This week’s Raw had a lot to live up to from last week’s Raw as it was a great show and I rated it a cool 8.5/10 đŸŒŸ but I didn’t post the review due to a personal matter preventing me from finishing it. I apologise for that and hope you all forgive me. This week’s Raw kicked off with a little bang, literally.. go on.. have a little peak.
Opener
Raw began with Stephanie McMahon in the ring welcoming us all to Raw with a nasal grunt that’d make June Carter-Cash proud. But instead of being able to say much else, The Man, Becky Lynch, arrives with a knee brace and hobbies to the ring. She talks about how she’ll be the one to defeat ‘Ronnie’ at Mania and Steph says she can’t wait to see it given her own history with Rousey, but she then acknowledged the knee brace and said Becky has been refusing medical attention for 8 days. Steph said she doesn’t want to have do this, but she will suspend Becky if she doesn’t get seen by a Doctor. Becky said she knows this is all a part of The McMahon Plan to get her out of Wrestlemania, she said that none of them have ever had to work for anything or struggle for anything in their lives, its all been handed to them by Daddy, she referred to herself as “The Glitch” in their plan, which I just loved. She was never meant to be in the main event, but yet here she is. Steph asked her to see a Dr again or she will be suspended. Becky said she will not be held responsible for what she does if Steph says that again. Steph the says that as the boss, it’s her duty to keep all talent safe and she doesn’t agree with Becky saying she’s fine, so she proceeds to suspend Becky until she is seen by a Doctor. This then prompts Lynch to attack McMahon and even fight off the male trainees trying to restrain her, then she gets a kick in the leg from Stephanie and Steph gets away.
Becky then hobbled backstage and runs into Ronda Rousey, who had some choice words for The Man, she said “You test the limits of my professionalism every time you’re in front of me, Becky.” She continued saying she wanted to implode Becky’s face, but instead she says “but I don’t. Because I’m a professional and I have our Pay-Per-View to sell, but you going out there and beating up Steph tonight, what did that do? Did it sell out Pay-Per-View? You getting yourself suspended and robbing the Women’s Evolution of our first Main Event at Wrestlemania was s unprofessional. What are you even doing here? You need to stop showing up to hear your weekly violin recitle and instead stay home and rest up for Wrestlemania.” She then goes to leave, stops and returns to look at Becky’s knee and says “Ice and Advil, bitch.” then she actually did walk off – which made me chuckle & you can’t argue with her either. She has a legit point.
Liv Morgan w/ Sarah Logan & Ruby Riott vs Ronda Rousey (Non-Title Match)
Ronda won after Liv eventually got in the ring and after 8 or so punches and an Armbar Ronda had won. This all lead to Rousey getting the Mic and saying “who else here has a problem with me? You’re all sat here in the seats booing me, who else has a problem, huh?” – Sarah Logan got challenged too and she accepted and got a decent showing, Sarah actually whooped her ass, for a second.. until she got her face punched 2,000 times and an Armbar put in. – Ruby Riott then got up on the ring and stared Rousey down, but then walks away, she goes backstage and is asked why she ran away, but she says she didn’t run, she just wants to be there for her Sqaud. She says their bond is unbreakable and will do anything for eachother but when she faces Rousey she will do it for the WWE RAW Women’s Champions and win it. – more seeds planted. I’m a fan of seeds. I’ve had Ruby picked out as ths year’s Women’s MITB winner since the last MITB PPV. I hope this is a subtle set up for that.
4 Corner Tag Team match to determine No. 1 Contenders for WWE RAW Tag Team Championships – B Team vs The Revival vs Heavy Machinery vs Lucha House Party
Great match but nowhere near long enough. Revival picked up the win and gain themselves yet another Tag Team Championship opportunity. Hopefully this one is the one.
After this we saw Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder watching the match and Zack said they’ll be in there next time, but Hawkins says he’s lost 250 matches in a row now, he’ll only drag Ryder down, but Ryder says he’s been with WWE 13 years and last week they spelled his name wrong in the entrance graphic. He said he’s just as big a loser. But that’ll change for both of them.
Kurt Angle announcement
Kurt Angle talked about his future and lists his awesome career accomplishments, from winning the European Title to getting into the HOF, to Milk-O-Mania. He said McIntyre has destroyed him, Corbin helped, and he says he has come to decision in his life where… and he’s interupted by Baron Corbin. Corbin tries to verbally put him down, but angle says he will snap his ankle if he get in the ring, then McIntyre shows up and says people don’t see a warrior in Angle anymore. He just sees fear. McIntyre said he’s about to stop Angle for good and put him down so people needed to tale a photo of the last time, but then Braun Strowman shows up and helps Angle out enough for McIntyre and Corbin to run off.
Side note – where the hell is EC3? He’s not had a match yet and I don’t thinks he’s been on TV in at least 2 weeks. Lars we all know is suffering from a severe bout of anxiety and will be back as soon as he’s better, but EC3, I have no clue about.
Boss N Hug vs “Don’t Cross The Fox”??
Nikki Cross and Alicia Fox just came to the stage and began beating Bayley and Banks up, leave them knocked out on the stage and then the match starts anyway. Even though, Bayley and Banks look really hurt. Given the fact that they’ve been tagging for a long time, I found it tough to believe in the struggle for the Boss and Hug Connection in this match. Hard to get into due to that. They’re blatantly gonna win the belts too.
The match ran okay, but call me Sally Morgan because I called it, the Boss and Hug Connection won. They’re in the chamber. I repeat, they’re gonna win the belts too.
Apollo Crews interview
Apollo talks about Kurt Angle being a hero and being allowed to have a few bad matches. Then Drake Maverick shows up with Rezar in tow to mock him and when Apollo fires back, calling Maverick a puppet, Rezar gets in his face
Elias vs Jeff frickin’ Jarrett w/Road Dogg
JJ’s first match on Raw in almost 20 years and it began with another rendition of that horrible country song we had to listen to last week, Elias saved the day when he interupted and told Road Dogg that he should be on SmackDown tanking their ratings instead of Raw’s. Which literally cracked me right up. This lead into a match between the two, the match contained Elias crotch chopping at Road Dogg and doing the JJ strut. Elias knocked the D-O-double G down and gave Jarrett the Drift Away for the win. Elias got knocked out by Road Dogg and Jarrett after the match though as they attacked him with a guitar. Pretty cool match and build up for a story. I hope this ends with Jarrett’s Heel turn on Doggy and siding with Elias to be his manager. That’s something I’d love to see.
Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley w/ Lio Rush
Balor is a great talker now, which is such a relief. I liked his promo before the match, he’s gonna do so well this year. This is the year of Finn Balor I think. Apparently they’ve done away with scripts now, that could be why everything feels so organic now. I dig it. (SUCKAAAAH)
Lashley came out after Balor and said he is facing Lio Rush now and if he impresses him, he will get a shot at the title. Rush vs Balor is something I’ve wanted to see for many years now, but after it started, Balor got a kick in the taped up ribs and this meant that Rush got the upper hand, Lashley got ejected from ringside after getting too involved, and this lead to a pretty cool, albeit a little short, match between the two. Balor won via a Coup De Gras and gains a chance at the title. Which is nice, but I wish this was a match between the two at 100%. The year of Balor though.
Paige movie trailer
Paige appeared so she could show us all a trailer for the new movie about her and her family directed by The Rock, being from The UK, their family is hugely popular over here, legendary in fact, and to see this biopic hit the big screen is quite a pride-inducing moment. I’m excited about it.
A Moment of Bliss
Alexa Bliss welcomes to the stage – EC3 – Alexa selling the temptress game on EC3, again selling sex and using innuendos for ratings. I’m sure that makes her fiance, Buddy Murphy, really proud.. but that’s none of my business. I just think it’s outdated and unnecessary. – Alexa asks EC3 where he’s going, Raw or SmackDown and before he gets to answer, Nia Jax interupts and says no one cares to which Dean Ambrose interupts and goes on to say that Nia needs to leave him alone and that he knows she has a crush on him, he says he can’t help it and that women have always struggled resisting his RAW sexual magnetism. Renee sold it well too. Then he asks who EC3 is and when he goes to speak, Ambrose knocks the microphone out of his hand and says he’s taking over the interview with some rapid fire questions, he doesn’t allow EC3 to answer any of his hard hitting questions like “Are you a Creed fan?” because he looks like Creed fan or “Where are EC1 & 2?” which I think we all want to know.. but when he asks him why he doesn’t go backstage and start dancing around like a Chip N Dales dancer instead of getting in the ring? EC3 replied to this one. With his fist to Ambrose’s mouth and a persuit to the ring for the next match.
EC3 vs Dean Ambrose
It was an okay little match. Showed a little snippet of EC3, EC3 won via a Jacknife Cover. Pointless 2 minute match really.
Mojo Rawley thing
Mojo was verbally assaulting a mirror again. No context. No comments. No idea.
Braun Strowman & Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin & Drew McIntyre
What a weird match. It was okay, it held my attention and showed off some cool stuff, but as an ending to what has been a pretty okay Raw? Not a strong move. Braun got DQ’d for not getting out of the ring after 5 seconds, then Drew McIntyre Claymore Kicked him and then he and Corbin went to chokeslam Angle on the steps, but Braun saved him and Chokeslammed them both on the steps to end RAW with a little cuddle from Angle.
Conclusion
3.5/10đŸŒŸ
This was a lot of hits and misses for me. On one hand you’ve got the same tag match that happened last week on SmackDown even featuring one of the same teams, only without the elimination element, you have Balor vs Rush that was a bit rushed (ha.) and should have been treated better, Road Dogg and Jeff Jarrett doing a cringe inducing karaoke night, no Universal Champion again, EC3 debuting in a 2 minute match and winning via a roll-up and Mojo Rawley talking to a mirror and telling it off for being a bad mirror and making him not show up on TV.. come to think of it he may be talking to himself, but either way it’s just silly without any context or action behind it. Also where is Bray Wyatt? I really miss him. Oh and that weak finish topped off the sundae with a rather bland and tasteless cherry. On the other hand you have Dean Ambrose’s Interview and Elias burying Brian James A.K.A. Road Dogg like the savage that he is.
Also, where was Seth Rollins? I know he’s hurt and can’t compete but I thought he was going to be there to talk and set up Mania. Weird.
Performance of the Night: Dean Ambrose talking. It was hilarious.
Honourable mention: Elias outing Road Dogg as a terrible producer. Because he really is. The Living Truth was on point again, cutting like a knife with his razor-sharp wit. It had me in stitches. I rewound it and watched it like 3 times.
Annoyance of the Night: virtually everything had a little niggle for me. I feel like we didn’t see anything truly amazing this week, no matches blew me away and certainly none of them went on long enough to really amaze anyone too much.
