Read on for my thoughts on last night's Raw.
- Universal Title announcement:
Tough, tough break for Finn. Best wishes for the Demon King, who's worked for more than a decade to make it to the WWE Title picture.
Balor coming across like a class act here. I hope he's back to challenge for the title at WM33.
Rollins playing off fans hating the title is great. He's a very self-aware performer.
Zayn was on the Kickoff show at Summerslam. He's really going to have to do some convincing to be seen as belonging in the Universal Title picture.
At least they're not wasting time with long promos between new talents coming out.
I mean, what's stopping someone like Jinder coming out and saying he should be in the title picture? They should do that at some point. Slater would definitely make it work.
Very convenient for all the people coming in the ring to be involved in the title picture. I guess Foley planned it all out, since Stephanie was clueless.
I like Enzo and Cass, but I don't think they're Universal Title ready.
Rollins trying to KO Zayn early was great.
- Rollins vs. Zayn:
Didn't take them long to tease Rollins trying to put Zayn on the shelf!
I really hope Zayn didn't put himself on the injured list. WWE has enough names missing action these days.
This is a pretty enjoyable match. Both men are always impressive.
Nice story with Rollins taking advantage of the ankle problem.
My headcanon is Rollins instigating Reigns' suspension, Ambrose being drafted to Smackdown, and Balor's injury so he'll be the logical choice to be champion.
- Owens vs. Neville:
We NXT now.
Would Neville be above Cruiserweight Title level if he was coming up now instead of when he did come up? He's really spectacular as an athlete, but isn't compelling beyond that.
Pretty good back-and-forth so far. They work well with each other.
I'm curious to see how long JeriKO can stay a thing before splitting and feuding.
Good ending.
- New Day/Club segment:
Pretty funny start to things.
Booty-O's > John Cena Fruity Pebbles.
The Club just aren't clicking for some reason. I'd like for them to have more of a gimmick than "guys who were a big deal in Japan and used to team with AJ and Balor."
New Day/Club rematch at CoC seems likely.
- Karl Anderson vs. Big E:
This is fine so far.
I'm liking the tag team tactics so far.
Man. The Club are having a lot of trouble getting traction. They might need to call some of their buddies in Japan to help them out.
- Titus/Backlund segment:
I can really get behind Titus as a singles guy. Probably not Universal Title level, but certainly U.S. Title level.
DAMN. Titus going hard on Young here.
So, umm, Titus calling Darren's punk card and Darren not responding helps Young how?
I'm a little surprised Backlund took a bump.
That segment could have been done better to explain why it took Titus beating up Backlund for Darren to come out. They could have shown Backlund and Darren talking it out backstage or something.
- Stephanie disciplines Brock:
What kind of repercussions, Stephanie? She didn't seem super-concerned with what Brock did.
- Lana/Rusev/Enzo/Cass segment:
That wasn't bad to set up the match.
- Rusev vs. Cass:
I definitely think Cass can get over as a singles guy, but there's no need to rush into that.
Nice work from the lightning bruisers.
DAMN. Rusev with NO sympy for Enzo. Such a great heel.
Generally, beating an injured opponent by countout is a heel move.
- Phillip interviews JeriKO:
More fun stuff from the Canadians. I almost don't want to see them split and feud, as good as that can be.
Good stuff, good stuff.
- Charlotte/Dana/Mick/Bayley promo:
Dana still being around after Charlotte kicked her to the curb doesn't exactly paint her in the best light.
Nice heel work here. I keep expecting Dana to get upset at being belittled and turning face, but it's not happening.
I like the idea that Raw signed Bayley as soon as she was available following getting her rematch with Asuka. I would have been fine with Mick making Charlotte vs. Dana, but I'm not complaining that Bayley's finally getting called to the next level. Hopefully Smackdown gets Tamina and Emma when they recover.
Funny ending.
- Bayley vs. Dana:
This is fun so far.
I like how these two match up, style wise.
Good Raw debut. Bayley's definitely ready for this level of an opportunity.
- Roman promo:
Roman's kind of a parody of himself at this point.
- Cruiserweight video package:
That's definitely a nice start to the Cruiserweight division. Hopefully we see a variety of styles showcased.
- Sheamus promo:
Sheamus blew Cesaro TFO with the Suicide Squad reference. Good stuff overall.
- Knockout promo:
Well, that was interesting. I guess if you only get one promo in your whole WWE career, you might as well do something memorable.
- Strowman vs. Knockout:
Strowman continuing to wreck people.
Wow. Beating that guy wasn't enough?
- Dudleys/S. Stars/Club segment:
I miss the Dudleys putting people through tables. It's a different era, though, and time to focus on a new style.
This is a pretty great babyface moment for the Dudleys.
Touching moment.
Epico and Primo might actually be lower on the tag team totem pole than the Dudleys.
Hahahaha poor Colons. They're lucky WWE needs some teams for Superstars/filling out live events.
Hey, you know the Dudleys weren't going to look strong for too long, right?
See you later, Dudleys. At least, I hope so.
- Roman vs. Y2J:
Fun start.
This is a pretty solid contest so far. They work together pretty well.
NICE counter into the sitout powerbomb.
Nice setup into the Walls, too.
They're definitely putting Reigns over in defeat if he's losing.
I guess we won't get our answer to what would happen if Owens and Jericho were in the match together. They could still face off at CoC, though.
More wrestling tomorrow.
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