goes to leave, changes her mind and just throws Sasha from the ring to the floor. I loved this mean side of Bayley. She used the steps and everything. The most shocking part of all of this was when Bayley mounted her and screamed that Sasha thinks she’s “better than everyone else” then, to my utter shock, Bayley.. The Hugger.. The female John Cena.. said “you ain’t S**t!”. That took my breath away and I believed wholeheartedly in that moment that we are witnessing the beginning of the rivalry of the Summer.
Mojo Rawley vs No Way José
No Way José and Mojo Rawley had a good segment next too. José conga’d his way down to the ring with his Fiesta Friends and Mojo Rawley came out and just outright exposed the Fiesta Friends as being wrestlers in development who haven’t “earned the right” to walk down to the ring. He singled one out named Todd and verbally chastised him about wearing the burger costume to the ring but the San Diego crowd erupted and began chanting “Todd!” like he was Daniel Bryan or something! It was just wonderful! Well, it made me happy anyway because then they started chanting “we want Todd” through the whole promo and it was great! A man who was on TV for 10 seconds and is known only as “Todd” is more over than Mojo Rawley. Mojo basically denied José his rematch and sucker punched him in the mouth and left. I liked this, it was a nice set up for a feud with these dudes and they are both worthy of a push. I like ’em both.
Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin and Finn Balor
The looks Braun Strowman gives Kevin Owens in this match had me in stitches. He legit was looking at Owens like he wanted to eat him. But you know what? They worked! I had a good time watching these guys and that’s exactly what you want from a product you’re spending 3 hours of your life every single week watching on TV! The comedic style of the team was quirky but classic! Braun helped Owens and Owens helped Braun, tandem signature moves, the works! It worked! Owens may be planting the seeds for a Babyface turn soon, which would be cool. The I loved about this Match up was that although on paper it’s a Heel and a Face vs a Heel and a Face, but each man attacked that role in such a different way from each other. Corbin the ring hogger, Balor the disgruntled but persevering worker, KO the terrified and suspicious partner to an absolute Monster who looks like he wants him for din dins, but is actually working well with him! Loved the dynamic. Obviously Balor got annoyed with Corbin and ended up kicking him in the nose, then they beat each other to the back area. So.. KO and Strowman won by count out! I found myself actually sort of wanting Strowman to accept the handshake from Owens! But of course it didn’t happen, Owens ran off like a “scolded dog” as good ol’ JR would put it. Strowman then chased him, KO hid in a cupboard and then went to the car park, to discover Strowman had turned his car upside down.. No idea why. He just did. But it’s Braun so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler w/Drew McIntyre for the I.C. Title
Now, just a quick shout out to Rollins’ old Heel attire making it’s return for the second time in recent weeks. Not sure if that’s just a random thing he’s doing, an intended Easter Egg for something or he’s going to turn Heel again. Which would be surprising given how on fire Mr Burn It Down has been lately. Pun definitely intended.
This match was certainly worthy of the Main Event slot. High energy, McIntyre got ejected from ringside and there was so many amazing moments and both men sold like champions. There was a particular moment I thought they were both going to die after an apron buckle bomb, yes, I said an APRON buckle bomb was reversed into a freakin’ jumping DDT on the side of the ring! That *bad word that Bayley said earlier in the show* was crazy!
The end was a smidge disappointing with McIntyre making the save and dragging the referee out of the ring on the 3 count and ambushing Rollins. Then who comes to his aid? That’s right. GANGREL!!!
No. It was Roman Reigns.
He actually hit Ziggler with a spear like a torpedo and it looked beautiful. He and Drew had a headbutts vs Superman Punch showdown and the latter won that battle. So next week I’m guessing 2/3rds of the Shield are gonna face HBK and Diesel 2.0 next week. Which I’m not opposed to in the slightest to be honest.
Conclusion
This episode of RAW was packed to the brim with exciting moments and momentum for the next few weeks at least! This was my favourite Raw since Raw after ‘Mania.
7.5/10 🌟
Match of the Night for me was easily Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler but the moment of the Night for me was the hellacious assault from Bayley on Sasha Banks!
