RAW Review: May 23rd

Hello! With Extreme Rules in the books, all of the attention is now on Money in the Bank in around a Months time. Especially after just how fucking weird MITB was last year, I'm sort of half hoping/half expecting a really good one this year to make up for it. This is contradictory to what I've said a couple of times, but I'm expecting a good build as much as I'm expecting a good actual PPV for next month. For the simple fact that even WWE's completely inept writing staff can't completely kill a character in a Month, and that's all they've got to try with Rollins, Cena, The Wyatts and Orton.

I do think we're on for a string of top quality PPV's as far as match quality goes with all of the names mentioned above returning, so if the build can even be described as "decent" for MITB, Battleground & Summerslam- we'll be on for a really good summer. There's quite a few things to discuss from last night's RAW, so I'm just going to jump straight into the return of Crossfit Jesus to his home. RAW's Opening Segment.

Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Shane McMahon Segment
If Seth had returned to RAW in any other way, it would have been a massive disappointment. THE 15 MINUTE ROLLINS PROMOS ARE BACK BAYBAY! This is the first point of contention from what I've seen, as far as reactions to a segment go. Basically, a lot of the reactions I saw were pissed that Rollins is still a Heel for the Roman Reigns feud.

I did think they were going to go for a bit more of a "blurred lines" dynamic, as opposed to Seth coming out and burying the crowd on his second night back. However, turning someone on return has been done a million times now- and I hate most of them because it makes absolutely zero sense. Seth isn't going to be a Heel long. It'll be up until MITB, where Triple H fucks him over for the Title- and they build to either Seth/Triple H or Seth/Triple H/Roman at Summerslam. So basically, stop complaining. I'm just happy we're going to get Seth's turn actually on TV and built up to- rather than him just suddenly showing up after 7 Months out and deciding he wants to be a good guy.

This is the thing some people forget, especially in this era where people want instant gratification with everything. There's always going to be a next week.

The actual segment I thought was decent, the fact there was 7 Months between Rollins Opening the show means I was infinitely more tolerant of his Promo than I was around September/October time. We got the match set for Money in the Bank, and that was that for both guys on the night. Great. You're not overexposing Seth on his return, which was my main concern seeing as he took up about a third of the air-time before he got hurt.

We also got the weirdest "You've still got it chant". I don't even know who it was for. I'm assuming Shane, but all he did was do his Entrance that he's now been doing for around 3 Months, and made a match. YOU'VE STILL GOT IT.

Sami Zayn v Sheamus- MITB Qualifier
I was expecting an alternate route for Sami and Owens to qualify for MITB, but I'm happy with how this match played out nonetheless. Firstly, even if you're not a Sheamus Fan- around this time even if you would've understood if Sheamus got a push. He's in one of the standard Summer Blockbuster Films for christ sake. They've barely even promoted it on TV, and that's really annoying to me- because they did the same with Batista and Guardians and they haven't learned from it.

My thing with Sheamus has always been, because he's seen as Triple H's "gym buddy" or one of Vince's guys who he wants to be the next Cena- a lot of people have simply written him off. He's a damn good wrestler. If Sheamus was doing exactly what he's done in WWE in New Japan, people would absolutely LOVE him. All this is to say, Sheamus was really good in this match, Sami was really good in this match, it was a really good match.

Sheamus attacks Apollo Crews
I'm not sure if Sheamus is going to feud with Apollo Crews, or he's going to be feuding with the "new era" in general. It's actually an amalgamation of a few ideas I've pitched in my Booking Blogs, mainly by "Booking Wrestlemania 32" one from a year ago. Where my basic idea was that Sheamus would feud with NXT as a brand in general, taking out the likes of Xavier Woods, Kalisto, Neville who at the time were some of the more recent call-ups. On the basis of Sheamus wanting to eliminate the "future" of the WWE, and show that he IS the future. Then it'd build to an NXT Star eventually fighting back in Finn Balor.

They could go down that route. Especially with how "off" The Dudleys/Enzo & Cass feud is now given the fact Cass has basically beaten them both on his own, having Sheamus just go crazy and attack Enzo & Cass, Apollo and any other "new era" guys would make for an interesting angle in my opinion.

New Day v The Social Outcasts
Nobody does self-aware quite like New Day do at the moment. The stuff with the Cake and all of the jokes being about who's getting smashed in the face with it was fun. They're probably going to make fun of WWE Weddings next, maybe save that one for Smackdown to make fun of King.

The match was decent. The thing with New Day is, Enzo & Cass aren't ready for a full blown feud yet. Gallows & Anderson are pretty much the only Tag Team that New Day haven't beaten, and they're going to be kept busy by the angle with AJ and soon to be Balor for a while yet. In short, New Day have hit a bit of a ceiling as to what they can actually do. With two spots left in MITB, there's still a hope for either Big E or Kofi- but for now all they can do is keep being themselves. After all, that's what got them to the point they're at now.

Cesaro v The Miz- MITB Qualifier
I was surprised by the general lack of shenanigans across all of the matches tonight to be honest. I was sure that Owens would interfere in Sami's match, Sami would interfere in Owens' match and Miz would get himself DQ'd in this match. It seems as though they're getting all of the Title stuff out of the way on Smackdown, with Kalisto getting his Rematch for the US Title and it being Cesaro/Miz for the IC Title- which means Cesaro's not winning the Title like I thought he would.

The match was decent on the whole. Miz continues to be one of the highlights of 2016 for me, Cesaro's in MITB as one of the "power" guys which are always needed. Really good segment.

Seth Rollins, Stephanie McMahon Backstage Promo
The Authority Angle is basically dead, but they still need to keep the Rollins/Stephanie dynamic on TV because of the upcoming Triple H feud. In short, this segment had a job to do and it did it well.

Chris Jericho v Apollo Crews- MITB Qualifier
I suppose I should start off by saying, what was the fucking point of the Sheamus attack? I thought they did to sort of level the playing field as far as "Health" goes for this match so when Jericho won Crews would have an excuse. Nope, he came out and was completely no-selling it.

The actual match was pretty good, apart from the obvious moment where Jericho nearly took Crews' head off on the Lionsault. I'm assuming the spot was meant to be Jericho goes for the Lionsault, Crews catches him on his Shoulders and he transitions into the position for his finisher but Jericho slips out. What we got instead was a result of either Crews being too slow to get up, or Jericho being too fast on the Lionsault. I'm not sure who's fault it was, Crews was obviously fine because they carried the match on, so let's just move on quickly.

Baron Corbin & Dolph Ziggler Backstage Segment
THIS FEUD ISN'T OVER! It's funny actually, after the Cody Rhodes news I did almost a mini-blog on Twitter talking about how most of the guys who came in during the Mid-2000s are surplus to requirements because there's a new "vision" now. Dolph is the next one that I can see asking for his Release. I know he just signed a contract probably about a year ago now, but he must be getting sick of, well everything now.

The implication in this segment was Dolph saying he could out-wrestle Corbin, and the words "technical wrestling match" were said, so that can only mean one thing for their match next week. THE 2ND EVER JACK THWAGGER THENIOR INVITATIONAL!

Big Cass v Bubba Ray Dudley
Yup, Enzo Amore's back. This may be a contrarian opinion, but Enzo just seemed a bit "off" to be last night. Not in the "usual" Enzo way of being for want of a better word "weird"- but just a bit "off". It also seemed to me that Cass was getting a bit annoyed with Enzo, because he was about to have a match, which we all knew was in a short segment and Enzo was dicking around and generally just being Enzo.

The match was basically as expected. I'm not really sure where they go with this feud to be honest. Cass has basically destroyed The Dudleys by himself, and it's building up to a Tag Match. So, basically if Enzo & Cass don't win said Tag Match then Enzo's confirmed as a liability and Cass should ditch him.

Charlotte & Ric Flair Promo Segment
I sometimes go to bed thinking one thing about a segment, wake up to do the Review and my opinion's completely changed. This isn't one of them, for the simple fact that as of writing this I still haven't made my mind up about it.

In short, I'm not sure if I thought this segment was absolutely amazing- or just bad. It does have to be said that this is the segment that really stuck with me from last night, and that's a rare occurrence for a Womens segment. You knew it was going to be a weird segment right from the start, all three were just sort of tentatively going through their lines in anticipation of what was about to happen. Charlotte was completely thrown off by the crowd at one point, and given how much her voice was shaking it sounded like she was about to cry.

Charlotte's Promo just felt so rushed. It's like she had a 20 Page script, and she was told to deliver all the lines in 2 Minutes. The delivery was definitely off from a TV sense, but in a way I think it added to the overall effect. Charlotte delivering her lines at a Million Miles an Hour, to me at least was her sort of finally getting what she's wanted to say off her Shoulders and wanting to get everything out while she can. That's how I'm thinking of it at least.

Overall this segment DEFINITELY did its job. The one thing I wish they would've done is half-way through Charlotte's Promo they just cut to Dana looking awkward in the corner. I'm assuming given they put over the fact it was Charlotte that approached Dana for Extreme Rules that Dana is basically going to assume Ric's role. I'm fine with that, we've seen in NXT how good of a heater Dana can be. So in short, one of the weirdest segments in recent memory.

Dean Ambrose v Dolph Ziggler- MITB Qualifier
This match definitely showed Corbin! It was a decent match on the whole, I don't think anyone expected anything less to be honest. This was the only match where I was 100% sure on who was going to win, so that did take a bit of the jeopardy out of the match for me- but that's my only real criticism.

Shining Stars Promo
I do have to laugh at the fact that Epico & Primo literally debuted a week ago, and they're already back to doing Promos. I said it in my Extreme Rules Review about Corbin, but it's equally applicable to these two- with the number of returns due they're going to have to really fight to not get completely lost in the shuffle.

AJ Styles & The Club Promo
Everything that happened in this segment is fitting with what I've thought would happen between now and the end of Money in the Bank. They're showing tension between AJ and The Club, but they're not going all out on it yet- and that's all for a reason.

Kevin Owens v AJ Styles- MITB Qualifier
Firstly, just because AJ lost this match doesn't mean he's not going be in the MITB Match. There's still two spots left, and in the most likely scenario from my perspective AJ gets another qualifier and wins it via interference from Gallows & Anderson. It's basically all building into the story of Gallows & Anderson turning on AJ because he can't get the job done on his own, as was shown again last night. If this doesn't happen, and Balor hasn't debuted as The Club's new leader to feud with AJ by the end of the night after MITB feel free to call me stupid- but for now I can still say with somewhat certainty that this angle makes perfect sense.

The actual match was really good, although I think I said this the last time these two wrestled- did anyone really expect anything different? Owens in particular is just absolutely amazing, and while Ambrose is likely to win the Briefcase, assuming there's no member of New Day involved Owens would be my pick for it.

Thanks for reading as always. Last Night's RAW was weird, just because there was a lot more Sports than there was Entertainment for a change. There really wasn't many talking segments last night, and the focus was almost exclusively on the in-ring action and the MITB Qualifiers- which I'm more than fine with. The next stop on the road to MITB is picking up a certain John Cena, so that's something to look forward to- and the Review for that will be up this time next week. Thanks again for reading, hopefully you have a good week. #CakeLivesMatter. No? Okay then.