We start with the biggest piece of news and the most exciting thing to come out of this edition of Monday Night RAW: The announcement that there will be a new pay-per-view in October, called Evolution, that will be an all-women PPV. To announce this, they had the entire RAW locker room stand on stage while Vince, Stephanie, and Triple H announced it in the ring. As soon as I heard there was a big announcement to be made I had a feeling it would be something like this, but I was a little concerned that it would a 205 Live type of show that they’d announce. I’m absolutely thrilled for Evolution and I cannot wait until October.
We start the episode strong, with The B-Team defending their newly acquired tag team titles against the Deleters of Worlds, Woken Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt. I want to take this opportunity to say that The B-Team is one of the best things to happen to RAW in a while, and the fact that they are now the champions is both hilarious and satisfying. It’s like they bumbled their way to the top and continue to do so, and the humor they bring to the titles and to the show is something I would have absolutely lost my mind over as a kid.
Elias’ album dropped yesterday, apparently. He attempts to have himself a big moment and sing a song, before being immediately interrupted by Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt.
Matt Hardy moved pretty quick, almost laying waste to Curtis Axel early in the match, and I was worried this would be a quick loss for The B-Team. Nope! A quick match, for sure, but a victory for my hapless heroes, who managed to pin Hardy while he was distracted. Hardy attempts to lead the crowd in a show of respect for the champions, but it turns out to be a rouse and he and Wyatt attack them. Too bad, because they’re still the champs.
We get teased on tonight’s main event, Roman Reigns Vs Bobby Lashley, and how the winner will go to face Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. There’s a possibility Roman Reigns could face Lesnar at the next pay-per-view? Call me crazy, but I think I know how this match is going to end.
Backstage, Finn Balor is confused to see that his stuff is being moved without his permission, only to learn that a bitter Constable Corbin has moved his things into Finn’s new private dressing room: a literal child’s playhouse. Finn takes it in stride, which only ticks off Corbin more. Corbin – the comedic genius that he is – makes a couple of jokes about how short Finn Balor is, which I’m sure some people found hilarious.
We have a backstage interview with Bayley and Sasha Banks to follow up on the tense and very revealing moment they had in the locker room after their match last week. The two of them are… very chipper. It’s an interesting new dynamic between them, where they seem to be very happy but aren’t really talking about what happened between last week and last night, except to say they’ve had a “long talk.”
When it’s time for their match again Samantha Simon and Karen Lundy, they work extremely well as a team. They’re full of enthusiasm and strength and Sasha pulls a bank statement pretty early on, winning them the match. It ends with a super passionate and long hug session in the ring. Are they best friends again? More than friends? I am on board for this storyline, so long as it doesn’t end with Sasha pretending to be in love with Bayley to lull her into a false sense of security.
Elias’s time to shine, take two. Immediately, he is interrupted by Braun Strowman, Mr. Monster in the Bank, with his little briefcase in tow. Kevin Owens is not far behind him, and he has a bit of a meltdown about how his ten-year-old son’s dreams of tag teaming with Strowman were crushed, much like his spine. Constable Corbin comes out with Jinder Mahal and Sunil Singh to try and control Strowman, but he shows everybody those hands and they kind of all flee.
Mickie James Vs Natayla was another short but sweet match that ended with Mickie James getting the pin on Natalya. She did her best, but ultimately fell for Alexa Bliss’ trick when Alexa tries to grab her from outside the ring. She knocked Bliss out, but took her eyes off James just long enough to get kicked in the face and pinned.
Backstage, Roman Reigns cuts an interview, feeling confident in himself and his ability to finally beat Bobby Lashley. He calls himself the most decorated superstar of his generation, and gets over? It actually made sense though, because it was a decent promo. Roman Reigns cut a decent promo.
Elias comes back for round three. Does he get interrupted again? Yes, thank God. By Akam and Rezar, the Authors of Pain. This segment isn’t great; basically they come out and send out an open challenge to face “anyone but Titus Worldwide,” and then end up facing Titus Worldwide. They try to explain to the Authors of Pain that they’re too new and too young and have to learn more before getting the respect they feel they deserve. The AoP make some comments about how old Titus is, and how he should retire. Sometimes to teach someone a lesson, you have to just fight them, with is Titus’ philosophy. He kind of lays them out, and it’s over quick.
Backstage, Kurt is laying the praise on thick when talking to Stephanie about the all-women pay-per-view. He is interrupted by a tattletale of a Constable Corbin, who tries to explain that Kurt has let the situation with Strowman get out of hand and because of that, Owens only narrowly avoided serious injury. Owens demands that Kurt give him a match against Strowman at Summerslam, and says that if he wins, he should get Strowman’s Money in the Bank. Kurt’s not sold, but luckily Stephanie is, and she grants him his wish before leaving in her limo.
Mojo Rawley defeats Tyler Breeze is a somewhat boring match, which ended in an Alabama Slam and a fast pin.
Is Elias really gonna try this again? Fourth time is not the charm. He’s interrupted by Finn Balor.
Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre was not the main event, but it was probably the more exciting match. The momentum in this match was not only maintained from the high-energy opening act of Balor doing a dropkick right to McIntyre’s nose and then flying over the top rope, but it actually built and reached a fever pitch when Ziggler took a shot at Balor, ending the match in a disqualification. The reason why the momentum BUILT from that point was because Seth Rollins came out and hammered away at Ziggler before him and Balor have a moment in the ring.
But again, the momentum kept building, because Kurt Angle came out and declared that the match would now be a tag team match – Ziggler and McIntyre vs Balor and Rollins – and that the match would start NOW. It started off fast and furious with Balor and Rollins having the upper hand. There was a lot of throwing, a lot of flying, a lot of people being slammed into the barricades. In the end, Rollins pins Ziggler, and the two win the match.
A backstage moment with Bobby Lashley talking about what he has to do to get to Summerslam – beat Roman Reigns again tonight. Something tells me it won’t happen.
For an episode featuring a pretty historic announcement for the women’s division, this episode has been lacking in women’s matches, but that’s all changed now that Ember Moon is here to face The Riot Squad’s Liv Morgan. It was a passionate but quick (a running theme for this week) match that ends in Ember Moon’s Eclipse winning her the match.
Rollins talks backstage about how he’s proud of the women’s division for Evolution and how he just got a match set with Ziggler for Summerslam. It’s a match for the intercontinental championship. Time to burn it down in Brooklyn one more time!
Of course Elias has to try ONE more time, interrupting Michael Cole during a promo segment about the big headlining match. I’m finally ready to admit that this bit is funny, and what a perfect moment for me to finally think that, because Kurt Angle comes out – interrupting him – to say that he understands how important this night is to him and he wants to let him finish a song, uninterrupted. Finally Elias gets to perform a very bad, poorly sung song.
I kind of don’t want to give the Roman Reigns Vs Bobby Lashley match a lot of attention, just because I thought the outcome was pretty obvious, and it felt like a waste of time to get too invested in the action. Of course Reigns was going to win. How could you have a Summerslam without Reigns trying and failing to get over with the audience in the WWE’s latest attempt to push him as a viable champion? The match was good, and pretty intense, but the outcome was about as generic and bland as we could have hoped for.
