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It’s fair to say that a lot has changed since last week’s edition of Monday Night Raw.
Primarily, it was the shock announcement that Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff will become the Executive Directors of Raw and Smackdown respectively.
That’s certainly one way to shake up the current product, but how long will it take to see if these changes actually lead to better content?
While it was reported that Heyman and Bischoff will not transition into their new roles immediately, it’s safe to assume that they may have an input on this week’s shows and there was a sense of intrigue as to how their fresh approaches will be implemented.
Elsewhere, there was the small matter of The Undertaker’s return last week. Would there be any explanation as to why he saved Roman Reigns from Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre’s attack?
Let’s take a look at how these factors played out on tonight’s Raw by running down the show and assigning each individual segment its own grade.
#1. Start with a bang
First up on tonight’s Raw was the ‘Falls Count Anywhere’ match between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley.
While the pair’s previous encounters such the arm-wrestling and tug-of-war contests have left much to be desired, this was a fantastic segment to open up the show.
Far from the usual in-ring promo, this started Raw off with a bang, quite literally, as the two men brawled up to the stage and Braun charged Lashley through the stage, exploding all of the electrical equipment behind the screen.
Everybody played their parts perfectly - from the production crew to the commentary team. Corey Graves needs a special mention here as he exclaimed “Holy S***!” while reacting to the scene, which perfectly helped sell the chaos of the situation.
This segment had Paul Heyman’s fingerprints all over it and may have been a symbolic image to portray a new beginning for Monday Night Raw under his leadership.
Grade: A+
#2. Joe gets a win!
Following on from the hectic opening segment, up next was the previously announced match between Big E and Xavier Woods of The New Day against The Viking Raiders.
This match barely got started before Samoa Joe ran in through the crowd to attack Woods before Kofi Kingston came out to make the save.
This led to the match being restarted as a 6-man tag team match after the commercial break. I guess some things haven’t changed.
Woods was worked over by Joe and The Viking Raiders for most of the match before a number of quick tags saw everyone get some spotlight, including Ivar hitting an impressive dive to the outside.
Ultimately, it came down to Kofi and Samoa Joe and the number one contender won by choking out the Champion, making a statement before their WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules in a couple of weeks.
This was a fairly average match but did hand Joe a much-needed victory, his first since WrestleMania.
Grade: B-
#3. Rambling man
Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre came to the ring to address last week’s actions.
Shane recapped the handicap match between himself, Drew and Roman Reigns and then went on to discuss what was underwhelmingly referred to as the “The Undertaker situation”.
McIntyre then claimed he was not afraid of The Undertaker and challenged the ‘Deadman’ to come down to the ring, which he did after some mind games, including some classic thunder and lightning.
Shane and Drew left the ring and watched on from the crowd as The Undertaker explained his actions…sort of.
Unfortunately, this was a rambling promo from Taker as he plodded through his typical verbiage of ‘dead souls’ and ‘resting in peace’ without specifically revealing why he decided to return when he did.
This did nothing for me in selling the upcoming match at Extreme Rules and was a pretty meaningless segment. The only positive was seeing Drew McIntyre as more of an alpha male, as opposed to just being Shane’s lackey.
Grade: C-
#4. 6-out-of-9 Falls?
In case you didn’t get enough of them on last week’s Smackdown Live, The Miz and Elias squared off once again in another 2-out-of-3 falls match.
Miz picked up the first fall almost instantly after hitting his ‘Skull Crushing Finale’ on Elias. Michael Cole then revealed that a commercial break would take place after the second fall of the match, so I guess Elias is winning the next fall then, which he predictably did after hitting ‘Drift Away’ on Miz.
The deciding fall came after Elias smashed his knee off of the ring post, leading to Miz locking on the figure-four leg lock for the submission victory.
This evens things up after Elias’ win last week. So, will we now get a decider to see who will win this 6-out-of-9 falls series?
Grade: C
#5. Surprise NXT Call-up
In a somewhat odd NXT call-up, the Street Profits made their Raw debut in a couple of backstage segments. Firstly in their own scheduled interview and then by interrupting Paul Heyman’s interview later in the night.
The segments themselves were fine and allowed Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins to showcase their personalities, but I couldn’t help from just wondering why the current NXT Tag Team Champions have been called up to Raw.
Grade: C+
#6. Trashy TV
The Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins vs. Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin feud has hardly enthralled the WWE Universe thus far, and this week’s Raw did nothing to change that.
Lacey defeated Natalya, with the help of Baron Corbin at ringside, earlier in the night in a pointless match before Seth and Becky were involved in another painfully awkward promo backstage.
The so-called ‘banter’ between the real-life couple just isn’t connecting and is only harming the pair.
Their backstage interview was interrupted by Mike and Maria Kanellis, which set up a mixed tag team match.
Seth and Becky then took a backseat to some cheesy drama between the Kanellis’ in their subsequent match.
After Mike tagged in Maria, she grabbed a microphone to belittle her husband before fending off an attack from Lynch by exclaiming that she was pregnant.
A distracted Mike Kanellis was then locked in the ‘Dis-arm-her’ (Or ‘Dis-arm-him) by Becky and tapped out to give Lynch and Rollins the win.
This was nothing more thank hokey, trashy soap opera nonsense, which made the Kanellis’ look pathetic and rendered the Raw Women’s Champion and Universal Champion as after-thoughts.
Grade: F
#7. A Brief 'Moment of Bliss'
Up next was ‘A Moment of Bliss’ with special guest, Nikki Cross.
Alexa began by thanking Nikki for earning her a Smackdown’s Women’s Championship match last week by defeating current Champion, Bayley. Nikki then returned the favour and thanked Bliss for being the only person to take her seriously.
For some reason, Carmella then interrupted the segment and it was her turn this week to warn Nikki Cross about Alexa, claiming that she cannot be trusted.
This lead to an impromptu match between Carmella and Bliss, which ‘Mella won instantly.
After a commercial break, it was Nikki’s turn to take on Carmella, which Cross went on to win after a short match
Grade: D
#8. The Honeymoon is just beginning
A thread throughout Monday Night Raw focused on the ongoing feud between Drake Maverick and R-Truth over the 24/7 Championship.
Maverick arrived on Raw with his new wife on a surprise stop off before their honeymoon, much to his wife’s annoyance.
The newlyweds sat ringside to watch some of the show as Maverick tried to convince his wife that he was choosing her over the 24/7 Title.
However, as they were leaving the arena, they bumped into Truth and Maverick took his chance and pinned him to once again become the champion.
Drake Maverick will now take his 24/7 Championship with him on his honeymoon, which I’m sure will lead to more shenanigans between himself and R-Truth.
Grade: C
#9. The 'real' AJ Styles
In a repeat of last week’s main event, AJ Styles once again faced off with Ricochet, this time with the United States Championship on the line.
This came about after a series of backstage segments, which saw Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson stirring up tensions between Styles and the U.S. Champion, leading to AJ eventually challenging Ricochet to the aforementioned rematch.
The match got off to a false start after AJ pinned Ricochet following a ‘Phenomenal Forearm’ although the champion’s foot was under the rope. The contest was the restarted after a commercial break.
Once things got up and running the two men had another good match with Ricochet once again looking strong, and he went on to win this week’s match after catching AJ with a roll-up to claim the victory.
However, the real story came after the match when AJ, encouraged by Gallows & Anderson, attacked Ricochet, turning heel and re-aligning himself with The Club once again.
After a 3-on-1 beatdown and a vicious looking ‘Styles Clash’ off the second rope, the reunited faction would stand tall over the fallen Ricochet to close the show.
Grade: A-
This week’s Raw was book-ended by two strong segments but the stuff in between was hit and miss.
However, there was enough good stuff to create a hint of optimism going forward into the Heyman era.
Overall Grade: B-
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