We are one week away crown jewel, which is one more thing. What is Raw reserve for us? Read the crease below to find out. Oh, but first read Claire’s blog because she’s dope and Blog is magic. Not Daddy Magic, but rather David Copperfield.
Let’s talk Raw!
you know his name
Shout out to the fan with the ‘Eddie is your real dad’ sign. I see you, sir, and I salute your lack of respect. The second MVP of RawThe opening segment of was Rhea Ripley. She owned everything the second Judgment Day hit the ring. Whether it’s her looks, her body language, or her side comments (adamantly supporting Dom’s comment about being built differently), she killed him. This continued during Finn Balor’s match with Karl Anderson. Even with this story of Finn feeling betrayed by the club he founded, Rhea steals the show. Even with a good match between Karl and Finn, Rhea is the star. What happens when she slams the power of Luke Gallows. Not only did she slam such a big man, but she spoke to him when he hit the ground.
Rhea kept the pain train going as she hit the ring and hit Anderson harder where the sun doesn’t shine when the referee turned his back on her. This painful blow was just enough for Finn to get the W.
I don’t like this story as much as the one with Rey Mysterio, and I hope this detour is purely for Crown Royal Jewel the reasons. But it’s still entertaining mostly because of everything Rhea does or doesn’t do.
Extracurricular activities
For the Love of Mac and Cheese
Miz wrestled R-Truth based on an argument over North Carolina mac and cheese. I can’t speak to their mac and cheese, but my grandma from SC makes the best mac and cheese. The Carolinas are close enough that I could side with Truth on this one.
But I digress. Miz hit the ring first for some Dexter Lumis updates. Johnny Wrestling says Miz isn’t telling the truth about his dispute with Dexter or what happened to Ciampa. Saying “truth” more than once in a WWE ring is like saying Candyman five times in a mirror. Except you get R-Truth and not Tony Todd. Hence the game over Carolina food.
I wasn’t amused even though I agree with Truth’s motivation. Hopefully we’ll have a fix for this Dexter/Miz issue next week.
Nikki is no longer a superhero
Bayley on one side of the ring. Bianca Belair on the other side of the ring. No title on the line, nothing on the line really. Sure, Damage CNTRL beat Candice LeRae earlier, but there was nothing at stake here for either woman, which looks like a dud after their last encounter. But it’s indicative of a show where a lot of things happened that didn’t really matter much. Bianca and Bayley are great wrestlers. Of course, they put on a technically solid game. The problem is the lack of stakes. We’ve done it before: Too bad CNTRL beats someone up, Bianca comes to the rescue, a match ensues. At some point, this angle requires another ratio.
Is Nikki Cross that gear?
Nikki, sans superhero gear, appeared in the third act. The ref threw out Dakota and IYO. But before he had a chance to get even more over the top with his moves, Nikki jumped off the top rope and took out the referee with Dakota and IYO. She turned her attention to Bianca, resulting in Bayley getting the W, and then beating Bayley as well. Nikki was standing at the end of the show.
See this version of Nikki on Raw it’s cool. Not sure if it’s the wide angle to end the show. Especially this show, which was underwhelming at best.
Calm down…
Seth Rollins fears Mustafa Ali. That’s the bottom line for anyone following this story. The United States champion interfered in a match between Ali and Austin Theory. He trained Theory from comments, while Theory just wanted a piece of Ali because he’s a bully who beats up people who don’t have the path of descent he has. So it all fits together pretty well.
It was still a good match! Ali is a natural babyface and Theory makes good guys look great. Without Seth distracting the referee, Ali wins this match. But, yes, it happened. So Theory goes home with the win, while Ali gets beat up after the match because Seth thinks he’s not up to his game. A desperate heel move that I love and hope their match delivers on that promise.
But what about Theory? One week it’s not on Raw but appears on NXT teasing a cash-in for the NXT Championship. Then it does not happen and it appears on Raw. I’m confused and, as always, I need someone to make sense of it.
ELIAS!
I’m a huge Elias fan. I admit it and I have no shame. So I’m thrilled every time he lands a W. After last week, I thought the United States Championship was in his future. Maybe so, but since this week, he’s getting into something with Riddle by his side. Maybe. Alpha Academy abruptly interrupted Elias and Riddle, resulting in a match between Gable and Elias. The best moment of the match came when Gable attempted a magnificent moonsault and caught a knee from Elias right in the jaw. It was perfectly timed and a thing of beauty.
More importantly, Elias got the win. Otis tackled him after the match and Riddle ran for help. Good game with a really cool moment.
Guess what?
Omos beat up jobbers… what’s supposed to scare Braun Strowman? Okay, sure, Jan.
The struggle… God?
Baron Corbin battled Johnny Gargano because the latter pissed off JBL. How? Its mere existence and the fact that it spent a decade in single A. Definitely a JBL thing to say and do, so I’m not mad at that. But Corbin, at least in the ring, isn’t shouting “wrestling god.” In fact, he barely screams. Corbin is a bit boring as a wrestler. The most entertaining part of this match was Johnny Wrestling taking JBL’s hat and taunting the Texan.
Of course, he lost the match because of all that teasing because he got too distracted. But I just didn’t enjoy the game as a whole. I like what JBL is doing but I don’t think he and Corbin are a good partner. JBL is a larger than life personality and Corbin barely has a personality.
Someone asked Baron if he was good and he said yes when he should have said no.
It wasn’t a great show. In fact, it may be the worst Raw in a long time. The show had a spark when it started but quickly died down.
Rating: C-
This is my note and I stick to it. Your turn.
