Last week, when Baron Corbin announced that there will be a special guest referee in his match against Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship, something snapped inside Rollins.
The fuse blew when Sami Zayn cost Rollins his match via DQ. The storyline of the mysterious special guest referee continued to lurk on this week’s episode of Raw.
With Stomping Ground having poor ticket sales, perhaps this mystery referee will make a match no-one wanted to see tolerable. With a slew of rematches on the card, WWE needed something to keep the card fresh and exciting. Can WWE make their lacklustre PPV intriguing by the end of the show?
Elsewhere on the card, Daniel Bryan is said to make an appearance today thank to the Wildcard Rule. The Planet’s Tag Team Champion has not been on Raw since his loss against Kofi Kingston last month. What does he need to address to the Raw audience?
An exciting Fatal 5-way elimination match is scheduled for this week’s episode of Raw. After all five participants informed Samoa Joe about his interest in the title, it was only natural for all five to fight in one go. Who will raise to the occasion and score a date with the United States Champion?
Bray Wyatt was rumoured to be backstage in his episode of Raw. This is important, as Wyatt has not been backstage since WrestleMania. While this does not guarantee that he will make a televised appearance tonight, one has to wonder why he has returned after his three month absence.
With all that in mind, let’s head towards the review.
The Best of Raw
Utilizing Underused Wrestlers
It seems like WWE remembered that they have a deep roster today. A number of underused talent were used in various segments in this episode of Raw. And no, the 24/7 chase scene does not count.
The Viking Raiders fought in a squash match after disappearing for so long. EC3 was going to be the special guest referee, only to eat a chair shot by Seth Rollins. Heath Slater wanted a raise to take care of his family, but was beaten down by Drew McIntyre. Nice nod to 3MB, by the way. Eric Young had an interesting pep talk with Corbin and Rollins, only to get hit with a chair as well. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows looked like they were getting serious. Even though they lost, they had a solid match against the Usos.
Not everyone who does not have anything to do needed to be taking part of the 24/7 title picture. It is moments like these that allow the underused card to build their characters.
The One and Only Number One Contender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeHxEfYO2qw
The US Title match on Stomping Grounds may be the only enjoyable match in card full of rematches.
After a short opening promo (rare, by WWE’s standards), Raw kicked things off with a No. 1 Contender’s match for the US Title. With US Champion Samoa Joe at ringside, each man put everything on the line to make a name for himself. The pace was quick; the eliminations, quicker.
First, the heels, Cesaro and Bobby Lashley, were quickly eliminated by Braun Strowman. This made sense, as Joe is also a heel. It was simply odd that they were eliminated so soon instead of putting up more of a fight. The two managed to get their revenge after assisting Ricochet in pinning Strowman. Then, in another surreal moment, the two simply walked away. As heels, one would think they would try to ruin the rest of the babyfaces’ lives as well. I guess embarrassing Strowman was enough for them. However, Strowman was not done with them.
The match immediately settled into a singles match between Ricochet and The Miz. Thankfully, the right person got over, and Ricochet won the match. Ricochet vs. Samoa Joe for the US Title should be an amazing contest, given the talent involved. Ricochet is heading into the right direction in establishing himself as a major player in the company. It is a shame the same cannot be said for his former partner, who really likes to stay in his dark room.
‘Join Him’ and ‘Let Him In’
The Firefly Fun House continue to be one of the best skits in WWE. This episode was no exception. The segment quickly developed a dark undertone with an ending that recapped all that had happened thus far.
It seems more prominent than ever that WWE are going to pull the trigger and allow Bray Wyatt to finally make his return to in-ring competition.Hopefully, the character transitions well from an in-ring perspective.
Seth Rollins vs. Daniel Bryan
This is what the paying audience wants to see.
The action started off awkward at first, with Rowan immediately inserting himself into the competition. Then, a slew of wrestlers from both brands started brawling in the ring. Thankfully, the match was restarted, with a rule that no one will interfere in this match.
Once the match restarted, Seth Rollins and Daniel Bryan battled in a technical match, as expected from the these two men. If they had more time of TV and the early shenanigans did not happen, the match could have been even better. These types of matches need to happen on a regular basis.
The Worst of Raw
The ‘Chair’man of Raw
To boost intrigue of the rematch between Seth Rollins and Baron Corbin over the Universal title, RAW’s overall narrative this episode revolved around answering one simple question: who will be the special guest referee for their match at Stomping Grounds. Many names were teased, including Elias, EC3, and Eric Young. Yet, all met the same fate: a relentless rain of chair shots by Seth Rollins.
When Corbin was interviewed backstage about this matter, he ate a chair shot by Rollins. Yet, Corbin looked fine during the backstage segment prior to his interview at the Kevin and Sami Show. Then, he remembered he was in pain during the in ring interview, only to be interrupted by both Rollins and the New Day.
At this point, the brand split has to be dead, because the number of Smackdown wrestlers in today’s episode of Raw was certainly more than four, not that anyone was counting. Also, in the obvious six-man tag match coming up after this segment, Corbin ate the pin after knocking out his teammate. And WWE wonders why the audience is not invested in Corbin or his rivalry with Rollins.
Even though Corbin attacked Rollins at the end of his match with his own chair and stood tall to close Raw, he never revealed who the special guest referee will be. More likely that not, it will not be revealed until this Sunday. By that point, who would care about who this guest referee is?
Overstayed Promos
It hurts that WWE expects the audience to indulge in repetitive scripts and storytelling. During Becky Lynch’s promo, she continued to spout the same summary over and over again. Lacy Evans did nothing to elevate the segment further. Although the segment ended in a quick beat down, it made Lynch look like a sore loser, proving Evan’s point.
Paul Heyman tried to fool the audience into believing that Brock Lesner was in the building. As great of a character Heyman is, he won’t be fooling anyone this time around. He may set intrigue that ‘The Beast’ could be the special guest referee, but the likelihood of that is minimal at best.
The Roman-Shane promo started off strong, with Roman cutting a quick promo and brawling with Shane’s lackeys. The action was solid, and Reigns finally got his revenge on Shane. However, the final execution felt off. Roman should not only send a message to McIntyre, but also to Shane. Until he can get the aftertaste of losing to Shane off of his mouth, Roman needs to continue these beatdowns and messages to Shane. Otherwise, he will be following the footsteps of the Shane-Miz saga, and we all know how that turned out for The Miz.
Viking Raiders Blunder
It appears everyone forgot the fact that Erik and Ivar destroyed the former Raw Tag Team Champions, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder, last month. It was great to see them back in action again in a squash match. However, the Viking Raiders should be in the title picture, or, at least, feuding with another prominent team.
It does not help that their match was only a precursor to another 24/7 title chase. It revealed clearly that WWE has yet to know what to do with this talented team.
That Hulk Hogan Segment
The crowd voiced their mixed response loudly when Hogan appeared on the titan tron. WWE is still trying to ease Hogan back into the mainstream audience. However, many will never forgive him for the things that he did.
Iiconic Letdown
It was nice to see Peyton Royce and Billie Kaye in action and defending their titles. It was not okay that this was more of a segment than it was a match. The clear focus was on the rivalry between Alexa Bliss and Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley. The title match was an afterthought, a means to fuel the fire for their story. The match was fine, but more people will continue to talk about the odd pairing of Bliss and Nikki Cross than the match itself.
Overall Rating for the Show (From best to worst: RawSome, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and RawFul)
Despite my negative criticism for most of the show, I found a number of segments very enjoyable, such as Roman demolishing Shane’s lackeys. I also found a number of matches to be solid and fun to watch. The Fatal 5-Way match was a lot of fun. The Usos vs. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows and Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, and Kevin Owens vs. The New Day was solid. Seth Rollins vs. Daniel Bryan was amazing.
The show would have been great if it was just your average day in Raw. However, this was supposed to be the go-home show for Stomping Ground, and I believe it failed in that regard. I am not that excited about either of the women’s title matches. I am equally not excited about the Universal Title match or the WrestleMania rematch between Reigns and McIntyre. None of the promos for those matches added anything new. At this point, I do not care who the invisible special guest referee is.
The only match that I am excited about is Ricochet vs. Samoa Joe for the United States Championship. However, I will be very upset if that match is in the preshow and Big E and Xavier Woods vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are in the main card.
This week’s episode of Raw is Poor.
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