The second Raw of the new era is here and it was kicked off by the woman who created waves by defeating Charlotte for the Women’s Championship last week. Sasha Banks kicked off the show to a crowd that welcomed her and just like that many new things happened.
Zayn faced Rollins in a fun match, Balor gave an interview, Reigns is gauging new territory and Rusev is awesome. Also, the main event ended in a blaze of glory, thanks to a person who is known to be the king OUTTA NOWHERE.
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This was fun. Raw has really lived up to or rather exceeded expectations since the new era kicked off.
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Here are the 5 points to note from this week’s show:
#1 OUTTA NOWHERE
This was set up brilliantly. The brand extension era is upon us. Raw and SmackDown are demarcated and separate. Brock Lesnar is back with Paul Heyman. Heyman begins his speech full of rhetoric about how great Lesnar is and how great he will be till the end of time and how Orton is going to be bruised and battered and tossed and splattered.
Until a legit RKO OUTTA NOWHERE shook the entire Phillips Arena.
This was awesome. This was great. This was like an invasion.
These two don’t have much history except when Brock dismantled a similarly young Orton during his initial days in the company.
They haven’t had an official match.
Summerslam seriously can’t come soon enough.
#2 First promo
If there is anything that Balor tremendously succeeds in, it is his screen presence. He’s got the look and the moves but not the mic skills. Not much to talk about, after all. So, tonight was a great test as to how he’ll be handled on the main roster promo-wise. Also, he was up against Rollins, who has greatly improved on the microphone and whose voice can be quite grating.
But rest assured, Balor did decent. Not great and certainly not bad.
He proved he deserved the push he’s getting and Rollins better be aware.
#3 Not a One Night Stand
Change has been the theme of this new era. And Raw kicked off in a much better way to exemplify this. For the first time in a long time, the women’s champion opened RAW. Banks came to a gallant ovation and then things took a strange turn. Charlotte came out sans Dana Brooke to call Banks’ title win a ‘one night stand’. Banks retorted by saying that Charlotte’s Ric Flair’s daughter. Oh, the burn!
Jericho came out to put Charlotte over and Enzo Amore came out to verbally dismantle Jericho. A tag team match was set.
Having two annoying heels like Jericho and Charlotte only added to Banks’ favor.
#4 Roman Vs Rusev?
Roman Reigns is no longer in the main event picture, or that is the thought that came across tonight. Rusev was brilliantly ranting on America after his match against Mark Henry and Reigns came out to put a stop to it.
No complaints there, since these two have great in-ring chemistry and this feud can be great for both parties. For Reigns, to have a break before he breaks into the main event picture again and for Rusev to finally show that he belongs in the highest level of the game.
Their SmackDown matches were quite entertaining. Now they might have a fuller and longer program.
#5 Path of destruction
Nia Jax faced another new talent and dismantled her. So did Braun Strowman.
Both of them had interesting details added to their matches. Strowman’s opponent said that he’ll be paid $1000 to compete in the match and $5000 if he wins.
Jax on the other hand was interviewed after her squash match by Byron Saxton. She replied to Saxton’s generic question by dismantling her opponent again with one move and telling Saxton to ask how her opponent feels like right now.
Squashes have never been this interesting, even in the beginning. But it’s working for both Strowman and Jax.
