I wish I was known as a ‘mindless meat castle’.
And yet, here we are. Curse my middling intellect and unimpressive upper body!
As this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw got underway – a go-home show, mind you, heading into Survivor Series this Sunday – little did we know that we would soon be getting a glimpse into Braun Strowman’s deepest insecurity.
Last night’s broadcast kicked off with a tag team battle royal, with the winners ostensibly being given the honour of selecting the four other teams then in the ring to compete in the Survivor Series tag team elimination contest. Just as I started to question the inherent pointlessness of this match, my train of thought was interrupted by Braun’s entrance music. The ‘Monster Among Men’ proceeded to march down to the ring and absolutely wreck every participant in the battle royal. It was fairly cool.
One demand to see Baron Corbin and an intervention by Stephanie McMahon later, and Braun started to reveal his inner, softer core. He roared, grumbled, and then lamented his perception amongst the WWE bigwigs, claiming to know that everyone backstage looks at him “like he’s some mindless meat castle”.
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I don’t get it either. I mean, why on Earth would anyone think that, Braun? Maybe it’s because you’re constantly flipping over trucks and staging areas. Or maybe it’s because you once collapsed scaffolding on top of Brock Lesnar and Kane. It might be the bicep tattoo that reads “country strong”. Or that the first note of your entrance theme is just you roaring. Or it might be because you refer to yourself as the ‘Monster Among Men’ and spend every night yelling that people will get your hands. I don’t know – do any of these sound like reasons why people might see you as a “mindless meat castle”?
It was a weird line to give Braun Strowman, but arguably not even close to being the weirdest thing to happen on last night’s Raw. Survivor Series teams were (sometimes awkwardly) announced. Stephanie McMahon is a babyface – maybe? Ruby Riott pretended to cry over broken sunglasses. Ronda Rousey set a record for using the most words to say absolutely nothing. And Becky… well Becky’s just plain awesome. Even while looking like someone who just launched herself head first through WWE‘s glass ceiling.
"Michelangelo couldn't envision a better physique. You see this? This is ART." – @ItsLioRush #RAW @fightbobby pic.twitter.com/eWXG9sJcBa
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) November 13, 2018
It was generally a strange night.
But what did our WrestleTalk team make of it? Read on after the break to see what our writers thought about the show, while running through their favourite and least favourite moments of Raw, and venturing a rating of the show overall.
What was your favourite moment from Raw?
Dylan Kapisky
Burn it down, Dean Ambrose? I feel like it’s cheating for me to constantly list this feud as being the best part of Raw, but I can’t help it. It’s fantastic.
This week in particular Dean Ambrose was the standout, as he cut an excellent promo before throwing his Shield vest in the bin, which was already engulfed in flames. Everything about this, from the location to his delivery to Seth’s selling of the entire scene, was spectacular.
Even better, thanks to the Raw vs. SmackDown gimmick for Survivor Series, this rivalry can fester under the surface and continue to build heat for weeks, maybe even months. And when it does finally pay-off, it will be incredible.
JP Wood
The final segment. Raw was a fairly solid show this week, no doubt, but I find I keep coming back to the women’s division for my highlights. That last segment tonight, that saw Becky Lynch get the better of Ronda Rousey not once, but twice, in brutal attacks.
If I’m being honest with myself, I’d like to see the Rousey / Lynch matchup main event Survivor Series. Becky getting busted open only helped her badass image, and it looks like we’re going to get some kind of follow-up on SmackDown.
Eric Stites
My favorite part was the surprise attack from Becky and the SmackDown women’s roster. I realize they do this angle every year, but I think WWE nailed it this time.
Since this came so late in the show I genuinely wasn’t expecting it. Seeing Becky holding Ronda in the disarm-her and then triumphantly walk to the ring was very nice to see. Ever since Ronda’s debut we’ve never really seen her get bested without any help from anyone, but I was so glad to see Becky do it here.
Then to make it even better, the entire SmackDown women’s roster came out and attacked the Raw women, ending with a bloodied Becky Lynch smashing a chair over Ronda’s back. Can you get any more badass than that? I doubt it!
The final image was Becky standing tall at the top of the steps with her arms up, not caring at all that her nose was still bleeding. Becky is seemingly unstoppable! I can’t wait for this match on Sunday!
https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1062231777253748736
Nicholas Holicki
Come on, be serious. Is this even a debate?
Becky Lynch almost tearing Ronda’s arm off backstage before marching to the ring to confront the entire Raw women’s division simply has to take the prize this week.
Sure, it turned out that she was only the vanguard as soon enough the rest of the SmackDown women showed up, but that didn’t stop Becky from standing out in the melee that ensued.
She got cracked in the face early on (likely by a stray Nia Jax elbow) and, with blood gushing all over the place, continued to absolutely maul Ronda Rousey. It was a great spot, inadvertently made all the better by the visual of Becky’s blood covered face and hands.
Hopefully the injury isn’t too serious and Becky is able to make it to Survivor Series (and win dammit!), but ‘the Man’ unquestionably came out of Raw looking even more badass than she did going in.
What was the worst part of last night’s episode?
Dylan Kapisky
For the second time in the year of our Lord, 2018, Braun Strowman is the strongest tag team on Raw.
No, that wasn’t a mistake, you didn’t read it wrong. Braun Strowman – an individual man (monster) – is the best tag team in Raw‘s weak division. The first time happened before WrestleMania 34, when Strowman entered, and won, a tag team battle royal on his own. Last night, while not winning it, Braun would once again decimate every one of Raw‘s pairings during another battle royal.
It’s upsetting to see how poorly that division is treated by the red brand’s creative team. The ‘Monster Among Men’ barrelled through them all like they weren’t even there. The treatment of tag teams on Raw has been awful all year, but last night was excessively poor.
JP Wood
The whole mess surrounding the tag team elimination match. Who’s even in it? This was the go-home show and all we know is that Gable and Roode are going to be the team captains for Raw. What are the other teams? Does it matter?
It’s frustrating to watch the tag team division these days, on either show. WWE seems to go out of their way to bury it. Survivor Series seems to be no exception.
(Editor’s Note: Raw revealed the tag teams competing at Survivor Series on Twitter. This news did nothing to change JP’s thoughts on the division.)
Eric Stites
My least favorite part of the show was Ronda calling Becky a millennial. Ronda is two days younger than Becky. Wouldn’t that make her a millennial too? Not the best writing there Vince. The only positive is that although the line made absolutely no sense, Ronda delivered it pretty well.
Nicholas Holicki
As great as Becky’s appearance was, Ronda’s really struggling to hold up her end of this feud. Does anyone know what she was on about in that promo?
She spent half of it babbling about millennial men, skinny jeans, avocado toast and winged shoes. She also said something about Oliver Twist and trust fund babies. It was an overly scripted, incomprehensible mess that I’ve now watched three times. It doesn’t get any less awkward.
WWE needs to be careful that they don’t inadvertently crush Ronda’s momentum before we even get to Survivor Series. Putting her in the same ring as Becky is a great idea, letting her share mic time with ‘the Man’ is not. If they don’t reverse course soon, this has ‘Billy Gunn vs the Rock’ written all over it.
How would you rate the show overall? (From best to worst: In Awe, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and Bore)
Dylan Kapisky
Cor. I came into this show with deathly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised with what ended up being a perfectly paced, thoroughly enjoyable three hours of television.
With the exception of the tag team burial and the further exploitation of Jim Neidhart’s death, I thought everything about this show was excellent. Drew McIntyre cut a great promo, as did Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins. There was solid wrestling in the ring, as well. Even Stephanie McMahon was tolerable this week.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the lack of care given to tag team wrestling, this would have been an In Awe show for me. Instead, it’s a high four out of five.
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JP Wood
This week’s Raw was Cor. For the most part, this was a decent go-home show. We got to see all of the big names on the show, and most of the matches felt like they got a little injection of story this week. Overall, there are a few matches I’m looking forward to.
Eric Stites
I had a lot of fun with this episode. The opening was awesome. The Survivor Series build was fantastic, especially considering how little time they gave themselves to do it.
The wrestling was good for the most part. There were definitely some boring parts of the show but that’s inevitable with a three hour long show. I think there was much more good than bad on this week’s Raw, therefore I think it was Cor.
Nicholas Holicki
Don’t let that insane ending fool you. For the most part, this was a fairly mediocre episode of Raw, bookended by two excellent segments.
The match between Finn and Dolph was top notch, as was everything Becky Lynch. But the middle really sagged, with underwhelming Survivor Series team announcements and little in the way of actual good wrestling. While it didn’t take my worst of Raw award this week, I’m also really starting to cool on the Seth Rollins / Dean Ambrose feud. It just seems to have fallen victim to WWE‘s constant cycle of pay-per-views and is once again playing second fiddle to Survivor Series this weekend.
Purely because Raw left on such a high note though, I’m scoring it a low AvRAWge this week.
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