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I'm curious to know what you thought about this week's show and so I invite you to leave a comment below.
For my part, I did not think that it was particularly bad at all, and I would even go so far as to say that there was no bad segment per se, that aired during the show. At the same time, it wasn't an extraordinary show where something memorable happened that will be remembered and cherished for days, months, and years on end either.
It was an okay show and I will rattle off what I liked and disliked from it in this article. The matches were really good, but the storytelling aspect of the show was lacking at a few points.
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So, based on what you like about wrestling, you probably loved or hated this week's episode.
#1 Best: Bray Wyatt attacks Jerry Lawler
Bray Wyatt instantly became the biggest thing in sports entertainment when he made his re-debut at WWE SummerSlam, before a crowd that went 'Yowie Wowie' and 'that was awesome'. The Fiend would arrive with much fanfare and acclaim, but then to the surprise of one and all, he would not show up on the forthcoming episodes of WWE RAW and SmackDown Live.
I suppose the strategy was to make The Fiend a special attraction and it was great to see Jerry 'The King' Lawler do the honors this time to put Wyatt over as the star that he is. The myth and lore of The Fiend grows by the day and in no time at all, WWE has found the successor to The Undertaker in its ranks.
Where will The Fiend show up next? Not knowing the answer to this question is the real beauty of the character!
See WWE RAW Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE RAW Results page
#1 Worst: Elias as the 24/7 Champion
Ideally Elias should be a really funny Champion because nobody does comedy better than him in the roster. Somehow his Championship reign hasn't been nearly as entertaining as the ones that preceded it, whether it was R-Truth or Drake Maverick.
I liked what WWE tried to do with Elias' farewell performance and everything, but it was just not working at all, because you need a sense of urgency, of madness when it comes to the 24/7 Championship, in my opinion. it was just a dampener after everything we've seen.
In fact, having Elias as Champion pretty much proves what a good job R-Truth and Drake Maverick did with the title back when they held it, in terms of comedic moments. Even Elias who's a natural comedian cannot compare to the two men.
I hope that the title comes back to either of the two former WWE 24/7 Champions very soon indeed.
#2 Best: Randy Orton and The Revival
The Revival needed something exciting to shake things up. As did Randy Orton after the dud match against Kingston at SummerSlam 2019. I really, really like the pairing between the two parties.
I'll write a more in-depth article later during the day, but let me just say at this time that there's much to like about this heel alliance. For once, all three of the men involved prefer fists to flips. All three of them are devious heels, and Orton gets to be a faction leader for a change.
I've had a chance to interact with Scott Dawson in the past and there's probably nobody in wrestling who's as passionate about the sport (or art form, sorry Jim Cornette) than he is. With Orton in their midst, we got to see how innovatively they were able to change up the RKO, adding their own unique flavor to the proceedings.
#2 Worst: Diverting Reigns from his storyline
I just thought that Roman Reigns vs. Ziggler was a pointless match to start the show off with. I mean it wasn't a bad match really. I would even go so far as to call it a pretty good match.
But with Roman Reigns knee-deep in the current Daniel Bryan storyline, it just doesn't make sense to book him in a match on RAW which has nothing to do with anything else, in my opinion. I realize that he's a star and that both brands will benefit from his presence, but then WWE should have found a way to advance the storyline that Roman Reigns is in.
That said, I'm really excited to hear what Daniel Bryan has to reveal on SmackDown Live. WWE came up with a great cliffhanger in this case, and it was effective, at least to hook me into this particular storyline.
#3 Best: The King of the Ring matches
I liked both the King of the Ring matches this week. Samoa Joe vs. Cesaro, in particular, was the best match of the night, at least according to me.
The two men would kick things off right from the opening bell, as both displayed their incredible strength before the gathered audience. It was a really hard-hitting match, and the crowd was into it despite the fact that it was a heel vs. heel affair.
Cedric Alexander and Sami Zayn would go on to have a very good match as well, and it's obvious that this is a tournament to showcase 'the workers' of WWE. Sadly, Sami Zayn's story at this edition of King of the Ring came to a close, but for what it is, it was a great showing.
I hope that SmackDown Live continues the craziness of the King of the Ring tomorrow night as well.
#3 Worst: Not giving us Braun vs. AJ
Over the years, we've seen AJ Styles take on a variety of bigger men and actually take them to the limit during the course of their matches. One name that immediately springs to mind is Kevin Nash, a man who's put Styles over several times since then for the match the two had.
AJ Styles and Braun Strowman teased a match this week for the US Championship, but The OC would interfere just when the match was picking up pace. Seth Rollins would interfere and this would set up the main event of the night pitting Strowman and Rollins against Gallows and Anderson.
I know that a lot of people were unhappy with the fact that we didn't get AJ vs. Strowman. This is a feud we haven't really seen and many believe that it had legs.
I wonder who's stepping up to face Braun Strowman next.
#4 Best/worst: Vic Joseph
I don't know why Corey Graves wasn't on RAW this week, but the attack from Bray Wyatt would lead to Vic Joseph joining the commentary table alongside Michael Cole and of course, Renee Young. Joseph isn't loud and brash like Graves is. So, in a lot of ways, it was a pleasant change of pace from the norm.
But then again, Graves adds a lot of character to every match, whether he's salivating over Mandy Rose or ranting against Elias' musical skills. That element of commentary was missing from this week's edition of RAW, in my opinion, at least.
I suppose if Joseph were to be given more opportunities to shine and more freedom, he would fit into this role snugly. I doubt this will be the case as Graves could potentially return at any time.
Do you think he needs to exclaim 'it's the Goddess' every time she steps out?
