The Paul Heyman era of Raw is upon us. Let’s see what the new Executive Director has up his sleeve to change this slump that WWE have gotten themselves into.
Only 60 seconds in and a flash on my screen spoiled The Street Profits being backstage. Blinked and you’d have missed it, but they were there on my screen. So I’m guessing that was a botch. 20 seconds in. Great stuff.
Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley
Bore-n Strowman vs Bore-bby Lashley in a Falls Count Anywhere match is how we open the show this week. Michael Cole reminds us that a pin/submission can occur anywhere. Parking lots, The streets or even a grassy knoll.
This match went into the crowd, they were throwing so much weight around, it was like two Bisons locking horns! When Lashley got speared through the wall tron, many explosion happens and even Corey Graves said “holy shit” very, very clearly. It was pretty fricking cool! The crowd went crazy for it too! Only 10 mins in and Raw already got “this is awesome!” chants. EMTs arrived to help them up and get them away safely. Bit too much time spent on clearing everything away and getting them taken away, providing this was worked and didn’t legitimately occur. The crowd were counting to 10 over and over. This went from “this is awesome!” to people getting annoyed pretty quickly.
3.5/5🌟
We came back from a break and they were STILL there clearing away Strowman and Lashley’s mess. A big “Thank you, Heyman!” chant rang out. Seems to me like this could very well have recalibrated their product. They were showing this for a whole 10 minutes again. This whole segment of the show was still about that spot. Renee and Corey looked really worried. Cole used his quiet and concerned voice. Apparently Braun and Bobby are legitimately hurt.
Viking Raiders vs The New Day
So excited for this! Been after this match for years now! Big E & Xavier Woods are representing New Day for this match, Erik & Ivar on the Viking frontier.
Would you believe it, just as this got good, Samoa Joe appeared and attacked Woods. Causing a DQ.
Back from the break and what do you know! A 6 Man Tag! WWE haven’t done one of those in like.. 5 or 6, maybe even 7 seconds! I was starting to think I’d never see one again!
Viking Raiders & Samoa Joe vs The New Day
This was surprisingly decent given the absolute over-use of the tired old rag that is the weekly 6 Man Tag match. I liked this. It had some really sweet moments, like Suicide Dives and strong slams, but it could have been better. Not that it wasn’t good though. The icing on the cake for me was when Samoa Joe won for his team by choking out the WWE Champion. He’s a beast.
3.5/5 🌟
Drake Maverick is walking backstage with his wife, who is blindfolded & has noise-canceling headphones on. When she takes them off she says “you brought me to RAW for our Homeymoon!?”, Maverick says no, it’s just a stop. He introduces her to Dana Brooke, cuts Dana off mid sentence and assures his wife that it won’t be long. She says he has to choose the title or her. Which is NOT how a marriage or a team works! That’s an ultimatum, not a compromise. Not support for his work/dreams and accomplishments. Shes all about herself at this stage! I say leave her, Spud. But.. he chooses her. Truth is behind them, he says he’s a sucker for Romance.
3.5/5 🌟
The Club backstage
Anderson bets Gallows his Hot Asian Wife that Styles can’t beat Ricochet for the US Title. So he laughs and says he will remember that when he does win. Nice to see them all back together again.
2.5/5 🌟
Cesaro vs No Way Jose
As soon as No Way Jose is in a match, I know it’s either going to be a false start or a squash. Despite the dude being a fantastic athlete, with a great gimmick & a really cool moveset. He’s a robber. I knew he would be the second he was called up from NXT (where he was NOT a jobber.) Drake Maverick was at ringside with his wife, Truth showed up to taunt him, so the 24/7 Title challengers all ran out to get Truth, which lead to Cesaro hitting a Neutraliser on Jose on the outside. Which will stay that way, with no retaliation from Cesaro, because WWE has no clue on how to book flamboyancy, which is the main reason I am terrified for Velveteen Dream’s “call-up”
1/5🌟
Charlie Carruso backstage with the Street Profits
They had a decent intro promo. It made me laugh. They would inject some life back into the tag division!
3/5 🌟
Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre promo
Shane and Drew show footage of Roman getting beaten up by Shane McMahon. Then say Undertaker has faced Shane before, he may have shocked them last week, but he will put him and the Big Dog into a grave at Extreme Rules – Drew calls himself a hybrid of every generation and says he doesn’t give a damn about The Undertaker, he calls him out and says he wants to look him in his eyes to tell him he isn’t afraid of him. We hear lightning rumbles of thunder and lightning and the lights go out, lightning strikes the ring posts and the gong sounds.. and I have to say, they looked pretty spooked. Especially Shane. It was pretty funny to be honest.
Undertaker took his usual 5,627,988 years to get to the ring, by the time he got there, Shane and and Drew had legged it over the barricade and watched from afar. After another millennia or two, Undertaker stared at the two men for another thousand years whilst the crowd chanted his name. Then he finally talks, he said Reigns never asked for his help, but he said if they need answers as for “why”, he will remind them of who he is. He says he’s been the Reaper of Wayward Souls for a long time and ges come to get theirs. He says he used to respect Shane a little, he brought it to him in their Hell in a Cell match, Undertaker continues to say that Shane has fallen victim to his ego and greed. He tells then that they will be nothing but two more lost souls surrounded by the “stench of death” for all eternity and they will never “Rest In Peace”. He does the throat cut thing, sticks his tongue out and then his music hits again.
4/5 🌟 This was a little drawn out, but I feel like that potentially added to the whole thing. Making it feel more important, kind of. I think I actually really liked it. Not just as a nostalgia piece, because that’s wearing quite thin for me now, but just as a nice, new direction to their narrative. Taker wasnt advertised. He wasnt announced. He just showed up. That’s how you do it!
Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans backstage
Lacey is looking in the mirror, watching herself touch her hat whilst Baron Corbin cuts a 4th wall style promo in a Ferris Bueller type fashion. He says we all know how far Rollins will go for the title and that an extreme rules match is just perfect. He then asks if Becky is even worth all of this. Lacey interjects & says Becky has started a movement, but it’s not enough. Rollins will realise soon enough that he should never have put all his faith into “The Man”.
1/5🌟 A maybe, kinda, sorta necessary short promo to add to this story, but it wasnt exactly needed. Nothing particularly wrong with it, just wasn’t exactly edge-of-your-seat stuff, it was weirdly placed because after this whole bit we went back to the arena where The Undertaker was walking back STILL, he put his hand up like he does, then we went to break and when we came back, Baron Corbin, Lacey Evans and Natalya were all in the ring already for the next match! Undertaker got 5 or so minutes just for his bloody entrance, but the no.1 Contenders for the top titles on Raw don’t even get televised entrances!? Bad. Badly timed. Bad choice. Just bad.
Natalya vs Lacey Evans w/ Baron Corbin
The match was 2 or 3 minutes. Corbin swept out Nattie’s leg and tripped her, she got a Woman’s Right and that was that.
1.5/5🌟 the 1.5 is for Baron Corbin being the biggest prick in WWE, I love him & think he is among the best characters on WWE at the moment. The lack thereafter is due to the match being trash and pointless. A 5-8 minute match with a good back & forth and THEN the cheat victory would have benefited everyone in this match so much better.
Charlie Carruso backstage with Ricochet
He says he would beat AJ next time. The Good Brothers come up and say hes got balls, but now he needs to get put in his place. Ricochet offers them a title match, but they laugh and say he’s in trouble with someone else. Not them.
3/5🌟 Nothing wrong with utilising Anderson, Gallows, Ricochet & Styles in a storyline together. It’s intriguing for sure.
Gallows & Anderson backstage
With Styles, they stir the pot and tell him that Ricochet thinks he could beat him easily and wants to defend his title against him. AJ wanted to go talk with Ricochet, but Anderson got in his face and says that despite AJ ragging on them for ‘losing their edge’, he’s sure lost his edge too. He says the AJ in Japan would have accepted the title challenge and slapped Ricochet across his face. So AJ went to find him and did just that. But Ricochet slapped him back! It was awesome!
4/5 🌟 continuity!!! Yay!!
Elias vs The Miz 2 Out Of 3 Falls
Miz got the first fall in about 4 seconds, Elias got the second after about 3 minutes, then Miz got the submission victory after another 5 minutes or so. It was okay. Nothing remarkable.
1/5🌟 I just don’t understand what the hell happened with Elias. He was so organically over with the fans, then they turned him Heel and it didn’t work for a while, but combine it with the losing streak and being jobbed out to people, he’s being wasted. Absolutely wasted. It’s so annoying! People liked him and tuned in to see him, he hyped a crowd up and they had fun with him, but apparently that can’t be allowed. We aren’t supposed to like what we want to like, we have to like what we are told to like in Vince’s mind. Let just hope Bischoff changes everything for Elias in the 2nd half of 2019.
Backstage
Charlie is talking to Rollins and Becky and they put on a really weird, kind of funny but mainly just really, really weird skit. They were like talking for each other and asking each other whether they’d lose the other’s title for them. Rollins says that maybe he just got lucky last week & Becky says “damn right you got lucky!” & she.. well, she tried to pinch his willy. He stopped her, laughed awkwardly and hugged her instead. It made me laugh. Then Maria Kanellis showed up with Mike Kanellis! (I love these two) She challenged them both to a Mixed Tag Match right now. She called her own husband her “bitch”, which was weird. I was thinking at this point that if they beat them in a few minutes I will be so disappointed. But…
Maria & Mike Kanellis vs Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins
WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS!?!?!? So.. Mike gets his ass whipped, Rollins forces a tag to Maria, Becky goes after her but Maria gets off the side of the ring and gets a microphone. She cursed out Mike, she said she should have known he couldn’t wipe the floor with Rollins because he can’t even wipe the floor at home! Rollins’ face was hysterical. Becky comes after her, but she screams that she’s pregnant! Becky backs up slowly and gets in the ring, then Mike asks Maria how she could be pregnant, Maria says she doesn’t know, because he certainly isn’t man enough to get her pregnant! Then Mike gets locked in the Dis-Arm-Her (Him?) and taps. So.. this was weird and new and totally out of the blue! I didn’t see this coming and if you claim you did, then I’m going to call you a liar because that’s impossible! Take into consideration that Mike and Maria have just signed 5 more years with WWE after being treated poorly, now they are about to break up on screen apparently and Mike gets destroyed and loses to Becky Lynch. Mike Bennet. MIKE FRICKING BENNET!? This is why I hate WWE creative some times.
Mike gets a verbal beating from Maria.. calling him worthless, she even says she will ask Becky to impregnate her next time.
I. Am. So. Confused.
3/5 🌟 I think I am leaning more towards liking this than hating it.. at least Mike and Maria have something to do now, but this is NOT how to use Mike and Maria in my opinion. Really not sure what to say though. This was so weird.
Charlie Carusso Backstage
Charlie is about as lost for words as I am.. but then the NEW Executive Director of Monday Night Raw, Paul Heyman, shows up and gets a huge pop! He was talking about Brock Lesnar, nothing about his new job. Then the Street Profits show up and start asking about Lesnar and messing up Heyman’s suit. Paul leaves and then Street Profits scream for him to come back, but he doesn’t. They’re hilarious.
3/5 🌟
A Moment of Bliss
This whole Alexa Bliss/Nikki Cross story has been really great. It’s one of the only storylines that have kept continuity this year! Nikki was Alexa’s guest.
Alexa congratulates her “best friend”, Nikki, on beating the SDLive Women’s Champion, Bayley, winning Alexa a rematch for the Women’s Championship. Now.. Nikki says thank you and says Bliss has been her only friend since arriving on Raw. She says none of this would be possible without the WWE Universe or Alexa. She says she will always be grateful for that, Alexa says thank you but says its Nikki’s moment. Carmella comes out and says Nikki deserves the title match, Alexa says Carmella is trying to break them up, but Mella says otherwise. Shs says shes trying to show Nikki the truth, Alexa is playing her, what did Alexa give Nikki in return for handing before the title match? Alexa says Carmella isn’t fabulous anymore, shes just a sidekick for R Truth. She then spelled out ‘Sidekick’ to the tune of Mella’s them, that must’ve taken some practice, she didn’t mess it up! Props!
Anyway, Mella challenged Bliss to a match and beat her in mere seconds. Alexa blamed Cross due to her not helping when she was being pinned.
3/5 🌟 I liked the direction, it was less of a reveal to the scheme than I’d hoped, but it was cool. Because I was all for these two as a team, but Alexa has swayed me with her heelish ways, I am all for a Nikki Cross vs Alexa Bliss feud!
Nikki Cross w/ Alexa Bliss vs Carmella
Nikki & Mella had better match. Nikki won after a Purge! Not sure where this is going but I like it!
3/5 🌟
Backstage
Drake Maverick and his wife were walking backstage to the limo where they were off on their honeymoon. His wife goes off to freshen up, whilst she’s gone, Maverick sees everyone chasing Truth, but Truth managed to hide. Maverick said hes not after the 24/7 title anymore, he just wants to go on his honeymoon. Truth then walks away, only to be attacked by Drake Maverick with his suitcase! Maverick pins Truth to become the NEW WWE 24/7 Champion!
AJ Styles vs Ricochet for the United States Championship
So this match was a quick one, as Styles hit a Phenomenal Forearm and pinned Ricochet with his foot under the rope, the match was restarted and went for another 10-15 mins. The 2nd match was excellent. Had some great spots and the win came for Ricochet when the man twisted and swerved around to roll styles up in a Charlotte’s Web Magistra type pin. After the match Style shook Ricochet’s hand, then decked him in the face! Kicked the crap out of him and Gallows and Anderson joined him. The Club Reuinites and AJ gets a set up from the Good Brothers and nails middle rope Styles Clash. It was awesome! I loved the Bullet Club with KA, Doc & AJ in it. I’m excited to see what happens with them now.
5/5 🌟
Conclusion
Stars achieved: 48.5/80 🌟
RAW SCORE: 60.6%
So the score doesn’t reflect the good bits. It felt like a better show that 60%, overall I’d say it was much better than last week. It felt different. More free. Less tense. But they still have a mountain to climb before they’re flying.
I am totally and brutally honest when it comes to anything I review, and honestly I really liked the show overall. I feel like it had a really fresh feel to it, new angles and stories along with additions to others that are ongoing. Less managerial figures on screen too. Also, Roman Reigns was nowhere to be seen on Raw for the first time since the Wild Card was created! But I’m confused about Maria & Mike, I’m confused about the lack of Bray Wyatt content after weeks of build (little hideouts aside) I am deeply confused as to why Street Profits were anywhere near Raw, they did nothing but annoy Paul Heyman and have a short interview. So there were some negatives along with the positives.
Superstar Of The Week
🌟Ricochet🌟
For me, Ricochet is the baby face that we all get behind. He is someone who is so versatile and adaptable to anyone style and to see him come out on top and be the victim of an AJ Styles Heel turn was awesome!
