By Tarron Coalson
Fresh off of a really good MONEY IN THE BANK PPV last night, Monday Night Raw comes to us from a hot Phoenix, Arizona & I’m not kidding, it was 110 degrees in Phoenix! The show opens with the new WWE Champion Dean Ambrose almost leaving his title belt in a taxi cab! Then, Ambrose enters the arena to cheers for his victory at MONEY IN THE BANK.
As he’s talking about his victory, Roman Reigns enters to unmerciful boo’s & the crowd starts a “You Can’t Wrestle” chant. Being a retired ring general, I have to stop here & be critical of the fans. Granted, there are some guys on the roster, that just aren’t very good. Reigns has had high quality matches, just recently, an excellent series with AJ Styles & last night with Seth Rollins. The guy can work. He’s just the victim of WWE using him totally wrong & I’ve been critical of that. Reigns is a HEEL. Heel look, Hell promo’s, Heel style & WWE was trying to force feed us a Good Guy (face), when it’s very obvious that it’s not Reigns personna. Felt bad for him & you could tell that it bothered him, but that chant was undeserved.
Reigns comes out to congratulate Dean Ambrose on his win but informs him that he has a rematch clause after losing to Rollins at MONEY IN THE BANK, which bring an enraged Seth Rollins out to tell Reigns that he moves to the back of the bus after Rollins victory over him last night.
It’s at this point that the MONEY music of Shane McMahon starts & he comes out & announces that Reigns & Rollins will wrestle that night & the winner will become the new #1 contender.
Following a commercial break, they announce that the winner of the #1 contenders match will face Ambrose at the next WWE Pay Per View, BATTLEGROUND, being held in Washington, DC.
They also announce that on the 1st Live SMACKDOWN on July 19th (Tuesday nights on the USA Network), they will have the draft to separate the talent into two rosters, RAW & SMACKDOWN.
The first match of the night is supposedly a match to settle the Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens feud. There’s good & bad with this, the bad is that it was not one of their better matches. Not saying it stunk, just that it was a little flat. Owens goes for the Pop Up Power Bomb & Zayn reverses it into a roll up for the victory to apparently win the feud.
However, leaving the ring, Owens attacks Zayn & they have a brawl which eventually brings out about six ref’s to try & separate them as they take a commercial break.
Following the commercial, Owens & Zayn are now brawling back stage & are finally separated as more people, including Fit Finley & Road Dogg, separate them. However, it’s apparent that this feud is finally cranking up without other distractions. It should be a good ride..
After that, PEOPLE POWER is in the house! They’ve been promo’ing SMACKDOWN by bringing in former GM’s to vie for the new job of running SMACKDOWN & tonight bring us the former Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, Mr. John Laurenitis, who throws his name in the hat to run SMACKDOWN, but Shane McMahon comes out to tell Big Johnny that he won’t be running SMACKDOWN because Shane plans to.
And right on cue, out comes Enzo & Big Cass & they run thru their mic work…that’s right, “How you doin?” & the S.A.W.F.T chant followed by The Vaude Villains & they show how a classic tag team match works. Not that the match was a classic, but it was solid. Enzo takes a beating most of the match, makes the hot tag to Big Cass, who brings the rally & they hit the Ba Da Boom Shakalaka. I’m not kidding, that’s what they’re now calling their version of the Midnight Express’s Rocket Launcher. You winners… Enzo & Big Cass.
Following that is AJ Styles, who comes out & announces that his victory over John Cena at MONEY IN THE BANK was tainted because of the actions of Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson interfering in the match & he demands that for The Club to continue that Gallows & Anderson need to come out & publicly apologize to him for their actions. Gallows & Anderson come out & seem bewildered but they do apologize. Styles them tells them that they need to apologize to one other person, John Cena, & calls Cena to ringside. Cena comes out & they reluctantly apologize to Cena & tell him that AJ had no clue about their actions.
As a way of making it right, Styles tells Cena that he can wrestle either member of the Club one on one, except him. Styles then throws Karl Anderson under the bus & announces that it will be him fighting Cena & promises that it will be one on one with no interference.
Cena proceeds to thrash Anderson but after every move, Cena looks toward backstage, expecting an attack. Finally, Cena hits the AA & covers Anderson, but is forgetting to look back at this point. Right on cue, the Club strikes & Cena takes another Magic Killer & Styles Clash in a beatdown. There’s surely more to come in this feud.
Additionally, if you have the WWE Network, AJ Styles was on the Stone Cold podcast after RAW last night & it was one of the better ones with Styles telling his story of family, getting into wrestling, his times in TNA, New Japan & why he’s just getting to WWE. Check it out if you get a chance.
After this is a MONEY IN THE BANK RECAP & a Seth Rollins promo followed by a Becky Lynch promo, who’s wondering why her partners keep turning on her as Natalya did. Mid interview brings a sneak attack by Natalya who drops Becky in a heap & says that’s the answer to her question.
The next match is Baron Corbin vs Zack Ryder (really?)…Ryder hits some decent moves but Corbin hit the End Of Days for the victory.
Following this is a promo announcing that WWE has signed an agreement with PPTV in China to be broadcast there & will feature an upcoming RAW & SMACKDOWN in China. This will help to open WWE to a huge market.
Then, it’s a promo with Paige who’s getting a shot at the WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte, who along with Dana Brooks interrupt the interview but finishes with Paige telling Charlotte that the ring is “her house” & she’ll see her there.
The match follows & there’s life in the Ladies Division again. OK, I’ve been critical of the Natalya/Charlotte match up’s, but sometimes you put two good wrestlers together & the matches just aren’t good. That was the case with the Charlotte/Natalya matches. The match last night with Paige was better than all of the recent matches with Natalya. That’s just a fact.
Paige hits her finsher & Dana Brooks pulled Charlotte’s foot under the ropes which cause Paige to become distracted & Charlotte hits the Natural Selection for the win. After the match, Sasha Banks enters the arena to a huge ovation & drops Charlotte with the Banks Statement as Paige is fighting off Dana Brooks.
I’ll just say that it’s good to see Lynch & Banks back in the spotlight & you can see it’s resulted in higher quality women’s matches & interest.
A Roman Reigns promo follows & then the entrance of The Wyatt Family with the crowd starting a big “Welcome Back” chant for Bray Wyatt, who’s been out with a back injury. As the Wyatt’s are starting, out comes The New Day in a surprise move. It appears as if New Day will be starting up a feud with the Wyatt’s, although it appeared as if Xavier Woods with New Day was entranced by Bray Wyatt. Sign of things to come? We’ll see…
I thought the obvious play was to have New Day with Gallows & Anderson but it looks like they’re going to keep them as part of the AJ/Cena feud at this point.
A segment of Life Lessons with Coach Backlund, who’s Making Darren Young Great Again follows…
And then…WWE, why must you torture me so….Rusev verses Titus O’Neill…please, no. O’Neill is saying that Rusev disrespected him in front of his family by telling them their father was a loser, which by the way, was THE lone high spot of their terrible match at MONEY IN THE BANK.
This match is only marginally better because there was more brawling. Comparing it to their D Minus match the night before, this one sums up as a solid D with Rusev scurrying back in fear after O’Neill beats him up to win by count out.
Promos by the Miz (filming Marine 5) & Chris Jericho follow & then it’s the main event with Reigns vs. Rollins with Ambrose doing ringside commentary.
We’ll just say it was a solid match with great moves & counters by both. It was brought up on multiple occasions that every member of The Shield held the WWE Championship on Sunday at MONEY IN THE BANK, & you can see where this is going from a mile away, but I like where it’s headed.
Of course, Reigns & Rollins after fighting outside the ring, both get counted out, so there’s no winner. Shane McMahon comes out to say that they must have a Number 1 contender & is about to restart the match when Ambrose grabs a mic to tell Shane that he’ll decide it & will fight both of them. So at BATTLEGROUND, it will be a Triple Threat match featuring all the members of The Shield for the WWE Championship. It should be fun!!
