Last night was a great show, now did the momentum continue? I’ll tell you what I think, but you make your own opinions, OK?
I forgot to mention why MITB was great last night… IT ENDED BEFORE 10PM!! Maybe WWE will see this as a good thing as stop with the 27-hour PPVs and their four-day pre-shows.
Monday Night RAW 5/11 show kicks off with the mother of all announcements. Becky Lynch reveals she is pregnant and she will be taking time off. She has the Money in the Bank briefcase with her, which brings out Asuka, and reveals the WWE RAW Women’s Championship in the case. Becky awards the championship to Asuka, ending the longest Women’s title run at 399 days. Asuka, in a classy move, celebrates with Becky who is in tears at this temporary goodbye.
See what I did at the beginning there?
Some time later in the show, Shayna Baszler takes the low road and belittles Lynch for getting “knocked up” and “ending her career.” This was a major miss. I might be in the minority, but WWE didn’t have to script Bazsler to go heavy on the heel act. It sounded forced, cliché, and did nothing for her character.
Bobby Lashley defeated Humberto Carrillo in a No DQ match – Big miss. Sure, Lashley is being built back up after the past year of lord-awful storyline, but squashing Carrillo just didn’t do it for me.
Angel Garza defeated Akira Tozawa – Could have been better. This match began during commercial, but the focus was on some sort of argument in Vega’s stable. Despite the infighting, Garza picked up the win in a good match. I had my hopes this stable would last. Drew McIntyre arrived to clobber with Claymores, but standing off with Andrade.
We come back from commercial to see Drew McIntyre defeat Andrade in a good match. I should say, satisfying match. It didn’t “wow” me, but it didn’t have to. This was positioned right after a weird segment. McIntyre selling the injury from Money in the Bank most of the match, showed Andrade could be a believable contender someday. Post match, McIntyre promises to jump between brands as he will face Bacon Rorbin on SmackDown.
Speaking of the Bacon One, later on in the show, Carly Caruso asks him about lobbing Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black off the roof during the MITB match. He plays it cool as “seeing red” and “doing what has to be done.” – This was another big miss. Could have been an opportunity to start shedding the comedy douchebag act and transition him into some real sick monster. They made it look like he legit was trying to kill two other wrestlers. Yes, they landed on the crash pad below, but still, blown shot here.
The IIconics defeat Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross – Horrible miss. Bad move, bringing the IIconics in and get what looked like an easy victory. Yuck. This downgraded the Women’s Tag Team Champions in my book. Bad move.
We started the night so well too…
R-Truth, Ricochet, and Cedric Alexander defeated Shane Thorne, Brendan Vink, and MVP. Clearly MVP is building a stable, which is possible why Vega’s stable will break as to not have too many heel factions, but that’s a guess. Truth broke out some weird character he does on Twitter or TikTok or MySpace, which killed the match for me. It wasn’t funny. Bobby Lashley comes down post-match to maul the victors and wants to have a chat with MVP. I sense something good coming out of this.
Trailer for the Undertaker docu-series on the WWE Network is shown, and AJ Styles continues to show signs of PTSD.
Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black defeated Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy by DQ
Started off as a hit, then declined to a miss. Rey and Black make a natural pairing since they escaped certain death last night. Complete sense. Sad Rollins came out tonight, all mopey-dopey looking. At first I thought it was funny. I did. He lost his match, didn’t win the title, and presumably, just found out he’s going to be a father. Murphy put on one hell of a stellar show all on his own. This guy, with a character tweak and a mouthpiece could be main event material one day.
Rollins is snapped out of his sadness when Rey hits him in the gut with an elbow. Might have been an accident. But then… The Referee disqualifies Rollins for fighting back. Maybe the Ref forgot Rollins was in the match? Weird ending, and then saw Rey get punched in the eye and taken out for medical.
Backstage, Rey, mask off is tended to by medics, while Rollins gives some weird apology. Aleister instead brawls with Murphy.
Sure, let’s have them wrestle some more. No complaints here.
Shayna Baszler defeated Natalya because Basler never loses and it seems Nattie never wins. Not much to this one. Baszler dominated. Nattie throws a fit after the match. Crowd or not, I don’t think anyone would care.
Edge and Randy Orton face-to-face
I’m just going to fast-forward to the sheer insanity of the closing moment. Randy Orton talked all about being the greatest ever, etc, so he challenges Edge… To a “straight-up wrestling match.” Cue the infinite amount of jokes on Twitter questioning what the stipulations of a “straight-up wrestling match” might be. Could it be Olympic? Collegiate rules? Does this “wrestling” involve actual holds?
Geez folks, who writes this stuff?
Monday Night RAW 5/11 was a mixed bag tonight, but no doubt the surprise from Becky Lynch highlighted the evening.
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