by Tarron Coalson

Monday Night Raw comes to us from Hartford, Ct this week & let me start out by saying, “Catch WWE’s Payback” on the WWE Network this Sunday. All kidding aside, while this Raw was much better than last week’s European disaster show, everything from start to finish was promoting the upcoming Payback PPV this Sunday.

Starting out the show, in what has been coming far too frequently, was a moment of tribute for Chyna (Joanie Laurer), who passed away at 46 earlier this week. Everyone knew that she had her own personal demons inside that she battled, as we all do, but there’s no denying that she was a major player during DX’s run in the attitude era & changed Women’s wrestling.

Shane McMahon comes out & he’s still running RAW, but he’s followed this time by Stephanie McMahon who in her best Mick Foley “cheap pop” moment says that she was born in Hartford. Stephanie announces that Vincent K McMahon will decide once of for all, who is running RAW…wait for it…that’s right, at WWE’s Payback this Sunday on the WWE Network. (You may sense a theme to the article!)

Shane says that’s fine but he’s still running RAW for the evening & he nicely asks Stephanie to leave the ring. Whe she refuses, he calls security to escort her out to the delight of the fans.

Onto the wrestling action, the 1st match of the evening is A.J. Styles vs. Sheamus which finishes with the Phenominal Forearm after an attempted submission by Sheamus with the Cloverleaf. In one of the more interesting moments of the match, I notice that Sheamus is literally pouring sweat off of his body & A.J. has not even broken a sweat..bad sign for Sheamus…

Afterwards, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson come out to applaud A.J’s victory. The camera’s then cut to Roman Reigns & the boo’s start. Reigns is joined by the Uso’s & they talk about all for one & one for all against The Bullet Club. (Styles, Gallows & Anderson) which is followed by a promo for AJ vs. Reigns..THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK!

Next up is The New Day, who comes out to promote “their” #1 contenders tournament, & they are quickly joined by The Vaude Villains followed by Enzo & Big Cass, who will meet…this Sunday at Payback on the WWE Network!

Following a commercial break, in a non-Payback moment, it’s announced that John Cena will make his RAW return on Memorial Day, ahead of his “injury” schedule, which you could have figured out by watching American Grit, Cena’s new hosting gig on Fox!

The next match is The Uso’s vs. Gallows & Anderson in their RAW debut. Gallows & Anderson in their best Minnesota Wrecking Crew imitation, dominated the match keeping Jay Uso in the ring for the large majority & attacking his hurt shoulder from an attack last week.

Jay makes the hot tag to Jimmy Uso who has a small comeback but gets cut off & finished with “The Magic Killer” for a clean victory for Gallows & Anderson, who proceed to beat on the Uso’s after the match with Roman Reigns coming in to make the save for the Uso’s.

Promo follows with A.J. Styles talking about his upcoming match with Reigns, who gets interrupted by Gallows & Anderson who want to tell A.J, that they’ll do whatever is needed to help him.

Next up is a Flashback segment recapping the Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens feud & their 14 year relationship. It’s a nicely done piece which tells the back story of their relationship followed by their hatred with each other. I’ve said for awhile now that Zayn vs. Owens is magic & money & the next chapter of this feud will happen..THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK!

Following the promo is Sami Zayn vs. Rusef which ends in Zayn picking up the win but Kevin Owens “attacking” (announcer’s words, not mine) Zayn from behind. In reality, Owens hits him with one forearm to the back of the head & stands over him for two minutes. What has happened to the days of true attacks in the ring & leaving your opponents busted open & laid out

Cut to Renee Young & a promo with Apollo Crews, which is interrupted by StarDust, who Crews calls Cody & then begins to praise his dad, Dusty Rhodes for helping him in NXT, much to Stardust’s anger.

The two then meet in the ring & well, Cody, Stardust..whatever you’d care to call him is just jobbed out by Crews. I haven’t really caught the excitement for Crews yet & apparently, neither has the audience, but someone at WWE likes him & JBL predicts he’ll be a “Mega Star” with WWE. We’ll see….

Dean Ambrose is up next…and Mercifully, without the Ambrose Asylum segment. He’s talking about his feud with Chris Jericho & their match…THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK! But, Jericho comes out (fresh off his appearance on Talking Dead Sunday night!) & demands an apology from Ambrose.

Ambrose sucker punches Jericho & throws him out of the ring but Jericho turns the tables on him & applies “The Walls of Jericho” on top of the announcer’s table & referee’s has to come out & convince Jericho to release the hold.

Following this is a recap of the aforementioned Shane & Stephanie segment that opened the show…

The next match is Natalya vs. Emma with Charlotte at the commentary table with Ric Flair. By the way, don’t any of these ladies have last names?? Predictably, the match ends with Nattie locking in the Sharp Shooter & starting down Charlotte & the announcer’s promoting their upcoming match THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK!

After this, they do a video tribute to Chyna with tweets in caption from WWE stars & HOF’ers in praise to Chyna.

Following that is a recap of the Baron Corbin/Dolph Ziglar situation & Corbin comes out for a match & is immediately attacked by Ziglar which send Corbin running to escape & the announcer’s plugging their upcoming match THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK!

Following that is a segment with The Miz & Marise promoting their match with Cesaro at Payback, Sunday on the WWE network (The segment is not worthy of my article tagline..) with the two quoting bad movie lines at each other for the 2nd week. It’s amazing that The Miz has gotten this bad & is the fault of the Creative team at WWE. Miz can be a great character, the angle they ran with MizDow (with Damien Sandow) was absolutely great. But, this is just pathetic…

Last up is Roman Reigns vs. Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio is one of my favorite “heels”! I just like how he works & this is a solid match when Gallows & Anderson come out onto the platform. While Reigns is distracted by looking at them, Del Rio scores a near fall but the end comes with Reigns spearing Del Rio for the win.

Gallows & Anderson proceed to attack Reigns & A.J. Styles runs out…& stops them. Gallows & Anderson leave the ring & A.J turns around to catch a Reigns Superman punch for his efforts. Gallows & Anderson re-enter the ring to attack Reigns but he fights them off but catch a Phenominal Forearm for a little Payback. The two men & shaking off their cobwebs while Gallows & Anderson are standing outside the ring wearing evil grins on their faces, while yes, the announcer’s are plugging their upcoming match THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK ON THE WWE NETWORK!

It was a nice spot & maybe they will let The Bullet Club run roughshot for awhile a la the NWO. JBL even mentioned that they were all “in a club together at New Japan” but I don’t see them having Reigns drop the belt just yet. It’s more likely that Gallows & Anderson’s interference will cost A.J at Payback but we’ll see!!!