ALL OUTEven with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman kicking off Raw, it wasn’t one of the most memorable shows around. What will stand out is Roman Reigns’ momentum and the New Day finally being made to look serious.This wasn’t as bad as last week’s Raw but it wasn’t that much better either. Talents like Kevin Owens and Rusev were again wasted in appalling segments and matches. Sasha Banks had a homecoming and was made to look strong, heading into her main event match at Takeover - Respect.So out of everything the show offered, here are the five most promising developments from this week’s RAW -
#1 Looking Strong
Following a Paul Heyman- Brock Lesnar segment may not be the easiest thing to do. But the match between Reigns, Ambrose, Orton and the Wyatt Family did that gloriously. The rivalry between Wyatt and Reigns is working really, really well.
Roman Reigns has had a formative year so far. He’s hardly had any bad matches and he’s improving by leaps and bounds in the ring. WWE is also finally figuring out how to make promos for him.
On Raw, his chemistry with Wyatt furthered their very intriguing feud. Both of them are looking really strong heading towards Hell In A Cell.
#2 The Confusion
There have been multiple instances where Stephanie McMahon and Triple H have crossed the line between acting as heels and babyfaces. That confusion may show them as quite two- faced. This may or may not be everybody’s opinion but them treating Rollins like a star when he retains or wins titles, and then screwing him over later on with matches against Cena or Sting or Kane is a sign of things to come.
This is a business relationship in the realm of WWE, which don’t necessarily always have a happy ending.
A Rollins babyface turn is close.
#3 Clean victory
This was great.
Natalya had her first singles match in a long time on Raw. And she won, clean. She made Paige tap out and that’s a huge statement.
She has over the past few weeks, come out looking as the ideal babyface. She makes Paige actually look like a total heel. With ample attention on Paige after her promo two weeks ago, and on the newest divas from NXT, Natalya getting a clean victory over one of them is a huge deal.
#4 The Bank Statement
The Divas tag match wasn’t all that great but what it did do well was booking Sasha Banks well. She looked strong and she, like so many times, has been the one reason to make her team victorious.
As she heads to the biggest match of her career so far, headlining an NXT Takeover event, this was the right call.
She has consistently been the most protected performer of this underwhelming ‘revolution’ on the main roster.
#5 New Day Again
The New Day are one of the firm reasons to watch Raw. They are entertaining and being funny has always been the firm reason why, but this Monday on Raw they were booked to look serious and they were still entertaining.
Ending the night with John Cena’s much revered US title Open challenge was great, and booking the New Day the way they did, was much better. They ended the night being the last men standing despite Cena retaining his title. They had Cena, Ziggler and the Dudley Boyz all lie there helpless.
That’s a sign of The New Day getting more supporters backstage.
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