This week's episode of Monday Night Raw was a somewhat forgettable one in many aspects. At the same time, we saw some decent segments and matches. Booking was here and there with positives and negatives both arising. I'm going to skip over a lot of minor happenings because like I said, there were many forgettable moments on this show. Also, I legitimately can't remember some of the segments that happened. I'm just being honest. With that being said, let's get right to it.
To start off, Cesaro and Sheamus had an awesome match. When they walked out to the ring I thought, "Dear god, they're doing this match again?" Well, these dudes beat the hell out of each other and entertained me to the fullest. Cesaro is over, but he was even more over as a result of this bout. He gave us new reversals and transitions which prompted the crowd to stand and clap for efforts in a great ovation. Cesaro is underutilized, but more on that later.
In a long segment, we saw Rusev and Lana attempt to reenact their recent wedding. There were flowers and cakes and everything. Roman Reigns interrupted, challenging Rusev to a United States Championship match at Summerslam. Rusev did not accept and a brawl ensued. The result of this was Lana being bumped by Rusev right into a cake. Mick Foley later made the US Title match official for the PPV. Vince's fingerprints were all over this one, but honestly, it was a pretty decent segment. WWE is again trying anything to get Reigns over as a babyface. It might work here, but the Brooklyn crowd for Summerslam will not be as accepting as the crowd at this show. Reigns was definitely more comfortable than usual in this segment, delivering his lines much more smoothly and genuinely than in segments past. He did a good job here and it'll be interesting to see how the latest Reigns experiment plays out.
Gallows and Anderson. Wow. I gotta say, I'm so glad that WWE seems to be realizing what they have with the two. In a comedy segment sent from heaven, Gallows and Anderson claimed to be doctors describing Big E's injury as a case of "Ringpostitus." The even had lab coats on. I can't recap this segment and do it justice, so you'll have to go back and watch it yourselves. The fact is that it was great, they're hilarious, and should do this more going forward. Not sure why Kofi basically did a job in the match after this, but hey, the booking is the booking and I really don't want to get into it.
Seth Rollins came out to do a long promo about how he's the best and he's going to beat Finn Balor for the new Universal Championship at Summerslam. The promo isn't the point of this paragraph, though. The positive coming out of this is that both guys aren't wrestling each week. WWE is holding them off thus creating more excitement to see the two wrestle. I don't want to see each guy wrestle each Monday leading up to the PPV. Keep it fresh, get the most out of the title match. Balor's appearance came in the form of a video, describing the demon persona and the folklore behind it. It was informative and another phase of the build to Summerslam.
Straight away, I loved the final segments of this show. Mick Foley called out Daniel Bryan to discuss the Randy Orton/Brock Lesnar brand invasion situation. What really came out of this segment was to the benefit of Cesaro. Rusev came out to tell them that he was already a champion on Raw and that they didn't need another. Cesaro came out to say he deserved a shot. This is where things got great. Bryan announced his support of Cesaro by saying that he felt he was underutilized on the Raw brand. It was very smart to do this because it gives Cesaro a rub from Bryan. The fans got behind Bryan because he was a great performer. Cesaro is also a great performer. If the fans are getting behind Cesaro now, they may get into him even more if Bryan says he's underutilized. This may create the same type of situation for Cesaro as Bryan had with the fans. Cesaro ended up getting an impromptu United States Championship match, but lost due to interference from Sheamus. It was great booking in the fact that everyone was even more behind Cesaro, but didn't get to see him really win due to the screw job. WWE could be setting up a solid angle to shoot Cesaro to the moon and believe me, he'll deliver if given a real opportunity.
To wrap it up, Raw felt like a pre-draft era episode in many regards, but did some great things to build for the future. With Summerslam approaching we can expect a hot show next week for the go-home. The momentum of the first post-draft show is still visible and it'll be interesting to see how WWE continues to build on it.
Brady Sauvageau
The Heater
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