WWE Monday Night Raw is fresh off the heels of an absolutely stunning Summerslam event. I cannot stop raving about The Fiend and I even had to show my non-wrestling friends his incredible reveal and every single one of them was blown away and wanted to see more! Which goes to show that The Fiend character is something truly exciting. – Now I’ve gotten that out of the way.. Raw after Summerslam kicks off with a recap of Seth Rollins’ epic win over Brock Lesnar at Summerslam to regain the WWE Universal Championship, I actually was surprised by how it played out. Rollins looked strong by the end of it but also looked like someone we could get behind again! That’s so weird. He went from zero to hero in 13 odd minutes. I am happy to see what happens now. After the video, Rollins makes his way out and is greeted with oodles of love from the Toronto crowd. Monday Night Rollins is back, it seems! Rollins is wearing a button up shirt and some jeans, so you know this wont end with a match from nowhere. But Rollins does get on a microphone and says Lesnar really is The Beast, he says that when the fans came alive, they took him to a place that he has never been before in his career. A place we could only go together! A “Beast Slayer!” chant breaks out. He said that’s is why he is stood here as Universal Champion.. then The O.C. come out.. they congratulate him and say he doesn’t have to worry about Lesnar anymore, but he does have to worry about AJ Styles. AJ says he has a lot to prove now that he has come to his senses and is challenging Seth to a match “Yes! YES!” chants break out and AJ riles them up even more and tells Seth that they all want it. Rollins says he doesn’t respect AJ anymore, so he will accept his challenge.
Gallows and Anderson leave the ring first, AJ offers his hand and Rollins shakes it, then Gallows and Anderson get up on the side of the ring and stare him down until AJ backs them down.. the fans are firmly with AJ Styles because it’s impossible actually boo AJ.
5/5 🌟 Cool way to start. Less scripted dialogue it seems too. I’m excited to see this match, it’s never not gonna be anything but excellent. Plus the OC being treated like a real threat makes me happy.
Backstage
The Street Profits are fresh off an awesome match at Takeover this past weekend where they successfully retained their NXT Tag Team Championships. Dawkins looks knackered, but Montez, obviously, is wired like a 6 year old who just necked their Mum’s Red Bull. Sami Zayn comes along and says they are new and excited but the fans will suck that out of them soon enough, he says Rollins is a pandering fool, but used to be something real and Becky Lynch was “The Man” when it first happened, now it’s just “manufactured” and then Dawkins asked if that happens to everyone, even someone like Samoa Joe and Zayn starts ranting about Joe going soft after Roman was nearly killed, but Joe was stood behind him. Joe scared him and then said they’re about to have a match and Zayn can show us if he’s more than just Kevin Owens’ Water Boy. Then he pushed him over. Legit looked like toddlers after the pushing.
3.5/5🌟 So is Joe a Babyface now? I didn’t see that coming.. I don’t like Samoa Joe as a Babyface usually, he is better as a Heel (he is one of the very best in the business at it in my opinion) but maybe this chaotic-neutral thing will work well. Either way, I did like this but personally I am not confident in Samoa Joe being a face. They may have just ruined one of their best Heels. But.. it is Samoa Joe, so this could be amazing.
ANNOUNCEMENT
The King Of The Ring Tournament returns next Monday on Raw!! That’s amazing!
5/5 🌟 KOTR used to be my favourite thing to watch and play as a kid. Used to use my figures to act it out and play them on the PS1 all the time!
Samoa Joe vs Sami Zayn
Joe squashed Zayn in minutes and then got on the Microphone and said he forgives Roman Reigns but the forgiveness doesn’t extend to any of us who helped propagate the lie. Made me smile. Heel Joe is staying.
3.5/5 🌟 Liked this. But it is really not cool to keep jobbing Zayn out though. He’s starting to rival Curt Hawkins’ losing streak!
The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler
When talking about Ziggler facing Goldberg Michael Cole said Goldberg landed his “vintage Jacknife” and then audibly scrambled to gather his words and correct himself, but Corey did it for him. Absolutely hysterical. But yes, Goldberg did indeed kick Ziggler’s ass but I don’t care how amazing Ziggler is as taking the spear, Summerslam 2019 Spear of the night belongs to only one man. That is EDGE. Genuinely shocked me to my core to see that.
The match was.. well.. it kinda didn’t happen at first.. Ziggler was in regular clothes and had a microphone. The “Goldberg” chants drown him out, but he calls Miz a coward and says he got speared so many times that he cant medically compete tonight. Miz turns his back and then Ziggler attacks him. Starting the match.. this match was better. Miz continues to develop his repertoire. He wins with the Figure 4 Leglock and Ziggler complains after so Miz returns to the ring to hit the the SCF.
2/5 🌟 it was okay, but it feels a little tired. Ziggler needs more. He’s not a threat to anyone ever. He loses ALL. THE. TIME. It is so predictable now that all of his matches are virtually a spoiler. Whoever he is against is going to beat him.
Backstage
Becky Lynch stares into the camera and says the Raw Locker Room knows that their division is a cat and mouse game. They get her, she gets them. She said either they get her or she will come get them.
3.5/5 🌟 there has been a whole lot of chatting this first hour.. Becky cuts a good promo every time, but we have effectively had two matches that collectively, maybe add up to 10 minutes.. so that’s 50 minutes of talking and advertisements.. dude, that is not how to hook people on your Wrestling show. Show some wrestling.
Elias Performance
Elias is out to do some more talking. I love Elias, he’s wasted talent, but more talking is just.. not entirely necessary. I mean a whole hour of this show has basically been talking. That’s 33% of the whole bloody show! At least break them up a bit and dot them over the show. Not just throw them all into our faces in the first hour!
Elias mentions Edge returning to spear him and that gets a big reaction again. He then requests whoever is going to interrupt him to just come out. Nobody does.. until Ricochet does and he tells Elias that he sucks and Elias gets mad and insults his dress-up stuff.
Elias vs Ricochet
They had a better match than expected, because Elias gets beaten all the time. But it ended with a roll-up after Elias wanted his guitar, but Elias’ shoulder was off the ground!
4/5🌟 Legitimate grievance for Elias there. I hope they have a decent feud, it would be great for Elias to get that kind of love. Overall the segment was cool, the match was decent enough, but I don’t and will never understand why they clipped Elias’ wings like they did. He was more over than anyone else, organically too, he was turned into a Face due to the fans reaction and has a moveset that is absolute gold! So because that didn’t fit their plan, they turned him Heel, jobbed him out, stuck him with Shane McMahon, took away his regular performances and kept him off TV for ages unless it’s to job to someone. Absolute travesty. He was robbed. So I am hoping this is going to bloom into something for Elias.
Rey Mysterio vs Andrade w/ Zelina Vega
Okay.. like I know I said I could watch this every week.. but I didn’t actually think they WOULD put it on every week! In 2019 they must have faced each other at least 8 – 10 times on TV. Every time they knock it out of the park though. I heard that they may be considering a Mask vs Hair match for these two.
This match was unbelievable, man. Seriously, go watch it. It was great. This was 2 Out Of 3 Falls and Andrade won both falls back to back which has never happened to Mysterio before.
5/5 🌟 Every time.
Stone Cold Steve Austin Skype Interview
Michael Cole asks him what impressed him about Rollins’ win. He explained that now he knows who Rollins is after all these years. He’s the guy who will give everything he has and still strive to give more to get the title. He is the WWE.
Then he plugged his new show. Straight Up Steve Austin. Which just sounds like he wasn’t allowed to use “Straight Up Stone Cold” to be honest. Because that’s the one you’d go for given the choice, surely.
1/5🌟 crappy connection on the Skype call, followed by a tacky little plug. It was all a big advert for his new show. Nothing that was said on screen that couldn’t have been said in a tweet. Wasted TV time. What even is this?
Rey Mysterio interview
Charlie asks if Rey has met his match with Andrade, Rey says he has no idea where his career is going but he has a family to support.
Montez Ford is on the screen next and says that Rey needs to keep his head up, he’s a legend! Then does a bit of his entrance theme. It was funny, the crowd are finally warming to them too. Especially when Dawkins was shown sleeping off his Summerslam after-party Hangover. But Monty woke him up and started to tell him it is live TV and he had to hype up the matches later, but Dawkins was chugging water instead.
5/5🌟 Comedy gold.
Drew McIntyre vs Cedric Alexander
Oh this match was well done! Well matched individuals weirdly enough and had a decent run time. Absolutely brutal moves from both men too as well as some epic counters. Cedric Alexander is something special. But Drew McIntyre won with a rebound Claymore that turned Cedric inside out!
5/5🌟 Consistency is so important. This was consistent and well executed. Both men exited the match looking better than when they entered.
No Way Jose vs Robert Roode
Random. Just because Robert Roode is Canadian he gets TV time. He should get TV time because he is a fantastic wrestler and his character is genius when put to effective use! Roode won this match quickly. This was just really pointless. Performing in his home country would be nice for Roode, I guess. Although maybe a little tainted given the casual racism that is only wheeling him out to get a pop from his native crowd when they’ve done literally nothing with him for months and months and probably won’t even put him on next week.
2/5🌟 Pointless. Cant say I’m surprised by this though stunt though. They gave Jinder Mahal the WWE Championship just to sell more tickets in India. They wont say that’s why, but we all know it is. Robert Roode deserves better.
Lucha House Party vs The Revival
R Truth got pinned by the Revival. Then everyone scrambled to get him, Elias then attacked him with a guitar and pinned him to become a 3 time 24/7 Champion! Then he ran away.
5/5🌟 because I love the 24/7 Championship Shenanigans!
Natalya Promo
Natalya comes out to a great response from her home town. She says she has a dislocated elbow and is off for a while, she said she will go after Becky again though. She said that she had a dream that her dad told her he was proud of her. It has been a whole year since Jim Neidhart passed. She was interrupted by SASHA BANKS! The Boss is back! Interrupting an emotional moment.. immediately I was hoping for a Heel turn! She socked Nattie and took her wig off to reveal blue hair! She took out Natties arm and Sasha FINALLY turns Heel on the main roster! YES! She was my favourite wrestler on NXT when she was a Heel! Becky Lynch came to make the save and the two attack eachother. Lynch lost this fight, Banks used a chair to destroy Becky. She asks Becky where her balls are and slaps her face, rams her face into the steps and gets a standing ovation.. but lots and lots of boos included!
6/5🌟 YES! SO MUCH YES!
Viking Raiders vs More Jobbers
No! More! Fucking! Jobbers! WWE! They don’t need it, nor does it look like they are big, tough Viking guys when they just beat up on dudes who look like bloody preteens while the commentators sarcastically take interest in the Jobbers’ names and outfits. It’s stupid!
0/5🌟 So done with this now. Screw the “push”, if you can even call it that. They have ruined them already. This sucks.
Bliss×Cross vs The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
Maybe a 10 minute match. Nothing too exciting. Cross and Bliss retained.
2/5 🌟 This match wasn’t terrible, but it needed to be longer and they needed to let loose on their moveset. This felt almost like it was forced.
Seth Rollins vs AJ Styles w/ The OC
This match went as expected. It was excellent for 15 minutes but neither man can lose clean after Summerslam so in ended in a DQ obviously. The OC beat on Rollins for a while and then Ricochet tries to make a save until he got beaten down, then Braun Strowman and his hands of mega doom came out and cleaned house, handing Rollins the Universal Title back but glancing at it for a few seconds beforehand.
4/5🌟 I liked it for many reasons, and one of them is Ricochet being focussed on. The other is apparently Strowman wants the title now, so that could be interesting.
Conclusion
Stars Achieved: 73.5/85🌟 Total
RAW SCORE: 86.47%
Holy shit! That is a significant leap from 2 months back when it was in the low end of 40%. Something has changed within the WWE and I cant help but feel that AEW and NJPW are to thank. They have been setting the bar so high that their media has caught fire this year with DON, FFTF & G129 being the talk of the wrestling world for the majority of 2019. WWE have stepped up their game and found their balls again. I’m so excited for what is gonna come from the fallout of Summerslam. I am so amazed by WWE and, in a weird way, proud of them too. I’ve been a fan of theirs for almost 20 years. I started watching at 7 and I’m 26 now. They are such a big part of my life that to see them struggling was not just frustrating, but it was truly saddening too. Now it feels like a white hit fire has been lit under their ass and they are finding themselves again. Congratulations to WWE on pulling off a tremendous Summerslam event and following up with a cracking Raw after.
