The special 4th of July edition of RAW kicks off with… A food fight? For once, a ridiculous segment was damn funny. This will lead us to some of our matches later tonight.
Our first contest features Lillian Garcia singing the National Anthem, and we get a pseudo big fight feel with Titus O’Neal once again taking on Rusev. Titus, dressed as Uncle Sam in Apollo Creed style. Kinda funny, kinda weird. This match was by far the best out of the series thus far, however the outcome remains the same, with Rusev winning the match, and post-match unnecessary beatdown. This feud is going to go longer, isn’t it. I love Titus, but I don’t love seeing him get bashed every week.
The Social Outcasts come out as Patriots, or something, but wind up getting trounced by Enzo and Cass.
Charlotte and Dana Brooke in the ring, Charlotte talks while Brooke appears to parrot. I can’t stand her, and I don’t understand what Bill finds attractive about her. Sasha Banks hits the ring and arena explodes. Charlotte and Banks will happen, and it will be awesome.
Dean Ambrose gets a win over The Miz in a pretty good match. Give credit to The Miz, he can take and sell some pretty serious spots. Post match Seth Rollins comes out and seems to ignore Ambrose, but the WWE Champion goes the mind-games route by faking a charge, goes around the ring, and sits at the Spanish announce table. This gets funny.
Seth Rollins then defeats Dolph Ziggler in a fantastic match. Fantastic. The pace was fast and non-stop. This should hopefully headline a PPV. Post match, Rollins verbally puts down Reings, and the inevitable brawl between Ambrose and Rollins ensues, with Ambrose spiking Rollins with the Dirty Deeds on the Spanish Announce table.
Wyatt Family Creep-fest promo.
Vicki Guerrero is out. Then taken out. Please no more.
Our main event is a 16-man match, Big Show psyches up his Team USA.
Golden Truth defeat the Vaudevillians. So, this is a thing, and the Vaudevillians are being buried? Come on.
In yet another worthless “Let’s Make Darren Young Great Again” segment, Bob Backlund grants Darren Young permission to use his Crossface Chicken Wing as a finisher. I don’t think anyone is happy.
John Cena is out and rambles until AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows come out, and cut a pretty decent promo, once again making reference to John Cena being a shovel for younger guys. Their promo simply dedicates each holiday to “beating John Cena.” Shockingly, Enzo and Cass make the save. This sets up their match for BattleGround.
Botchamania just got a new clip, during a match between Summer Rae and Becky Lynch, a Suplex by Summer goes wrong and Becky gets planted on her head. Thankfully, she recovers and forces Summer to tap out. Sheesh.
Backstage segment with the International Club of Silly Walks is hysterical. Everyone starts talking different languages, but Owens kills it by mocking Jericho and cutting to the point of going out there and winning the damn match.
The New Day is out, and we are worried, because while Kofi Kingston and Big E. are joking around, Xavier Woods is worried. Another Creep-Fest promo from The Wyatt Family. This prompts Xavier to become angry at his teammates for not taking “the threat” of The Wyatt Family seriously, following Kofi’s agreement to go to the Wyatt Family “compound.”
My wife got so nervous The New Day is going to break up, she went and ordered their T-Shirt/Cereal box combo before it gets pulled off the site.
Our main event match is a fun conclusion to the show. On one side is The Multigrain International House of Foreign Pancakes – Chris Jericho, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Kalisto, Sin Cara, Alberto del Rio, and Sheamus versus Team America – The Dudley Boyz, Kane, Mark Henry, Big Show, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, and Apollo Crews. Early eliminations came fast as Sin Cara deservedly went out first, but surprisingly The Dudleys go out fairly sudden afterwards. The action slows a bit and we get a nice nod spot with Swagger and Cesaro doing the “We the People” for a moment, then go at it. Jericho tags in and eliminates Swagger. Kane dominates, leading to a brawl before commercial. Back from commercial, Del Rio and Crews fight for a bit, until Mark Henry comes in. Crowd pops huge as he eliminates Kalisto, but then the crowd really loses it when Owens manages a Pop-Up Powerbomb on the World’s Strongest Man and eliminates him. Wow. Both Owens and Kane get DQ’d following chair shots. Oh, Owens hit Zayn with the chair, his own partner. Fantastic. Crews hits a standing moonsault and eliminates Zayn. Boo. Sheamus clobbers Crews with a Brough Kick for the elimination. Yay! We are down to Big Show and Zack Ryder. This is fantastic. At this point I think I know where this is heading, but I am not 100% sure. Cesaro winds up doing Team USA a favor and blasts his teammates with dashing uppercuts after they try to turn on him. In a shock, Ryder rolls him up for the elimination. Big Show then KO Punches Jericho for the elimination. Big Show chokeslams Del Rio for another elimination. Sheamus takes control, but gets cocky, and winds up being shoved by Big Show into a Rough Ryder, and is pinned. Yes, Zack Ryder pins Sheamus and wins the match.
I thought Ryder would have been the sole survivor, but I guess that would have been a bit too silly. I am disappointed to see Titus and Rusev getting too many ‘tease’ matches. I get the feud is still being built, but it feels a bit awkward to have so many repeat matches.
A bit concerned to the WWE Championship being downplayed and intrigued by the veral on-air burials of Roman Reigns. At first I thought this was to gain sympathy for him, but the crowd is too smart, they won’t fall for it.
SmackDown will feature the announcement of Brock Lesnar’s SummerSlam opponent.
