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For the first time in a long time, there was a genuine sense of excitement heading into this week’s Monday Night Raw. While Raw’s new Executive Director, Paul Heyman, has yet to officially begin his new role, his fingerprints were all over last week’s show and if nothing else, it got people talking.
WWE announced a couple of segments prior to the show, including the return of Rey Mysterio, Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns and a mystery partner and Zelina Vega and Andrade vs. Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, the latter pairing being a real-life couple, don’t you know?
So would Raw be able to build on their newly-found momentum? Let’s find out by running through every segment of tonight’s show and allocating each match and moment its own grade.
#1 Mixed Elimination Tag
The show kicked off with the mixed tag team match between Zelina Vega & Andrade and Becky Lynch & Seth Rollins. This was revealed to be an elimination tag match, although the men could only fight the men and the women could only fight the women, so how does that make a difference?
Ah, it allows for a mid-match commercial break. There’s your answer. This is exactly what happened after Becky defeated Vega via the ‘Dis-arm-her’. Lynch then brawled with Lacey Evans, who was in the front row, as the show cut to commercial.
Evans was gone by the time we returned and Lynch was stood on the apron even though she could no longer legally enter the match, that’s WWE logic for you! Seth and Andrade had some decent back and forth action before Rollins hit the ‘Curb Stomp’ for the win.
Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans attacked Lynch and Rollins to close the segment and stood tall heading into their Extreme Rules match. It was good to see the show open up with a match, but the glaring logic holes did take away from the contest.
Grade: B-
#2. 2 out of 3 falls...again
The Miz and Elias continued their continuous spate of 2-out-of-3 falls matches, this time in 6-man tag team action with Miz teaming with The Usos and Elias aligning himself with The Revival.
Elias and Miz tangled on the outside before Elias retreated to the back, never to return. Despite this, The Revival picked up the first fall and this lead to another mid-match commercial break.
The Miz evened things up with a ‘Skull-Crushing Finale’ before Jey Uso quickly picked up the decisive fall to give the babyfaces the win.
Grade: B-
#3 Rey returns
Up next was the return of Rey Mysterio. Rey cut a short promo before his match saying he’s defied the doctor’s diagnosis by recovering from his injury in just 6 weeks. He then invited anybody from the back to come out and answer his open challenge.
Bobby Lashley accepted the challenge, the same Bobby Lashley that apparently suffered multiple injuries last week when Braun Strowman drove him through the stage.
Lashley looked fine and essentially squashed Mysterio in a quick match. Did we need to see Lashley on this week’s show? If so, did he really need to demolish the returning Rey Mysterio?
I would rather have seen Lashley and Strowman take a few weeks off to sell the injuries from last week. However, WWE decided to fast track their return and they will be facing each other in a ‘Last Man Standing’ match this Sunday at Extreme Rules.
Grade: C-
#4 All filler, no killer
A lot of the rest of the show was littered with numerous, pointless segments and squash matches. Cesaro had no trouble beating No Way Jose whilst the Viking Raiders easily destroyed a couple of jobbers.
Even a short in-ring promo from Paul Heyman felt lifeless as he once again teased a cash-in from Brock Lesnar this Sunday.
The trashy soap opera nonsense between Mike and Maria Kanellis continued as Maria suggested that perhaps Mike isn’t the father of her second child. All these segments were indicative of the overall show and did nothing but sap the energy out of the viewing audience.
Grade: D-
#5 The Honeymoon continues
Not even Drake Maverick and R-Truth could inject some life into this week’s Raw with their 24/7 Championship shenanigans.
In fact, they only added to the illogical booking as Drake Maverick brought his new wife to Newark, New Jersey for the second part of their honeymoon.
Why would he want to come to Raw? Surely he wants to avoid all the other wrestlers that are after his championship.
The usual stuff of the jobbers chasing the 24/7 Champion around the arena took up a number of segments, but none of them felt as entertaining as they have in recent weeks.
Grade: C-
#6 Can Ricochet overcome The Club?
Up next, Ricochet faced Luke Gallows in singles action while Karl Anderson and AJ Styles watched on from ringside. Gallows dominated early on before getting cocky, allowing Ricochet to surprise him with a quick roll-up.
Styles then got on the microphone and set-up an impromptu second match for Ricochet against Karl Anderson. This was a more competitive match, but Ricochet would ultimately pick up another victory after taking out Gallows and Styles at ringside and hitting Anderson with a ‘630 Splash’.
The heels then jumped Ricochet after the match and laid him out with a pretty decent beat down, which the United States Champion sold convincingly.
While it wasn’t as noteworthy as previous weeks, it was one of the better things on the show and leads nicely into the United States Championship match between Styles and Ricochet at Extreme Rules.
Grade: B-
#7 Beat the Clock
It was announced that Bayley and Nikki Cross would compete in a ‘Beat the Clock’ challenge to determine whether Bayley or Alexa Bliss, who was absent from this week’s show, would pick the stipulation for the Smackdown Women’s Championship match at Extreme Rules.
They hyped this up with a split-screen backstage interview with the two competitors. This was an awful charisma-less promo from both women which did nothing more than reveal each of their opponents for later in the night. Up first was Bayley taking on Sarah Logan in front of a silent, uninterested crowd.
Bayley picked up the win after 4 minutes and 32 seconds, although it felt a lot longer. Nikki Cross then had to beat this time in her match against Dana Brooke. The babyface Dana, who has been begging for a chance to prove herself, did her best to avoid Cross and run down the clock. Brooke ultimately failed and Nikki picked up the win with plenty of time to spare.
Nikki Cross then cut another painfully bland promo after the match and revealed the stipulation for Extreme Rules, a 2-on-1-handicap match between herself and Alexa Bliss against Bayley for the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
Grade: D-
#8 Gary 'The GOAT' Garbutt
This mercifully brings us to the main event match of Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon against Roman Reigns and a partner of Shane’s choosing. Could they at least end the show with something meaningful? No, they couldn’t.
A series of backstage segments throughout the show saw Shane and Drew looking for a partner for Roman. They considered a garbage guy and a guy selling beer, but ultimately chose a middle-aged janitor with a limp. The janitor was billed as Gary ‘The G.O.A.T’ Garbutt and came out wearing a mask.
‘Janitor Gary’ turned out to be the most over guy on the show when he was inadvertently tagged in and ran wild on Shane and Drew with a springboard back elbow and an impressive dive to the outside. However, Drew then stifled Gary’s flurry with a ‘Claymore kick’, allowing Shane to get the pinfall.
Gary the janitor then removed his mask to reveal his true identity; he was none other than…Cedric Alexander. Could you write more of a flat ending to a show? Cedric Alexander?! He was literally more popular when people thought he was a janitor.
Grade: D-
This was a long, arduous show and was a massive drop off from last week’s Raw.
Hopefully, things will get back on track after Extreme Rules when Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff officially take over their new executive roles.
Overall grade: D+
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