WWE Monday Night Raw
7/2/18
Denny Sanford Premier Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Quick Results:
- Curtis Axel w/ Bo Dallas defeated Matt Hardy.
- Authors of Pain (Akem and Rezar) defeated Titus Worldwide (Titus O'Neil and Apollo Crews)
- Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins defeated Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre by DQ.
- Ember Moon defeated Liv Morgan w/ Sarah Logan.
- Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley defeated The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) by DQ.
- Nia Jax w/ Natalya defeated Mickie James w/ Alexa Bliss.
- Braun Strowman defeated Kevin Owens by countout.
Holiday editions of WWE programming are usually uneventful and this edition of Raw almost continued that trend until the closing segment.
Kurt Angle officially announced Lashley vs. Reigns at Extreme Rules, and while this match does have sort of a "big fight feel" to it, I would like to see this billed as a number one contender match in order to make it feel more important. The dialogue between Lashley and Reigns, calling each other "ego maniacs" is just weak. Both of them are natural heels but are being held back by portraying babyfaces and being heavily scripted in their promos.
While it would have been great to see Lashley and Reigns have a straight up match against the Revival, the story here was Reigns refusing to tag Lashley in. I am not sure why Reigns hates Lashley so much but the story here was Reigns was "too proud" to tag Lashley in. I am hoping to see Lashley turn full on heel and just attack Reigns going in to their match at Extreme Rules and lighting a fire in their program.
The big visual from Raw was Braun Strowman throwing a porta potty containing Kevin Owens off of the stage. Following this, the ring announcer made it clear that Strowman won the match by countout, taking away the seriousness of this angle. While this segment alone was good, the lead-up to it could have been better. Owens, wearing a Baron Corbin hoodie, made a valid point in asking Angle to send Strowman to counseling like he did to Bayley and Sasha Banks. He also asked Angle to suspend Strowman or fire him. Angle instead makes a match between Owens and Strowman. I am not sure why Angle is condoning Strowman's actions, such as crushing Owens' rental car, but hopefully next week, he will make a logical decision regarding Braun Strowman's actions. Strowman remains a comedy character in the upper mid card so hopefully a conflict with Kurt Angle with heat up Strowman for a future title match against Lesnar. I feel Strowman should be the one to dethrone Lesnar for the Universal title.
I was glad to see Dr. Shelby conducting the counseling between Bayley and Sasha, as it brought back fond memories of the early days of Team Hell No. Unfortunately, these were a big let down. Bayley and Sasha have a believable and relate-able feud, with Bayley constantly getting stabbed in the back by her best friend. Her attack on Sasha last week was well done but this segment was a huge step back. It worked with Kane and Daniel Bryan, who were in a comedy feud, but this was anything but funny.
Speaking of comedy, Finn Balor is someone who should not attempt to be a comedy character. His joke about Corbin's haircut wasn't funny but I am glad he was able to get the upper hand on Corbin. These are two guys that have potential to be big stars but need the support of creative to do it. Both guys are in their mid 30's so hopefully that support comes sooner rather than later.
Other Thoughts:
The AoP are on a good run right now, running through teams, and I hope it is a few months or so until we see them challenge for the titles. The B Team continue their winning streak, but with Bray's injury (due to his wreckless driving), it will be hard to keep people interested in this feud with just one on one matches.
I am not sure how many suspended wrestlers are given promo time on Raw but that was a good way to keep Ronda Rousey in people's minds. Until she returns, the women's division seems to be on hold. No one expects Mickie James to win and I doubt Nia Jax will defeat Alexa Bliss at Extreme Rules, as the real match fans want to see is Rousey against Bliss.
I would not mind seeing a cruiserweight match on Raw every now and then just to see some fresh faces on this show.
Thank you for reading. Be sure to follow wrestlingfightclub.blogspot.com for more content on pro wrestling and mixed martial arts.
0 comments:
Post a Comment