Sting's Opening Promo
This was actually a good promo. If you wanted lessons on how to sell a PPV Main Event you just need to watch this Promo and you're set. He put over Seth, The Title, The Match and Him. The only weird stuff was the Triple H angle that basically began and closed the show, I know they were "driving a wedge" between Trips & Seth and they're doing the match with them presumably at Hell in a Cell- but more on that later. The best thing about this whole Promo, IT WENT LESS THAN 10 MINUTES!
Dolph Ziggler v Rusev
The match- the actual match was fine. I was saying it last night on Twitter, I've got absolutely no desire to see these two work with each other ever again unless they change the dynamic of this feud with a Double-Turn, which isn't impossible given the angle they did tonight. More later. I just hate all of the bullshit finishes with these matches, it's not going to hurt Rusev if he just gets pinned- he already has now, multiple times. Don't give me bullshit about if Rusev gets pinned the feuds over, NO. HAVE YOU SEEN THE FEUDS COMING OFF OF SUMMERSLAM? The stuff with Summer and the Backstage Interview where she sneaked into the Dolph's Locker Room- well, more later.
Becky Lynch v Alicia Fox
This made me laugh. I'm beyond caring with this "Divas Revolution" after my rant last week- now I'm just going to view it as a parody of how to book the Women. So after the backlash last week, and it wasn't the crowd- it was the Segment/Match they decided to do a Beat the Clock. GREAT! You're giving these Women a purpose, you can invest in them. We then got (and this is where the Clock comes in handy) a 3 Minutes and 21 Seconds match. My Brain genuinely hurts. You actually give the crowd a reason to invest in the matches happening, and you by design make the next two matches impossible to get any time. If you don't want to give the Divas 10+ Minutes, fine. DON'T BOOK IT SO THERE'S THREE FUCKING MATCHES.
Ryback Promo/Summer Rae & Dolph Shenanigans
The Ryback Promo was fine, the Summer & Dolph shit was not. Firstly, Dolph came literally within an inch of showing his Ziggler. I thought Summer had fucked Dolph and they were going to build the angle off of that. But, we couldn't even get that right.
The Ryback v Big Show- IC Title
This whole match was a mess. I'm not even talking about the actual match, it was Ryback v Big Show- we knew what we were getting. I know it was a Title Match so Ryback couldn't lose via Distraction and Pin. SO WHY MAKE IT A FUCKING TITLE MATCH?! Miz THE HEEL who actually might be a Babyface after that Divas Segment now I think about it distracted THE HEEL Big Show to let THE BABYFACE Ryback win. It's honestly like they're trying to bury the Title.
Charlotte v Brie Bella
There honestly isn't much you can say about this match. It was Charlotte v Brie Bella in under 2 Minutes. This match was 1 Minute and 41 Seconds, which I suppose was a good thing because Brie was involved- but come on.
Dudley Boyz Promo
This made me laugh, I don't know if anyone else noticed it- but Renee was grimacing with how loud Bubba was getting. It was a fine Dudleys Promo, that's all that can really be said about it.
Kevin Owens v Cesaro
This match was great. The theme for the night was basically giving more exposure to all of the Summerslam matches that weren't spotlighted- and wow did this match take advantage. I'm not sure if this was the blow-off or not to be honest, the Cesaro Rib angle made me think it wasn't- which would make sense to be honest because I can't see either guy having an obvious feud to move onto. That said, Owens has now beaten Cesaro twice, clean. Going back to my earlier point- A CLEAN WIN DOESN'T MEAN THE END OF A FEUD ANY MORE. It was a really great match though, purely from a match quality perspective I've got no issue with this feud carrying on forever.
Dolph & Lana Backstage Promo
This was where I determined that I hated this angle to the point of no return. Not even Rusev doing weird comedy with a Fish can save this now. Lana thought Dolph had fucked Summer- as I did and this whole thing was saying how Summer snuck in and saw Dolph's Ziggler for "2 Seconds". MORE FUCKING LATER.
Braun Strowman v Dean Ambrose
Right, I'm not saying Strowman is great. As soon as he actually has to have a competitive match and sell chances are he's fucked. With that in mind, THIS IS HOW TO BUILD A MONSTER. This segment for what it's intended purpose was, was just great. Put this into perspective, you've got Dean Ambrose who went 45 Minutes with the WWE Champion in a Ladder Match, Roman Reigns who's- Roman Reigns and they've got Strowman basically no-selling everything. This is how you build someone. I don't think I'll ever get tired of people's legs dangling off the ground when Strowman get's the Choke in. Overall this segment was great, the thing is- I'm not sure who they'll get for the 6-Man. I can't imagine it being someone like Balor, just with the way they're building Strowman they're either going to have someone come in who's of a similar stature- or someone expendable. I've not given up on my Ambrose turning idea- but for now I'm exploring other options.
Seth Rollins Backstage Promo
I actually found this statue stuff pretty good. You can look at it as Seth was throwing a tantrum about a Statue- but his explanation for what the Statue meant to him was pretty good and this all worked for me.
Paige v Sasha Banks
This is the Divas Revolution guys. You get Paige and Sasha Banks in a ring together- with the crowd being hot for the match, and it was a blink and you'll miss it match. Forget the timing issue, Even though if they'd played this Beat the Clock shit right this match could've been at least 6 or 7 Minutes. PAIGE had SASHA BANKS beaten with the Rampaige in under 2 Minutes. Sasha Banks is the golden one in this fucked up mess- and they had her beaten, all while Naomi and Tamina were standing at ringside without a match. You know why? BECAUSE THIS IS A PARODY ON HOW TO BOOK THE WOMEN.
Summer Rae Interview
I genuinely felt sorry for Summer during this. She had to try and sell this angle to us, Summer is actually decent on the Mic- but she had no chance with this. Her tale of woe was Dolph stripping in front of her, getting in the shower, coming out AND ONLY WHEN DOLPH GAVE HER "THE LOOK" did she realise Dolph allegedly wanted to fuck her. The thing is, as I've said repeatedly- the angle for this could be a Double-Turn but this whole angle made me never want to see any of these 4 guys on WWE TV ever again. That's how bad it was.
Dudley Boyz v New Day
New Day are without a shadow of a doubt the best bit of RAW now. Xavier Woods' hair was better than this whole RAW. I just loved every bit of their Promo- the best bit being they started doing "SAVE... THE TABLE" to the New Day Sucks/Rocks beat AND THE CROWD JOINED IN. GIVE THESE GUYS EVERY TITLE POSSIBLE, EVEN THE RETIRED ONES. The Bubble-Wrapped Table was just great, everything about New Day is great.
Onto less positive stuff. Bubba Ray has basically bypassed his whole TNA run and gone back to being fat and a not very good worker. Kofi is a great worker, but he can only do so much. That's not to say this was a bad match- but it was just bang average. Then we get onto my MASSIVE issue with this match. IT SHOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED! I know they're doing a Triple Threat at the PPV, but when you've got The Dudleys and New Day NOBODY gives a fuck about the Primetime Players. So what do you do? You give away the Money Match on Free TV a week after the Dudleys have returned, WHY?! Worst of all, it was a Clean Finish! There wasn't even a fucked finish. At least nobody went through a Table. #SaveTheTables
Seth Rollins & Cena Promos
This was weird. The Triple H stuff is basically leading to- at least in my opinion and with them name dropping Evolution I think I might be onto something. Seth will somehow retain both Titles, we'll get the Celebration after and then we'll get Rollins in the Orton/Evolution "Thumbs Down" moment to end the show and start the feud with Triple H. Rollins does not work twice in one night and not be a Babyface- and with Brock not on the show he'll most likely be the most over Babyface of the night. Who would boo him? He'll have had two presumably 20+ Minute Matches. I'm not saying Sting will be booed, but Rollins won't either apart from maybe the "Boo/Yay" spot. The actual Cena Promo was good, as was the segment as a whole.
This RAW looking back wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was when it ended, but fuck me was some of the shit they did on this show stupid. How is it even possible that WWE have booked an angle so bad I don't want to see LANA on my screen?!
Thanks to you lot for reading as always, as said- this RAW was really weird, more so than bad. The Divas Booking is the only massive negative, I can count the Summer Rae & Lana stuff in that sentence because they got more air-time than Rusev & Dolph. It's seemingly mandatory to book the Women like shit at the minute. DIVAS REVOLUTION guys. But there's one constant. One thing we all agree on...
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