RAW Review: 3rd August

Hello! It's another RAW Review and I really need to think of more witty stuff to say in these intro paragraphs. This RAW was a strange one going in because this was pretty much bang on in the middle for the Summerslam build meaning a dud week was expected, combine that with the fact at least half of pretty much every major feud was missing headed into last night and as a result I wasn't expecting big things from last night, but sometimes those type of shows turn into a pleasant surprise.

Seth Rollins Promo
If they're going to have long and rambling opening promos at least let them be done like this. End of the day with Cena fucked for at least a few weeks they're treading water on this feud until he comes back so at least I can say I was entertained by this treading water promo. The Open Challenge announcement was good for what followed after, but it made literally zero sense. In fact Rollins specifically made a point in one of his Promos about only defending against "worthy" guys and Cena defending against "the rest". So he proceeded to not only defend against "the rest", but he specifically made a point of wanting to defend a guy especially beneath him- literally.

Seth Rollins v Neville- WWE Title
I completely loved this match. I'd say about 85% of matches in WWE have an obvious outcome, and that's a pretty conservative estimate. The job of all of those matches is to convince the crowd (and the viewers watching on TV) that the obvious outcome isn't in fact obvious and the no-hoper in this case Neville might actually win. From that perspective it was one of the best ever, having the false finishes go to 2.99/3 before the kick out was just- wow. Nobody can say they didn't think Neville had won after the Red Arrow spot, and if they do they're lying. I just loved it, it put over Neville massively which in turn is good for the Amell/Stardust stuff and it also put Rollins' character over yet again. This was just great, I loved it.

New Day & The Ascension v Los Matadores & The Lucha Dragons
This was just a really standard tag match. I'm still not entirely sure what the match for Summerslam will be other than it being for the Belt and including New Day. I thought it'd be a 4-Way but now The Ascension have gotten involved I'm not really sure- because even with time I can't see a scenario where a 5+ Team match doesn't end badly. Maybe it'll be a gauntlet match but I don't know. Oh Yeah, I don't know if any of you know this- Xavier Woods and the New Day are great- that may shock some of you.

Charlotte & Becky Lynch v The Bellas
I point blank refuse to call them the "Submission Sorority". It's like when they tried to put over Erick Rowan as a Wine Maker and a member of MENSA or whatever- but the porn version, literally. I'd bet on it lasting approximately a week before they change them to something else. The match itself was fine, it's good to see Nikki Bella's upping her in-ring game to at least compete with the NXT girls- and that's coming from someone who HATES The Bellas. I said it last night and I'll say it again here and somewhat expand. The crowd does not know what to do in these matches, the "casual" fan doesn't watch NXT out of the 1.2 or so million people who are subbed to the Network without knowing I'd guess about 400,000-600,000 at the most watch NXT. That's 400,000 out of the approximately 4 million who watch RAW. The casual fan will only have been vaguely aware of what was happening in NXT. They're not used to Womens matches going 10+ minutes, they're into it for 2 or 3 as they were here- and they only really came back into it for the Hot Tag. The "Diva Revolution" isn't an overnight thing, that said if they keep going the way they are- and that's by no means a guarantee with Vince it'll eventually get over.

MizTV with Cesaro & Owens
I liked this without loving it. I don't know if it annoyed me that they didn't shoot the "Cesaro Section" to make it look as impressive as it was, and if on the off chance the guy who organised it on Reddit is reading this I'd just like to say well done. This segment to me was a bit "meh", all three guys are capable of a lot better- but that said I don't think they should have gone overboard last night with so long left before Summerslam. I don't know if this feud will soon be for the IC Title- with Rybacks Knee being as it is I can't see a scenario where he's fine for Summerslam, and with Owens hitting Miz into Cesaro this feud is the obvious way to go for the Title heading into Summerslam, which I'm all for.

Ronda Rousey-Piper Tribute
Yes, the Piper tribute was nice on the part of Rousey- but that wasn't the reason they did it. They've been kissing up to Rousey pretty much since Mania seemingly to try and schmooze her so much she does Mania. ONE PROBLEM, Rousey will not and can not make the decision of if she does Mania- it's Dana White and Dana White alone who'll make that decision. People might make the argument of Dana won't be able to stop her- but the fact is he can. I would put money on there being a clause in Rousey's UFC deal that limits what she can do without permission from the UFC, especially when it comes to WWE or any other TV Show where she can potentially get hurt. So in short, if Rousey tries to force it through Dana either blocks it, sues Rousey and/or WWE and most likely puts a cease and desist to boot which'll prevent Rousey from appearing on WWE programming anyway. It's just stupid that they haven't worked that out yet seemingly.

Rusev v Mark Henry
The match was fine, but it wasn't Rusev doing weird comedy. Also, it was weird because Rusev carried on after the match and that was when I was expecting Dolph to make his big return and beat the shit out of Rusev while Lana slapped Summer with a Fish repeatedly but we just got nothing.

Bray Wyatt Promo
This was weird, just because Sheamus was in Wyatt' weird smokey lair. I don't know if that was meant to make me laugh but it did.

King Barrett v Zack Ryder
If there was a definition of a "crowd killer" match this was it. Fair enough if you want to seemingly try and get King Barrett over- but have him go out there and kill someone, especially someone like Zack Ryder. Instead we got a way too long match and it just killed the crowd even more so than it was already by this point.

Paul Heyman Promo
Paul Heyman was just on a completely different level to literally every single person on earth last night. He was just so, so good- even by Paul Heyman standards this was a next level promo. Nothing I say can do it any sort of justice, just go and watch it.

Paige v Naomi
I can pretty much Copy & Paste what I said about the other Divas match, with the only thing really to add is the crowd was even more dead and there was even less debate over the outcome because Paige wasn't going to lose when she was doing Austin's Podcast- that was just a fact.

Stardust Promo
This was fine, what with Neville's exertions earlier this feud is somewhat relevant now- and with Amell on next week I've got a reasonable amount of hope that this feud will turn into something decent now.

Orton, Ambrose & Reigns v Bray, Harper & Sheamus
This was about the House Showiest House Show match ever, and it was the Main Event. It was obvious who was taking the Pin, it was obvious who was going to take the offence before the Hot-Tag and it was obvious who was going to shine. That said I did like it quite a bit. Reigns looked great last night, it's as important as ever that Reigns looks good because I can't not see Ambrose turning on him at Summerslam which'll mean Reigns will be Pinned again at a PPV. All that needs to be done for Reigns to get over is for him to be a pissed off Samoan who beats the shit out of people, that's why I loved it whenever Sheamus and Reigns were in with each other- because they both like beating the shit out of their opponent. So basically this was a fun match, nothing more nothing less.

This whole show almost felt booked in reverse, the Neville/Rollins match was pretty much when the show and the crowd peaked and it never really recovered. That said this show largely met my expectations with all of the outside factors considered so I'm pretty happy all in all.

Thanks for reading as always, the Football season is nearly here now so the Blogs will pretty much be doubled so if you come here for my literary ability then you're one lucky duck. You'll notice a few tweaks I've already done on here with the new comments section and I'm looking to try and do a logo or something along those lines so if you're up for doing that let me know on Twitter, but if you're not don't worry about it- it's not a huge thing. Thanks again for reading and just remember hopefully you'll join me for Tough Enough tonight and remember, for the love of god if you've got a loved one who may check your Internet History DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES SEARCH FOR THE SUBMISSION SORORITY.