ON THE ROAD TO SUMMERSLAM
by Tarron Coalson
MONDAY NIGHT RAW comes to us tonight from the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas tonight as the build up to SUMMERSLAM, this Sunday on the WWE Network, was on full swing mode.
The show starts out with Seth Rollins outside before the show calling out The Demon King, Finn Balor & saying he’s going to find him before the night’s over.
Then, we cut in ring to Rusef & the Ravishing Russian Lana, who are threatening to hold RAW hostage unless they get an apology from Romans Reigns for messing up their celebration last week. Mick Foley comes out & is trying to order Rusef out when Reigns comes out. Rusef says he must upload Lana’s honor & Mick Foley announces that there will be a match with Rusef & Reigns tonight.
Next up is Sheamus, who announces that he’s done with Cesaro, as he’s wrestling Sami Zayn, but Cesaro comes to do match commentary. In a back & forth match, Cesaro comes down & distracts Sheamus as Sami Zayn lands the Helluva kick for the pin.
Cut to a promo with Kevin Owens & Chris Jericho talking about their match at SUMMERSLAM & about Kevin Owens wrestling Big Cass tonight. They’re now calling Owens & Jericho, JeriK O..OK, but what a waste with Kevin Owens, who is the BEST heat generator on the roster.
After the promo, Sheamus & Cesaro are yelling at each other with ref’s between them & Mick Foley comes out & says they’ve both stepped up after he challenged them & that he’s putting them in a Best of Seven series starting at SUMMERSLAM, so we know we’re getting at least seven more matches between these two. Magnum T.A verses Nikita Koloff, this is not….
The next match features The Dudley Boys verses New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) as Big E Langston is still recovering from RINGPOSTITIS according to Dr. Gallows & Dr. Anderson. It’s a mostly forgettable match as Devon accidentally hits Bubba Ray & then catches a Spinning Side Kick from Kofi to get pinned. I’m very confused & sad about what they’re doing with the Dudley’s. They’re either turning them into a “jobber” tag team, or they’re getting ready to split them up. Both options aren’t my favorite, although I did enjoy the “Bully Ray” gimmick & the Aces & Eights gimmick from TNA which featured Bubba Ray as a singles wrestler, but making then the “jobber” tag team is a terrible thing for them to do. We’ll see what happens…
Seth Rollins is still looking for the Demon King…
Next match is Nia Jax verses a one hundred pound Rachael Levy, this week’s squash victim. Although Levy did a nice fall from the top rope, this wasn’t a great match.
Now it’s time for the greatest talker in Pro Wrestling, Paul Heyman, with the Beast from the East, BBBRRROOCCKKK Lesnar. On a serious note, everything with Heyman is perfect. Heyman is the master of the promo & he starts out hyping the match at SUMMERSLAM against Randy Orton, & then he’s interrupted by THE HOTTEST FREE AGENT IN SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT, Heath Slater.
As Heyman & Lesnar are laughing at Slater, he says he has to fight Lesnar to earn a contract on RAW & despite Heyman & Lesnar, who actually talked tonight, practically begging Slater to turn around, Slater took a shot of Lesnar & ended up taking a trip to Suplex City & getting F-5’s & thrown out of the ring for his efforts & then Heyman finishing the promo for SUMMERSLAM.
I sure hope they’ve got something big planned for Slater down the road. He’s earned it!
Then it’s Kevin Owens verses Big Cass with Chris Jericho & Enzo at ringside. It’s a pretty predictable match as Big Cass controls the match until Jericho interferes & Kevin Owens gets DQ’d but they lay Enzo & Big Cass out. As you might have guessed already, I’m not a big fan of the Jeri K O tag team.
The camera’s cut to backstage & following Roman Reigns as he’s attacked by Rusef & they have to be separated.
Bob Backland is next & he’s managing the reunited Primetime Players (Titus O’Neil & Darren Young) as the reunion happened on the RAW pre show, verses The Shining Stars. It doesn’t end well as while O’Neil & Backland are talking, Darren Young is thrown into O’Neil. O’Neil responds by giving Young the “Clash of the Titus” finisher & walks out allowing The Shining Stars to get the win. It looks like we’ll see a full blown feud with O’Neil & Young.
Next up is Jinder Mahal verses Neville. Red Arrow, pin 1, 2, 3 is about all you need on this match.
Finally, Seth Rollins calls out the Demon King, Finn Balor in ring & finally, the Demon King appears. OK, I’ll say it & I know I’m in the minority. So far, I’m not a big Finn Balor fan. Looks to be a lot of hype to me. Yes, it’s a snazzy entrance, but from what I’ve seen, he’s not a very good talker & I’ve seen lots of Cruiserweights just as good, so I don’t get the hype. We’ll see. Anyway, the Demon King send Rollins scurrying toward the back area.
The next match is Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson verses The Golden Truth that ends with Goldust catching the Magic Killer for the victory by Gallows & Anderson, who are then attacked by Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, building their match for SUMMERSLAM.
Cut to the camera’s catching Charlotte arguing with Dana Brooke & it appears they are parting ways as Charlotte comes out alone to face Alicia Fox as Sasha Banks comes out for match commentary. After Charlotte wins she challenges Sasha to come to the ring & Banks obliges her. Then, in true, Nature Boy, Ric Flair fashion. Sasha Banks is attacked from behind by Dana Brooke & then Charlotte throws the patented Flair chop block to Sasha’s knee & locks in the Figure Eight & refuses to break it as ref’s run to ringside to try & get her legs loose from Sasha, but the knee damage is done for SUMMERSLAM. It was classic Flair!
A video package with Braun Strowman follows..at least it’s not another squash match.
Finally, it’s Rusef, defending Lana’s honor verses Roman Reigns & it’s a fine match BUT, Reigns goes over with a spear. Totally wrong finish. If you’re plugging Rusef as “defending Lana’s honor”, he’s got to get nasty, vicious & hurt Reigns. He can’t lose by catching a spear. Similarly, if you’re trying to promote Reigns verse Rusef for SUMMERSLAM, why are you showing that Reigns is the most dominant in this, scoring a clean win over Rusef on free TV. They did the same thing with Rusef verses Cena. I don’t think it’s the best way to go but we’ll see.
It was a much better RAW then last week, but how could it have been worse than last week, which was terrible. We’ll see tonight how SMACKDOWN does in their SUMMERSLAM build up. Don’t forget SUMMERSLAM will be this Sunday on the WWE Network!
