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Monday Night Raw rolled into Dean Ambrose's hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio this week (get well soon Dean!) as SummerSlam is just less than a month away. By the end of the night, we were going to know who the opponent would be for Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship.
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History was also made on this edition of Monday Night Raw as Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, and Vince McMahon kicked off the show with the announcement that there will be an all-women's pay per view this October.
By the end of the night, two more matches were added to the card including Seth Rollins getting another chance at Dolph Ziggler's WWE Intercontinental Championship. The other match was quite interesting as it will be Braun Strowman v. Kevin Owens for the Money In The Bank Briefcase.
As a whole, Raw continues to get better compared to the past couple of months, but that has to be expected with the second biggest pay per view on the horizon. For the first time in this report card series, I will provide an overall show grade on the final slide with a quick recap.
Speaking of grades, the best grade a segment or match can earn is an A+; while the worst grade one can earn is an F. Let's kick things off with the historic announcement.
#5 WWE Evolution will be the first women's only pay per view
The evening kicked off with the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon already in the ring and the entire roster on the stage. He would introduce his daughter Stephanie McMahon and her husband Triple H to come to the ring.
Vince would speak briefly before Triple H took the floor and gave a wonderful speech that was full of emotion to the women of the WWE. You don't see The Game get choked up often, but he did in this segment and it was wonderful to see.
Stephanie would then speak and make the groundbreaking announcement of an all-women's pay per view on October 28th called WWE Evolution; which will include 50 women from the past, present, and future of the women's division.
It was the announcement that many of us were expecting, but it didn't take away from what a tremendous moment this was.
GRADE: A+
#4 Finn Balor v. Drew McIntyre evolves into a tag team match
What started as a great match between Finn Balor and Drew McIntyre led to a disqualification when Dolph Ziggler got involved. Seth Rollins would make the save and predictably General Manager Kurt Angle would come out and make a tag match.
The singles match between Balor and McIntyre was starting to become great, and the DQ leaves us wanting more. The tag match that ensued after was really well done and would have been up there for match of the night with the exception of the main event.
Rollins hit his stomp finisher on Ziggler to win the match, and earn himself a rematch for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam.
GRADE: B+
#3 Elias' album release party
Elias' debut album was released yesterday on iTunes and Spotify and all throughout Monday Night Raw, he would try to play a tune from the album, only to get interrupted time after time. At the end of the night, he was interrupted by General Manager Kurt Angle, but this was a good interruption as he was nice enough to give the floor to Elias to perform.
After getting through one verse, Elias had enough with Cincinnati and quit playing. Having Elias on Raw all throughout the show was a great way to promote his album. Definitely enjoyed those segments.
GRADE: B+
#2 Quick Grades for other Monday Night Raw segments
B-Team d. Deleter of Worlds to retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
This was a decent match with an odd finish, but I think the feud is going to continue after the post-match attack by Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. It'll be interesting to see if they try to turn the Deleter of Worlds heel considering the WWE Universe loves them. GRADE: B-
Sasha Banks & Bayley d. two jobbers
This was basically a segment to show us that everything is completely fine between Bayley and Sasha, but that won't last long. GRADE: C
Braun Strowman finds his inner peace with Jinder Mahal
Though Strowman is great, this segment was sort of a waste of 10 minutes. Definitely lacked the intrigue of the feud with Kevin Owens, but at least we know that feud continues on through SummerSlam. GRADE: D+
Mickie James d. Natalya
The match was very short but good for the time given. For the WWE Evolution women's pay per view, I'd love to see a 15-minute match between these two. GRADE: C
Mojo Rawley d. Tyler Breeze
Quick rematch from last week for Rawley to continue his winning ways as it appears we're heading to a Mojo v. Bobby Roode match at SummerSlam. GRADE: D+
Ember Moon d. Liv Morgan
Yet another quick match on a show that seemed to be full of them. Moon gets her win back after losing to Logan last week, and Morgan continues to impress me with her improvement in the ring. GRADE: C
#1 Roman Reigns v. Bobby Lashley to become Brock Lesnar's #1 contender
Of course, I understand how a large section of the WWE Universe is not happy with Roman Reigns defeating Bobby Lashley clean to go on to SummerSlam to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship but in order to move on we had to let Vince's vision play out.
That vision was that Reigns overcame several things over the past year to finally defeat The Beast. It's not a popular decision, but at least we can move forward with a new champion and maybe even booking Roman differently.
GRADE FOR THE BOOKING: C
With all of that said, Lashley and Reigns gave us a tremendous main event. After a rocky first few months back, they are booking Lashley a lot better. If Reigns somehow makes it out of Brooklyn still the Universal Champion (depending on the MITB briefcase holder), Lashley has a legit claim at a title shot after beating Reigns at Extreme Rules.
GRADE FOR THE MATCH: A-
As for an overall grade this week, I feel that Raw has improved compared to the build to Extreme Rules, but there were still more clunker segments and matches than great ones.
The WWE Evolution announcement was tremendous, and there were a couple of good matches, and for that the overall grade ends up a little above average.
GRADE: C+
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