ATTENTION!! So Raw has been so bad lately that I’ve decided to restructure the scoring system I designed for my reviews to rate each segment individually from now on, then give it a total at the end. Because some segments and matches are absolute fire and some are absolute excrement. So this seems fairer and to be honest, makes my job a little easier. All segments will be marked out of 5 stars, with one and only one segment being awarded 6/5 stars if it should warrant it. Then at the end I will tally up the scores to see what could have been and what we got.
Opener
Live from good old London, Raw kicks off with Miz TV and although he got a decent reaction, the company have a lot to answer for this week.
Miz hyped his match this Sunday against Shane McMahon in a steel cage. That will be a good match, by WWE standard at least. He brings out Roman Reigns and he actually got booed.. everyone sang “oh, Walk With Elias!” Roman just buries Elias and says he’s nothing more than a karaoke singer and that Elias hasn’t done anything since arriving in WWE. Roman was booed heavily but he ate it up. Miz suggested a buddy cop movie and Roman said he will punch him in the face if he doesn’t start acting like “the new Miz” so Miz gets shown his chair-wielding antics from last week and the crowd pops for it. Miz then cut a flawless vengeful Babyface promo on Shane. Silver Spoons meeting steel cage and stuff. It was awesome.
Shane McMahon comes out to say Miz TV is over now and Lashley & Elias attack Reigns & Miz. Then you will never in a million years guess what Shane did next. I was absolutely gobsmacked! He… He made a tag match between the 4 guys for right now!! That is some next level, unique booking that absolutely no one complains about every single effing week. Yay!
2.5/5 🌟 would have been 5/5 if it had ended with Miz’s promo.
The Miz & Roman Reigns vs Bobby Lashley & Elias
Elias is so over in the UK. We love him. He can do no wrong! He unearthed a new move too! Walk The Ropes into a Meteora! It was beautiful! It suits him so well too! The match had a really, really good flow and managed to get the crowd behind them and just as it looked like it was going to be a banger, Shane got involved and got Elias & Lashley disqualified.. What. A. Surprise. They beat down the Babyfaces, then the Babyfaces get the upper hand, yada yada yada. You know the rest. Reigns & Miz stand tall.
Rating: 1/5 🌟 that one is for Elias & Elias only.
Video Package for Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles for the Universal Championship
It spanned their careers and showed TNA and ROH footage. It was really cool actually. It got me really excited for their match. AJ Styles vs Seth Rollins is certainly a dream match and over the WWE Universal Championship just makes it all the more special.
Rating: 5/5 🌟
Braun Strowman backstage
Strowman is asked by Charlie Carusso if he regrets putting Sami in the bin last week, but Strowman says he only regrets that Zayn didn’t end up as a little cube.. so basically Strowman is admitting attempted murder then?… okay. He’s then summoned to Shane McMahon’s office & is met by Shane & Sami Zayn when he arrives. Sami tells Strowman that he is losing his MITB spot to Sami as punishment, but Shane says no. Sami says he wants to earn it by beating Braun in a Falls Count Anywhere match to which Shane says Braun is scheduled to face Drew McIntyre tonight, so Sami replies that Drew can have something else.. Shane likes the idea and makes it official for later. Strowman tells Sami “I’ll eat you alive.”. Sami looks terrified.
Rating 5/5 🌟
Mojo Rawley vs Apollo Crews
Mojo didn’t even get a full entrance, man. Apollo Crews entered whilst Mojo was walking to the ring. Wild Card number 3 of the night. PCW’s favourite in Apollo Crews! Mojo went absolutely mental and squashed Crews in roughly 40 seconds after Crews tweaked his knee off a Handspring. Man, that Wild Card rule is WILD!
Rating: 3/5 🌟 Really nice to see Mojo back, getting pushed with a squash over a credible opponent and his new character is pretty entertaining! Absolutely pointless bring Apollo in for this though.
Alexa Bliss Backstage
Alexa is on the phone to the airline as her bag is lost. She tells them to get it to her as all her gear is in there. But Nikki Cross, who isn’t crazy anymore for some reason, comforts her and takes her place in the Fatal 4 Way between the Raw Women’s MITB participants. Nikki got a nice pop too!’
Rating: 3.5/5 🌟 I love Nikki and I hope her newfound normality has a reason to it.
Contract Signing For Both Women’s Title Matches
Becky Lynch, Lacey Evans & Charlotte Flair are all in the ring to sign, they have some awesome verbal scuffles & Lacey didn’t even stutter when she had to talk and 90% of the building booed her, fair play.
It ended in a fight and Becky 2 Belts got double teamed through a table. The two championships were held up by the challengers.
Rating: 4/5 🌟
Baron Corbin vs Ricochet
Corbin made the Ring Announcer read his accolades out in a true Heel fashion. It was hilarious.
This match was quite competitive to be honest. There was a lot of back and forth! When Ricochet had gone for a Tilt-A-Whirl DDT he was reversed last-minute and hit with the End of Days! It looked awesome. I’m excited for the Ladder match. I’ll be even more excited if Sami Zayn pulls off a win later too! Corbin got a ladder after and climbed to get the briefcase, but Ricochet pushed him off.
Rating 4/5🌟
Rey Mysterio Backstage
He talks Samoa Joe and his verbal assault on Dominic last week. Rey asks what kind of man does that after losing a match, attacking another man’s family? Then Cesaro shows up and says Dominic looks more like Samoa Joe than Rey, he asks if Rey is sure about him being his, so Rey attacks Cesaro and the two brawl for 10 seconds before being broken up.
Rating: 3/5 🌟
Roman Reigns Video Package
Showcasing his Journey from FCW to NXT to WWE and his title wins & such – then the tragic moment he had to announce his Cancer battle journey had to continue and therefore his Pro Wrestling journey had to pause. It then showcased his spine-tingling return & after advertised his match with Elias this Sunday. Lovely build & tribute to The Big Dog!
Rating: 5/5🌟
Dana Brooke vs Nikki Cross vs Natalya vs Naomi
Alexa Bliss is on commentary too. Which is always way too chatty. Hated the chatting, she talked over awesome spots and technically sound holds by Cross. This match however, was frickin’ Badass with a capital “B”! They went all out with their spots, Dana climbed a 15 foot ladder and jumped off if it to the floor onto 3 women & to my utter delight, Nikki Cross hit a Whiplash-style Purge on Natalya and won! She is still crazy & had a moment with Alexa on the Ladder after the match where Bliss got atop the ladder and posed with the briefcase.
Rating: 3/5 🌟 I adored the match, but Alexa rambling and boasting about pointless stuff really killed the immersion levels I could reach. Michael Cole tried to stop it but with Renee, Graves & Bliss all chattering away no one listened. It let the match down in a huge way.
Sami Zayn promo
Backstage 4th Wall promos are a newly returning thing and I love them. Sami cut a Badass promo and said he will find a way to beat Strowman and I hope he’s right!
4/5 🌟 mainly for continuity in the 4th wall promo thing from last week. If you’re a regular reader you know that I love my continuity. But Zayn smashed this too. I love his new character.
Rey Mysterio vs Cesaro
Blimey, this match! This is what all matches should be aiming for! This was creative, unique and mismatch madness that had the fluidity of the world class variety! The spots outside and on the apron near the start of the match were scary and really fun. That’s what the main roster misses most of the time. Fun! Cesaro countered a 619 into a Swing and then went for the “Swiss-19” which then got countered into a Sunset Flip! This match was epic and finished just as great as it began with a 619 and a Frog Splash. Mysterio won. This was outstanding! More of this please!
Rating: 5/5 🌟
Revival 4th Wall Promo
Why anyone would remind us of the weird homo-erotic antics of The Usos as of late I don’t know but ‘Ucey Hot’ was a horrific segment and I hated the most of all the terrible segments last week but they basically reminded us of all of it and The Revival said we would see their embarrassment end as of now!
Rating: 0/5 🌟
Firefly Funhouse
It’s time for the best segment of WWE shows right now! This week.. YOWIE WOWIE! It’s a biggie! I watched it twice! I did not expect it to go this way at all! Ramblin’ Rabbit is back but he has a plaster on his head due to being torn to literal mulch by Mercy The Buzzard last week.. Bray told us that he had a secret this week.. the secret was what he has really been doing this whole time, he says he has a lot of darkness in his head bit this time, he’s learned to harness & control it..It went ominously silent and he stared an emotionless stare down the camera as if peering into my very soul and then opened the door he always comes from to begin Firefly Funhouse.. the lights went dark and red and he saw flashes of Bray in a leather jacket, black vest showing off a badass new chest tattoo, his Hurt & Heal gloves, red and black pinstripe jeans and military boots with his dreads down & a horrifying new mask! He had yellow & red eyes, black paint, and the mask looks human like, but also not at all human like.. it’s just terrifying! Continuity reigns too! As those creepy vignettes we saw after Wrestlemania, they’re all relevant! That’s what was behind the door!
6/5🌟
Seth Rollins Interview
He says he has fought AJ Styles just once, at NWA in a tiny hall years & years ago and it meant everything to him because it was a time his family all saw him and he looked up to AJ Styles so much. So this match on Sunday is almost poetic as it will be AJ looking up to him this time.
Rating: 2.5/5 🌟 Just seemed a little put there for a “oh we haven’t put either AJ Styles or Seth Rollins on the go home show yet”.. so they did that.
Braun Strowman vs Sami Zayn for the MITB Spot in a Falls Count Anywhere match
This match was excellent! Lots of crazy spots, especially when Corbin and McIntyre got involved to help Zayn and got put through steel merch stands and slammed into steel doors and beaten up at various points throughout the arena after Zayn and Strowman fought in the crowd, backstage, Gorilla and the main stage. Corbin and McIntyre appear again and put Strowman through a ladder, he then got hit with a Claymore and Corbin dragged Sami over for the win! Sami Zayn will replace Braun Strowman in the Money In The Bank match this Sunday. Afterwards Corbin threw Zayn to the wolves when he threw him at Strowman who Chokeslammed him through the table, whilst almost knocking Renee Young off the stage with her own chair.
Rating: 4/5 🌟
Conclusion
60.5/95 🌟
Which is exactly a mere 57.475% of the show! Which is only just over half of the show! That is not great, it’s better than last week but that wasn’t exactly a tough feat. My three sons could’ve written a better show and they’re all under 8! This week was much better in terms of continuity, I still think the Wild Card rule is a pile of wank, but hopefully that improves next week. This week saw the birth of Bray Wyatt’s new character, it saw Sami Zayn enter the Money In The Bank and Braun Strowman’s hands kicked off the show entirely! Although he did appear injured and had a heavy band on his bicep so that may be why. We also saw Cesaro vs Rey Mysterio which originally got the first ever 6/5 🌟 from me.. But Bray Wyatt stole it after his incredible rebirth! Ricochet was great as usual and Baron Corbin’s winning streak extends another week! If you are a fan of this weekly review then you know I like Baron Corbin a lot. Bit weird that we saw no physical build from Rollins and Styles but that actually worked for me overall. It doesn’t need it, whereas others on the card do. The Contract Signing was pretty good, entertaining definitely. I think Becky will retain her Raw Women’s Title and lose het SmackDown Women’s Title. Especially now she’s gone public with her relationship with Seth Rollins, congrats to them both too (totally called it!), and we know how much they like keeping couples together! Well.. unless you’re Nikki Cross & Killian Dain anyway.
Superstar of the Night
Bray Wyatt for the second week in a row! He’s the most exciting & entertaining thing on WWE TV right now!
