Roman Still Begrudgingly Relevant
The show opened with Roman Reigns attempting to vocalize his frustrations from the past several weeks. Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon interrupted his tirade. Foley attempted to calm the situation by offering Roman another shot at Rusev’s U.S. title at Clash of Champions as well as a main event Steel Cage match against the WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens.
In the main event they had Roman Reigns beat Kevin Owens clean as a whistle…
I don’t understand WWE sometimes. At first, they seem to relegate Roman to the upper mid-card for his wellness policy violation, placing him in a feud with Rusev for the U.S. title. Now they have him go over clean against the top champion on Raw? All this did was make Kevin Owens look weak and draw attention away from his feud with Rusev. It’s almost as if WWE is giving us the proverbial middle finger by shoehorning Roman back into the main event scene. For the last time, just make him a heel.
Look At All the Ladies
Long story short, Mick Foley makes the Women’s Championship match at Clash of Champions a Triple Threat due to both Bayley and Sasha’s shoulders being down the previous week. Am I the only one getting sick of Triple Threat title matches? It seems like WWE is plagued by the problem of having too many plausible contenders in all their divisions and their only answer is “just use all of them.”
This was followed up by a tag match of Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte and Dana Brooke. The match was fine. The finish made Charlotte look tough which could be setting up for a title loss at Clash of Champions, possibly due to a Dana interference. Other than that, Raw’s women this week seemed like they were the victim of lazy booking.
Seth Rollins Proves He’s The Best On Raw
I don’t know what it is about Seth Rollins. Wait, yes I do. He’s quite literally one of the best performers in the ring and one the mic right now.
His match with Rusev was brutally wonderful. The idea to have it end in a double count out was pretty good one. Rollins doesn’t lose any momentum heading into Clash of Champions, and Rusev’s still look like an incredible beast. I think they over-hyped the dive off of the announcer’s table a bit, but it was still pretty cool.
I have mixed feelings on drawing out the Rollins-Stephanie-Triple H storyline. It definitely has the potential to be a great angle since the three of them were the biggest staples of WWE television throughout 2015. However, there either has to be a reveal this Sunday at Clash of Champions or the reveal better be monumental. I think the person behind it all should be somebody other than Stephanie or Triple H. The feud between them is already natural, but this could be a chance to stack the odds even higher against Seth Rollins and not create the same McMahon-Helmsley vs. ‘X’ superstar for the twentieth time. At this point the story feels boring and Triple H doesn’t need another Wrestlemania match to work up to. Seth deserves better.
Cesaro Ties It Up
Not much to say here. Cesaro is injured and manages to pull out the win over Sheamus to tie it up at 3-3 in the best of 7 series, the finale of which will be at Clash of Champions. While the matches are relatively entertaining, I’m not a huge fan of this angle. It just feels like Cesaro and Sheamus are tearing up their bodies week after week with a vague payoff. The winner is supposed to get a “championship opportunity”. First off, I thought they had already established that Cesaro was worthy of that like a month or two ago. Second, what championship? The U.S. Championship? The WWE Universal Championship? I just see very little direction for them at this point.
Jericho And His List
The list of Jericho! Chris Jericho is simply amazing. This week on Raw he hearkened back to the 1,004 holds angle from his WCW feud against Dean Malenko (the Man of 1,000 Holds). He was literally just listing off things he doesn’t like about Mick Foley, and the crowd to boot! This promo was entertaining as hell, and Chris Jericho is possibly the funniest professional wrestler of all time.
However, the promo was progressively ruined interruption-by-interruption. First Enzo Amore and Big Cass came out. Then the Shining Stars came out. Then the New Day came out. Then Gallows and Anderson came out. Finally, Chris Jericho tried leaving only to be attacked by a Sami Zayn run-in. And after all of that, they had a 5 on 5 match. Why? Just because.
I feel like the New Day summed up what caused WWE booking to put this together: “we were bored.” Yeah, that sounds like all the thought that was put into this. This was the epitome of lazy booking, and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at Survivor Series coming two months early.
The Cruiserweights Arrive
This was fantastic! In addition to the newly minted Cruiserweight Champion T.J. Perkins, Raw has four new cruiserweights: Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik, and Richard Swann.
Mick Foley kicked off the new division with a Fatal 4 Way match to name the Number 1 Contender for T.J. Perkins’ Cruiserweight Championship. The match had a perfect amount of time, and Brian Kendrick, a familiar face in WWE, won.
This segment was everything that the previous segment wasn’t. It had a clear story, a reason for the match, and a proper amount of time for the angle. In addition, it has the ability to develop a meaningful storyline between T.J. Perkins and Brian Kendrick, whereas the previous segments simply ended with “Yeah, the babyfaces won!!!1!11!!!1!1!!”
Odds and Ends
In addition to all of these segments they also squeezed in squash matches for Braun Strowman and Bo Dallas. I think it was a good idea to build Braun up to a win over Sin Cara, somebody with a legitimate background. I am less sure about Bo Dallas’s direction in the company. The political sign that he carries suggests a funny character at the bottom of the card; however, he turns that around, delivers a chilling promo, and squashes a jobber. He is in desperate need of direction. I think it would be great if he could be built up to team with Braun Strowman and extend the reach of the Wyatt Family, since Bray Wyatt is Bo’s real-life brother. This would be perfect timing with Luke Harper recently being cleared by doctors to return to the ring.
Go Home Summary
This week’s Raw felt like they are already running into problems with an overcrowded roster, even for a 3-hour show. This is something that I feared with the addition of the cruiserweights, and it seems like my nightmares are coming true. They were able to devote large chunks of time to Rollins-Owens-Reigns-Rusev and even fit in two squash matches but they threw all of the tag teams into that mess mid show. Raw needs to work on their pacing heading forward otherwise all their talent is going to be seriously under-utilized.
Liberal Heel Reviews 