This was... not a good episode of RAW.
Last week seemed to kick things off in a whole new direction following Summerslam, with the return of Sting, The Dudley Boyz, and an impressionable debut of Braun Strowman, the Wyatt Family's black sheep. This week's episode was a chore to watch, not to mention the Tampa, FL crowd was practically dead throughout the show until the end. This RAW was like Part 2 of the Summerslam fallout, which is annoying considering that they have to start building towards Night of Champions in 3 weeks.
Sting opened up the show and the reaction was surprisingly poor. Maybe it was because was a shooting outside the WWE Performance Center earlier in the day, or that Tropical Storm Erica downgraded to a really rainy day. Anyways, Sting explained why he was going after Seth Rollins World Heavyweight Title and that was because... he respects HHH and believes Rollins isn't as good as him. This doesn't make sense but hey, whatever, they're the first announced match for Night of Champions.
Ziggler vs Rusev - Winner: Ziggler (via DQ)
I like Rusev and Ziggler but I hate, hate, HATE this stupid love triangle storyline they're both currently in. While Rusev did develop a more comedic heelish personality out of it, Ziggler is just coming off as completely douchey to me. This match was pointless because Hot Summer interfered with the match, which also caused Lana to get involved as well. I hate that Hot Summer and Lana have to get into cat fights and then worry about their short skirts riding up. The world got a full glimpse of Lana's butt. Which was very nice.
And if that wasn't bad enough, they had more segments throughout the night where the following occurred:
- Hot Summer went into Ziggler's locker room
- Hot Summer rushes out of his locker room, giggling like a school girl, as Ziggler emerged wearing nothing but a towel
- Ziggler assuring Lana that nothing happened,
- Renee Young showing Lana her interview with Hot Summer, who told her side of the story of being mesmerized by Ziggler's naked body
Divas "Beat The Clock" Challenge - Becky Lynch vs Alicia Fox - Winner: Becky Lynch by 3:21
I was pretty excited to hear this challenge because it's the start of Nikkii Bella's reign literally coming to an end. However, I was sadly mistaken into believing we would be getting 3 quality Diva matches. The first match was with Becky and Alicia, which was painful to watch because it was reminder of how the Divas matches were booked a few months ago; to be more or less than 5 minutes long. This match was clearly rushed.
Intercontinental Championship - Ryback vs Big Show - Winner: Ryback
This was a title match, which was not exciting to watch, even with Miz was on commentary. Why is Ryback defending the title against Big Show again? Why isn't there anyone else challenging Ryback for the title? Again, it's another Summerslam rematch. The best thing out of the match was hearing ring announcer Lillian Garcia messing up by saying, "THE ...... B-RYBACK!" as the winner. No offense to Ryback but he needs a better feud to make his title reign better. He can't be stuck with Miz and Big Show again.
Divas "Beat The Clock" Challenge - Charlotte vs Brie Bella - Winner: Charlotte by 1:40
This was the second match for Team PCB, and once again, we get another rushed match. This pretty much assures us that Paige will not be able to beat that time for her match against Sasha Banks. The highlight was seeing the messed up graphic before the match, which is more fuel for Botchamania.
Kevin Owens vs Cesaro - Winner: Kevin Owens
Hey, another Summerslam rematch. Vince was not happy watching the match because of the fact that both Owens and Cesaro are at a standstill. They both put on a damn great match, with Owens constantly taunting Cesaro, and Cesaro pulling out more impressive moves against Owens. In the end, Owens defeats Cesaro again, but they both gained nothing from the match. You want to know what else was sad? There were absolutely no "CESARO SECTION" signs, which got Owens telling Cesaro, "Where's your section now?!" during their match. /r/SC was actually disappointed to see that no one attending the show organized it, and Cesaro looked genuinely sad.
Dean Ambrose vs Braun Strowman - Winner Braun Strowman (via DQ)
I was not looking forward to this match because I know Reigns and Ambrose are going to die. Again. This was Strowman's official in-ring debut match. He literally tossed Ambrose around the ring, and he did a great job selling at what a monster powerhouse he was. The match ended quickly when Reigns hit Strowman back when they were outside the ring, resulting in a DQ. Ambrose grabbed a chair (which unexpectedly brought up Shield feels) but it was not effective against Strowman. Reigns got superkicked by Luke Harper and the Wyatt Family stood tall once again over Reigns and Ambrose.
Look, I like the Wyatt Family and I like that they're being built to be a monstrous faction again. However, pinning them against 2/3 of The Shield is not really doing anyone favors. The Wyatt Family looks strong only because they literally outnumber Reigns and Ambrose. And both of them are intentionally booked to look weak, which means they'll probably start looking for a third ally to help them against the Wyatt Family.
It's rumored that Reigns is getting back into the main title picture and he has his sights set on Rollins. Hopefully, that will happen soon.
Divas "Beat The Clock" Challenge - Paige vs Sasha Banks - Paige Did Not Beat The Clock
This was the final challenge for Team PCB. I didn't see the point of having Paige go up against Sasha. Why couldn't they get Naomi or Tamina instead? Paige was not able to beat the clock because she tried to do her submission move on Sasha, which takes more than 30 seconds to setup and execute. This makes Charlotte the #1 Contender for the Divas Championship and making her and Nikki the second title match for Night of Champions.
The Dudley Boyz vs New Day - Winner: The Dudley Boyz
Despite me watching WWE for more or less a decade, I'm still fairly new to it. I never knew of the Dudley Boyz, I only knew them when they were in TNA as Bully Ray and Devon, respectively. That said, seeing them in action again is just so damn entertaining. It's still a little odd that focus of this feud is between a legendary tag team going up against the most over and obnoxiously charismatic current tag team. The Dudleyz won, which was expected, but the New Day avoided going through to the tables. I can't explain it but I did feel genuinely sad that it didn't happen. Even though this was the main event, there was still a good 15-20 minutes left of RAW for another long promo from Rollins.
There was some seedplanting here. Stephanie McMahon emasculated Rollins earlier saying Sting was right, that he was not as good as HHH, but he was still the man. She also told Rollins to ask Sting where his statue was, which I don't think we'll ever get to see at this point. John Cena came out at the every end and also emasculated Rollins, saying the Authority handpicked him because they knew he would backstab his Shield brothers to get to the top. He also called him the dumbest human being he has ever met.
TL;DR: John Cena came out at the end and invoke his rematch clause, which Stephanie McMahon agreed. So Rollins is pulling double duty with defending his World Heavyweight Champsionship against Sting AND defending his U.S. Championship against John Cena, which makes it the third title match for Night of Champions.
So that's that. We have 3 titles that will be defended on Night of Champions. All that's left to be announced is the Tag Team Championship and Intercontinental Championship, which is what we'll probably see develop in the next few weeks. Enough with the Summerslam rematches already.
I'd like to point out how amusing it was to see the "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" movie poster behind Stephanie and Rollins during their backstage segment. I thought Ambrose would be getting some kind of push since it's coming out next friday. Then I remembered how nothing changed for Big Show, Miz, and Summer Rae when their movies, "Venedetta" and "The Marine 4," were advertised, respectively. It would also be out of character, even for Ambrose, to acknowledge his movie role, let alone talk about it. That might explain why there's not a lot of major advertising going on, and they're certainly not going to write out Ambrose to do any media rounds for the movie.
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