What a Difference a Year Can Make

Raw regrettably kicked off with the Commissioner, Stephanie McMahon, entering the ring to kick off the show where she began to run down Mick Foley (again) and further make her more hated without an inevitable comeuppance to look forward to as per usual. Roman Reigns then interrupted her as per usual and demanded that he get a match with Strowman later that night rather than have to wait till Fastlane. Steph denies him this and instead The Club of all people come out and set up a handicap match against him.

During this opening segment, which is honestly rather dull, it is interesting to note how much more comfortable Reigns is on the mic compared to a year ago when his match against Triple H at Mania was being built to. Putting him in the ring with Stephanie as he was so often last year at this time may be a coincidence but it serves to create a great contrast between his mic skills from then and now as Reigns showed intensity and believability this monday which was unheard of a year ago.

Overall Score: 3/5

Speaking of Which…

The handicap match which followed was standard enough fare and did what it needed to do: make the Club look dominating while getting the crowd behind Reigns. The crowd got so behind Reigns in fact that there was a moment where a large portion of the crowd was chanting for Reigns. Part of why I think his reaction was so strong on this night specifically is because Reigns was clearly making an effort to sell his injuries more, in turn making him sympathetic and less of a demigod.

Despite winning by DQ after The Club continued to beat Reigns up, Roman got his heat back right away by driving the two away with a chair. Take note Smackdown, this is how you book a handicap match.

Overall Score: 3/5

The Best Worst Segment

Raw continued its trend of bad segments with good elements by having Kofi Kingston fight Bo Dallas in a one on one match that essentially revolved around Ice Cream. In summary, The New Day are basically still in aimless segments since losing the tag belts and Bo Dallas’ character is almost non existent (although he truly looks like he is being groomed to join his brother Bray Wyatt in the Wyatt Family), and yet this segment was still fun due to the absurdity of it all. Bo Dallas stealing the New Day’s blueprints for an Ice Cream Machine(?) while the crowd chanted “We want ice cream” was just an amazing example of the craziness that The New Day can get over and thus a position like this on the card doesn’t really hurt them at all.

Overall Score: 3/5

Reminder that a Cruiserweight Title Match is Coming Up

A short backstage segment followed which featured the two individuals who will be fighting for the Cruiserweight title at Fastlane: Neville and Jack Gallagher. Although the segment clearly existed to simply include some mention of this upcoming match on the show, the fact that these two are arguably the two strongest characters in the division helped to make this brief interaction interesting.

Overall Score: 4/5

Cruiserweight Filler

The aforementioned Gallagher was featured next in a match against Noam Dar that was essentially a squash match with how quick Gallagher went over. Gallagher got a ton of his fun spots in and the segment ended with Neville coming out and eyeing Gallagher down.

Overall Score: 2/5

The Creator and The Destroyer Arrive

Another extremely short segment followed where Samoa Joe and HHH arrived in a limo. Nothing much here but a cool visual.

Overall Score: 5/5

Trolololol

The long awaited debut of “Emmalina” welcomed viewers back from the commercial break and after the former Emma announced she was finally back after 17 weeks(!) of buildup, the reveal turned out to be an apparently giant prank as Emmalina revealed that she is transitioning back to Emma right away.

I popped with a huge laugh when this was revealed and I can’t wait to see what comes next, especially since there was a hint of a sinister tone in Emma’s voice, indicating that there was something more to this still.

Overall Score: 5/5

Typical, but Good Bayley Fare

ANOTHER brief segment follows where Bayley discusses her championship match against Charlotte in the main event and other than showing some real fire there is very little of note here.

Overall Score: 3/5

Flawless Foreshadowing

Next, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho are seen backstage discussing the upcoming Festival of Friendship before HHH approaches them to speak to Kevin Owens alone, and surprisingly this private conversation is actually seen after the commercial break, with the added mystique of having no audio and a concerned look on Kevin Owens face.

Overall Score: 5/5

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Strowman took on the World’s Strongest Man, Mark Henry in a match that should’ve been crap but turned into one of the greatest segments of the night. Given the size of these men, the pace was extremely slow but there were some amazing moments, including:

• Strowman getting chants, something which I couldn’t imagine a year ago
• Mark Henry picking up Strowman for a World’s Strongest Slam
• Strowman dropkicking Henry(!!!)
• Strowman giving a running powerslam to Henry(!!!!!!)

Reigns then came out as expected and hesitated before getting into the ring (a very nice touch), before getting laid out by Braun Strowman. Strowman is set to take on Big Show next week and if it is anything like this match, I can’t wait.

Overall Score: 5/5

Face vs. Face? Maybe?

Enzo and Cass get into the faces of Cesaro and Sheamus backstage after the mess that transpired last week as they argue over who is the superior team. This was just standard banter that set up Enzo vs. Cesaro later on but the fact that Cesaro and Sheamus were set up as heels here was strange given that they have been paired with Bayley lately and been getting face reactions for quite a while.

Overall Score: 3/5

Samoa Joe (and Michael Cole) Proves He Has What it Takes

Michael Cole interviews Samoa Joe live in a rare sit-down interview next in another incredible segment. The interview boiled down to Joe asserting that he isn’t just another croney of HHH’s who will be betrayed like Orton, Batista, Rollins, etc. (great continuity) and lets loose some amazing lines like “Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim, Reinjure” (in reference to Seth Rollins) and that he is in fact too dangerous of WWE like they feared. The latter line is most interesting as this is such a blurring of real and kayfabe concerns regarding Joe that it goes from being a passive line to being an incorporation of real life opinions which would usually only be discussed on the internet.

Joe has such passion, calmness, and intimidation in his voice that he is already easily one of the best speakers on the main roster. I can’t think of a wrestler whose words I hang on to more than Joe’s at the moment except for possibly The Undertaker.

Michael Cole did a lot to help make this segment better as he genuinely seemed afraid of Joe and came off less as the catchphrase machine he is at the commentary table and more as an actual journalist.

Overall Score: 5/5

Sami Zayn Is Now A Main Event Player?

Sami Zayn and Rusev faced off in an unannounced match that honestly blew me away. Despite this there is little to say other than Zayn sold Rusev’s offense like crazy and even though Zayn won in the end, Rusev still ended up looking great. This says a lot about how great these two men are and even though I wish there was more buildup here, the surprise was kind of nice.

After the match Zayn was interviewed on stage and delivered a great promo where he called out Samoa Joe for a passive comment he had made about not being “another Sami Zayn” in his earlier interview. This led to Joe brutally attacking Zayn out of nowhere with intensity that made it seem that he was genuinely furious and seemingly setting up a fued between them leading into Fastlane.

Considering Joe is basically a main eventer at this point, it is awesome to finally see one of the hardest workers in the company in Sami Zayn finally enter that scene, and against someone who is also a NXT alum. The two didn’t face off much in NXT and thus these two having a proper main event feud is extremely appealing and I expect some incredible matches out of these two.

Overall Score: 5/5

Tozawa Continues to Shine

Cruiserweight action followed in what was largely just a vehicle to get Akira Tozawa more over by beating Ariya Daivari in quick fashion. Tozawa seems more over with the crowd than most Cruiserweights already (except perhaps Jack Gallagher) and a large part of this is due to his energy and his moveset which set him apart from the other Cruiserweights who despite what the division may imply, don’t do that much interesting.

Overall Score: 2/5

The Tomodachi no Matsuri

The incredibly hyped Festival of Friendship between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens finally arrived next and began in grand fashion as Jericho came out in a gaudy outfit with women at his side before welcoming his best friend on stage. Owens came out looking apprehensive and out of character while Jericho was hamming it up and having the time of his life. This segment was incredibly long (taking up about 30 mins) and thus I will simply list some of my favorite moments of the segment before it reached it’s climax.

• Jericho gifting a $7000 sculpture of two people embracing to KO made by the “minimalist, maximalist, artist Ralph Gugenheim”
• Jericho gifting KO a painting by the name of “The Creation of Kevin” (a parody of The Creation of Adam)
• Jericho introducing “The Illuminati of Illusion”, Frienship the Magician.
• Jericho calling out Goldberg only for Attitude Era star Gillberg to come out and get promptly beat up by Kevin Owens
• Jericho seemingly shooting on Kevin Owens about how KO has made his last year in the company one of his absolute favorites. There was genuine emotion here that took this segment from silly to genuinely touching and seemingly acted as part of a face turn.

Throughout all of this Kevin Owens has continued to be apprehensive and out of character in a way that brings to mind his discussion with Triple H prior as he is usually so supportive of Jericho. The segment reaches its aforementioned climax when Kevin Owens gives Jericho a gift of his own which turns out to be “The List of KO” with Jericho’s own name on it. Jericho slowly realizes what this means and the way he tells this via face expressions is masterful. Owens subsequently brutalizes Jericho to the point of him requiring an ambulance (in kayfabe).

Not only does this take Owens from a chicken-shit heel to a serious threat whom the audience can truly hate but creates such intrigue regarding the HHH story that it recontextualizes everything that KO and Jericho had done prior. Were their actions disgraceful in Triple H’s eyes and thus he had to bribe Owens to get rid of his BFF begrudgingly? Or was their something else to it? Regardless, this segment is the strongest Raw has had in an extremely long time and exceeded my expectations to an astronomical degree.

Bravo.

Overall Score: 5/5

Palette Cleanser

Well after that I am exhausted.

Enzo and Cesaro faced off and while I’m happy that this match was here to provide a buffer between the Festival and the main event, it was ultimately nothing memorable as Cesaro went over in quick fashion.

Next.

Overall Score: 2/5

TFW you can’t stop texting your ex

Sasha Banks was confronted by Charlotte again this week and the fact that this happened two weeks in a row makes me feel that last week’s interaction was not just a filler segment. This must be building to something which I assume is a Banks heel turn where she sides with Charlotte to get the title back in the end. Either way, this segment was rather bland due to how often we have seen these two together in the past year.

Overall Score: 2/5

No Longer A Novelty

A women’s match main evented Raw for another time in recent memory and other than a comment by Bayley earlier in the show it was no longer treated as a huge deal, which was nice given that it is now almost normal for this to be the case. Ironically, this match was something worth bragging about though as this match was possibly one of the best both of these women have had, and certainly the best Bayley has had so far had on the main roster.

The main narrative of the match was Bayley’s neck being injured on the turnbuckle early on and Charlotte working that in brutal fashion for the rest of the contest. Charlotte largely dominated for the first half of the match (delivering a brutal moonsault off the barrier onto Bayley’s neck in the process) before Bayley came back and began to look good before Dana Brooke came out and interfered on Charlotte’s behalf by costing Bayley a pin. Sasha Banks then came out and evened the score by taking out Dana Brooke and attacking Charlotte and Bayley was finally able to take down the champ for the title.

While the formula of having Charlotte win title matches on PPV and lose them on TV is becoming comical at this point due to long it has been going on, this was still a phenomenal moment for Bayley and a much better match than these two’s match at the Rumble when considered in a bubble. I almost thought we were gonna see a Sasha Banks heel turn given recent rumors and segments that have been on Raw over the past few weeks but regardless this was still a wonderful way to end the best Raw in a long time

Overall Score 5/5

Average Score: 4/5

Raw overall hit it out of the park this week. The pros far outweighed the cons with multiple segments which were perfect for all intents and purposes. The Road to WrestleMania is looking extremely bright and here is hoping that they can keep this momentum while going forward. Smackdown has their work cut out for them this week.

I realize that this post was extremely long and I’m going to look into strategies for future posts if the episode being reviewed is as packed as this one.

Til next time,

Lucas.