RAW

It can’t be just me. Is anyone else looking more forward to the United States Championship match at Extreme Rules than the Universal/Raw Women’s Championship match? Also, when I first heard that Extreme Rules was going to air from Philadelphia (Paul Heyman has plenty of history in that location from his ECW days), a wrestling fan cannot help but think of the disastrous reaction Roman Reigns received at the Royal Rumble 2015, the year he won the whole thing.

Overall, this was a solid episode of Monday Night Raw, with a healthy dose of controlled chaos to start the show. Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch took on Andrade and Zelina Veg in a mixed tag team match, immediately followed by an attack on Seth and Becky from Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans.

It only seems to be a matter of time before the Viking Raiders win the Raw Tag Team Championships and go on to dominate the Raw tag team division for an extended period. Fans seem to be sick of The Revival (that is not an insult to them). Personally, I think they have been very good for WWE, but it is a palpable feeling that the WWE universe is ready for something different.

Karl Anderson seems to stand out to me more than Luke Gallows, despite the fact that Gallows got the spotlight on Raw this week with a match against Ricochet (maybe this is a sign that Paul Heyman favors him over Anderson).

Who would’ve ever thought that Drake Maverick, R-Truth and the 24/7 Championship would be one of the top two or three stories in WWE? Quite a few fans, including me, thought it might turn out to be the laughing stock of WWE and quickly be done away with, but credit has to be given where credit is due.

Who would have ever guessed that within just a couple months of the title’s inception that it would at least temporarily have more significance than Roman Reigns? Roman currently seems to be in a state of creative limbo (this is likely to change after Extreme Rules, as he will likely be put in a championship match for SummerSlam, watch should be awesome.) One would assume he might be placed in a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam, but brand doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore with the Wild Card Rule being implemented in May and effectively ending the poignant split.

Side Note:How awesome is it that the WWE universe will still chant CM Punk’s name when they get bored during shows? Even 5 ½ years after his departure, he still leaves an indelible mark in the minds of hard-core WWE fans (sorry Bayley). And, I really don’t know what’s up with Cedric Alexander being portrayed on Raw as Gary Garbutt.

Paul Heyman’s first week running Raw was a success! The only somewhat questionable decision was force-feeding Maria and Mike Kanellis, but Heyman loves Maria’s mind. This late June – early July timeframe may be the lowest point of the entire year for WWE. The Club reuniting, however, is sure to increase TV ratings because AJ Styles is a top superstar in the company, and character changes from top superstars always garner interest in the WWE product.

This move also provides WWE with a top heel faction to build around and pit top superstars like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston against them. The dog days of summer in WWE may officially be over and now we can focus on the build to SummerSlam.

It is so funny, because as I was watching the show and saw The Club again, I thought to myself “I bet The Club will reunite in the coming weeks, because WWE has been subtly hinting at this for weeks now. Gallows and Anderson just need to get their acts together and cut the silliness”.

Now it will be interesting to see the potential of AJ Styles as Raw’s top heel play out. We better enjoy it while we have it because AJ can’t have much longer as an elite performer. I’m surprised he’s lasted as long as he has, at 42 years of age (to provide context, that’s the same age as John Cena). All things considered; I absolutely love this move by WWE. The feud with Ricochet needs to continue, because Ricochet is a budding superstar as a face, something WWE desperately needs.

On a slightly less positive note, what transpired between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley was very reminiscent of a 2013 incident between Ryback and John Cena, with Ryback driving John into the backstage area through the lights. This most recent incident was most likely done to get Strowman off TV for a while in order to heal up from a probable knee injury, which has hindered his level of speed over the last month or so (Dave Meltzer has also noted the injury on the Wrestling Observer Radio). This may be a good excuse to give Lashley a character overhaul and try something new

Side Note: Miz and Elias had a two out of three falls match (something WWE would like to do more of), which will undoubtedly lead to a Shane McMahon – Miz match at SummerSlam. This feud is continuing to be a detriment to the characters of both Elias and Drew McIntyre. Let’s just hope it’s not beyond repair because they both have a high level of potential to be performers who are heavily relied on for the next decade.

I am still waiting on Bray Wyatt to make an appearance somewhere as he has traveled with WWE for a few weeks, but still has not made his imminent return. It was also a rather pleasant surprise to see the NXT Tag Team Champions Street Profits as they are always a welcome sighting as they bring major energy with them wherever they go.

An applause has to be given to everyone in the entire WWE for making the 24/7 Championship relevant while simultaneously building up R-Truth. I figured it would be an absolute failure and no one would care that much about it.

Another extremely positive thing that is happening right now in WWE is the fact that Cesaro is being booked perfectly: A rugged tough guy who takes wrestling very seriously and punishes anyone who does not approach it as seriously as he does. This may be something to watch out for with Paul Heyman running things, because Paul worked with Cesaro briefly for a short period years ago, so there may be a small amount of hope for Cesaro to receive the push he has deserved for years now.

WWE can spot the obvious in this case that Ricochet and AJ Styles will produce incredible in-ring work. Like I said, this was obvious that WWE had to set up a feud like this, but they still deserve credit for making it come to fruition. Ricochet’s humility is not characteristic of a WWE superstar, but I like it because it is different and outside the box. There is also a certain level of grace and likability in Ricochet’s demeanor which is unique to him and it cannot be taught.

On a less positive note, I don’t know how to feel any more about the presence of The Undertaker. He should have retired 5 – 7 years ago and is not the same caliber athlete as he was then and he will only serve as a detriment to Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon, who can still legitimately go at age 49. It also does not make much sense from a storyline perspective because Undertaker lost to Roman Reigns two years ago at WrestleMania, so why would he want to team up with him? But clearly in WWE, once an event transpires, the very next week it’s like it basically never happened (short memory).

I cannot get very excited for the mixed tag match at Extreme Rules, even if it is for both championships (being Seth Rollins’ Universal Championship as well as Becky Lynch’s Raw Women’s Championship), because these mixed tag team matches are historically hard to coordinate the movements of the superstars because of the vastly different styles of the men and women. These matches are therefore awkward and feel a little slow. My hope is that they blow me, and the entire WWE universe, out of the water, however, because these are such great performers, tops in the industry.

Let’s be honest, did anyone even remember that The Revival were Raw Tag Team Champions, because I certainly didn’t, so The Usos will presumably be a nice change. R-Truth is getting a nice little spotlight since he has been 24/7 Champion. He plays the most entertaining imbecile ever, with remarks like his constipation reference.

Lastly, it was a brilliant and unforeseen move of the WWE creative team to have Samoa Joe go right after Kofi Kingston and the WWE Championship immediately after losing the United States Championship since he now has nothing to do in terms of going after a championship. He will be able to give Kofi a signature opponent where people will say looking back on Kingston’s reign “that match with Samoa Joe was easily the best one”. He did the exact same thing for AJ Styles in 2018. I thought WWE might let him hang in creative limbo for a while before maybe pulling the trigger on this because that is what they historically do, but it’s great for Joe that they didn’t immediately.

Vince McMahon, Triple H, Stephanie, Shane, the creative team, as well as for whoever else is in charge of storyline creation in WWE needs to make a Seth Rollins – Daniel Bryan feud come to fruition before one of them is out of his prime. This would be a massive moneymaker for WWE and would also draw a lot of interest in the product, similar to the potential AJ Styles – Finn Balor story mentioned in my Superstar Sagas post.

This time, it was fully expected for Rollins to win, given that he is the current Universal Champion and he and Bryan are currently on separate brands (and Bryan is a current SmackDown Tag Team Champion). Baron Corbin will be included in this section too because he did, come out and attack Rollins after the match to build for the go-home episode of Raw heading into Stomping Grounds. He is doing a beautiful job portraying a heel who is completely focused on the low vibrational frequency of his ego. It is absolutely genius for WWE to announce his resume every time he comes out to grace us with his presence.

Congratulations are in order for Ricochet, who will be getting his first championship opportunity against Samoa Joe basically four months after his debut on the main roster. It makes perfect sense to give him a major push because there is virtually nothing he cannot do in the ring. He will wind up having a great career due to these abilities despite the fact that he is a little smaller than the typical top-level superstar that Vince McMahon typically goes for, very similar to Finn Balor. Finn, however, resonates with audiences a little more whereas they are simply in awe of Ricochet.

Cesaro’s ridiculous strength was also on display on Raw, as he manhandled Braun Strowman not once but twice. I mean you would expect that from Bobby Lashley because he is a freak (no offense to Lars Sullivan), but Cesaro doesn’t even have the look of a guy who might possess that type of strength. Speaking of him, he should definitely have a match at Stomping Grounds.

Side Note: Thank you Paul Heyman for intelligently referencing the Los Angeles Lakers just two days after trading for AD (Anthony Davis). Also, my condolences go out to Elias after suffering the barrage of punishment to start off Monday Night Raw (sarcasm, hehe).

John Cena’s recent comments about WWE not necessarily replacing him as the face of the WWE with one particular superstar, but instead using multiple different stars to fill the void created by his departure in order to satisfy the multitude of demographics within WWE’s global audience are very telling. The latest example of that was on display on Raw this week with Roman Reigns not being featured as an integral part of the show.

WWE appears to be entering a new era in which the company is not reliant on one particular star, but instead relying on more of a cooperative group effort from everyone. This truly seems to be an exciting time for the company, and they will constantly be motivated because of the emergence of AEW.

A significant amount of progress is being made by Baron Corbin each week in the heel department. He is starting to fill the void that The Miz left as the man in WWE who is universally disliked by the audience, which is an extremely important role to fill. The entire WWE audience can invest their collective energy into the same emotion they are feeling towards a particular person, Corbin in this case. This is truly one of the primary reasons I personally believe WWE has such a magnetic quality. It’s like Sami Zayn says – people feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.

The women’s division has been losing steam in the last eight weeks or so. There seems to be way too much of a concentration on three or four of the women – and the rest is just being discounted. Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and Bayley (And to a lesser extent Nikki Cross and Lacey Evans), seem to be the small group of women right now getting much of any attention and the rest are being discounted. This needs to be fixed quickly, otherwise some of these women may ask for their release from WWE, and no one could blame them because it would be justified. Many superstars are already asking for their release – it doesn’t need to get any worse.

The tag team division is a complete joke – almost to the point where it is unwatchable, and Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins are not doing WWE any favors to change that perception from fans.

The only watchable teams are The New Day and The Usos. On a more upbeat note, Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Funhouse is starting to pick up more steam. Maybe creative is allowing Wyatt to give a little more input and exercise more freedom in what he presents to the audience on a weekly basis because his creativity level is very high.

The whole format of Monday Night Raw between 8:30 and 10:30 the past number of weeks has felt messy and disorganized to say the least. It feels like the show has been thrown together without proper planning, and this is apparently true from what I have read. Even last week, the show was still having the script written as the show went on the air. It is chaotic primarily because it’s jumping around to many different storylines with many different superstars at a rapid pace. Even so, there has to be a way to make it feel more cohesive.

It’s a little unfortunate to see the storylines surrounding the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship taking up such a significant amount of time in the show. This is nothing against Kofi Kingston or Seth Rollins, or Brock Lesnar for that matter, it’s just that if they take up this much time in the show every week, it takes away time that could be given to up-and-comers like Mojo Rawley for example.

With that being said, Dolph Ziggler is doing a fantastic job with the limited material he was given for what appears to be a very short-term storyline between he and Kofi Kingston seemingly until right after Super Showdown, since he was merely a replacement for Kevin Owens to challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship. How great of an idea was Brock Lesnar’s Beast Box? This is exactly what I’m talking about in that the WWE creative team seems to be putting all their creative energy into the primary title feuds as opposed to spreading it out and sprinkling some of their creative juice onto each storyline.

Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn put together a great match, one in which I thought it may be very possible for Brock Lesnar to cash in his Money in the Bank contract with Seth Rollins injuring his knee. The electric chair segment with Corey Graves and Sami Zayn couldn’t have been more brilliantly executed with Zayn acting irritated by every question from each member of the WWE universe and Corey Graves trying to maintain some sort of remote level of professionalism.

The history of Evolution at this point is simply tiring. I’m talking of course about the buildup to the Triple H vs. Randy Orton match at Super Showdown. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia habitually asks for matches at their events that attend to rekindle old flames from the past. Most younger fans don’t even remember Evolution. Drew McIntyre has also replaced Elias as Shane McMahon’ and enforcer, as if it really matters.

Ricochet and Cesaro were simply unreal again. We all need to keep our fingers crossed that Cesaro’s neck is all right because he is a special talent. While he is not especially athletic, he does all the little things exceptionally well. It is extremely unfortunate that Rey Mysterio will be forced to relinquish his United States Championship, and it looks like Samoa Joe will look to regain it ASAP.

As of right this moment, Baron Corbin will be getting a Universal Championship match at Super Showdown. I imagine WWE will go through with this and after the Rollins-Corbin match, Lesnar could cash in and become Universal Champion, because he is advertised to make an appearance at the event as he did last year. Corbin also helped Lesnar win the Universal Title in November at Crown Jewel by hitting Braun Strowman with the belt, so there is history between the two.

Side Note: It’s also encouraging to see Sami Zayn and WWE publicly acknowledge competition in the form of AEW, because their Double or Nothing event from this past weekend was wildly successful. Dean Ambrose, or Jon Moxley, has officially signed up with AEW, along with many other former WWE talents like Chris Jericho. AEW may prove to be a strong competitor to WWE once their TV deal with TNT begins in October of this year. It’s also very encouraging to see Lance Anoa’i, Roman Reigns’ cousin, making his television debut and carrying on the family legacy. Hopefully, we will all see Lance at some point in the future.

Ricochet took a beating in the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match, so it’s impressive he could do much of anything, but the real story is Cesaro and how WWE is building him up for what one might imagine would be a major push. Maybe it could play a role in boosting TV ratings if WWE were to give deserving superstars opportunities who may not ordinarily get them such as Cesaro. There is no doubt he is one of the best in-ring performers in the company.

Fans who pay even a little attention could see Reigns vs. Shane coming from a mile away given how heavily involved Shane was in the altercations between Roman and Elias leading up to MITB. Props need to be given to Shane McMahon because he is still capable of putting on a gripping performance in matches, despite the fact that he fell to his victory against The Miz.

Speaking of Miz, WWE may be building towards a match between he and Drew McIntyre at Super Showdown, given that they had a match on Raw. Miz is also turning into a surprisingly good protagonist considering this is one of the first times in his career where he is not a heel. He briefly turned babyface in 2013 and was given the figure for leglock by Ric Flair, but that quickly fizzled out and he went back to being a heel because of his mic skills.

Mick Foley’s announcement of the 24/7 Championship was a little bit underwhelming to say the least, because in all honesty it is just an attempted resurgence of the Hardcore Championship from back in the day, which failed to garner much interest from fans. The rules were exactly the same with that championship.

Honestly, it doesn’t even matter that much who the champion is because fans will forget if it changes a couple of times every week. I like to have an optimistic point of view, but it’s almost impossible with this title, which seems doomed to fail just as the Hardcore Championship did about 17 years ago.

The last somewhat relevant Hardcore Champion was Kane when he won the title at WrestleMania X7. A TV title may be more appropriate, a championship which is defended each week on a televised show, either Raw or SmackDown, each week albeit never on pay-per-views. That would generate interest because it would be something new and different, but it would still be easy to keep track of who the champion is because people would see it defended in a marquee segment on TV each week, rather than just being defended anytime anywhere.

Monday Night Raw was live from the O2 Arena in London last night. It’s easy to get used to the Wild Card Rule because all it was (in reality) was the unofficial announcement of the brand split. With that out of the way, we can get to the most important part of the night: Sami Zayn earning Braun Strowman’s spot in the men’s Money in the Bank letter match.

Sami more than deserves it considering how great his work has been in the last month or so since returning from injury. It also makes sense for Braun Strowman because it has been publicized, in the fairly recent past, how Vince McMahon views him as more of a mascot for the company as opposed to a legitimate threat. This is history repeating itself because Vince viewed Big Show in a similar light. Going back to Zayn, it would be far from surprising to see him win the contract and be used in some interesting feuds in the coming months.

With Dominick being so heavily involved in the feud between Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio, one has to question the possibility of him bypassing NXT and going straight to the main roster (as evidenced by the fact that Joe said on Raw that someone needs to teach Dominick how to be a man and he’s the one to do it).

Bray Wyatt seems to be much more optimistic about his new gimmick than I am as I still contend WWE needs to capitalize on this gimmick rather quickly by having him win a title. A gimmick such as this may go stale sooner rather than later cited by the fact that Vince McMahon has struggled to properly book gimmicks like this in the past (remember Mordecai?). An appearance in the Money in the Bank ladder match may not be out of the question.

I think I, along with the rest of the WWE universe, forgot exactly how good Cesaro is in the ring. It’s simply unheard of for someone as big as he is to be that well-versed in Lucha libre. Before he retires, he is deserving of a major push and a world championship title. Vince McMahon cannot overlook someone like him who has given his heart and soul to the business.

A Roman Reigns- Shane McMahon rivalry down the line appears to be where we’re headed, and it feels redundant. It feels like WWE is trying to re-create the magic that Vince McMahon was able to produce with various top superstars in the Attitude Era as opposed to attempting to create something brand-new. The creative team seems to be struggling for ideas just a bit.

I’m still praying WWE builds up Mojo Rawley a little in preparation for a potential Gronk debut and subsequent Tag Team Championship victory. This would be a huge contribution towards the effort to improve TV ratings.

WWE desperately needs to combat the consistent drop in TV ratings it is been experiencing for the past couple of years. A complete reboot of the show’s format may not be a terrible idea, which may mean not featuring the McMahon family as much. Can the McMahon family look at options, new formats and more to give the universe the boost it needs to continue thriving? It’s not about control or who manages everything or who gets the most air time, it could simply be putting people, resources and storylines in place to optimize the business.

In reality, the reason Vince McMahon came up with the wild card rule is to attempt to provide a solution to the low TV ratings in the recent past. SmackDown has experienced a 13% drop in viewership over the past year and Raw has experienced a very similar drop, which is pretty significant over just one year’s time.

Nonetheless, it was still great to see the top three superstars from SmackDown Live on Monday, particularly since I was in attendance. A Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan rematch was a great idea that was initially assumed to transpire at Money in the Bank. It seemed a little unnecessary to have a title match on Raw, but no one should be complaining.

Also, despite the fact that it has not been announced, a rematch between Shane McMahon and The Miz appears to be inevitable. I can’t be certain as to why Roman Reigns appeared on Raw because he did not necessarily help to further any storylines, but I could never complain about seeing him. It is perfectly understandable for WWE to want to try to fight through this period of very low TV ratings with its biggest star spearheading the Army, but WWE needs to be very strategic in the amount that Reigns is exposed to audiences because overexposure could lead to boos once again.

What fans are really demanding is innovative storytelling in order to build new and compelling stars, which is exactly what occurred during The Attitude Era to build up people such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H and The Rock.

Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman gave us a funny segment in which Strowman threw Zayn into a dumpster. Samoa Joe also displayed his ridiculous promo skills by intimidating Rey Mysterio’s son Dominik. We will have to wait and see if Mojo Rawley’s segment turns into anything more.

It was good to see Ricochet pick up a victory against Robert Roode. Now the two are even, and a third match is sure to take place at Money in the Bank. It’s somewhat surprising WWE did not elect to change Roode’s entrance music, as Vince contemplated changing it down the road when Roode first came to the main roster because he didn’t think a heel could get over with such a catchy entrance track.

The Viking Raiders appear to have earned their way into a match for the Raw Tag Team Championships by defeating the champions Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins. They look poised to dominate the tag team division for quite some time, despite the fact that WWE can’t seem to figure out that their name was really good as War Raiders. WWE seems to spend too much time contemplating superstars’ names and perhaps unnecessarily shortening them.

The four participants from Monday Night Raw for both Money in the Bank ladder matches were announced. In terms of the four men and women who are competing in the two matches, one could have guessed who these participants will be (assuming you are a diehard). Just because I could have guessed who they are, however, I am still not complaining because these will make for excellent matches. How can anyone help but be ecstatic for Ricochet, who gained some necessary momentum on the main roster to begin his run which will hopefully solidify him as a definite champion in the future? To be honest, Braun Strowman, unfortunately, seems to be seen by Vince McMahon as more of a mascot for the company than a legit main eventer. Drew McIntyre has a legitimate chance to win the contract and become Universal Champion. His level of intensity combined with his look is exactly what Vince is looking for in terms of a champion who represents his company the right way. No one really likes Baron Corbin, but he is quickly becoming reliable now in the dastardly heel role like The Miz executed perfectly where people hate him for the right reasons.

The women’s Money in the Bank ladder match should be interesting as well with the four Raw participants in mind. Alexa Bliss is not a serious candidate to win this year considering she just won last year and successfully cashed in the contract, but she still adds another element of intrigue. Naomi may be considered a dark horse candidate to win this year, but it is very doubtful WWE will pull the trigger on this idea. Natalya almost has to be put in there simply because of her pedigree and the fact that she is still one of the best performers in the company when it comes to wrestling ability. And Dana Brooke, give me a break. Sasha Banks would make for a much more intriguing entrant and fortunately, this still isn’t out of the realm of possibility. So, the two winners of the Money in the Bank letter matches I’m assuming will be Drew McIntyre on the men’s side and a woman from SmackDown.

Since The Good Brothers are now on the same brand as AJ Styles, this would be the perfect excuse for WWE to reunite The Club. This strategy worked incredibly well three years ago against John Cena along with a few others, and it makes sense to do right now considering that Styles is being portrayed as the heel in his current feud with Seth Rollins as was evidenced by the contract signing that took place this week.

The events that transpired between The Revival and The Usos provided some more than necessary comic relief for Raw, with Dash shaving Dawson’s back because of his girthy lats. Fans have to feel at least somewhat bad for them because their bad luck continued later in the evening when they got beat by the Tag Team Champions Ryder and Hawkins (thrilled for them getting the opportunity to be champions again).

It resonated that Bobby Lashley was referring to himself in the third person on Miz TV because the only person to do that was The Rock. It is uncertain as to exactly what role he will play at Money in the Bank, but I am almost certain that he will play a role in the steel cage match at Money in the Bank between The Miz and Shane McMahon.

It looks like there are major plans in store for The Viking Raiders, and there should be because they have serious potential to dominate the tag team division for the men for an extended time spanning multiple years. There may even be a MITB ladder match for tag teams added to the pay-per-view soon (probably not this year but maybe next year to introduce The Undisputed Era) because WWE now has enough tag teams to do something like that on both brands. This could be a big moneymaker for the company.

It’s a great morale booster for Rey Mysterio to get a victory against Samoa Joe after being embarrassed at WrestleMania. Pay attention to Mysterio’s son Dominik, because I can almost guarantee that he was not brought into this story for nothing. He will almost certainly play a role to a degree in this feud.

WWE is attempting to give Sami Zayn’s new character an intellectual appeal by having him referred to the “psychological concept of entitlement” which I believe is the disease of the millennial generation. Fans may not love what Sami has to say because of his sarcastic delivery, but something can be learned from him. He could be in the beginning stages of a sizable push so that’s something to watch for.

I wanted to point out that I will be in attendance for Monday Night Raw next week, so that should be interesting. One downside of that is missing out on Corey Graves’ commentary for the week. No worries though because he’s on both weekly shows for WWE.