5 Things WWE RAW got right this week (August 3, 2020)

WWE RAW looked to shake things up this week as fans got some pleasant surprises during the show. Shane McMahon was scheduled to appear during the show, while we were certain that the creatives would build towards a few big matches for WWE SummerSlam.

MVP and Apollo Crews were set to collide in the ring to crown the real United States Champion after MVP had awarded himself the new title belt. Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre were set to shoot some shots at each other following the events of last week’s show.

An unexpected team united on the show to take down The IIconics, while Dominik Mysterio laid down a huge first challenge for a former Universal Champion.

That wasn’t all as the RAW Tag Team Champions, The Street Profits competed in individual bouts against Angel Garza and Andrade, but Montez Ford was unable to continue after he passed out.

The final segment of the night provided the fans with something completely new to keep their interest in the product high.

In this article, we will look at the 5 things WWE RAW got right on this week’s show.

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#5 The Riott Squad make a great comeback on WWE RAW

Backstage, The IIconics demanded that Kevin Owens makes them his special guests on the KO Show for this week’s WWE RAW. The Prizefighter claimed that he already had a guest scheduled to appear on his show.

KO introduced Ruby Riott as his special guest during the KO Show and allowed her to talk about her recent wins over The IIconics. She further revealed that she wished that Liv Morgan was by her side to celebrate her victories.

Owens then called Morgan out to the show and the two spoke about their friendship and problems before The IIconics interrupted and trash-talked the duo.

After the two heels slapped KO, The Prizefighter asked Ruby and Liv for a bit of help which led to the two babyfaces taking the heels down.

A match between the two teams was then set and it didn’t take The Riott Squad too long to defeat The IIconics on RAW.

After the match, Ruby and Liv worked together and took out Billie Kay before leaving the arena. This showed that the two women may be back to reform the Riott Squad, which is excellent news for fans of Ruby, Liv, and the WWE Women’s Tag Team Division.

#4 Apollo Crews becomes the true United States Champion on WWE RAW

This week’s WWE RAW opened with United States Champion Apollo Crews taking on MVP for his title. The lights dimmed before the match and went out for a bit during the course of the encounter, with the commentators apologizing and calling it a production issue.

MVP came out to once again call himself the real United States Champion and claimed that his rivalry with Crews would be over on RAW after he gets the three count.

While MVP started strong in the match, it did not take long before Crews managed to get back in the zone and work on MVP’s arm. The Hurt Business’ Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin were at ringside to help MVP and provide a much-needed break to their mouthpiece.

While the heel was able to get back into the match, the Champion fought back and planted a spinebuster on him. He followed it up with a toss powerbomb to pick up the victory and remain the real United States Champion on RAW.

After the match, MVP blamed the lighting issues and other factors for his loss and challenged Crews to a rematch at WWE SummerSlam.

Crews retaining the title was the right way to go as it shows that the creatives haven’t lost faith in him after Paul Heyman’s departure. It will be interesting to see how the two men perform at SummerSlam, where Crews will be competing in his biggest match ever, and it could define what the future holds for the talented Superstar.

#3 Dominik Mysterio lays down a challenge for The Messiah of RAW for his WWE debut

Early in the night on WWE RAW, Dominik Mysterio spoke about how Seth Rollins’ actions at WWE Extreme Rules had awoken the demon in him. He then went on to challenge Rollins to a match at WWE SummerSlam.

The Monday Night Messiah came out to the middle with Murphy later on and before addressing Dominik’s challenge, said he had some “house cleaning” to do. He turned his attention to Tom Phillips and called him out for cheering Dominik last week on WWE RAW.

Rollins commanded Murphy to take Phillips out, but Samoa Joe stood up to defend his colleague. This prompted The Messiah to call Joe to the ring, but the two heels had steel chairs to keep The Samoan Submission Machine away.

Dominik suddenly appeared from behind and took out both men with a Kendo Stick. He then hit a few more big moves on the heels before they were forced to retreat on RAW.

Following the attack, Rollin accepted Dominik’s challenge for WWE SummerSlam as the young Superstar stood tall in the middle of the ring and looked to make a big debut.

This was a good segment to set up the big match for Dominik and it made him look strong, even though the WWE Universe hasn’t seen him compete yet. Joe’s involvement was excellent and we could watch WWE reignite a rivalry between Joe and Rollins if the big man is cleared to return to the ring soon.

#2 Shayna Baszler seemingly makes her way into the RAW Women's Championship scene

While Asuka is in the chase for the WWE RAW Women’s Championship now held by Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler appeared backstage and punched The Boss in the face to make her way into the title scene.

The two competed in a match later on in the show, and while Banks thought it would be easy for her to intimidate Baszler, she was unprepared for what The Queen of Spades had in store.

Baszler threw Banks around the mat and slammed her before locking in an armbar early in the match. Bayley provided the distraction to allow Banks to fight out and work on Baszler’s arm before trying to lock in the Banks Statement.

Before Baslzer could dominate Banks any further, Asuka arrived and beat down Bayley, leading to the referee calling for the bell even though Bayley was not even part of the match.

The Empress sent The Legit Boss running, following which Baszler and Asuka exchanged a few words and Asuka demanded a match for SummerSlam for the RAW Women’s title.

Banks appeared once again and accepted the challenge, claiming that Asuka would only get her match if she was able to defeat Bayley on next week’s show.

This was a decent match that showed that Baszler is more than capable of defeating any opponent, irrespective of their standing on the roster. Asuka’s interference was necessary to ensure that neither competitor took a clean loss while allowing Baszler to set her eyes on the RAW Women’s Championship once again.

#1 WWE RAW Underground

Shane McMahon was announced to appear on this week’s WWE RAW and fans could not help but speculate on social media about what he was going to do on the show.

While many expected Shane McMahon to announce his return to the ring, start his own faction, or even simply announce what the plans for SummerSlam might be, he had something else up his sleeve.

Shane McMahon paved the way for a new segment on WWE RAW known as RAW Underground. The segment took the final hour of the show and saw Dabba-Kato appear to beat up a few guys, following which Erik of The Viking Raiders, Dolph Ziggler, and The Hurt Business took down a few men to make an impact.

The atmosphere seemed to be right out of the movie ‘Fight Club’ and MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin took out everyone they could to end the show.

This was an interesting new segment that has been added to the show, and while we aren’t too sure what the purpose of the entire thing is at this point in time, it was enjoyable, to say the least.

It will be interesting to see if WWE actually goes on to book some major matches on RAW Underground, or whether they just came up with the segment to kill some time on the Red brand and give The Hurt Business a major push.