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Shoot promos are becoming more and more the norm on Monday Night Raw. They might be of the worked variety but after a much talked about Roman Reigns/John Cena battle of the mic skills last week, WWE decided to do it all over again.
And if one worked shoot wasn't enough, The Miz confronted Enzo Amore with what had to have been every single frustration from the Raw locker room. Both promos were great as they held nothing back.
Those promos were among the biggest highlights from Raw and a couple of moments from them are featured here because of their outrageousness.
In addition to those highlights, Braun Strowman tested the limits of how far he can bend the rules before getting DQ'd, Michael Cole can't count, and Matt Hardy got hung up on the ropes so badly that it halted his attempt to stop a pinfall. There's plenty of botchiness ahead, so let's kick it off with a pinfall from Kalisto.
#5 Elias kicked out at only one
Commentary botches aren't pointed out too often in this article series because the errors of the fellows in the booth don't jive too well with the visual aspect of the gifs. Since they get passes often, Michael Cole is getting called out this one time.
Kalisto countered the work Elias was doing on his arm during their match with a Victory Roll but barely got him down for the fall. Elias kicked out after one, yet Cole called it a two count. It was a minor error but his colleagues failed to correct him of this mistake.
Elias went on to win this match, which wasn't a huge shocker. Neither guy feels like WWE has any big direction for them, so let's all cross our fingers that WWE can make plans for The Drifter to smack someone else across the head with his guitar again. He needs to be more than only the guy that sings funny songs before forgettable mid-card matches.
#4 Consider John Cena a drug test
Roman Reigns and John Cena had a highly entertaining worked shoot duelling promo last week, so why not do it again? After Roman Reigns defeated Jason Jordan, these two who will meet up in a singles contest in No Mercy, found themselves with microphones and a score of scripted cheap shots.
Roman got a few decent lines in, like when he insulted John's attempt at a movie career. He even told him he knew a guy who might be able to help him out. However, the line of the entire ordeal was John's reference to Roman Reigns' failed drug test from 2016.
Sure, this was yet another non-shoot bit of dialogue, so don't assume Roman is losing sleep over what John said here. However, Cena touching on Roman's real life slip ups is still a sick burn. He earned this mic drop.
#3 Where's the DQ?
John Cena vs. Braun Strowman could easily have been a pay-per-view level main event on one of the biggest shows of the year. Instead, WWE gave it away in the middle of a Raw two weeks before No Mercy. It's a money match, and hopefully it helped against the returning Monday Night Football.
This was a big singles match that took a strange turn near the end. Braun Strowman picked up steel steps on the outside of the ring and plowed them directly into Cena's face. Less than a minute after this, Michael Cole pointed out on commentary that this was not a No Holds Barred match. Why did the ref let the steps slide?
The match became even odder when the ref did in fact later disqualify Braun for performing a Powerslam to John on top of the steps inside the ring. Kurt Angle should ask this official what rule book he's working out of that says foreign objects are okay outside of the ring but not inside.
#2 A verbal thrashing by The Miz
This felt outrageously awkward. Perhaps the writers went into the locker room (the very one that Enzo Amore is public enemy #1 in) and drafted this segment by asking the wrestlers for a special non-Festivus edition of The Airing of Grievances. Either that or The Miz personally had been taking extensive notes every time the Smacktalker Skywalker's name appeared in the dirt sheets.
As captivating as Enzo can be on the microphone, he was proven here to be lesser than the promo juggernaut that is The Miz.
Amore had to hear how he was kicked out of tour buses, relegated to 205 Live as punishment, and even abandoned by his own best friend. Enzo did get in a "Who's your daddy" remark to Miz and Maryse, so he did make a noble effort to hold his own.
#1 Stumbling Matt Hardy
Cesaro narrowly avoided a botch just before this highlight, teetering on the top rope before helping Sheamus with this assisted White Noise against Dean Ambrose. Apparently, this was too much for "The Lunatic Fringe" because his shoulders never came off the mat in what was more than enough time for the ref to count to three.
It's obvious that Matt Hardy was supposed to interrupt this pinfall attempt. He failed to make it over to Cesaro to break it up but this licensed official was kind of enough to stop his count anyway.
"I think the referee saw Matt Hardy out of the corner of his eye and stopped the count!"
Corey Graves should get an A for effort in trying to rationalize what clearly unfolded for all to see.
