WWE RAW Review
July 28, 2015
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
Just wanted to congratulate Mike and his new lovely wife on getting married this weekend. I’ll be filling in for Mike the next two weeks.
Yes, this means no match ratings or quick results. Sorry.
Full disclosure: I’ve yet to see Battleground or RAW from last week in its entirety due to a recent overseas trip to Ireland. YouTube was able to fill me in and the many video packages WWE provides (normally which I skip) were quite helpful on Monday night.
SummerSlam is four weeks away and that was a big selling point on Monday. Yet, I got the sense that even WWE knew this show has been dragging in recent weeks and did a great job of putting together some fun match ups for the live broadcast.
Seth Rollins gives John Cena a broken nose
I was (thankfully) able to avoid the expected backlash of John Cena beating Kevin Owens and was curious where both men were headed next post-Battleground. If the new direction is Cena and Seth Rollins and Owens going after Cesaro, I’m completely fine with that. Cena has stayed pretty far away from the main event scene and having anything to do with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Dropping him back in around SummerSlam time feels fine as the main focus is clearly on Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker.
Stephanie trolling the audience about getting a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match to open the show was a good time. The match itself was another long line in strong matches out of Cena with the United States Championship on the line. It’s definitely a RAW main event worth going out of your way to see if you missed it. The obvious highlight was the nasty knee Rollins delivered to the nose of Cena. The image of blood pouring out of the nose of Cena in the corner was quite powerful and added to an already great match.
I had no problem with Cena getting the win here. Of course, my Twitter timeline was filled with Cena boo birds. At this point, why even bother? Anyone with a brain and a pair of eyes can see the great work Cena is doing this year in the ring. Plus, take a look at his nose in a photo WWE posted from backstage. Just nasty.
Randy Orton and Kevin Owens brawl it out
Much like the main event, this was another fun and fresh match up for WWE television. I quite enjoyed the cut off spots by Owens just as Orton started to gain momentum. Sheamus was very entertaining on commentary (yes, I am entertained). I love the pairing of Owens and Sheamus as the total chicken sh*t heels that just beat people up because they can. Owens and Cesaro has a ton of potential for WWE television.
NXT ladies shine bright in Oklahoma City
NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte all picked up wins on Monday night. The revolution is in full swing and it sure has made the Divas division something interesting to watch. Overly scripted and just plain uncomfortable backstage segments aside, Banks, Lynch and Charlotte did well last night. I just hope NXT fans don’t set expectations too high. A majority of WWE fans still don’t know these girls at all.
Quick Thoughts
* Big Show and Dean Ambrose had a good match. Yes, Big Show had a good match.
* I just felt bad for Fandango doing his dance alone coming back from a break.
* Paige and Sasha Banks looked completely lost at times. Not good.
* Give Rusev more mic time. The guy is a complete delight as a heel.
* Michael Cole did not identify Los Matadores by name once.
* The New Day skipping to the ring is so much win. More of this please.
* Bray Wyatt is still a great talker. Yet, I’m not sure why I should care anymore.
Overall Impression
This was a really good episode of RAW. I’ve been very outspoken at just how uninteresting RAW has been for close to a year. WWE really felt like they wanted to shake up the presentation on Monday night and I felt they delivered.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you thought of RAW in the comments below.
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