RAW started with a battle royal to determine the tag title number one contenders. Randy Orton and Matt Riddle, The Vikings, The New Day, Lince Dorado (just one man as Gran Metalik is injured and WWE recently fired Kalisto for some reason) and the former Retribution. AJ Styles does a Jericho 98 style run down of all their challengers, and then Miz shows up. Bah and humbug.
John Morrison decides he can win the battle royal by himself, and so enters it.
Dorado tries his best but is eliminated, Morrison is just one man and portrayed as a goof so goes, and Retribution are jobbers. You can see where this is going, and you'd actually be wrong, as The Vikings eliminated both New Day members and Randy Orton to win the match.
A good opening which showcased a dozen people, and had a surprising but worthy winner? What is this show and what has it done to RAW?
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In a stunning bit of evil heel work, The Vikings went to celebrate with their chicken legs, only to find Omos and AJ Styles had already eaten them...
Elias talks about dumping the rubbish Ryker last week on RAW. This leads to a match in which Ryker is treated as the hero, and wins by countout, after which the TV cameras focused too long on him sneezing and snot going everywhere.
The contract signing between Lashley and Drew Mac was the usual thing, livened up by Drew cutting a table in half with a claymore. Their match at the next PPV is in the Hell in a Cell, and is Drew's last shot to regain his title. WWE contract signings are a way of eating up a good 20 minutes or so without doing much - and yet the ratings went up for this segment. Big Money Bob Lashley and Demogod Drew?
Nikki Cross reveals her tag partner later on will be Asuka, who knows a lot about being overshadowed by a Flair.
Ricochet goes to a double count out with Humberto in a US title contendership match after Humberto hit his ludicrously dangerous Spanish Fly move to the outside. Sheamus was on commentary, which was the best bit of this segment.
MVP backstage randomly hits a damn fine promo on Kofi Kingston, about how Kofi was the main event but prefers to forgo Kofimania and slum in the tag division instead. Between this, last weeks main event, and Drew's semi-heelish promo on Kingston last week, I could see him being the main challenger when Drew loses the Cell match.
Eva Marie returns next week on RAW. Don't all get excited at once...
After weeks of talking himself up and feuding with Shelton Benjamin non-stop, Cedric Alexander turns up and loses clean to Jeff Hardy who has been MIA for months. Pointless. Rubbish.
Nikki Cross and Asuka win, when Nikki pinned Rhea Ripley (womens champ) after Charlotte Flair decided the entire match had to be about her, and beat up her tag partner so Nikki could pin her. Even when Nikki gets a pinfall victory, she's still treated as an afterthought, but then, every woman on RAW is after Charlotte and Alexa.
Mansoor, the young Saudi rookie who was getting a lot of exposure on 205 Live (well, experience, does anyone watch 205?) gets a shot on RAW against Drew Gulak and wins clean after Gulak - who is nominally a face - tried to hold the tights on a pin.
Mansoor is now undefeated in 27 matches - the new Goldberg! He is very green but shows some promise. Also like Goldberg.
Kofi Kingston pinned Matt Riddle. Sloppy match. I swear Kofi is feuding with the entire roster at the moment. Why can't more people be like that?
Shayna shows up on Alexa's Playground, and throws Alexa's possessed demon doll Lily to the floor. She then walks off the set, only for the lights to go off and the doors to all lock. Finding herself in a bathroom, where the killer doll appears in the bathroom mirror. So Shayna kicks the mirror into shards and screams as Alexa laughs evilly. Your mileage may vary on the possessed wrestler thing. I'm getting rather fed up with it, to be honest.
RAW gets a 5/10. Despite the best efforts of the opening match, Kofi Kingston and a recent concerted push to feature underutilized talents (Nikki, Ricochet), the Ryker mess, the Flair overshine and the last segment really hurt this week for me. Still, it was popular elsewhere online.
Anyhow, that's the week that was RAW.
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