by Tarron Coalson

Monday Night Raw comes to us from London, England this week in what’s being billed as the Wrestlemania Revenge Tour. WWE was hoping to salvage a tough week which has seen Bray Wyatt go out with a undisclosed calf injury suffered in a match against Roman Reigns along with The Undertaker pulled off the European tour for undisclosed reasons & Adam Rose & Konnor being suspended 60 days for their 2nd violations of the WWE Talent Wellness Policy.

The night opens with the worst opening segment that WWE has had in a while. Whoever came up with the idea of Ambrose’s Asylum should be publicly flogged & made to watch every episode of Miz TV & the Highlight Reel without interruption, Live on the WWE network:):). I’m not generally a fan of the “TV show/interview” concepts that WWE has tried & this one was no different, other than being boring & for no reason other than the set up of Zayn vs. Jericho & Ambrose vs. Owens for tonight’s show. Basically, it was Ambrose interviewing Shane McMahon followed by Kevin Owens followed by Sami Zayn followed by Chris Jericho that took a torturous 18 minutes of valuable air time (& my evening as I was watching live!)

Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn
This match had all the big moves from these two. Zayn hitting the Blue Rolling Thunder & the between the ropes DDT & Jericho hitting the Walls of Jericho. Finally, a good old-fashioned poke in the eye with the referee distracted led to a Code Breaker & Jericho getting the win.

PROMO- A.J. Styles talking about his upcoming World title shot at Payback when part of The Bullet Club, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows show up & they have a big reunion & go off to get “caught up”.

Enzo & Big Cass vs, the Dudley Boy’s in the #1 Contenders Tag team tournament

The Dudley’s spent the night smacking Enzo around & double teaming him & talking smack to Enzo for a change as well as never allowing Big Cass in the match. Then, Bubba Ray went to the 2nd rope & missed on Enzo, allowing him to make the “hot tag” to Big Cass who comes in to take on both Dudley’s. The Dudley’s take over & while Devon is holding Big Cass, he ducks a clothesline & Bubba hits Devon. Big Cass hits the Big Boot to Bubba’s mush & tags Enzo for their version of the Midnight Express’s famous Rocket Launcher for the 1, 2, 3 to pick up the victory & move to the finals of the tournament.

Next up, we found out that they BOO Roman Reigns unmercifully in London as well! It was kind of funny as the WWE camera’s panned the crowd, desperately searching for the 3 or 4 fans that were cheering for Reigns in the crowd. Reigns gives the crowd his “I’M THE GUY” line again, which is getting old after 3 weeks but Reigns does start to promo his upcoming title match at Payback against A.J. Styles, which brings Styles out & they begin to praise each other & saying how each will win at Payback with Styles abruptly leaving the ring.

As he’s walking up the ramp, the Bullet Club (Gallows & Anderson) attack Reigns from the far side & leave him laying while Styles is looking on in disbelief. After a commercial, the camera’s catch up with Reigns & Styles comes up to Reigns, insisting that he didn’t know about the attack & Reigns not believing him. Hopefully, this is leading to something sinister at Payback…maybe the Bullet Club becoming an NWO type faction in WWE? We can only hope!!

The next match is Fandango going up against Baron Corbin with Dolph Ziglar doing color commentary (Does anyone believe Ziglar won’t be getting involved?)

In a one-sided match that the crowd is not into, Baron Corbin wakes the crowd by throwing Fandago over the announcer’s table & into Ziglar. Corbin hits Ziglar with the End of Days for the victory & then Ziglar attacks Corbin & gets thrown out of the ring of an End of Days on the floor again for his trouble. Not sure where they’re heading with Corbin, but I’m not sure he has the personality to pull it off. He could benefit greatly by a mouthpiece like Paul Heyman leading him.

Next up is possibly my least favorite segments of any WWE show…Miz TV. Long & boring, but at least the sharp London audience picks up on it & starts the boring chant as well. Good for them! Cesaro comes out & having to endure both doing bad movie lines, challenges Miz, who announces that Cesaro already has a match next against Rusef but then Cesaro announces that Shane McMahon has changed the match & it will be the League of Nations & The Miz vs. Cesaro & the WWE Tag Team Champs, The New Day. (Wouldn’t it make more sense for Cesaro to be in The League of Nations? After all, he’s the Swiss Superman:):))
The eight man tag is a back & forth affair with all men hitting their spots in a nice chain of moves but the match ends when Cesaro hits the Neutralizer on Sheamus. New Day gets a nice pop in London!

PROMO- WWE Womens Champion Charlotte with Ric Flair discussing the controversy over last week’s match with Natalya & Ric’s interference. Natalya interrupts to tell them that Shane-O-Mac has announced that Natalya will get a return match at WWE’s Payback & she’ll be accompanied by WWE Hall of Famer, Bret “The Hitman” Hart.

Just a FYI for you, Titus O’Neil was mentioned on the broadcast as presenting a prize in an upcoming fan contest & was on a commercial with Natalya, so he’s obviously back in good graces after his suspension for grabbing Vince McMahon during a Raw a few weeks ago. (Which really didn’t look like much to me when it happened. Looked like Vince blew it way out of proportion.)

Well, it was the men first, so now it’s the ladies turn to have an eight woman tag team match as WWE Women’s Champ Charlotte, Naomi, Tamina & Summer Rae took on Paige (who still gets a good pop in London!), Natalya, Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch & in a not so great match, they had a finish that a blind man would’ve seen coming…Charlotte tapping out to Natalya’s Sharp Shooter. Not really sure why they wouldn’t showcase Charlotte, Becky & Sasha for the European tour, but I understand promoting the match at Payback. WWE had obviously determined that Charlotte is the 2nd coming of Ric Flair & turning her into a Flair type heel. Losing but saving her title at every turn. We’ll see how that works out for her long-term…

PROMO- A RECAP OF THE EVENTS OF A.J STYLES & ROMAN REIGNS FOR THE EVENING

Next up in the other semi-final for the #1 Contenders Tag team Tournament, it’s the Uso’s vs. The VaudeVillains which has the feel of a popcorn match for the fans that again the fans were not into. Jay Uso dove through the ropes & hurts his injured shoulder from last weeks attack by the Bullet Club. The VaudeVillains take advantage & hit their Whirling Derbish for the victory to set up an All NXT finals against Enzo & Big Cass.
Next up is Apollo Crews vs Heath Slater & the Social Outcast minus the aforementioned Adam Rose. In what was honestly, not a very good match, Crews wins with the Sit Out Power Bomb. Apollo Crews has the feel of someone the WWE wants to push very hard, but they’re not really sure what to do with him. They need to figure it out quick before they kill him off……

Lastly, it’s Kevin Owens vs Dean Ambrose
Admittedly, I’m kind of uninterested at this point & apparently, so is the London crowd as it feels like a 90’s Japan match. The main event makes no sense but Owens & Ambrose try their best with Owens trying the Frog Splash, only to hit Ambrose’s knees followed by the Dirty Deeds for the victory.

After the match, Jericho runs in to hit Ambrose with a Code Breaker in this feud to nowhere & to mercifully end this Raw. Maybe the flight back to the States will inspire them for next week. We can only hope…..