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The red brand headed out west for Monday Night Raw this week as the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California was the host last night. Fitting how San Diego was the host with the announcement of Rey Mysterio as the pre-order bonus for WWE 2K19 taking place during the first commercial break.
With Money In The Bank in the rearview mirror, the roster is looking ahead to Extreme Rules. The pay per view is only three weeks away and it doesn't seem like they know what to do with the Raw side yet, as evidenced by last night's opening segment.
As has been the case for the past few weeks, Raw was a mixed bag of good and bad sections. There seemed to be better moments on the show than good matches, with the exception of an awesome main event between Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Just like all of my report card articles, the best grade a match or segment can earn is an A+. The worst grade that a match or segment can earn is an F.
Without further ado, let's kick off Raw with... the same way it started last week pretty much.
#1 Kurt Angle and Constable Corbin talk Extreme Rules
Monday Night Raw kicked off with Kurt Angle making an announcement about Brock Lesnar, similar to the segment in the middle of last week's show. He claimed that Lesnar didn't like the idea of a multi-man match at Extreme Rules, so it is canceled.
The show will get so much better once the title is off of Lesnar. For that announcement... GRADE: F
Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley came out, just like last week, to jaw at each other. I must say that I am loving the interactions between Lashley and Reigns and if it leads to a match at Extreme Rules, I'm excited to see where the feud can go.
For the interactions between Lashley and Reigns... GRADE: A
Also just like last week, The Revival came out to interrupt. It led to a repeat tag match that was better than last week. It was nice surprise seeing Roman getting caught in a roll-up to lose the match. Afterward, Lashley would gloat at the fact that Reigns got pinned.
This not only helped The Revival get some much-needed momentum, it's creating a great feud between Lashley and Reigns. For the match... GRADE: B+
#2 Bayley has finally snapped
This segment was another case where the story developments were greater than the match. Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Ember Moon took on the Riott Squad in a six-woman tag team match. A commercial break took up half the match, but there wasn't much to see here. GRADE: D+
The major moment of this segment was after the match. A despondent Sasha was sitting in the middle of the ring when out of nowhere Bayley came into the ring and brutally attacked her inside and out of the ring.
On paper, I think creative was thinking this was the official heel turn for Bayley, but the WWE Universe, myself included, absolutely loved the attack. It'll be interesting to see if they continue to try to make Bayley the heel in this situation.
GRADE: A
#3 The budding friendship between Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman
After Braun Strowman told general manager Kurt Angle that he wanted to be Kevin Owens' friend and tag with him, a match was set up against another odd pairing of Finn Balor and Baron Corbin. I'm a little baffled why Strowman wanted a match with Balor after coming to his defense last week.
The match itself didn't gel well at all and ended in a count out when Balor and Corbin attacked each other on the ramp. GRADE: C-
Again, the shining moment of the segment was after the match. KO thinking he's buddies with Strowman after their win goes to shake his hand. When Strowman didn't immediately reciprocate, Owens took off running in a hilarious moment.
That wasn't all though. Owens grabbed his briefcase and some security and rushed out of the arena, but when he tried to get his keys from the valet, he learned that Strowman got them first and flipped over Owens' car!
This was yet another great Strowman backstage segment, and the stuff he's doing with Owens keeps getting better and better. GRADE: A
#2 Quick grade for other Monday Night Raw segments...
Curtis Axel d. Matt Hardy
The match lasted less than a minute, but the second parity of The Deleter of Worlds by Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas was great again. For the match, GRADE: F. For the parody, GRADE: A.
The Authors of Pain d. Two Jobbers
Due to visa issues, AOP had been absent from television for a few weeks, but they're back and destroyed a couple of jobbers. It appears that Titus Worldwide is going to be their first feud on the main roster. Not much to the match, but I'm glad to see AOP back and interested in their first main roster feud. Overall, I'll give the segment... GRADE: C
Alexa Bliss and Mickie James grace us with their presence
There is a reason why Alexa Bliss is a five-time women's champion within two years, she's as great on the microphone as she is in the ring. People are getting tired of her being pushed so much, but it plays perfectly into her heel persona.
Natalya came out to stick up for her friend that Bliss and Mickie James were trashing in Ronda Rousey; which led to a surprisingly quick win for Nattie. I think we're heading towards a Fatal-4-Way at SummerSlam with Bliss, Nattie, Rousey, and Jax. For the promo... GRADE: B+. For the match: GRADE: D+.
Mojo Rawley refuses to face No Way Jose again
The star of this segment was Todd, the member of No Way Jose's conga line who was dressed like a cheeseburger. I think Mojo's heel persona is developing quite nicely. It's tough to give a high grade to such a short segment, but I was pleased with how Mojo looked here. GRADE: B-
#1 Seth Rollins d. Dolph Ziggler by disqualification for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
With the WWE Universal Championship on a milk carton, it was great to see the WWE Intercontinental Championship match between Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler get the main event slot this week.
The pairing of Ziggler with Drew McIntyre has been great and I have a pipe dream that it would lead to McIntyre with the WWE Universal Championship and Ziggler with the Intercontinental.
The beauty of this week's main event was that Ziggler and Rollins were given a lot of time, 28 minutes to be exact.
After several near falls between the two men, Rollins hit his patented Superplex followed by a Falcon Arrow. The ref was counting the pinfall when McIntyre pulled the ref out of the ring to cause the disqualification.
To my surprise, Roman Reigns came out to save Rollins from the two-on-one attack. With Dean Ambrose due back within the next couple of months, maybe we're getting The Shield reunion we didn't fully get last year.
GRADE: A
Which was your favorite segment on Raw this week? Tell us in the comments below!
