RAW Review: 11th July

Yes! Hello! The Reviews are back! Just briefly, for those perhaps unaware, I ended up skipping last weeks RAW Review because I was ill and to be blunt- aside from a few segments last week was one of the most "skippable" of all time. But we're back this week, and just in time because fuck me there's a lot of stuff that's going to take place in the next 10 days or so. But I'll talk about that more at the end, for now let's just dive straight into this Review.

IC Title #1 Contender Battle Royal
This whole segment felt weird to me right from the start. When we had Apollo Crews make his Entrance, I thought they would be building toward a "surprise" entrant like Neville- but no, Crews was the only one who got an entrance. Then about 2 Minutes into the match, Cole just says "Oh Yeah, by the way Bob Backlund's out here with Darren Young". This was his TV re-debut, not even getting a fucking entrance. Also, Aiden English was eliminated BEFORE Konnor. Aiden English was eliminated before the member of The Ascension that's just come back from a wellness violation. Things really aren't looking good for the Vaudevillains.

The Battle Royal was about as fun as a fairly meaningless Battle Royal can be, I'm not sure how much the "win by default" will help Darren going forward- but there was Darren Young chants to end this segment. He got over. So all-in-all it's a job done for this segment. However stupid it may have been to make Darren a #1 Contender for a Title without even getting an entrance on TV.

We also had The Usos be the most interesting they've been in about 2 and a half years when one of them tried to eliminate the other one. Those were a glorious 5 seconds.

Rollins, Shane & Stephanie Backstage Promo
This was what it was. I've got semi-high hopes that after next week we'll be getting minimal McMahon segments- at least for a while, so I'll just take these and move on quickly at present.

Brock's UFC 200 Win Recap
I found this absolutely hilarious. They showed Brock's win, fair enough- and once Heyman's back on TV fuck me are they going to milk it heading into Summerslam. But it was hilarious because they showed a thing from Brock's Press-Conference where he acknowledged he had a match with Orton next month. He literally just said "I've got Orton at Summerslam" or words to that effect, and they felt this was worthy of highlighting. If anything it made them look stupid, because he seemed so uninterested in it (which is fair enough given the timing), it completely buried the match.

Sheamus v Zack Ryder
At least Zack was selling the backstage attack (hey that rhymes) from Sheamus prior to the match. After the Apollo Crews debacle last month I really wasn't sure he would. The match was fairly "meh", Sheamus won, SHEAMUS WON and Rusev came out after and very graciously accepted Zack's proposal of a US Title match. There may have also been an Accolade involved.

I've also got a weird feeling that Zack'll be winning the Title for another "underdog win", which would be so fucking stupid WWE are almost certainly going to do it.

Fabreeze v The Lucha Dragons
I can only assume the Lucha Dragons lost because they're being split next week. Although me assuming that they've actually thought about where Sin Cara and Kalisto will end up a week out may be giving them too much credit.

I do have to question how Fabreeze and the Lucha Dragons both got full entrances, but Darren Young couldn't in the opening segment. The match was the definition of filler, but it wasn't "bad" apart from the one botch from Kalisto and overall it was fine. Fabreeze may actually have one of the best Win/Loss records in the company as well. Counting RAW, Smackdown and PPV's (the things that actually matter to the company) I'm fairly certain they've only lost 1 match and won 4 or 5. So yeah, why aren't Fabreeze getting a Title shot?!

The Rollins Report w/ Dean Ambrose
This segment was just absolute gold. I wasn't laughing out loud when they were doing the Rollins/Reigns "interview" that was basically Angle and The Rock but it did make me smile a bit and it was funny up to a point. Then Ambrose came out, and without thinking too much about it- most likely gave the promo of his (WWE) life. Fucking hell was it great, and that's really all that I can say about it. When something is really fucking good, there's not much else to say other than it was really fucking good.

One thing that does have to be said, after the initial part of the segment where they did the Roman "Interview" the Promos setting up the Rollins/Ambrose match next week was the first time Roman hasn't been mentioned since his wellness violation. Which does make me laugh, because Roman has officially become Poochie in the last month.

Vince Backstage Promo
This was pretty much what you'd expect from Vince. If I'm honest when I saw Vince's return I had no reaction, when he showed up in this segment I had no reaction, and I had absolutely no reaction to anything he said. So this went well.

Kevin Owens v Cesaro
I've got mixed feelings about this match. From an actual match perspective, you can't really go wrong with Kevin Owens v Cesaro. However, the stuff with Sami getting ejected I thought was a missed opportunity.

This is something I often criticise other people for, in that they build up an unrealistic picture of what they want to happen in their heads and when it doesn't meet those unrealistic expectations they bitch. But, when Sami got ejected I thought he'd be coming out in either a Sin Cara or Kalisto Mask to do the whole elbow nudging "past life" type joke and he'd join the Spanish Announce Desk. The end to the segment annoyed me as well. Because with the split around the corner, you couldn't really afford to make someone like Cesaro look weak. So, they beat him- and then they had him swing Owens after so he isn't completely killed before the draft. Which does beg the question, if they wanted to put Owens over without hurting Cesaro- why have a match between Kevin Owens and Cesaro?

The Club Backstage Promo
I liked this little promo a lot. These three are really getting their legs under them now from a promo perspective and just in general after a weird few months- and that can only be a good thing for both them and the people watching.

Titus O'Neil v Heath Slater
Let me just remind you, the Social Outcasts were in the Battle Royal earlier on in the show (Titus wasn't despite JBL saying otherwise). This is before the Draft, where everyone (healthy) is available to be on the show- and the Social Outcasts are having to do a double shift. If that wasn't a clear indicator that WWE really need to get some more depth to their roster with NXT call-ups and returning guys- I don't know what is. It's also what my main concern was for the Draft right from the start. I do think there'll be call-ups etc. but especially for RAW- it's a 3 Hour Show that likely won't have the star power of at least half of the "top guys". I can't see a scenario where they don't struggle to fill time on some episodes.

Sasha Banks Backstage Promo
This was a fairly standard promo from Sasha. It got the job done, and that's all that can really be said about it.

New Day & The Wyatts: The Concluding Termination
Right, this is probably the segment that'll be talked about most off the back of last nights episode. I've seen so many varying opinions on this already, so it's only right that I offer my own one. That is the point of these Reviews after all.

Firstly, it was no Final Deletion. That's not really saying much though, because aside from the fact it took place in a field in the middle of nowhere and it being shot like a film/tv scene- there isn't really much in the way of comparisons between the two. The Final Deletion was primarily "fun", and just intentionally wacky. Whereas the segment last night was much more serious and focused on being almost a sort of horror film-esque segment. Which is funny considering none of New Day died. I also had to laugh at Reby Sky going off on one about this segment. Yes, this segment wouldn't have happened without the Final Deletion. I'm not disputing that. But can she honestly say that they wouldn't have gone down this route with the Matt & Jeff feud without Lucha Underground? It's Wrestling, everyone copies everyone.

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would if I'm honest. I loved the Final Deletion, so when this was a thing I groaned. But thankfully they didn't go down the Final Deletion route too much really, and the segment was all the better for it.

The best part of this segment by far was Braun Strowman. That's probably been the first time that sentence has ever been said. People talk about people being "made for roles", Strowman was literally made for the role he played last night of a horror film type monster. I will say that this segment felt like it could and should have been longer. It felt like they shot about an hours worth of stuff that they had to cut into about 5 minutes. Like the stuff with Xavier just hiding behind a tree out of nowhere. It just seemed weird.

With these types of segments, I'll never say someone's wrong for their opinion on it- because it's entirely subjective. But, if someone didn't like this segment, when they were talking about Bray/The Wyatts needing their fear factor back- then I don't know what to say. Especially for kids, seeing Bray LITERALLY trying to kill Xavier with an Axe would've (hopefully) terrified them. This segment did a lot for The Wyatts in-terms of their perception and aura to the fan in my opinion.

Overall I did really like this segment, and the ending in particular was absolutely great with all the people in sheep masks and the fireflies with New Day running off. I did see some people (including Lance Storm) talk about how with New Day running off at the end there wasn't a "point" to it like the Final Deletion which of course had a Ref who would record the Pin or a Simishon and ended in a 3 Count. This wasn't intended to be the final part of a chapter of a feud like the Final Deletion, it was just meant to be an alternative fight type segment which I for one was happy with.

Enzo & Big Cass v The Club w/ AJ Styles
This match was fine, if a bit too long for my liking. I really like Enzo & Cass, but from a purely in-ring perspective they're lacking a bit still to me- so giving them a lot of time for a match isn't the best idea in my opinion. However, the match was fine mostly- and the DQ finish was quite well done in my opinion.

Cena's run-in was good. I'm not sure if people weren't expecting Cena to show up, because I was as soon as Styles talked about and made fun of Cena for not being there in the earlier backstage segment but he got a good pop from the crowd. Cena looked a bit lost on his run-in actually, and it seemed like AJ rolled out too soon because Cena ended up running around a bit aimlessly while Enzo & Cass dealt with their respective opponents.

Sasha Banks v Dana Brooke
I said when Sasha returned that now the crowd(s) actually have Sasha they'd better be as loud as they were with the "We Want Sasha" chants. Granted, this being on so late wouldn't have helped- but the crowd were completely dead for this match. The match was quite "meh", Sasha continued her run with the most predictable segments on TV and that was that for the match.

Charlotte's Promo after was weird. It was Return of the King, in that her Promo could (and should) have ended about 5 times before it actually did and the way she kept pausing and then just carrying on was just odd. They ended up setting up another Sasha/Dana match on Smackdown, because apparently Sasha making Dana tap out every week as it is wasn't enough.

Vince, Shane & Stephanie Promo Segment
There's honestly not much you can say about this segment. Shane's got Smackdown, Stephanie's got RAW, General Managers announced next week, Stephanie is going to bury the Steel Steps next week and that's that. I know they've supposedly spoiled the Smackdown GM Announcement as Daniel Bryan, but I really want Triple H to be Smackdown GM and use him as the actual "godfather" of NXT and make NXT call-ups and the "new era" the focus of Smackdown with the Draft. The GM announcements should be infinitely more interesting than this segment, so that's something to look forward to at least.

I will say I don't know what peoples complaints are about there being multiple levels of authority figures. Especially coming off the Brock fight I saw a lot of people saying they wished the product would be more focused on sports. I don't really know, and this knowledge just comes from the system we've got at Fulham and it being called an "american structure"- but at Fulham we've got a Director of Football and a Head Coach and I know it's the same for Baseball at least because I've seen Moneyball. So basically, don't ask for something and then bitch about getting it. I actually like the dynamic with this, because it means Shane & Stephanie will be on  TV sparingly while we get different authority figures on TV every week for the first time in god knows how long and at least one Babyface authority figure for the first time in god knows how long (Shane these last few months doesn't really count).

This RAW was a mixed bag for me. They did a lot to put the Draft over next week, talking about the value of basically every single wrestler on show and where they should be drafted- which does beg the question of why they weren't doing it for the last month. I'm just looking forward to the product getting out of the holding pattern it's been in since Payback next week to be honest. I've got high hopes when it comes to call-ups and returns and I'm just generally building up how great this split will be in my head to make the disappointment and subsequent rants all the better for you lot.

Thanks for reading as always. This is the last week we can read Smackdown Spoilers, and less importantly the last week on here with just RAW Reviews. The Smackdown Reviews will be a thing starting next week, so hopefully you'll be back here two times every week (and more for PPV weeks) from next week onward and enjoy these Reviews all the same. Thanks again for reading, and if either Shane or Stephanie happen to be reading this- DRAFT D'LO BROWN!