Opener – we opened this week with a tribute and a bell toll for the late George HW Bush, who passed away this weekend.
After this, we began the failed attempt at recovery from the atrocity that was last week’s episode.
Nia Jax & Tamina vs Natalya & Ronda Rousey
Opener this week straight into a Rousey match, “nothing at all wrong with that” I thought. But before anything could happen, The Riott Squad came out and distracted Nattie so Jax could get the upper hand on her. The Squad continued their attack on Neidhart, they got a table and executed a really cool Superkick into a Double Powerbomb through the table. Jax and Snuka dropped Rousey with a couple of hits and a Leg Drop and the Heels just walked away. This went down as a ‘No Contest’ because the match never officially started. This was actually okay for an opener, not what I expected but an angry Ronda Rousey is always entertainment.
Backstage
Ronda was tending to Nattie and got her some help, Rousey looked so angry that you could almost see steam coming out of her ears.
Promo
Alexa Bliss, who now runs the RAW Women’s Division as of last week, who also had that “open forum” for Bayley and Sasha Banks last week and it bombed oh so hard and so you’d think after the “This is your life” segment for Bayley a few years back (the worst rated segment in RAW history) and last week’s cyanide capsule of a segment including Alexa and Bayley again that they’d never even consider doing another one of those because they clearly, clearly don’t work.. but, in true Vince McMahon fashion, they had her set up yet another “open forum” for Bayley and Sasha. It was just as terrible as last week, the worst part is that it was so close to the beginning of the show that we might actually see an even bigger drop in ratings, which would be catastrophic in terms of their brand and the new billion dollar TV deals they struck just a few months ago. Don’t get me wrong, the ladies did the best with what they’d been dealt and the shoot style snipes between Sasha and Alexa are awesome and legitimately funny and the fact there’s real beef there too just adds to that fire, but it’s not to build another feud between the Boss and the Goddess, so the rest of it is all a big ball of cringe-worthy-segment-wasting nonsense if you ask me. Bayley and Sasha tease the Women’s Tag Titles again which I feel we should already have because most Women’s matches are tag team matches in WWE anyway and Tag Titles would bring some true legitimacy to the Women’s Tag Division, instead of making it feel like you cant be bothered to build more stories in the Women’s Division so you just bundle them together in tag matches every week.. Anyway, before much else occurred, Dana Brooke, Alicia Fox and Mickie James ran out, exactly like last week, to attack Bayley and Sasha, but Bliss made a Tag Team match instead.. but obviously left Dana out of the match because young up-and-comer, Mickie James, seriously needs more exposure. Which makes about as much sense as trying to eat water with a knife and fork.
Boss & Hug vs Mickie James & Foxy w/ Dana Brooke
The match was actually alright, a bit predictable but all in all a decent match. Alexa Bliss applauded The Boss and Hug Connection after their win. Which was weird.
Backstage
Ronda Rousey finds Alexa Bliss and shouts at her about what happened to Nattie. Bliss looked terrified which was pretty funny. She told Ronda she suspended The Riott Squad for the week and will address their actions next week, but Rousey said she will get Tamina and Nia tonight and she will find her own tag partner. Bliss is coming across like a Babyface right now. It’s genuinely unnerving.
Backstage
Gable and Roode found Corbin and said they want another shot at AOP for the titles because they got screwed last week by Drake Maverick and his urine. Naturally Roode also wanted to beat up Drake Maverick for weeing on his lovely silky sparkly dressing gown. So Corbin said they can have another shot at titles, but only if Roode can beat Drake Maverick tonight 1 on 1, with Gable and AOP banned from Ringside. This storyline straight up sucks and Drake Maverick needs to find the twit that suggested this and piss on their desk in protest in my opinion. I known this is all very “Rockstar Spud” like, but Drake Maverick was a character I genuinely liked until all of this incontinence business that has seen him get booked like a wuss.
The Revival vs Lucha House Party
This was yet another burial of potentially the best and one of the most purebred tag team the WWE has on their roster. The Revival need to leave WWE at this stage. They’re a joke to the WWE. They’d kill it in ROH, may be add Silas Young to their mix and you’ve got a tough as nails Stable right there.. but I digress.. Lucha House Rules applied at the start and this turned it into a 3 on 1 against Dawson as he wanted a one on one match. I’m so confused about the Lucha lads, these Lucha House Rules are super unfair and make them come across like A, they can’t get the job done in a fair match and B, like they’re basically turning Heel.
Drew McIntyre Appreciation Ceremony
“Yes. That’s exactly what I just wrote..” I tell myself as I typed that header. Why does Drew need this kind of parade? Drop it and let him go hell for leather at the roster. Let him be the animal he naturally is because this kind of celebratory cermonial trash is what destroyed his momentum the first time around, Vince. Seriously.
Baron Corbin was in the ring and talked about Drew McIntyre being a saving grace for him. Drew came out and received the “Gold Medal of Excellence” from Corbin. Drew declined it and said he doesn’t want praise, he does what he does because he needs to get “his” roster into shape. I liked the attitude coming from McIntyre he staked claim over RAW and said he’s embarrassed by the amount of under-achievers on his roster playing in their phones backstage instead of making things happen for themselves. He was then interrupted by Ziggler who was confused because he and Drew had a deal, but Drew savagely buried Ziggler by saying this was the first time he’s been relevant in 10 years and even then it was in Drew’s shadow, he also said that he used him to get to his prominent position, he told Ziggler to get out of his ring because the arrangement is over, I think we have a Babyface Ziggler again because he attacked Drew and hit him with a Zig Zag. So Corbin set up a one on one between them for an immediate start.
Drew McIntyre vs Dolph Ziggler
Drew and Dolph have dissolved their team and have gone their separate ways that lead them straight to one another. Drew has got a really strong Heel persona and I can see him leading the place as Universal Champion and I’m genuinely excited for when that happens. Drew got a microphone and said he’s going easy on Dolph, so he’s going to pretend he’s Finn Balor so he can destroy him. Then Balor comes out to watch and ends up eventually hitting McIntyre with a Shotgun Dropkick whilst the Ref was distracted and this allowed Dolph to hit McIntyre with a Sweet Chin Mu-Zig for a 3 count. I wouldn’t have done it quite like this, but having Ziggler dish out McIntyre’s first pinfall loss since his main roster return was a really nice fine to lead into something else.
Backstage
Drew tells Charlie Carusso that Ziggler is no longer consodered an ally, he is now an enemy and that Ziggler knows better than anyone what that means. Drew says Ziggs is a marked man. Nicely delivered. Very cold and calculating.
Promo
Elias was playing a song and said he can’t find Lashley, no matter how hard hes tried. So Lashley finds Elias, does a pose, shows his ass and then ends up being knocked on his ass. Lio Rush had a guitar smashed over his back.. Once again, all thanks to Finn Balor, who caught Rush and delivered him to Elias. This was fine, not how I would have gone, but it was okay. Just needs more oomph.
Backstage
Bobby Roode vs Drake Maverick
Suddenly I’m transported to TNA from 5 years ago. AoP attacked Gable backstage and then Corbin changed the match into a 3 on 2 Handicap. Drake Maverick picked up the Pin after a Super Collider by the AOP.
Promo
Ambrose entered to an Air Raid Siren over his music, he was also wearing a gas mask and had an entourage of gas masked security guards. He cut a really good Heel promo as usual, until Rollins came out and raised Hell. Ambrose ended up nailing Dirty Deeds and then again hit Dirty Deeds. Renee remained silent again. Ambrose totally rejected a kid’s high 5 as he was on his way out too, it was hilarious. Graves had another pop at Renee after for not saying anything, she responded by saying he has no right to know what happens behind closed doors between a husband and wife, she hit him with a stone cold “how dare you!”. Renee is a Heel in disguise! Read it here first!
Rhyno vs Heath Slater
I don’t know what to really say here. We found out earlier that this is a “Loser Leaves Raw” match because Corbin ‘crunched the numbers’ and discovered only one can have a place on RAW. Rhyno loses really fast, which makes me think he may be hurt, but yeah! Rhyno’s gone from WWE for the time being it seems. I hope he has a good time in the PC training younger talents or focussing on his politics or whatever he does. I also hope this means that Slater will get a much overdue push in the Mid-card! But unfortunately Corbin congratulates him by giving Slater his new uniform for his new job. A referee’s uniform.
Finn Balor vs Jinder Mahal w Sunil Singh and Samir Singh
This match was fine, sure, but why Apollo Crews showed up and beat up Sunil and Samir Singh I don’t know. Balor got the win off of this distraction though. Random, but not horrible. After the match, Balor had an interview in where he got mauled by a seething Drew McIntyre. Just savage.
Lars Sullivan promo
The Freak cometh. He said he hasn’t chosen where to go yet but my bet is Raw, I really want Strowman vs Sullivan. But SmackDown would be better for him in terms of talent pool in my in my opinion.
Ronda Rousey & Ember Moon vs Nia Jax & Tamina
This match wasn’t bad but still wasn’t exactly great. It all ended with an Eclipse into an Armbar to tap out Tamina and Nia Jax walked off after. Meh. Not much to say on this.
Conclusion
3/10 🌟
Being a fan of the company for almost 20 years, I always try to give them the benefit of the doubt, like last week’s tour de farce of a show being the end of the last minute changes they could make after Roman Reigns’ heart breaking revelation of his Cancer, but this week being equally as bad if not worse? As a critic, I can’t ignore that. This week was a trainwreck. This was poorly executed, badly timed in terms of segments and when they aired and a little boring in my opinion.
Performance of the Night: Drew McIntyre for outperforming everyone in terms of character and in ring work this week. Absolutely love this new Drew. He’s gonna be the man in no time.
Annoyance of the Night: Almost everything about it just screams “we don’t care”. Which, as a fan, sucks. I’m under no illusion that you can make everyone happy all the time, but with the amount of viewers that they’ve lost in the last 12 months I’d expect them to really pull out all the stops to turn it around. But this product is not anything I want to see right now and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Thank you all so much for stopping by again if you’re a regular reader and if you’re not then thank you for taking the time out to have a little gander, I appreciate every single one of you, please feel free to comment, like and share and make sure to Too Sweet that follow button on the Twitter machine @KayfabeToday. Peace and love to one and all! ✌🏻💚
– CB
