Before we start, we’d like to take a moment and apologize. We need some time to breathe, get our jaws off the floor and digest just happened. That was a winner of a show after weeks of underwhelming Monday nights! Okay, we apologize again. This is not good journalism. Let’s begin at the start.
Raw came to us this week from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. This week’s Raw was a big show even before it aired, with a Championship match for a vacant title, as well as a segment featuring Paul Heyman. It needed to be, considering how disappointed people were at Finn Balor losing the Universal Championship with an injury, a week prior.
Also, considering Smackdown was beating Raw in terms of quality output week after week, Raw needed to step up its game. And step up it did. This is the WWE we love dearly. Let’s analyze the good and bad.
THE GOOD: There were definitely more positives than negatives this week
1- Amazing build for the show
Last week’s Raw left fans with a bitter taste in their mouth after Finn Balor was forced to relinquish his Universal Championship; and to compensate, the Fatal 4-Way was built up as a pay-per-view quality main event.
Even Paul Heyman’s presence on the show was advertised as a big deal. We were also excited to see what Bayley would be up to. There was enough hype and interest to make it Monday Night Raw a big show, even before it aired.
2- The main event delivered
How often have we gone into a PPV expecting a solid main event, and been disappointed with the outcome (cough...Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton...cough)? Thankfully, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Big Cass put on a superb match which had the crowd chanting ‘this is awesome’ on multiple occasions.
Of course, the interference from Triple H and the huge swerve made it even more worthwhile. And the end was simply spectacular. We echo the WWE Universe’s chant of ‘you deserve it’, for Kevin Owens.
3- Unanswered questions
We head into next week with more questions than answers, which makes Raw a must-watch show. Is Rollins a babyface now? Why did Triple H turn on him? Stephanie McMahon looked just as surprised as we are.
What’s her role in this? How will the Lesnar-Shane McMahon-Stephanie McMahon angle play out? Will Reigns continue his feud with Rusev? Is Jeri-KO over?
4- Bayley is the best thing in the women’s division
Of course, a lot of other things happened on the show in addition to the main event. Bayley has the ability to light up the screen whenever she gets T.V. time, and her partnership with The New Day was a match made in heaven. For their part, The Club and Dana Brooke also held their own. New Day Rocks! But also, Bay Ley Rocks!
5- The gift of Jericho
Chris Jericho is simply the most talented wrestler on Raw right now. Not only is he in prime form now, he made Neville look like a million bucks even though Jericho went over him clean. We don’t even need to mention his hilarious interview with Tom Philips aka Phillipe. Yes, we will drink it in mahn.
THE BAD: While it was an amazing show, Monday Night Raw wasn’t perfect. Here are three things we disliked about the show, quite immensely.
1- Darren Young vs Titus O’Neil
Darren Young and Titus O’Neil continue to be the worst thing, not merely on this week's show, not merely on Raw, not merely in wrestling, but on television. This sequence was dreadful. This angle is clearly not working, and both these men need fresh feuds to be ‘great again’.
Wait, were they ever great to begin with?
2- There’s no storyline for Sami Zayn
While Kevin Owens rises to the top of the food chain, his arch nemesis Sami Zayn sinks to the bottom. Even after delivering countless match of the year candidates, he’s still wrestling pointless squash matches. And yet, Titus and Darren Young get TV time and however weak it is, a legitimate storyline feud which is a big mistake on WWE’s part. What a crying shame!
3- Repeating the ‘jobber’ angle
Unless they form a team of some sort, we don't see the point of Braun Strowman and Nia Jax coming out week after week, and wrestling squash matches. Seems like a waste of time, effort, and energy to us. Let’s hope this leads somewhere.
IN CONCLUSION: This was a 9/10 show with more positives than negatives. There’s no picture of Lana to end the review with, so we give you what you have really wanted all along.
