Live from Sioux Falls, tonight’s opener is Roman Reigns coming out and talking about Bobby Lashley and says he’s embarrassed to have lost to the Revival. Dolph and Drew came out and called him out on his loss and for coming out and saving Rollins last week. They beat down Reigns but Rollins makes the save and Ziggler and Drew left the ring.. but without the IC title. Which just looks great! You know, a champion leaving ringside WITHOUT his title. Makes it look like the title is highly coveted. Great booking.
We then learn that Reigns is working double tonight as he is gonna team up with his pal, Seth Rollins, but ALSO he has a rematch with The Revival with Robert Lashley. Two Tag Matches featuring the same guy in the same night. Oh I can barely contain my excitement..
WOKEN Matt Hardy vs Curtis Axel w/Bo
The WOKEN one was all on his lonesome this evening as Bray Wyatt was unfortunately involved in a head on collision car accident over the weekend and is at home nursing the multiple injuries sustained, which I’m assuming is why JoJo is also not on RAW, the SmackDown Announcer is. I wish them all the best for a speedy recovery. Matt and Curtis actually had a really good match this week. It was much longer than that 60 second thing they had last week. Axel picked up the win, with a little help from his boy, Bo.
Backstage
Roman and Seth are backstage talking, we learn that Rollins is facing Ziggler in a 30 Minute Iron Man Match for the IC Title at Extreme Rules! Which is actually a match we can genuinely get excited about. Reigns says he doesn’t even have a match for the PPV yet and is all sombre about it. Then Robbie Lashley came in and told Roman he’s got big brass balls for calling him an egomaniac and that was pretty much it. Lashley just popped by to comment on Roman Reigns’ testicles. Brilliant.
Backstage
Next was the mandatory counselling session. Who shows up whilst Bayley is waiting in the waiting room?…. yup. That’s right. You guessed it! GANGREL! Obviously it wasn’t Gangrel.
It was Sasha Banks. Apparently Kurt Angle told her she had to attend too otherwise she’d be fired. So they have a bit of a squabble and then everyone’s favourite therapist shows up and they have a weird ink blot type test together. I don’t know about you but I’ve never felt so exhilarated in my life! After months of build up, last week it finally erupted and the two ladies had a brutal showing last week with Bayley attacking Banks and now this week they had an absolutely thunderous session in what can only be described as platonic couples therapy. Totally the right way to take this.
This isn’t just disappointing, it’s just downright annoying now. I, along with almost ALL of the fans, just want to see these two tear each other apart get their feud underway without any cheesy, badly acted nonsense. These women don’t need a buffer. They don’t need to be doing their counselling with the bloke who had Kane and Daniel Bryan cuddle. They just need a match, that would destroy the friendship and move this feud along in a flaming fashion and that keeps the momentum going for Extreme Rules in their Cage Match or their Hair vs Hair or their Falls Count Anywhere or whatever match they’re gonna have. They didn’t need Dr Cuddles McGee when the two of them put on match of the fricking year with their Iron Man Match at NXT Takeover: Respect did they? Just give these girls a chance to go Hell for leather at eachother, WWE, and you have got yourself the rivalry of the Summer, possibly even rivalry of the year!
Titus Worldwide vs AOP
The back and forth wasn’t really there. AOP had the upper hand in power here. Apollo got whooped pretty good here. As did Titus. Lovely Biel Throw from Rezar in this match as well as a beautiful Tilt-A-Whirl Sideslam from Akam too. Last Chapter finished it off, which is a rubbish finisher if you ask me. It was an okay match, just a bit of an elongated Tag Team Squash Match really.
Dolph and McIntyre vs Rollins and Reigns
This match was great! So many knockout worthy shots. Including a superkick that turned McIntyre’s lights out, a mid air uppercut to Ziggler when he was horizontal, a Fameasser reversed into a Buckle Bomb and more! The match ended when Rollins was making his way to a tag to Reigns and then The Revival came out to attack Roman Reigns so the Ref called for a DQ, but The Revival continued to beat down Reigns and Rollins. They hit a beautiful Shatter Machine on Reigns and leave looking like exactly as they’ve always claimed to – Top Guys!
Backstage
Then KO went to Kurt Angle and asked him to send Strowman to therapy for what he did to his car last week. Kurt then responded by giving KO a match with Strowman later tonight. Much to Owens’ dismay. This was a little weird as KO isn’t looking like a heel right now. I actually empathise with him AND he had a great point. Something I thought of last week. Why the hell is Bayley going to therapy when Strowman, who is pulling stages down, flipping production trucks and turning cars over whenever he wants, isn’t? Ludicrous. PLUS Angle told Kevin “On RAW we settle things in the ring!” THEN WHY ARE SASHA AND BAYLEY IN THERAPY, KURT? HUH!?
Promo
Next there was a cool promo with Stephanie McMahon’s Personally Appointed Constable of RAW, Baron Corbin and Finn Balor. Corbin talks about how he’s there to make Angle a better GM and the superstars better too. He said he needs an apology from Balor for hitting him last week. Balor came out and made some jokes about Corbin’s clothes and his hair. Which was pretty funny, but I personally think Fin sucks on the mic. Love him jn ring, but he talks with a pause after almost every word. Anyway, Corbin demands respect and Balor says he lost all respect from everyone when he became Steph McMahon’s stooge. They have a little scuffle and Balor comes out on top. Nice little promo. Definitely cool that Balor and Corbin have a story to work through too.
Backstage
Elias is back after a week’s absence and Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan are with him, he plays music as the girls proceed to push a bin full of mops and brooms over, then Logan gives Morgan a piggy back ride.. Yup. That was a whole segment. – This gimmick for the Riott Squad is getting weirder and weirder every week. No Ruby though.
Ember Moon vs Liv Morgan w/ Sarah Logan
It was here that it was announced Ruby Riott is injured and won’t be here this week. This match was awesome. Ember and Morgan have great chemistry and the finish was spectacular! One of the best sells on an Eclipse I’ve ever seen! Big thumbs up from this guy.
Another therapy session segment
Apparently they’ve been there for hours at this point. They play some kind of weird honesty game where they pretend to be eachother. This was pretty good though, as they both do hilarious impressions of eachother, begin bickering again but this only serves to enrage the therapist who then shouts at them both. A “to be continued” graphic was on the screen as it paused. Which again was really cheesy but funny.
The Revival vs Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley
This match was a great. Not in the conventional sense. But as a way of telling the story. I stand corrected on my scepticism revolving around the two Tag Matches involving Reigns. Both actually turned out to be really decent. But for totally different reasons. The match centred around The Revival working on Reigns’ ribs, as they hurt them earlier in the evening with the Shatter Machine. Roman continued to get his ass whooped, yet he refused to tag in Lashley. So, when the Revival attacked him 2 on 1 again, so much so that they get DQ’d, Lashley just walked away and left him to take another Shatter Machine. The crowd booed, Lashley just threw his arms up and took a hike, Roman looked to be harbouring some serious fury towards old Bob, man I just I loved it. I thought it gave some real flesh to the story between these two men and I’m actually excited about where it could lead.
Backstage
Following immediately from the last match, Reigns goes to Kurt Angle and demands a match, but before he can finish, Kurt says Lashley beat him to it and the match is already made. Lashley and Reigns are going 1 on 1 at Extreme Rules.
Mojo Rawley vs No Way José
Mojo has a new entrance theme and it’s a banger! He’s on the Mic again and says José isn’t getting a rematch. He said he’s a joke and that all he does is dance. Rawley then attacks José and his Fiesta Friends. Literally throws one of them over the steps like The Hulk! José gets out of the ring and attacks Mojo, however Mojo JoJo got the upper hand in this fray as he only goes and hits José with a One Handed Spinebuster on the side of the bloody ring! It was mental!
Promo package
Nice little package next showing Rousey kicking everybody’s ass 2 weeks ago. Thus reminding us all that she is 100% badass. Then a little interview with Renee from WWE.com where Rousey said she’s only suspended from Raw, not Extreme Rules, so she’s got a front row ticket.
Nia Jax vs Mickie James w/ Alexa Bliss
Alexa and Mickie are out first, then Nia comes out with mic and announced their WWE Women’s Title match at Extreme Rules will be… an Extreme Rules match at.. well.. Extreme Rules. When we all know that WWE’s version of Extreme Rules is just a No Holds Barred match with another name. Nattie then came out to be in Nia’s corner. The match is what you’d expect from Mickie, very sloppy and pretty slow. But she worked on Nia’s leg and hit her with some pretty gnarly looking shots! However most of the wince inducing stuff was down to Nia’s selling. Nia hit a HUGE Sit-Out Powerbomb and then Samoan Drop to finish the match. Was okay. Nothing to write home about.
Backstage
Owens is getting tips from Jinder with the new “Shanty” thing he’s doing and trying to feel calm about his match with Strowman later. I thought this was pretty funny. He then says he will show the world how to slay a Monster. Still coming off as the Babyface in this for me.
Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens
KO came out to a pop and Braun actually came out to way more silence than usual, which tells me the fans are confused whose the Face and who is the Heel too. They didn’t even “RRRROOOOAAAAAARR” with him during his entrance! KO literally runs away after getting pushed over and is counted out, which was great because it sort of put him back in the realms of a cowardly heel, but he was FORCED into this Match by a biased GM so.. however Owens’ great escape was hindered by him losing his car keys, then Strowman runs out after him after the 10 count. Owens looks for a hiding place, and decides a public port-a-loo would do. So Owens hides in this port-a-loo and Strowman figures it out pretty sharpish, he then duct tapes the door all the way around, picks it up by ropes and drags it backstage, over all the wires and bashing lighting rigs out of the way, knocking everything over like a big clumsy Rottweiler. He gets him onto the stage and starts pushing the port-a-loo to the edge of it, he then takes a stroll backwards and then runs into it, knocking it to the ground like a raging Bull! He even got a “Holy S#!T” chant from the audience. Owens rolled out covered in what the crowd were chanting about. It was a good time. Still not sure Owens is the obvious Heel here. But if he was in that port-a-loo when it fell and it wasn’t some camera trickery, then the crowd were quite right in their conclusion.
Conclusion
This week felt a little underwhelming for the most part. Nothing like last week which was absolutely excellent. A lot of it just felt like filler, which is a shame given that last week was the best viewership Raw has had during the final hour in over 12 months! I did enjoy the matches, most of them anyway, so that was something, but in terms of quality overall, it was lacklustre at best.
5/10🌟
Thanks for reading this and taking the time to check it out. Please feel free to discuss and share this on your social media or comment below letting me know your thoughts. Follow @Kayfabetoday on Twitter and help keep Wrestling Journalism. Follow me on my personal page @90percentwater too if you fancy it.
Peace, love and good vibes as always, guys and gals. Until next week!
