By: Keila Cash
Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of
The Raw Exposé. Tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw emanated from the Honda
Center in Anaheim, California. SummerSlam is two weeks away and we have already
witnessed the inter-promotional feud between Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton spill
over into the other’s respective show. RKOs and F5s were dished out in rapid
succession. What kind of madness can we expect to raise the stakes even higher?
The answer to that question can be found throughout this blog. Without further
ado, let’s dissect tonight’s episode of Raw in no particular order.
·
The
opening segment of Raw featured Enzo Amore and Big Cass dropping references to
Sublime’s “Santeria,” Mike Trout, The Anaheim Angels (Who are now representing
Los Angeles), Science projects involving Bunsen Burners, Guns N’ Roses, Bon
Jovi, AC/DC, and Sesame Street. Enzo always makes the nonsensical seem
understandable in a weird way.
·
Chris
Jericho and Kevin Owens came out to do some trashing talking which involved a
lot of empty threats and deflections when it came to both men challenging Big
Cass to a match. Eventually, Jericho
decided to take on Enzo because he thinks Enzo is an easy beat. Enzo agreed and
the match officially got underway after the commercial break.
·
This
was a fun way to start the show. The verbal jousting between all four men was
very good and the crowd laughed at some of the one-liners which really made the
segment a success. Plus, it didn’t drag for over 20 minutes. It was quick and
to the point. No complaints.
·
Jericho
and Enzo had a solid match that featured nice back and forth action. Enzo had a
nearfall with a cross body press from the top rope, but Jericho managed to kick
out at two and a half. Owens grabbed Enzo’s ankle which caused the distraction
Jericho needed to nail him with a Codebreaker moments later. Big Cass got in
the ring and dropped Jericho with a big boot which caused to the referee to
ring the bell and award the tainted victory to Y2J via disqualification.
·
After
the match was over, Big Cass and Enzo challenged Owens and Jericho to a match
at SummerSlam. Owens accepted and promised an ass kicking as a homecoming gift
for the native New Yorkers. Their match should be a lot of fun. One more week
of quality promos from both teams should put their feud over the top leading up
to the biggest party of the summer.
·
Poor
Jorel Nelson…He is scared to death. Literally. He had nothing to say. At least
Nelson got a formal ring introduction with generic theme music to boot.
·
Braun
Stroman claims another victim. Short and painless.
·
Darren
Young pulled Titus O’Neil’s tights to pick up the cheap win. I guess turnabout
is fair play.
·
Seth
Rollins cut a good, but slightly long in the tooth promo about how he is not
intimidated by Finn Bálor and vows to beat him at SummerSlam to become the new
WWE Universal Champion. Rollins is not an ordinary man and he was offended by
Balor’s ignorance and arrogance when The Demon accused him of having the title
shot handed to him instead of earning his shot. Rollins defied medical science
by coming back in record time from his knee injury. He continues to act like a brave
babyface who comes off as a complete jerk to balance things out. It’s a weird
dynamic that is not completely working because fans want to cheer him, but the
booking of his character is leaving most fans cold instead of giving him the
heat he needs to get over as a believable heel. Therefore, the bulk of his
promos don’t light the world on fire because he’s too damn likable to be
completely hated. Hopefully, he can strike the right chord and completely click
as a heel that people are openly rooting against instead of it being the other
way around.
·
Cesaro
and Sheamus had another good match that was even better than the one from last
week which was slotted in the 10:00 p.m. Lull Period of Death. There were a few
near falls that made me audibly gasp because I thought that this match would be
bogged down by 50/50 booking. However, that was not the case as Sheamus bumped
into the referee and had Cesaro pinned for a three count, but the ref was
holding the side of his head in pain. Sheamus tried get the ref’s attention
which allowed Cesaro to cradle him for the win. Let’s hope that The Swiss
Superman did enough to earn a title shot in the very near future.
·
UFC WWE Countdown: Brock Lesnar vs. Orton was
so damn good. That is how you hype a PPV match. Using footage from their days
in Ohio Valley Wrestling was a nice touch. Lesnar does his best shit talking
during sit down interviews and Heyman adding in his two cents makes everything
that much better. I am expecting one more confrontation between The Beast and
The Viper next week if the meeting involving Mick Foley and Daniel Bryan goes
south later tonight.
·
Neville
deserves a gold medal for waking up the crowd with his showmanship and athletic
prowess. The Red Arrow remains a thing of beauty. The tag team match between
Neville and Sin Cara vs. The Dudley Boys was serviceable. It was nothing special
outside of Neville doing his thing in the ring.
·
I
can safely say that Roman Reigns saved the reenactment of Rusev and Lana’s
wedding. Reigns was loose during his promo and had FUN. He cracked few jokes
and relished being the Best Man from Hell. I knew those beautiful cakes
wouldn’t survive as Lana was knocked face first into the center cake. It was a
glorious sight and a great way to end the segment. I guess Rusev has no choice
but to accept Reigns’ challenge for his United States Championship at SummerSlam.
It is the American thing to do even though he’s from Bulgaria.
·
Charlotte
will go into SummerSlam without Dana Brooke as her insurance policy to help her
regain the Women’s Championship from Sasha Banks. I think that’s fair. The
rematch should be great if they are given enough time to shine in the ring.
·
The
pre-taped response from Finn Bálor was pretty good. I will say that WWE could
have zeroed in on Balor’s career instead of going the mystical route when it
comes to the origin of his name. It gave me Game
of Thrones vibes, but I needed a bit more context in order for me to truly
invest in the Bálor-Rollins feud. The match should be good, but I like solid
storytelling to put an exclamation point on things when it comes to hype and
excitement.
·
It
appears that Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows are on a ball hunting expedition.
They already took care of Big E’s and they are looking forward to collecting
Kofi Kingston’s for further examination. Creepy. The testicle puns were not
lost on me. It was very ballsy of The Club to do a public service announcement
discussing how Ringpostitis is plaguing the tag team scene in WWE. It was so
informative.
·
The
Club continues to look impressive as Gallows defeated Kofi Kingston in short
order.
·
Xavier
Woods just saved Kingston’s nether regions from suffering a severe case of Ringpostitis.
The world can breathe a sigh of relief.
·
Rusev
vs. Cesaro for the United States Championship was a nice impromptu match that
featured hard hitting action and a nice nod to continuity from earlier in the
show. Cesaro was seconds away from winning the U.S. Title when he had Rusev
locked in the Sharp Shooter. Sheamus came out to interfere only for Cesaro to
knock him down from the ring apron. This allowed Rusev to capitalize with a
Superkick, but Cesaro was able to kick out at two. Cesaro managed to hit the
Gotch Neutralizer on Rusev, but he accidently bumped heads with the referee
which prevented him from winning the championship when he had the chance.
Sheamus interfered once again as he kicked Cesaro in the face which allowed Rusev
to poke him in the eye and drop him with a second Superkick to retain the U.S.
Title.
·
WWE
did a good job of teasing a title change, but it wasn’t meant to be. Sheamus
continues to be a pest who is trying to put the screws to Cesaro and it worked.
Since Cesaro is up 2-0 in the series, I fully expect to see them face off
against each other again at SummerSlam to finish this feud once and for all. If
Cesaro can make it a clean sweep, Sheamus will be left completely demoralized.
That might be a good thing as his character needs a revamp.
·
As
for Rusev, he was greeted with a Spear from Roman Reigns as Raw went off the
air. Reigns and Rusev should have one hell of a fight at SummerSlam for the
U.S. Championship. Rusev is facing a legit opponent and Reigns needs to tap
into his inner Samoan Badass. This could be quite the slobber knocker. Plus,
the U.S. Title will be elevated in a meaningful way for the first time since
John Cena held the belt last year. As I said last week, it’s a win-win
situation.
·
Overall,
I thought tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw was decent. The in-ring action
was so-so, but WWE is doing a nice job fleshing out the SummerSlam card. It’s
stacked from top to bottom and it should be a great PPV.
·
Cesaro
wins Star of the Night honors for being involved in two good matches that
helped carry the show. Sheamus and Rusev also deserve credit because they
brought it in the ring as well.
·
The
lower mid-card scene remains shallow and I will keep repeating this fact until
something changes. The three hour format exposes this weakness and it’s not
going to get any better until the Cruiserweight Division is established on Raw.
The waiting game continues.
·
Raw
will have their first crack at producing a quality go-home show for SummerSlam next
week as the show emanates from Corpus Christi, Texas. Brock Lesnar will be
there with Paul Heyman advocating on his behalf. Will Randy Orton hit Lesnar
with another RKO from out of nowhere? We shall see…
On
that note, this wraps up another edition of The Raw Exposé. I hope you enjoyed
it and I will be back tomorrow night with a brand new installment of The
SmackDown Files. See you later, boys and girls!
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