Photo Credit- WWE
Summerslam this past weekend solidified several changes for the landscape of the Raw roster. Damian Priest became US champion, Charlotte Raw Women’s champion and RKBRO Raw Tag Team champions. A sea of new champions has been crowned. Can Raw use this to their advantage tonight? Let’s find out!
GOOD: The show kicks off with the WWE champion Bobby Lashley and MVP. MVP discusses the history of Goldberg and says that Goldberg is a worthy challenger to Lashley. However, they never expected him to bring his son into his battles. He continues putting over Goldberg but ultimately says that everything was in vain as Lashley went on to beat him anyways. Lashley is also said to be the only man to beat Goldberg and that because he quit, Goldberg is a coward. They discuss Gage jumping the barricade and MVP says that Lashley would have dismantled anyone who tried getting to him. As they say they refuse to apologize, they’re quickly interrupted by Damian Priest. Priest says that Lashley is the real coward because he attacked Goldberg after the match and says that he won’t jump anyone from behind. He then challenges Lashley to a match tonight and says if he refuses, that makes Lashley a coward. An irate Bobby attacks Priest, but Damian gets the upper hand. MVP accepts Priest’s challenge and says that Lashley will get changed into gear and the match will start momentarily. This was a pretty good start to Raw. While Priest flubbed a little bit of his promo, it was still good and the idea of Priest vs Lashley is a very interesting route to take post Summerslam. I’m game to see where it goes.
BAD: Up next is Damian Priest vs Bobby Lashley. This match went maybe a minute before Sheamus came to attack Priest and cause the DQ.
Result: Priest defeated Sheamus via DQ.
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: .75 stars
AVERAGE: Post match Lashley and Sheamus beat down Priest until Drew McIntyre comes out to make the save. I smell an impromptu tag match looming.
GREAT: Coming back from break, we in fact have an impromptu tag team match as Priest and Drew take on Sheamus and Lashley. This was honestly a really fun match to start off the show with. All four of these guys are fantastic. The finish sees Sheamus take down Priest and go to make the tag to Lashley, who simply leaves him high and dry. A confused Sheamus eats a claymore kick and Drew and Priest pick up the win. I really hope they don’t somehow do Drew vs Lashley again considering they LITERALLY created a storyline where that cannot physically happen.
Result: Drew and Priest win via pinfall after Drew pinned Sheamus
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: 3.75 stars
SATISFACTORY: Doudrop has a backstage segment where she says it was dumb to ever associate with Eva Marie in the first place, but for some reason decides to keep the name Doudrop. Eva attacks Doudrop with a crate and leaves. An ok, short segment.
GOOD SQUASH: Up next is Karrion Kross vs Ricochet. Kross comes out sporting some new ring gear and…..man the state of it. He looks like a Demolition cosplayer. Other than that, this was a good showcase for Kross. A good squash match for him. But they need to change that gear immediately.
AVERAGE: Sheamus is backstage and confronts Lashley about leaving him during the tag match earlier. Lashley says that he has no business with Sheamus but says that if Sheamus keeps getting in his face that they will soon. The two continue arguing before MVP convinces Sheamus to back off. I really hope they do end up doing Lashley vs Sheamus for the title soon.
SATISFACTORY: Up next is Moist TV with guest star Logan Paul. Morrison tries interviewing Logan but they’re bombarded with nothing but relentless boos from the crowd. The Miz shows up and asks why Morrison forgot to introduce him because everyone knows he’s Logan’s favorite superstar. Paul, however, says he’s a fan of New Day. Paul discusses his boxing career and Miz interrupts Morrison to try and hijack the interview. Miz makes a snarky comment saying that Jake Paul is gonna lose his upcoming fight, creating tension between him and Logan. Morrison intervenes and says that Logan is gonna beat up Miz as a joke. Miz and Morrison start arguing as Logan leaves the ring. They continue arguing before they’re interrupted by Xavier Woods. This segment was all over the place. Everything to do with Logan Paul felt like a complete waste of time and WWE should have known he would be booed relentlessly, otherwise it’s just pure ignorance on their part. The only saving grace of this segment was a continued tease of dissension between Miz and Morrison. I look forward to their eventual breakup.
GOOD: Up next is The Miz taking on Xavier Woods. A good back and forth match. Miz has a good spot where he feigns his injured leg to gain an advantage. The spot with Morrison wetting the padding on the outside,however, was honestly just dumb. Morrison inadvertently distracts the referee and causes him to miss a Miz roll up. Not too long after Woods rolls up Miz for the win. Overall, I thought this was a good enough match.
Result: Xavier defeated Miz via pinfall.
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: 3.25 stars
GREAT: Post match, Morrison tries apologizing to the Miz, who seemingly accepts. The two grab drip sticks and Miz TURNS on Morrison and attacks his best friend. Miz relentlessly beats down Morrison to a chorus of boos and has this great death stare in his eyes the entire time, as if this is an entirely new Miz. I’m finally happy these two broke up. The act ran its course a long time ago and a feud between these two heading into Extreme Rules should be good.
SATISFACTORY: Earlier tonight, Nikki A.S.H. talked with Rhea Ripley. She says that the two of them need to lift their spirits after they both lost at Summerslam. Nikki asks Rhea if she wants to team with her tonight to take on Nia and Shayna in a tag match. Rhea agrees. Another ok segment but nothing special. I also don’t like how Nikki has so easily moved on from losing her women’s title. She should have more fire to get it back, not compete in this meaningless tag match.
AVERAGE: We get another Reginald segment at a park. Reginald continues talking about being agile and evading all challengers. Reginald goes to an ice cream truck and buys ice cream where he is jumped once again by Akira Tozawa and R Truth. Reginald bribes them both with ice cream cones and runs away. The two try and get Reginald, but he ultimately escapes once again. The segment ends, like all the others, with Truth and Tozawa blaming each other. This segment was fun, but I feel this was no different than all of the previous 24/7 title segments in recent weeks. I’d like something a bit more new.
GOOD: Backstage, Riddle is riding his scooter and talks to Randy Orton. He discusses the championship celebration that he’s going to hold later tonight, to which Randy says that he’s not a fan of surprises. However, Riddle reassures Randy that he’ll love it. Randy asks Riddle to not do anything stupid. Riddle hilariously responds by asking “would I do anything stupid?” This was a fun, short segment. RKBRO continues to be a charming highlight on Raw.
SATISFACTORY: Up next is Jinder Mahal vs Mansoor. I’ll give Raw credit, it’s nice to see a new, fresh matchup for a change. Mansoor has a brief pre match promo where he tells Mustafa that while he’s grateful for all of his help, he wants to win the right and honest way and asks Ali for no outside interference in his match. The match itself was ok but nothing that special. Mansoor eventually wins after Jinder chokes Mansoor in the corner and refuses to break it before the referee’s five count. Post match Mustafa reinforces that Mansoor should be doing things his way.
Result: Mansoor defeated Jinder via DQ
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: 2 stars
AVERAGE: Drew and Priest have a fun little backstage segment where they act all buddy buddy and agree to go out for a few drinks. I’m really looking forward to a potential feud between Priest and Drew for the United States title.
AVERAGE: Charlotte is in the ring and hypes herself as a now 12 time women’s champion. She says that people should be building a statue to her called the Statue of Opportunity. She doesn’t need her family or her friends and she only needs herself. She says that she is a champion to be proud of unlike Nikki and she’s going to start a new women’s evolution. She’s interrupted by Alexa Bliss who just says hi and that’s it. This was an alright promo from Charlotte but nothing different then every promo she’s cut recently about being the opportunity. I am, however, interested to see Alexa back in the title picture.
SATISFACTORY: Nia and Shayna have a backstage segment where Shayna is hurt that Nia teamed with Charlotte last week. Nia says she only did it to get closer to the title picture, but Charlotte took all the credit and Nia was left nowhere. She says that she won’t make that mistake again and Shayna says that even though they butt heads, they’re still a team. Once again, another ok segment.
AVERAGE: We have another Elias vignette. He talks about how before WWE stood for Walk With Elias it stood for World Wrestling Entertainment. He says he conquered entertainment but it’s time that he takes himself more seriously and enters the title picture. He says Elias is dead and that he is now Elias the “WWE superstar.” He dawns a new white hat and walks off into the sunset. Kinda odd he just went from being Elias to…being Elias. However, I’m still honestly very intrigued to see where this new persona goes.
AVERAGE: Up next is Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley vs Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. A decent back and forth match. The real story of this match was the miscommunications between Nia and Shayna. Rhea and Nikki also made a pretty decent team here, the post match with Nikki excitedly jumping into Rhea’s arms being a tad charming.
Result: Rhea and Nikki won via pinfall after Rhea pinned Shayna.
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: 2.75 stars
GOOD: Morrison is backstage and has a short but effective promo saying that after Miz turned on him earlier, that’s it. No more MIZTV’s or Dirt Sheets. He’s just gonna kick Miz’s ass next week in the ring. This was a real impassioned promo from Morrison and I’m really looking forward to Morrison’s face run.
GREAT: Up next is the RKBRO championship celebration. Riddle comes out first and talks about the challenges that RKBRO has faced over the past several months. However, the highs and lows culminated in them becoming Raw tag team champions. Orton comes out as Mike Rome announces them as the new tag team champions and pyro goes off across an RKBRO logo. Riddle presents Randy with his surprise: a custom scooter! However, the fun is short-lived as AJ Styles and Omos interrupt. AJ berates RKBRO and says that he’ll continue asking for a rematch until it’s given to him. AJ reminds them that he beat Riddle last week, who challenges AJ to a rematch to rectify that loss. A really fun segment here. Not as fun and wacky as I was hoping but still a highly enjoyable segment.
GREAT: Up next is Riddle vs AJ Styles once again. I love these two and they put on great matches but we don’t need to see these two face again considering we just saw them face off last week. However, with that being said this was still an enjoyable main event. Omos and Randy eventually get into it and Orton starts beating up Omos with the scooter Riddle gave him. AJ is distracted by this, which in turn allows Riddle to hit the Bro Derrick and win. Post match as the two celebrate, AJ tries attacking but is hit with an RKO.
Result: Riddle won via pinfall
John Cerenzio WR Star Rating: 3.75 stars
Honestly, this was one of the more enjoyable episodes of Raw in recent weeks. A lot of good in ring action on the show like AJ and Riddle once again as well as the opening tag match. Miz and Morrison beginning their feud is great and I’m really looking forward to that. The potential of feuds like Lashley vs Sheamus and McIntyre vs Priest are also intriguing. I’m happy that WWE is seemingly establishing some new, original stuff going forward rather than the same old stuff we’ve seen recently. However, with that being said, a lot of the segments and some of the matches on the show were only alright or below average which kept the show from being any higher.
Show Theme & Presentation: 6/10
Storyline Progression: 8/10
Watchability: 8/10
Crowd Reaction: 7/10
Production: 9/10
Overall show rating: 6.5/10
