Introducing Samoa Joe, The Destroyer

The show properly began with Stephanie and Mick Foley formally introducing Samoa Joe after his attack on Seth Rollins last week, and having him officially sign a Raw contract. The tension between Stephanie and Foley before Joe came out allowed Foley to show some more great character work but the fact that moments like this between the two are seemingly leading to nothing and solely exist to have Stephanie always have someone to emasculate dulls this intrigue. Regardless, Joe immediately made an impact with his incredible mic skills and his menacing appearance; even if you never saw him in NXT, it is apparent right away that Joe is a big time player, especially when he attracts the attention of Roman Reigns right away. Reigns has clearly been growing more comfortable on the mic and although he isn’t nearly at Joe’s level, his assertion that Joe is now in his yard immediately puts Joe in the main event scene where he belongs. Mick Foley steps in between the two and sets up a huge main event between them, but the fact that this is a PPV level match in theory really foreshadows that it won’t be of PPV level quality in reality as with the small main event scene, this match will clearly headline an actual PPV before long.

Overall Score: 4/5

Bayley Takes a Step Backwards

Next up, Bayley took on Nia Jax in a match that again exposed how the brand split really screwed the women’s division. At this point, Bayley and Jax have taken each other on multiple times on both the main roster and in NXT and this matchup appears again tonight but it’s just hard to care when this match has been seen so much in the past year. It was a decent enough match with Jax going over but I’d rather see the two do something with Charlotte and Sasha respectively instead of returning to the Bayley vs. Jax well so soon.

Also: are they EVER going to mention how Bayley beat Jax when they were in NXT?

Overall Score: 3/5

Is it Mid-2016 Again?

Braun Strowman squashed four jobbers in a handicap match next and while entertaining  (especially when one made the decision to simply run away and not return), Strowman is clearly past the point of needing matches like this to establish that he is a monster like he did after the draft and his call for greater opposition from Foley after the match really reinforces how stale this particular segment is.

Braun subsequently storms backstage and Foley grants him his wish by setting up a match between Reigns and Strowman at Fastlane. I popped off because I will be there for this match but the fact that Reigns is clearly set to face Undertaker at ‘Mania and is apparently also involved with Samoa Joe for the time being, and thus this match seems like the lowest priority. Does Reigns really need 3 simultaneously feuds building?

Overall Score: 3/5

Akira Tozawa: 205 Live’s Saving Grace?

Cruiserweight Akira Tozawa debuted on Raw next against the bland Drew Gulak and although it was clear that Tozawa was gonna win and establish himself, his offense was risky enough and got enough of the crowd involved that some of the magic from the Cruiserweight Classic finally reappeared after months of staleness. Hopefully Tozawa will be the shot in the arm this division needs.

Overall Score: 3/5

A Massive Main Event is Confirmed

Best friends Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho emerge and what follows is initially a typical segment for the two, albeit a very entertaining one. Kevin Owens asserts that he is continually proving people wrong and Jericho puts Tom Brady on The List Of Jericho in what is admittedly a great pop-culture reference. Jericho also teases a WrestleMania match between the two again before being once again shot down by KO. I really wish the tension between these two wouldn’t have already reached a climax before being derided as a ruse as it makes these teases of tension much less exciting than they should be.

The segment truly catches steam when Goldberg unexpectedly comes out and accepts Brock Lesnar’s WrestleMania challenge before challenging Kevin Owens for the title at Fastlane, which Jericho accepts on his behalf. All three men exhibit great mic work and Goldberg proves that he still has it after his drawn out promo a few weeks ago where his forehead was bleeding. Bias aside because I will be at Fastlane, this match really excites me. It is really exciting to see how Kevin Owens will stack up against arguably his toughest opponent to date and the Universal title will really add a lot to the Goldberg/Lesnar match at Mania. I’m also really ready for Kevin Owens’ lackluster title run to end.

Kevin Owens subsequently freaks out at Jericho backstage and once again tension is brushed away to seemingly push off the inevitable match between these two at WrestleMania.

Overall Score: 4/5

Enzo & Cass Remember There are Tag Titles

To be honest, I barely paid attention to The Club taking on Sheamus and Cesaro here given the sheer amount of times we have seen them fight recently. Despite this, it was interesting to see that Enzo and Cass are seemingly caring about the tag belts for the first time in a long time considering this was something that heavily drove them at the tail end of their NXT run. Hopefully they will spice up this division now that their terrible feud with Rusev and Jinder Mahal is over.

Overall Score: 2/5

Sami Zayn Continues to Look Strong

This match was a great match despite the dirty finish. Both men looked phenomenal and it seemed at times that Zayn may genuinely win the US title in this match for the belt between Jericho and himself. Not much to say other than I hope Zayn gets the belt before Mania as the Jericho/Owens program doesn’t need it.

Overall Score: 4/5

Remember When the Women’s Division was Incredible?

Charlotte confronts Sasha banks backstage (when you’d think it would be Jax confronting Sasha) and reminds her how she injured her knee. Seeing these two together makes me miss the magic they made last year before their feud was arbitrarily ended at Roadblock. Unless this is building to a Sasha heel turn, I really can’t see a point to this segment other than to give Charlotte some screen time.

Overall Score: 2/5

More Like SNOOZERweight Division

Austin Aries begins this segment by interviewing Neville and reminding everyone of what the cruiserweight division could be if those two were in a feud and this eventually leads to the five cruiserweights who will fight for No. 1 contendership on 205 Live coming out and setting up yet another 6 man tag match where no one really shines. At least Noam Dar yelling for Neville to come back after he abandoned his team was pretty funny.

Overall Score: 3/5

Just Kiss Already

In order to prove that he truly has Kevin Owen’s back, Jericho announces to him that next week on Raw a “Festival of Friendship” will be held to celebrate the bromance between the two. If this were any other two Superstars, I would loathe the idea but I feel these two will making something great of this.

Overall Score: 4/5

Samoa Joe Gives the Big Dog a Run for his Money

As Roman Reigns makes his entrance for his match against Samoa Joe, Joe attacks him from behind in a vicious manner and looks dominant as hell. Joe makes Reigns looks the weakest he has in months and after the bell finally rings, Joe displays what makes him the unique athlete he is with both his speed and power. I’ve heard some complaints that Roman still looked strong after all he took but Joe himself took two Superman punches and still managed to stay alive. My only grievance is with the fact that Joe won after a distraction from Strowman took Reigns away from the fight. I understand the need to build that match for Fastlane, but in doing it this way makes Joe look somewhat weak for not taking Reigns out himself. Hopefully this will be addressed next week.

Strowman destroying Reigns itself however was a great moment even if it was strange that Joe just left after winning, despite being the focus of the episode. Strowman has grown in leaps and bounds since being in the Wyatt family and is truly coming into his own. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes him to get a world title.

On a side note, Joe didn’t take Reigns out with a Muscle Buster, making me wonder if the move that ended Tyson Kidd’s career is banned by Vince already on the main roster or if they are saving it like they did AJ Styles’ Styles Clash.

Overall Score: 4/5

Average Total Score: 3/5

Raw this week was overall a good 3 hour show that could have been an outstanding 2 hour show if the fat was trimmed. Fastlane is shaping up to be a strong B Pay-Per-View and with more time to build to it than Smackdown’s Elimination Chamber (Which only has two weeks of buildup!), it’ll be really interesting to see what happens in the upcoming weeks and what gets added to the card.

Til next time,

Lucas