Every once in a while. Actually, let me restart that. More often than not, you’ll have these RAWs where it seems like there isn’t a particular direction. With Money In The Bank coming up, I understand it’s a little tough. The main matches are dealing with six participants who are trying to get this one chance at the briefcase. So, you have these matches that don’t really have a kick to them because you’re trying to get to the PPV.
Also, with the Universal title not being on the show, it does hurt some wrestlers. It seems like some guys like Braun Strowman, even though he’s in the MITB match, that’s he in a holding pattern. Braun beats up someone. Wrestler attacks his legs. That’s a big mistake. Braun does a feat of strength. Braun gets the win. Anyway, let’s get to it:
“She’s my friend. No, she’s MY friend“: I was on board with the contract signing and Stephanie Mcmahon being the instigator between Nia and Ronda. Good stuff. This week, the story took a weird turn. Nia has a match with Natalya which was ok. One thing to point out is that Ronda is new. She’s still learning the ropes, but they have to help her be more natural in commentary. There was a point where she repeated a line twice. This could also be contributed to the very scripted nature of how WWE promos are in general. Let them show some personality man!
Natalya has been favoring the knee for a while and it costs her the match here. From there, it goes into Nia and Ronda fighting each other to see who was going to help Natalya. Now, I think this is going to set up Natalya turning on Ronda in the future. Your classic mentor vs. mentee battle. As for the Nia/Ronda title match, it doesn’t really add anything. If you are going to do a Nia heel turn, the route to go was where Stephanie was leading it. The person rallying against the bullying now turns into the bully. Ronda would be the new kid at school that stand up to the bully, thus making her title win bigger.
Tag Team Battle Royal: B Team: The RAW tag team scene has been in a forgotten state as of late. You can see this because Bray and Matt came out for an interview instead of a match. As an aside, where are the Authors of Pain? There were one of the big call ups after Wrestlemania and has been long forgotten.
One would have thought that Ziggler and McIntyre would have been one of the final two teams, but they were one of the first out. Ziggler had about four times where he was almost eliminated. Then, they just beat everyone up before they left. Huh? Now, the B Team won the title shot and booking would have it that they would have a chance at some point.
Lashley and Zayn Loses Again: If you were looking for something to suddenly turn interesting for this Bobby Lashley/Sami Zayn feud, this wasn’t the week for you. This week, Sami turned his scorn on Bobby Lashley’s Instagram motivational posts. The crowd couldn’t be bothered. It was a real reach in a string of weeks where the promos are just not working for these two.
Since Lashley has come back, there’s been little to no reaction to him. They are trying to give him personality as a face, but it’s not connecting. Now, if he was a heel going against Braun in a power program, that would probably be the best bet as a reintroduction. Instead, we got a promo where Sami was going up the crowd and the big burn was doubting that Lashley served in the army. The announcers tried to put in over. It did not work.
Constable Corbin: Poor Curt Hawkins and poor crowd for not being able to get free tacos. Baron Corbin is another wrestler that creative has to keep busy and being Stephanie’s right hand man might actually be a good segway. His character is geared to be a natural jerk and it’s a good foil to stress Kurt Angle out. The Mcmahon/Helmsley regime has been out to make Kurt Angle’s GM role as difficult as possible and while Stephanie can’t be there every week, Corbin would be a good representation of that.
His first decision was to overturn the six women tag match that Bayley jumped in and got the win. They continue to tease the dissension between Bayley and Sasha, but it’s been so long that some of the heat has gone off it. With Natalya’s injury, perhaps that’s Bayley’s in to the MITB match where either her or Sasha will up the ante on the feud. That remains to be seen. I will say, Ruby Riott and Ember Moon have made the most of their call up opportunities and I would love to see them in a programs together at some point.
Monday Night Shield: If you noticed, WWE has a habit of pairing Roman Reigns with the biggest face wrestler to mask the boos. It worked here! Seth Rollins is the workhorse of the brand and the de facto main champion. Rollins and Elias did a cool thing where Rollins is selling the neck injury and Elias does the DDT on the chair to pick up the win. Good continuation there.
Jinder Mahal got beat up after calling out Reigns. The announcers continue to push that Reigns is the uncrowned Universal Champion. Nobody is believing that,
Finn Stands Tall: The main event of the night was Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. It was a fine match. It wasn’t their best, so maybe they are saving things for the MITB match. Most of the match saw Owens trying to ground Balor with headlocks and arm locks. It picks up at the end and Owens gets himself DQ’ed. Finn gets the heat back with a Coup de Grace off the ladder. That’s the quintessential 50/50 booking that’s been the WWE for a while.
