**sighs**
This is the second week of Monday Night RAW where it felt like they were taking a few steps forward and then went back again. This is puzzling considering that just last week, RAW scored significantly low in its TV ratings, which reportedly sent Vince McMahon into panic mode. With that, I was hoping to see some developments with RAW moving forward. It's so uneven; there's some story development but no story progression. The problem is that they're trying to build storylines for both the Madison Square Garden house show this weekend AND for Hell In A Cell. Instead of focusing on the whole 3 hour show, which featured 9 matches, I'll just focus on the highlights.
I'd just like to point out that the "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" poster was shown again. The movie is still available via VOD!
U.S. Open Challenge: John Cena vs Xavier Woods - Winner: LOLCENAWINS
First off, I was seriously disappointed that Heath Slater didn't answer the Open Challenge, despite it being mentioned on WWE's Facebook page. It was #SlaterAppreciationDay! Still, this was a better way to kick off RAW than with a 20-minute promo from Rollins or The Authority. The New Day was great, as usual, and it was exciting to see Xavier Woods wrestle since he's always relegated to being the hype man outside the ring. Kofi Kingston and Big E were banned from ringside, allowing the match to be truly one-on-one. Of course, it couldn't stay that way for long as Kingston and Big E interfered at the end, making Cena win by DQ. And right on cue, the Dudley Boyz came out, making it into a 6-man tag team match, playa!
The New Day vs The Dudley Boyz and John Cena: Winners - The New Day
I'm still amazed with The Dudley Boyz. I've never seen their matches up until their recent return and I can't believe how energetic and exciting their matches are every single time. It's great that they can keep up with The New Day. It's also somewhat sad that they are the only good teams for the main roster's tag team division. Despite some great spots, The New Day won against The Dudley Boyz and John Cena.
There were a couple of matches and segments that happened that I won't bother going into detail. Nikki defeated Charlotte, who's only been a champ for over a week! And a majority of it were squash matches. Big Show squashed Mark Henry, Randy Orton squashed Bo Dallas, Kevin Owens and Rusev teamed up to beat up Ryback before Ziggler came in, and Braun Strowman and Luke Harper squashed Prime Time Players. Barrett returned to knock out Neville and Stardust in their match.
There were 2 big stories being told here. The first involved Rollins dealing with Kane. The other being the main even with Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt, which I will discuss at length.
Kane was subjected to an HR Evaluation by Ashley, after someone anonymously filed a complaint against him. Ashley spent time with Kane as well as with Rollins since it's obvious who sent the anonymous email. In one wonderfully creepy segment, Kane presented Rollins a gift, which was a nice tribute to "Se7en"'. The gift turned out to be the severed head from Rollins' statue, which Sting destroyed a few weeks ago in Baltimore. Look at Kane's fucking smile. This is Team Hell No levels of glee here.
In their last segment, Ashley and Kane were out in the ring, where she was ready to provide her final evaluation. Rollins came out and started rambling like a mad man, how he talked to the Pope recently and he said he's going to Heaven. After Kane and Rollins showed their respective video packages against each other (Kane being shown as a demon and Rollins being showed as out of control), Ashley determined that Kane was of sound mind, much to Rollins' dismay. Ashley continued that Rollins was actually worse; he was mean, delusional, and paranoid. After Ashley left, Rollins angrily confronted Kane and re-injured his ankle. Kane was then escorted in a stretcher and was put into an ambulance to be taken to the hospital. And then this happened:
Corporate Kane turned into Demon Kane - in the same ambulance - complete with stomping on his leg to magically undo his injury. As Rollins escaped the ring, he left his Heavyweight Championship title in the ring, which Kane happily took up and raised triumphantly. Demon Kane is definitely gunning for the title shot now.
Bray Wyatt vs Roman Reigns: Winner - No Decision
The main event was Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt in what seems like be the blow-off to their 4-month-ish feud. Now that I had time to think about it, the story building for this feud was actually consistent for the most part (they dropped Reigns' daughter getting involved). This was a feud that started after Wyatt took away Reigns' chance to win Money In The Bank and a shot at World Heavyweight Championship title. Luke Harper and Dean Ambrose got involved because let's face it, there was nothing happening for either of them. Harper went back to Wyatt after Rowan got injured and Ambrose became Reigns' buddy to return the favor, after Reigns was his buddy for a couple of PPVs earlier during the "Summer of Ambrose."
In one backstage segment, Ambrose, making his only scruffy appearance, tries to talk Reigns out of going on-on-one with Wyatt because Strowman and Harper could jump in at any time. Ambrose is more than happy to take on the "giant swamp apes" to keep him off his back. Reigns said that Randy Orton will be there to help him out, which he sarcastically replied, "I'm sure he would LOVE TO!" After what happened with Chris Jericho, Ambrose (with total disregard on using his indoor voice) said he didn't want any "OUTSIDERS coming here to SAVE THE DAY!" This made Orton understandably upset, considering that they asked for his help first. Reigns said that they can't finish this thing by themselves. "Oh, and you can?" asks Orton. "Believe that," replies a confident Reigns. If there's one thing to take away from this, it's that this probably marks the end of the whole "third man" arc, and hopefully frees up Ambrose and Orton. I think Reigns got enough of Ambrose's rub to carry himself now.
This match was basically the conclusion from the brawl last week. No help from their friends. No Shield vs Wyatt. No "Family vs Family" feud. This is the final test to see how Reigns and Wyatt stack up against each other as singles competitor. The match took a while to build. It only got exciting in the end, when both Reigns and Wyatt were in a double count out. Then it turned into a full-out brawl. Wyatt threw a guy unto Reigns. And Reigns freaking speared Wyatt unto the announcer's table.
This was a great spot. It even got the dead Buffalo crowd on their feet and doing the "YES!" chants. It solidified Reigns as a power house and it made Wyatt looked like a monster heel without the family. They both came out looking like solid performers, which was also a problem. No one won and no one lost; it was 50/50 booking. This doesn't look like the end of their feud, and they certainly didn't want either of them to look weak.
Overall, it was an all right Raw and like I said earlier, there was story development but no story progression. It was so weird that kept emphasizing Lesnar and Big Show's match for the Madison Square Garden event when there are other matches lined up, like Chris Jericho vs Kevin Owens for the freaking Intercontinental Championship. Hopefully we'll start seeing stories moving forward after that event.
By the way... Ambrose defeated Rollins last week at Smack Down in a non-title match. By their stupid rules, since he won against a champion, that should make Ambrose the #1 contender again. Of course, it's not going to happen or be acknowledged because it's Smack Down!
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