5 Things WWE got right on RAW before Super ShowDown

The final episode of RAW before the Superstars make the trip to Saudi Arabia kicked off with another promo by the Apex Predator. Randy Orton was unashamed of his actions before he was interrupted by the face of RAW.

Things only went up from thereon as we got a fast-pace match to kick off the action on Monday Night before the No.1 contender for the WWE Championship got another victory on his way to Super ShowDown.

The women from RAW who will enter the Elimination Chamber had an interesting Contact Singing segment that ended chaotically like every other contract signing segment.

The night ended with a big main event match that ended up focus on several Superstars other than the two men who battled in the ring.

In this article, we will look at the 5 things that the creatives got right on this week’s episode of RAW.

#5 Family ShowDown

Humberto Carrillo got his hands of Angel Garza this week as we were treated to a clash between the cousins. Knowing how good these two men have been in the ring lately, we were nothing short of excited for this match.

The grudge man saw both men deliver blows and trade the action early. Once Garza’s pants were off, he got more of the offense in and delivered a corner dropkick to Carrillo.

While both men were doing well, a distraction from Zelina Vega allowed Garza to get back into the match and deliver a top-rope Spanish-Fly. Counters and near falls continued from thereon before Garza managed to roll up Carrillo for the hard-fought victory.

The match was a really good one to kick off RAW and gave fans some fast-paced action to get in the mood for what’s to come. The former NXT Cruiserweight Champion’s victory was far from clean and definitive, and it will likely give way to several more matches between these two talented men in the coming weeks before Garza gets his hands on Rey Mysterio.

Will they manage to find their way into the pre-show of the Super ShowDown on Thursday?

#4 The One and Only victory

Ricochet showed off all the tricks in his book on Monday night

Last week, Ricochet battled Karl Anderson one-on-one and managed to defeat him in a hard-fought contest.

This week, The One and Only was up against the biggest member of The O.C., Luke Gallows. At 6 ft 5in, weighing in at 132kg, Gallows is one of the only men in the locker room who are bigger in size as compared to ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar.

Even though Gallows isn’t built remotely as much as Lesnar is, we know that he has the skills to give a great match to anyone.

We saw Gallows use his size advantage against Ricochet, which is something Lesnar will do on Thursday during the WWE Championship match. Ricochet seemed to be taken down by Gallows at first, but he used his speed and agility really well to get back in the match. A standing Shooting Star Press drew a near-fall but the Recoil followed by a top-rope Shooting Star Press was enough to put Gallows away.

The match wasn’t too long and did what it was supposed to do rather than tire Ricochet out before his big match in Saudi Arabia. Paul Heyman watching Ricochet from the backstage area was a good touch which showed that he was seen as a potential threat by The Beast’s Advocate.

Now we have to wait for the David vs Goliath match between Ricochet and Lesnar until Thursday.

#3 The Street Profits’ big moment

The Street Profits are all prepared to fight their biggest match against Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy for the RAW Tag Team Championships on Thursday.

Last night, Angelo Dawkins got a shot at Murphy while Montez Ford got his hands on Seth Rollins as both men fought the heels in one-on-one matches.

Dawkins had Murphy on the ropes before Rollins drew a disqualification and prevented his teammate from taking a pin-fall loss just days before Super ShowDown.

However, it was Ford who impressed with a great performance against Rollins and he survived longer than most of us thought he would against the former Universal Champion. He missed a frog splash attempt and took the Stomp to lose to The Monday Night Messiah.

A victory and a loss helped both teams stay on equal grounds before their Championship match, and The Street Profits got some quality in-ring time on RAW once again that will help them grow on the Red brand.

While it seems unlikely that they will defeat Rollins and Murphy for the titles on Thursday, there are no doubts in our minds that they will hold the titles for an extended period sometime this year.

#2 Black’s challenge

Black fought through the pain and is now ready for his next victim

Before making his way out to the middle for another match against Erick Rowan, Aleister Black fell prey to The O.C. backstage. The trio beat down The Dutch Destroyer, with AJ Styles throwing him against a door repeatedly and injuring him.

Black did not give up and limped to the squared circle to take on Big Red in a rematch.

Rowan took advantage of the attack and went after Black right from the opening bell. Black was in pain and could barely defend himself throughout the match, but still kept getting a few strikes in to create separation whenever he could.

However, once the fight made its way to the arena floor, it seemed like it would be over in minutes and Rowan would avenge his loss from last week. Yet, nothing he did could put away the former NXT Champion whose resilience started to take a toll on Big Red.

Rowan once again took the fight to the arena floor and delivered a powerbomb into the ring post, but a missed charged attack made Rowan run into the steel steps where he knocked over his cage. Once back inside the ring, Black took the control back and hit a Black Mass to pick up his second consecutive win over Rowan.

The night wasn’t over yet for The Dutch Destroyer who then issued a challenge to Styles for a match next week. This will now be the talk of the WWE Universe until next week as we can’t wait for the undefeated Black to take on The Phenomenal AJ Styles.

Styles’ rivalry with Randy Orton was cut short, but this could be even more exciting given how Black is being built up.

#1 The face of RAW

The night was kicked off by the man who likely ended the careers of Edge and Matt Hardy. While Randy Orton wasn’t just playing games on RAW, he wanted to cut a promo so that everyone was aware of his intentions.

However, the face of RAW, Kevin Owens, cut The Viper off to a huge ovation from the crowd. Owens was unhappy at the fact that Orton ended Edge’s career again, just when KO thought that he’d have the chance to face The Rated-R Superstar in the ring one day.

The promo led to a challenge from The Prizefighter to Orton for later in the night, and once again, the opening segment set up the main event of the night.

The match saw both men going at each other, and Kevin Owens delivering a cannonball on the arena floor and exclaiming, “this is my show!”

The Monday Night Messiah and his disciples arrived at ringside and distracted Owens enough to allow The Viper to regain control.

Later on, The Viking Raiders and The Street Profits arrived to try and wipe out the heels from ringside. When Owens started gaining momentum again, Rollins distracted him again to allow Orton to deliver a big clothesline.

Soon after, Orton delivered a draped DDT and the referee quickly counted to three to the surprise of the fans and Orton himself.

Rollins then helped Orton set Owens up for a con-chair-to, but Owens managed to wriggle out of it and a standoff between Orton and Owens was interrupted by the referee who was later revealed to be one of Rollins’ goons.

These segments helped KO once again come forth as the lone face of RAW who is trying to right the wrongs while everyone else is busy in their own storylines.

Not only did he stand up to Rollins post-Survivor Series, but entering the feud with Orton at such a time shows that he’s the only one of the Red brand who cares. Let’s see what this takes The Prizefighter on the Road to WrestleMania.

Edited by Zaid Khan