Tonight's edition of WWE Raw had its highs and lows as we're only one night away from the 2016 Draft. The naming of the shows' general managers opened the show and essentially overshadowed everything else that took place. Straight away, let's hit the match results:
- Sami Zayn & Cesaro Over Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens
- The Club & The Wyatt Family Over John Cena, Enzo Amore, Big Cass, & The New Day
- Darren Young Over Alberto Del Rio
- Baron Corbin Over Sin Cara
- Rusev & Sheamus Over Dolph Ziggler & Zack Ryder
- Sasha Banks & Becky Lynch Over Charlotte & Dana Brooke - via DQ (Natalya interfered)
- Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Seth Rollins (Match ruled a draw after apparent double pin)
The show opened with Stephanie and Shane McMahon naming their shows' general managers. Steph introduced Mick Foley, who came out to a fine ovation. Foley cut a promo stating that he was ready to do his job to the fullest, but delivered it with a serious undertone. Foley really gave off the impression that another side of his character may emerge, certainly different than his original run as the Raw Commissioner years ago. Shane introduced his GM, the returning Daniel Bryan, to a thunderous pop. The crowd went wild for Bryan. Bryan cut a babyface promo setting up his character's role on SmackDown.
To be completely honest, this show started off hot and slowly became less and less interesting as the night wore on. The 12-man tag match was fun and had entertaining entrances and promos. After that, we saw a lot of unimportant matches that served little purpose. Instead of burying the middle two hours of this show, let's just move on.
One of the few important segments of the middle portion of this show was a backstage encounter between Foley and Bryan. They exchanged words expressing their respect for one another, but Foley took the tone of the conversation in a different direction. He explained to Bryan that he saw drive and determination in Stephanie and that he was ready to make Raw the best show it could be. He told Bryan that they were each representing their respective shows, and "Let the games begin." This was a well done segment and set the stage for future interactions between the two in their new roles on-screen.
The WWE Championship had some great stuff, but the crowd was dead at this point. Rollins and Ambrose turned out a solid Raw title match. The match ended after Rollins hit a superplex on Ambrose, but Ambrose hooked Rollins' leg after impact. Both were in a pinning predicament and the referee counted three. The crowd was basically silent for the finish, as many were perplexed as to what exactly happened. Stephanie declared Rollins the winner, but it was obvious that we were looking at a draw situation. It was later announced on the WWE Network that the match was ruled a draw.
It looks as if the finish of the WWE Championship match was the company's way of creating another title for the SmackDown brand. Tonight's episode certainly wasn't the best, but it did do a decent job in setting up the brand feud and saved the big moments for tomorrow's draft.
Expect SmackDown Live to be a much more exciting show.
-Brady Sauvageau
The Heater
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