RAW

This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw was an entertaining episode because the pacing of the matches, as well as the backstage segments, were given a decent amount of time to develop. This week was headlined by Baron Corbin winning King of the Ring and the return of Kane (or should we say Glenn Jacobs, Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee). He won the 24/7 Championship and returned as Demon Kane during the main event. However, the most pivotal role he played, in my opinion, this week on Monday Night Raw was when The Fiend took him out with the Mandible Claw. This adds another name to the list of legends that have been taken out by The Fiend.

The Fiend should absolutely win the Universal Championship from Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell simply because of how much the WWE universe loves him and their response to him (even though he is a heel). As I have said before, he could win the title at the Pay-Per-View and hold it until WrestleMania and continue his reign of terror only for Finn Balor to return and take the title off him at ‘Mania (probably in the main event).

No one can argue very much that Baron Corbin absolutely deserves to become the King of the Ring, especially when considering how passionately the WWE universe reacts to him (even if it is mostly negative). He received “Baron Corbin, Corbin sucks” chants last week on Raw, something that has been reserved for superstars such as John Cena and Roman Reigns (although Reigns is pretty much universally accepted now by the WWE universe).

It also can’t hurt that Vince McMahon is very much behind him and feels that he helps significantly with drawing female viewers to the product (I don’t know how true this is because I’m a guy). Chad Gable was able to showcase how talented he is, and he should continue to be utilized in the future.

It makes total sense that Paul Heyman is making a real effort to keep Maria Kanellis involved in storylines because of how much he reportedly loves her mind for sports entertainment. It’s also great to see Rusev back and looking better than ever. I would have personally preferred to see him return as a babyface, nonetheless it’s still great to see him because there were reports that he was going to leave the company.

Cedric Alexander has not been quite as fortunate as Maria Kanellis, as Paul Heyman is reportedly high on him but Vince McMahon is not – it’s rumored he wanted to bury him, which would explain his recent booking (he’s been taking major beatdowns from AJ Styles). This happened a couple of years ago with Baron Corbin, as he had a match with John Cena to open SummerSlam in 2017 and Cena refused to put him over because he didn’t think Corbin was ready (this turned out to be a very smart move in hindsight). It has all worked out for the best with Baron Corbin, and I maintain optimism about Alexander’s future. Similar to Roman Reigns, something is transpiring behind the scenes that the WWE universe doesn’t see and may, or may not, need to know about.

It would be a great story for Sasha Banks and Bayley to win back the Women’s Tag Team Championships down the road after losing them at WrestleMania and Sasha subsequently taking her hiatus from the company to find out what truly makes her happy away from WWE. This may be something to watch for in the coming months.

Also, a return to in-ring action can be expected soon from Drew McIntyre and The Usos (hopefully SmackDown for The Usos so they can form a Samoan Shield with Roman Reigns). Mojo Rawley has also targeted next year’s SummerSlam to have a potential match with his buddy, retired Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. This would be perfect because SummerSlam next year emanates from the city of Boston where Gronk resides.

Before I get into any of the happenings this week on Monday Night Raw, I’d like to make a proposal for a storyline involving the Universal Championship (I’ve already made my proposal for Kevin Owens to become WWE Champion at WrestleMania 36, but I have been hesitant to make a prediction about the Universal Title scene). My proposal is that Bray Wyatt wins the championship from Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell (after interfering in Seth’s Universal Title defense against Braun Strowman) and goes on to hold the title until ‘Mania, what terrorizing the entire roster until that point.

The man who turns out to end his reign of terror is Finn Balor, who has an extensive history with both Wyatt and the Universal Championship. He has feuded with Wyatt in the past and is the only superstar so far to actually have a match with his new alter ego The Fiend. What is even better is that Balor is currently taking a hiatus from WWE to “recharge”, so from a storyline perspective, he could claim that he took time off because he felt mentally unable to compete. This will also be a great storyline because Balor could finally regain the Universal Championship after nearly four years (he became the first Universal Champion in 2016 after defeating Seth Rollins, but held it for less than 24 hours after realizing he tore his labrum during the match).

Steve Austin is authentically himself and not afraid to tell people exactly what he thinks – something that everyone in society should look to embrace more.

AJ Styles is such a phenomenal heel because he points out the subtle nuances of situations that the entire audience is thinking and it is extremely palpable, but usually no one says anything. Speaking of AJ, it looks like WWE creative has elected not to ask him to the Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions and has instead decided to give Cedric Alexander a United States Championship match at the pay-per-view (this match should be a fantastic one).

The best match of the night (considering it received “this is awesome” chants) was the woman’s match between the team of Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch against Sasha Banks and Bayley, which was won by Flair and Lynch. It’s going to take a while to get the overwhelming majority of the WWE universe to embrace the idea of Bayley being a heel, since she was such a good babyface for so long. It’s funny that, at least according to my train of thought, she is being positioned as a sidekick who is simply supporting her friend Sasha, but she is still at the beginning of a slow process of becoming a full-fledged heel. This move has real potential to make Bayley even more relatable by adding another dimension to her character.

Baron Corbin has advanced to the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament, and very well may win the whole thing. This may be the case because for the most part the entire WWE universe feels a very strong emotion toward his character (even though it is negative for the most part. All that matters is that he is proving to be a very strong heel who generates intense fan reactions). It’s like Roman Reigns has said: It doesn’t matter that much if the reaction the superstar gets is positive or negative. As long as a superstar is receiving passionate reactions, one way or the other, it is proving that the audience cares about them.

For as much flak as the WWE creative team gets, they have absolutely nailed it with Firefly Funhouse. This week’s episode confirmed once again that The Fiend Bray Wyatt will definitely challenge the winner of the Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions, which will likely be Seth Rollins (he did not like the Beest twice only to lose his championship a month later). There is even a chance Wyatt will interfere in the title match this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Fiend will be making this challenge at Hell in a Cell on October 6 from Sacramento, California.

After seeing this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw play out, WWE fans can conclude that Bayley is turning heel and aligning with Sasha Banks. WWE creative is having Bayley maintain her loyalty and close connection with Sasha.

I have two main thoughts about this:

• It’s refreshing to see a champion in WWE going through with a character change in the face/heel dynamic while they are in the midst of their title reign as opposed to waiting to make this switch until they lose the belt, which is usually what happens, but
• I’m not sure how well this will work out because Bayley has been built up so well as a babyface.

From WWE’s perspective, you never know how a drastic change like this will be perceived until you try it out. Even though this match got a main event spot, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross felt like an afterthought because they were not a part of the storyline that was being focused on.

The reason Baron Corbin should be a consideration to win the King of the Ring tournament is that he consistently draws passionate reactions from the WWE universe. It does not matter if those reactions are positive or negative (most of them are negative. Corbin annoys me just as much as anyone else). What matters most is that he puts butts in seats and gets fans riled up which is exactly what WWE is looking for in the end.

Samoa Joe’s push to potentially become Universal Champion needs to start very soon given that he is already 40 years old (if WWE is serious about it). It’s not too late by any means, as we’ve seen it done recently by AJ Styles at about the same point in his career. Joe is one of those guys who always seems like a legitimate contender no matter what his booking situation looks like. Anyway, a great avenue to get his push started to get into contention for the Universal Championship could be through winning the King of the Ring tournament.

We all know Ricochet is going to be a huge star, because he’s being pushed like one very early in his career.

AJ Styles was very satirical in his promo on Monday Night Raw, giving Michael Cole a little attitude by ignoring him and pointing out that the only reason Braun Strowman got a title opportunity is that he looked at the Universal Championship. I also feel I need to address the possibility of Styles being added to the Universal Championship match at Clash of Champions, which would be a fantastic idea.

This could mean the United States Championship will be put on the backburner for the next couple months, but not to worry because every trend in WWE goes in cycles. This is also a sign of just how highly AJ Styles is viewed in the eyes of Vince McMahon. I don’t know if Vince originally viewed AJ in this light, but he deeply resonated with the WWE universe from the time he debuted in the Royal Rumble match in 2016. This week on Raw, we also seemed to get virtual confirmation that The Fiend Bray Wyatt will interfere in the Universal Title match at Clash of Champions and presumably go on to challenge the Universal Champion at Hell in a Cell.

Side Note: Congratulations to Walter on retaining his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Tyler Bate at NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff. The entire event was very well done and included some excellent matches. It also had to be a nice change of pace for Cesaro working the event.

Also, I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Chris Jericho winning the AEW World Championship. I need to acknowledge them because they will indirectly serve as competition on Wednesday nights to WWE (even though they don’t really want to compete with or be compared to any other company). I love what they’re doing by trying to set themselves apart and do things differently than any other company has done before. I can also name at least five of their top superstars who formerly worked for WWE.

I can’t think of a better way to spend my 23^rd birthday than by thoroughly enjoying Monday Night Raw. Before I get into anything wrestling-related, I want to start out by addressing Andrew Luck’s rather abrupt retirement from the NFL (he is the son of Oliver Luck, who is the Commissioner of the XFL and will therefore be working very closely with Vince McMahon in the future). This brought up a few memories of wrestlers/sports entertainers whose careers have ended early under unfortunate circumstances.

• Magnum T.A. had real potential back in the ‘80s and bookers were planning on grooming him to become the next face of NWA as the World Heavyweight Champion, but that all changed when he was in a car accident in 1986 and the entire right side of his body was paralyzed four months.
• The Von Erich family also comes to mind as a number of them struggled with alcohol addiction among other things. Kerry was in my mind the most talented member of this family.
• And we can never forget that Ric Flair’s career almost ended before it even really got started. He was in a major plane crash in the ‘70s which nearly ended his career. Fortunately, we all got to experience the second coming of the “Nature Boy” after Buddy Rogers. Flair is truly a legend in the business of sports entertainment.

It looks like Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman will be working double duty at Clash of Champions because they will be defending the Raw Tag Team Championships against Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode in addition to their Universal Championship match against each other.

The Universal Championship match between Seth and Braun could have easily been predicted based on what has happened the last couple weeks, but it’s a nice surprise to see Ziggler and Roode emerge as Raw Tag Team Championship contenders. It’s good to see that WWE is prioritizing the booking of Ziggler and Roode and is actually showing that they care enough about their position on the card to give them a meaningful spot rather than just turning them into jobbers, which is what I feared might happen. This is a refreshing change for WWE to be making them a priority.

Sasha Banks has brought a new cocky attitude to go with her new look, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s one of the few in WWE who has the swagger to back it up. There is clearly something about her character that fans deeply resonate with and can connect to, and this enables her character to be able to be overly flamboyant yet still accepted.

I have absolutely no idea who is going to win the King of the Ring tournament. My second pick to win it, Drew McIntyre, got beat by Ricochet (who is going to be a massive star. He has only been on the main roster for six months and is already one of the best). At this point, Baron Corbin might honestly get all the way to the final. I find him just as annoying as the next person, but WWE keeps pushing him because he incites a lot of energy out of the WWE universe. He receives a passionate reaction; it doesn’t matter if that reaction is particularly positive or negative.

Cedric Alexander is someone to watch because he may receive at least a small push in the coming weeks. He has looked particularly good in his last two or three appearances on Monday Night Raw, and his victory this week over Cesaro, a very highly regarded in-ring talent, will absolutely do him all sorts of favors. I’m not saying that he will be headlining pay-per-views in the foreseeable future or anything crazy like that, but I do definitely think that he could become a Kofi Kingston-type of reliable asset (obviously before Kofi became WWE Champion).

It looks like we may have to wait until the Undisputed Era debuts on the main roster to have another truly dominant heel faction. The OC may not be as dominant as we thought since Gallows and Anderson were sacrificed this week. AJ books strong but he needs help from his boys. Unfortunately, the WWE bookers have never viewed Anderson and Gallows as highly as the bookers in Japan did (this is probably at least partially because Gallows is a Strowman-level freak to Japanese people because they are typically smaller than Americans). All hope is not lost though for the OC, as Gallows and Anderson will likely win back the tag titles in a month or two minimum.

Side Note: The Undertaker is reportedly scheduled to appear on SmackDown Live in from Madison Square Garden on September 10, right before Clash of Champions. It would be reasonable to assume based on this – that The Undertaker will make an appearance and possibly even have a match at the pay-per-view. This is not a fact, but don’t be surprised if that’s the route WWE decides to go.

The remainder of August, as well as the entirety of September and October, will be slightly slower-paced months for WWE and there will be more time given for each individual match, or segment. If one pays close attention, this is not difficult at all to see. It seems to be a very good idea for WWE to choose this time of the year to begin the King of the Ring tournament, as this event is always known for producing quality matches. Perhaps WWE may want to consider doing a tournament like this in the future for women.

It will be very interesting to see how WWE goes about creating conflict between Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman; they will surely get the Raw Tag Team Championships involved. It’s been quite a while since WWE chose to make its premier champion, and the challenger to it, tag team champions (the last pair of superstars I can remember who were placed in this role were John Cena and Shawn Michaels back in 2007). This will be a great change of pace, and Braun Strowman looks to be moving at full speed again. He doesn’t look hindered in the slightest as he did about a month ago. It should be very interesting to see how the match goes between Rollins and Strowman due to the size discrepancy, but Seth can make anything work. If I were running things, however, I would look to build this story for a month or two and maybe have the two men clash in October’s Hell in a Cell.

Believe it or not, this is Strowman’s first legitimate title reign on the main roster since his debut about three years ago (no, I’m not counting his tag team championship victory with 10-year-old Nicholas at WrestleMania 34).

Roman Reigns should definitely be given credit for his indispensable versatility in the ring which enables him to have a great match with almost anyone. This ability should never be undervalued, and this is definitely one of the major reasons why Vince McMahon values Reigns so highly.

The Fiend attacked Jerry “The King” Lawler (another legend). A pattern is now starting to develop with Bray Wyatt, first attacking Mick Foley and stealing his Mandible Claw, and now Jerry Lawler. In reality, this was excellent planning by WWE to give King a plausible reason to be off TV for the night and to give Vic Joseph an opportunity to do commentary for Monday Night Raw (which he took full advantage of). The body of work he has put together on 205 Live and NXT UK has been quite impressive.

Becky Lynch also seemed to make more of an emotional speech and statement with her promo on Raw that resonated more with the crowd than Sasha Banks did. This very well could be different next week, as both women are excellent on the mic.

Side Note: It is very encouraging to see that Randy Orton is well on his way to accomplishing his goal in his rivalry with Kofi Kingston. His main goal is clearly to provide some credibility to Kofi’s WWE Championship reign so he will be taken seriously in the main event scene. It is extremely unselfish of Orton to be willing to do this, and this should be appreciated (of course Kofi absolutely deserves it). It’s also very encouraging that WWE is prioritizing The Revival by including them in the Orton-Kingston feud by orchestrating an alliance between them and Orton. This alliance is working well too because it’s generating a decent amount of heat.

One other thing to mention is that WWE will have some work to do in the coming weeks in terms of finding suitable challengers to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross for the Women’s Tag Team Championships since Bliss and Cross have pretty much exhausted all competition in a matter of just two weeks.

It is a very big deal that Stone Cold Steve Austin, one of the greatest of all time, publicly gave Seth Rollins his approval as Universal Champion while Monday Night Raw was on the air. Seth’s confidence has clearly risen because of this as evidenced by the promo he cut right before his match with AJ Styles. His confidence level and energy level are simply different in a very positive way. Now his mentality is truly that “I definitely deserve to be champion and I’m going to set the tone for the rest of the company.”

It’s fantastic to see Sasha Banks returning for the first time since ‘Mania. She was sorely missed because she is one of the best female performers in the company. The heel turn was expected and is welcomed because she is a better heel than babyface as evidenced by her NXT days. She will make for a great challenger for Becky Lynch and I guarantee there will be more eyeballs on the women’s division because of her return. The new hair color is also a refreshing change.

I’m unsure whether to be excited about the King of the Ring tournament to begin considering that it hasn’t been all that exciting the last few times WWE has done it (remember King Barrett). A perfect winner of this tournament would be Buddy Murphy, because he doesn’t have any other major championships or accomplishments on the main roster. This could serve in storyline as the accomplishment that gets the attention of WWE management. That is only assuming WWE doesn’t choose to go with the obvious choice, Drew McIntyre.

You’ve got to wonder if Rey Mysterio’s cryptic and emotional promo and his reference to his family is foreshadowing at the in-ring debut of his son Dominic, who is signed to WWE. He and Andrade can churn out great matches like it’s nothing. Also, Keep an eye on Drew McIntyre. A big push for him could be in the works to start very soon. He was protected at SummerSlam and not made to look weak by serving as backup for Shane McMahon.

Side Note:Maybe, since Elias has grounds to argue for a rematch against Ricochet (who has major support from the company), perhaps this could start a slightly more serious push of Elias. It’s also worth noting that Samoa Joe seems to be in the process of a gradual face turn after showing concern last week for Roman Reigns. He still seems to be untrusting of the WWE universe, however.

Tony Gonzalez’ Pro Football Hall of Fame Speech

Before I get into discussing Monday Night Raw, I wanted to address something Tony Gonzalez said during his speech over the weekend at the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, which is absolutely true for every sport, including WWE.

In essence, he said that “Hall of Famers in any sport do not get there because they are necessarily more athletic or smarter than anyone else but more so because they have chosen to be guided by their hearts in life and are bold enough to follow their passion.” This idea struck a chord within me and I thought it might hit home for people who read this.

RAW

Goldberg’s Redemption

So Dolph Ziggler isn’t deranged and there has been a point behind his incessant criticism of Goldberg’s most recent match with The Undertaker at Super Showdown in June. It’s somewhat surprising that WWE has decided to go through with this match considering Ziggler does not have quite the level of star power as the typical opponent of Goldberg. The vast size discrepancy will also play a role in the optics of how this match may be viewed, but that shouldn’t matter too much. These men will surely be able to make this an entertaining confrontation at SummerSlam.

This reminds me of the match in 2003 between Chris Jericho and Goldberg, which seemed a little odd with regards to the booking at the time, but the two men were able to make a solid match out of it.

I see this essentially being a squash match for Goldberg to help instill confidence in his in-ring ability. It will probably be a quick match too, as several matches on the card should be – if each match is given 15-20 minutes then fans will get worn out. Some stories are capable of being told in a short amount of time. Aleister Black vs. Sami Zayn and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Finn Balor may be shortened too, so as to elevate Black and “The Fiend” and as a sendoff for Balor.

It also can’t be understated how unselfish it is of The Miz to willingly sacrifice a SummerSlam moment for Goldberg to be able to experience what will surely be one of his last few, maybe even his last.

Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross have the potential to not only elevate the Women’s Tag Team Championships back to a level of prominence they were receiving shortly before WrestleMania but take the prestige of them to new heights.

The Kabuki Warriors are just flat out not over enough and do not resonate with the WWE universe enough to be able to carry the women’s tag team division.

Meanwhile, every member of the WWE universe is paying attention to the friendship between Cross and Bliss and how it will end. Everyone knows that Alexa will wind up betraying and ultimately making a bitter enemy of Nikki, but people are curious to see how it will go down. Simple storyline, but just enough to keep people hooked.

Side Note: Maria Kanellis is a little bit annoying, but something about her is very captivating. I can see why Paul Heyman likes her mind so much. Rey Mysterio and Andrade also obviously have a ridiculous amount of chemistry together in the ring, which can never be undervalued.

WWE followed the massive rating increase of the Raw reunion with one of the best episodes in recent memory, in this new, edgier, slightly more sophisticated version of the Attitude Era. The last segment of the show was particularly awesome with utter chaos taking place.

I had absolutely no idea what was happening, and it was one of the greatest things I have seen on WWE TV in a long time, particularly when Cedric Alexander jumped off the platform right above where superstars make their entrances (it reminded me of the 2014 match between The Shield and Evolution when Seth Rollins jumped off that same platform to take out everyone). Mostly what might result from that altercation are SummerSlam matches between Drew McIntyre and Cedric Alexander and one between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe.

Speaking of Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar ensured that he wouldn’t by any means be going into SummerSlam. Seth could be seriously hurt after that F5 on the stretcher, unlike Alexa Bliss. It was also encouraging to see Seth possibly developing a new wrinkle to his character before his match with Dolph Ziggler by embracing a playful attitude backstage with the Street Profits.

Another great event that happened on Monday Night Raw was that the OC, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were crowned Raw Tag Team Champions, meaning that now all three members of the OC are now champions. This should be great for business as it now establishes them as a dominant heel faction similar to the Undisputed Era down in NXT (a big congrats to them as it looks like NXT will move to FS1 starting in October when SmackDown moves to Fox).

It makes sense that The Usos were taken out of the spotlight heading into SummerSlam due to Jimmy’s recent predicament with law enforcement. The OC is also picking up major steam and this will open the door for new rivalries because Gallows and Anderson have not been champions much since they entered WWE (only one time).

Ricochet absolutely deserves a SummerSlam match with AJ Styles and is on his way to becoming a massive star in the company.

The one segment that stood out most to me from Monday Night Raw was the segment involving Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe, and Joe was the one who stood out. He pointed out that WWE fans allow themselves to indulge an awful lot in nostalgia, which is an irrefutable fact. But the only reason WWE obliges to this is because it proves to be a massive ratings draw and gets the crowd to pop, including me, every time they do it. Joe also looked good in what was a very high-profile match with Reigns. WWE may want to seriously look into orchestrating a meeting between Reigns and Joe at SummerSlam, because these two have obvious chemistry in the ring and they haven’t met in a one-on-one match in over a year (the last time they met was at Backlash in May 2018). This proposal is obviously made with the assumption that Roman Reigns is good-to-go for the match. The reason I say this is that, while it is great to see Roman back, he has still not been cleared to return to full-time action (this is the reason that he has been featured primarily in tag team matches; like Extreme Rules for example).

Another high-profile segment from Raw was Seth Rollins’ promo of his SummerSlam match against Brock Lesnar in which he will be challenging for the Universal Championship. Speaking of that, it was on Miz TV, and this reminds me that a match at SummerSlam between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz that I talked about last week is reported not to be in the cards. WWE does in fact have about five storylines repeating themselves currently because the landscape of WWE looked eerily similar about two years ago).

Seth makes it seem surprisingly believable that he may be able to pull off the seemingly impossible yet again and take the Universal Championship out of the bearpaws of Brock Lesnar. The reason as to why he was able to make this seem like such a believable scenario is because he pointed out the fact that Lesnar was simply a man like everyone else and that he could be beaten on any given day. By doing this, Seth made The Beast seem relatable.

One other notable thing that happened was Bray Wyatt attacking Mick Foley. WWE needed to give him something to do while Finn Balor took the night off. While Balor is in the midst of preparing to take time away from WWE, Wyatt is preparing for what seems like it may be a significant singles push. I figured that he might attack Stone Cold Steve Austin after a very heartfelt promo in which he referred to everyone affiliated with WWE (including the WWE universe) truly being a part of the WWE family. In order to advance the storyline and help cement Wyatt as a main event superstar (my original thought was that Austin might bring Kevin Owens out and give him a few pointers on how to improve his Stunner).

Becky Lynch and Natalya had another heated exchange which got physical and the spotlight was presently taken off Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. The potential “inevitable” (Express) return of Ronda Rousey was also hinted at, with a few references of her being sprinkled in.

Sami Zayn also seems to be somewhat lost in the shuffle of Monday Night Raw as he took yet another loss to Ray Mysterio this past week and seems to be lacking direction at the moment. That’s okay, however, these things will happen. It’s all part of the grind and he has surely learned to accept and love the ups and downs he will experience in his WWE tenure.

Side Note:As always, it is incredibly exciting to see John Cena; The Club is officially being re-named the OC; The Usos will get one more Raw Tag Team Championship match with The Revival at SummerSlam, which is very smart considering how much Prestige they have in WWE. The Viking Raiders should be next in line to challenge for the titles; Eric Bischoff made a small appearance to let the on-screen audience know he is now running SmackDown Live; lastly, the events surrounding the 24/7 Championship turned out to be very entertaining, and the right guy walked away with the title at the end of the night – R-Truth.

The highlight of the night was Seth Rollins clinching yet another opportunity at the Universal Championship. This is typical of WWE to repeat storylines as opposed to introducing new concepts. Rollins is definitely deserving of a rematch, just maybe not right now. I almost got a little too excited when Randy Orton was the second to last man in the battle royal, which was a genius idea by Paul Heyman. I was holding my breath in hopes that the WWE universe would get an opportunity to witness a rematch between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton, revisiting the bloodbath from SummerSlam 2016.

The second biggest happening from Monday Night Raw had to do with Bray Wyatt returning and attacking Finn Balor, presumably setting up a SummerSlam match. This is great for Wyatt to return, but why does he have to wrestle this opponent? He already had a SummerSlam match with Balor back in 2017. The only difference is that he lost, and he might actually win this one. I personally feel that WWE should not seek to recycle old rivalries, but rather look to establish new ones, particularly at their second-biggest pay-per-view of the year.

It is great to see Natalya getting a Raw Women’s Championship opportunity at SummerSlam against Becky Lynch. She received a similar opportunity for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the same event in 2017 against Naomi. It is also nice to see the women getting edgy. The edginess WWE is establishing again on TV is not just exclusive to the men. The women’s match on Raw was a rather excellent performance, particularly as it pertains to Alexa Bliss and Naomi. Nikki Cross is also getting visibly more comfortable on camera evidenced by her taunting of the crowd.

Side Note: It’s a solid idea for WWE to book a SummerSlam match between Dolph Ziggler and The Miz. Miz has done well for himself over the last two SummerSlams, having a great match with Daniel Bryan last year and being booked in a match this year that should produce the same results with Dolph Ziggler.