With less than one week until SummerSlam, the Lone Star State was the gracious host for WWE’s Raw superstars as the flagship show went live from The American Bank Center in Corpus Christi for this week's SummerSlam go-home edition of Monday Night RAW!
We had one final night for the Raw brand to further any storylines and patch up any loose ends before Sunday's big event. Would the pull off an epic show, to lead into what looks to be an epic pay-per-view? Or would the roster fall flat and simply coast into Brooklyn lazily? I'll let you be the judge as we dive into the results from this week's Raw and then, I'll give you my grades and final thoughts.
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OPENING SEGMENT: RUSEV WANTS AN APOLOGY
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Not what I expected for an opening segment, but I can certainly appreciate how they continue to switch up the way they kick off Raw each week. Plus, this sort of spotlight helps give the United States title more legitimacy.
Overall, it wasn't anything to write home about, but it did further the storyline and make the upcoming payoff a little more compelling.
GRADE: B-
SAMI ZAYN DEF. SHEAMUS
I have no issue with the action that took place in between bells. In fact, Zayn and Sheamus are consistently two of the best in-ring performers on the roster. However, this particular match came completely out of nowhere. What was the purpose or ultimate goal they had in mind when they decided to book this one?
With no event as huge as SummerSlam just days away, all of the focus should be centered around storyline progression and granted, there was a brief distraction provided by Cesaro, it wasn't enough to help with selling the match at SummerSlam.
GRADE: C-
THE NEW DAY DEF. DUDLEY BOYZ
The New Day has provided fans with solid years worth of great tag team action. But, all good things must come to an end and at this time, it's time for New Day to drop the titles. Last night was proof that they have exhausted their title reign. I have a tremendous amount of respect for these guys, for how they took an idea that could've easily been a huge failure and made it absolute gold.
Regardless if it is The Club or whoever, it's time to pass the torch before they tarnish what has been a historical run.
GRADE: C-
NIA JAX DEF. LOCAL TALENT(RACHEL LEVY)
I am trying so hard to give Jax the benefit of the doubt and rally behind her, but the bottom line is that Nia Jax is not improving any longer. She hit a brief period where I got my hopes up, but the reality of the situation is Bayley should've gotten that spot. Period.
Jax is at least a year away from being ready for the main roster, and that's considering she truly dedicates herself to training hard and improving. As far as this match was concerned, the local talent appeared to far better than Nia, even in a losing effort.
GRADE: D
HEATH SLATER STEPPED INTO THE LIONS DEN
First of all, Paul Heyman is a man among boys when it comes to mic work. The guy can sell tickets to a snowball fight if he wanted to. He has effectively sold the SummerSlam match between Lesnar and Orton. Last night was just a little icing on the cake.
As far as Heath Slater is concerned, I'm actually enjoying what they're doing with him. His boldness last night, stepping up to Lesnar was brilliant. Also, I have to give credit to Brock. He actually did very well with his brief mic work during this segment as well.
GRADE: B+
BIG CASS DEF. KEVIN OWENS (via DQ)
I'm not sure who's idea this was, but it was questionable, to say the least. Having a sloppy finish, such as this one, did nothing to further this feud, which already had its problems to begin with.
I really hope they end this rivalry at SummerSlam. Owens needs to be challenging for someone's title and Enzo and Big Cass should definitely be in the tag title picture. In my opinion, this particular match is not worthy of SummerSlam billing.
GRADE: C
SHINING STARS DEF. PRIME TIME PLAYERS
When they were together, as a cohesive unit, Titus and Young were really good at times. However, with all of the work they've done with the whole "make Darren great again" angle with Backlund, it makes no sense to me for them to pull the rug out from under him, just as he was building steam. One thing is for sure, Titus O'Neil and Darren Young don't do well opposing one another in any sort of feud angle.
GRADE: C-
NEVILLE DEF. JINDER MAHAL
Maybe I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that Mahal was brought back with the intention of giving him a better push. But having him start losing matches right out of the gate is just not a good look for Jinder. Honestly, I feel bad for him, because he really is a very talented performer, he just needs the right opportunity.
GRADE: D
SETH ROLLINS MEETS THE DEMON KING
Finn Bálor looked AMAZING! But, that full demon body paint entrance should've been reserved for SummerSlam. Sure, these guys are likely going to steal the show at SummerSlam, I hope this doesn't take away any of the excitement from the anticipation of waiting to see Bálor in full demon persona.
Nevertheless, this was still a really good segment and they did a fine job at selling their huge payoff match for the Universal title. Either way, the match goes, the person who wins will be a deserving champion.
GRADE: B+
ANDERSON AND GALLOWS DEF. GOLDEN TRUTH
The Raw brand has butchered the hell out of the tag team division. The whole bit where Gallows and Anderson dress shirt doctors and play with pickled eggs...it's gotten completely silly. I do believe these guys should be the next tag champs, but it's time to start taking the tag team division seriously for once.
The run-in from Kofi and Xavier was completely ineffective and just lazy, in regards to creative booking. I just hope once The New Day drops the titles, they split and go their respective singles way.
GRADE: C-
CHARLOTTE DEF. ALICIA FOX
The match was nothing spectacular. Just another rushed, mediocre contest. However, the post-match activities were what made everything better.
Dana Brooke and Charlotte have grown to have some really good chemistry together and last night, they put that into action. The way they lured Banks out, only to have Charlotte take her out with her figure-8, it made for a compelling addition to their feud and really sold their SummerSlam match well.
GRADE: B
ROMAN REIGNS DEF. RUSEV
Just when I had thrown in the towel on this week's Raw, they pull off a great main event. This match was fantastic, from bell-to-bell. I'm not a huge fan of either, buy they put together a hell of a match to send fans home.
There was a lot of sparks flying throughout this one. Roman Reigns and Rusev have elevated the United States Championship to a level it hasn't seen in quite some time. In the end of this match, two brutes clashed and gave it everything, right until the very end when Roman nailed Rusev with a very impressive spear.
GRADE: A-
OVERALL GRADE: C
At the end of the day, WWE creative had one primary job to do and that was to sell SummerSlam. To be honest, they failed miserably. Granted, SummerSlam is on such high level that it sells itself, for the most part. However, I don't understand the laziness I witnessed last night. Since the brand split, this has been the most disappointing Raw of the New Era.
With that said, the product is still in pretty safe condition. There's tons of high-quality talent on both main rosters, with a plethora of talent brewing in NXT. The current state of WWE is not in jeopardy. These guys are silly providing a quality product, week in and week out. I just wish last night would've had more focus on SummerSlam, that's all. Not to fret, my fellow wrestling fans, we still have a lot to be excited about and everything will be just fine.
