The Memorial Day edition of Raw was already hyped as the episode where John Cena makes his official return to the main roster. This is his first live television appearance since WrestleMania where he assisted The Rock to take on The Wyatt Family. Also, WWE continued its recent trend of having the main event angle play out in the second hour of Raw since the ratings are usually high during that hour.
Also, the Money In The Bank match build up went on with a six man tag team match in the main event. Here are the 5 points to note from this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw-
#1 Disgrace
Let’s just put it this way, there is no heel right now in the WWE of the caliber of Charlotte. She has really grown into a character that can be loathed to a great, great extent. And that’s good. So, it wasn’t exactly a burial or her talent when Stephanie called her disgrace as a champion or when the announcers called her the same thing when she was beating down Natalya with Dana Brooke’s help.
This is a way of getting her more heat and building somebody else as the perfect performer to beat Charlotte. All this heat will be come out handy when she the crown is finally taken away from her.
Charlotte and Brooke attacking Natalya brought out Becky Lynch to make the save. And that is essentially a great continuation since she’s faced the same thing that Nattie has been facing from Charlotte and Lynch also has some unfinished business with Brooke.
Also, Lynch is a much more charming character than Natalya which gives the Canadian some much needed back-up. Also, Lynch has all the potential to be over as a babyface which WWE needs to tap into soon. These 4 women are actually in a really well rounded team and this may be one feud heading over to Money In The Bank.
#2 The Man vs The Guy
Roman Reigns came out to talk about Seth Rollins and how he calls himself ‘The Man’. And then he asked how can he call himself ‘The Man’ if he just can’t face ‘The Guy’. Anybody thinking about Big Lebowski and ‘The Dude’? Well, Dean Ambrose can totally play ‘The Dude’
Anyway, Rollins came out and teased that he’ll get into a brawl, big time. Again and again. He got the audience hyped up for each time he would tease coming to the ring and taking on Reigns, only to pull back repeatedly, making fun of them in the process and saying that he’ll do things his way, whenever he wants to.
#3 Brand Split
Well, Shane and Stephanie McMahon officially announced it on Raw that the brand split is soon going to be upon us and in July SmackDown goes live just like Raw. The New Day made their way out and tried to understand what this split really means. Much was explained and left to be explained in this segment.
It more or less seemed like them listing out all the interesting possibilities that could rise with this. Which McMahon will run SmackDown? Which superstars will be drafted to Raw and SmackDown and which teams and alliances will be broken.
Also, this segment featured a weirdly hilarious Shane O Mac dance.
#4 This is not the end
John Cena returned to Raw and just like he promised on Twitter he wore the shorts gifted to him by Ellen Degeneres. #OMG moment!
He said he was ready to face this ‘new era’ and that led Styles to come out put Cena over only to get interrupted by Gallows an Anderson. Just when we thought we’ll get a tag team feud - a week after many a hardcore wrestling hearts were broken because The Club broke up - Styles turned heel. I repeat, STYLES TURNED HEEL.
He attacked Cena viciously. Not once, not twice but 4 times. Gallows and Anderson, of course, assisted him and The Club is officially back on!
#5 Wherever they go
Enzo Amore and Big Cass are over. Everywhere they go , their catchphrases spread like wildfire. They had another repeated match with the Dudley Boyz but that is not what you’ll remember Raw for. This team is probably the best thing thing that can happen to the new era in the WWE.
The introductions, the antics, the size difference between the two- just about everything about their gimmick is something that you just can’t teach. The one glaring missing element was maybe their wrestling skills, which they have monumentally improved on NXT and now in the main roster.
