It’s really happened, y’all.
Bayley Dos Straps and now a five time Raw women’s champion, Two Beltz Banks, baby!
Banks walked out with the Raw women’s title, which was a bit strange because you’d have thought with how powerful Stephanie McMahon is, she’d have ordered Sasha to give up the title. But calling Stephanie a bully for making this match was a great touch.
What a match this was. Right before it started, Kairi Sane chased Bayley up the ramp and backstage so she didn’t try to interfere. Early in, Sasha tried to Guerrero herself into a win by tossing the titles into the ring so that the ref would have his back turned and claimed Asuka hit her with the Raw title. He didn’t fall for it though, and Sasha roundhouse kicked her for it.
They put on a real barnburner. Sasha had some great drop kicks, Asuka busted out a damn Codebreaker, a german suplex, Sasha did the frog splash. Later into the match, Bayley appeared on the tron and was attacking Kairi. Asuka was in a real predicament and kept at Sasha, but when Kairi screamed out Asuka in pain, she limped up the ramp to help her friend. Asuka was counted out, and Sasha won. Bayley ran back out and celebrated with Sasha. In the back, Asuka came out of a training room where Kairi was being tended to and was very emotional, which was likely the official write off of Kairi Sane in WWE. It was real and no pun intended, raw.
The finish was certainly controversial. I do think that they wrote off Kairi well, but Asuka just leaving the match was odd. It was classic stupid babyface syndrome, but in a way it also worked because Asuka has a real love for Kairi that’s been documented on the show. Personally, I am willing to let it go because it fit in some respect, and I also really wanted to see the Role Models holding all the gold.
How did you feel about this?
Dominik plus kendo stick
Once in a while a segment comes along that captivates me.
This was a segment that made feel the feelings I should have felt as a viewer based off of the fantastic performance of the people involved telling the story perfectly. And I didn’t realize that out of all the segments with the Monday night Messiah, the one that involves a non-WWE wrestler would do the job.
Seth came out and said he beat Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black, but he’s not done, because Dominik came to Raw. It seems that every time the greater good takes two steps forward, someone steps in his way, and he is forced to take a step back. He invited Dominik out for a face to face.
Dom came out and was sheepish, but Seth was very comforting and calm so that Dominik would get in the ring. Seth held out his arms for a hug and Dom attacked him. Murphy and Seth attacked back, and threw him into the announce table, but Aleister Black made the save. He didn’t do much though.
Here’s the first excellent part of this segment. Seth yelled at and slapped Murphy and told him he knew what he had to do. Murphy, with a scared look in his eyes, said “Me?” After the slap, Murphy fired up and shoved Aleister’s eye right into the step. He went around to the other side of the ring for more, and then the second excellent of this segment occurred.
Dominik Mysterio treated us all to some baseball since baseball is in turmoil right now. He swung for the fence with a kendo stick to both Murphy and Seth. It was so violent and vicious. Dom stood tall to end this and I was salivating for more.
Salivating! Dominik Mysterio had some of the best babyface fire I’ve seen this year. I want a match between him and Seth at SummerSlam. As for Murphy, there was some very interesting storytelling with him here. There’s some excellent nuance going on, where Murphy is almost doubting his role as Seth’s disciple. Maybe he’s starting to snap out of Seth’s ruse? Perhaps a Civil War is brewing in the greater good?
Give me what I want
Motivated Randy Orton is a delight, friends.
He started off the show and said that the Rock and Stone Cold can’t hold a candle to his longevity or accomplishments, name dropping his former stables. And this morning he woke up and decided he wants a WWE championship match at SummerSlam.
He then dressed Drew McIntyre down saying his list of accomplishments are even shorter than everyone’s but he has respect for Drew for working his work back up after getting his ass fired. McIntyre has what he wants. And he’s going to take it with an RKO he’ll never see coming.
Later, McIntyre addressed Orton’s comments, and accepted the match at SummerSlam. He said that he hopes Orton thinks he’s an underdog so that he can kick his ass just like he did Brock’s at WrestleMania. He may not see the RKO coming, but Orton will see the Claymore. After McIntyre won in his main event match against Ziggler, Orton did his thing. He raised the WWE title up to close the show as McIntyre was near motionless on the mat.
What a great opening promo. Orton is at the top of his game right now and consistently a great part of the show. He 100% deserves a title match after his fantastic 2020 thus far. Drew also did a really nice job, because serious babyface Drew is the best Drew. When they have him being serious he is consistently great on the mic. I am excited for SummerSlam.
50-50 booking strikes again
To end the highlights, comes a biiiig low.
The match between Bobby Lashley and Mustafa Ali was pretty great, but I would be remiss to not acknowledge how much I HATE 50-50 booking. Mustafa Ali is back after a long hiatus, and WWE put him on Raw, and gave him a hero’s welcome last week. He pinned MVP, too.
So tell me why WWE would book a match between these two men this week, when they should know that neither of them should be taking a loss? They should know that. Yet, here we are.
It is so disappointing that WWE booked Ali in this match, instead of, say, against Shelton Benjamin in a non-title bout. We’ve seen those plenty of times. It was an easy decision to protect both Ali and Lashley, and they went right back to the status quo.
The Rest
Andrade and Angel Garza def. Viking Raiders, Ricochet, and Cedric Alexander – Andrade and Garza thought that they were going to get away with hanging out on the outside while Vikings and Fly Boys (yeah we’re gonna do this now) fought each other in the ring. Both teams got them back in and worked each one over individually. Ric got a nasty kick set up by Ced to Andrade. Andrade and Ric then teamed up to get Erik out of the way. Ric got baited into an attack once that was done. Ric hit a springboard lariat and a shooting star on Garza, and Ivar went to the top and almost killed everyone, except Garza, who took advantage and pinned Cedric.
It was pretty obvious that Andrade and Garza were winning this one. A part of me thought maybe they’d do Raiders again and continue that Infinity War between them, but WWE did the right thing. I also like that they continue to gel and not have any miscommunication. Will that happen at SummerSlam, or will they become tag champions? I’m holding out for another week before coming to any conclusions.
Drew McIntyre def. Dolph Ziggler – We had ourselves another Extreme Rules match between these two men. Some decent spots with some hard hitting kendo stick shots, Drew put Dolph through the barricade, and Drew won by Claymore kicking Dolph into a table. I am very happy this is now over.
Welcome to double count-out land – Jax felt the need to let us know that her previous title opportunities were bungled at the hands of other people, namely Charlotte Flair, who hasn’t been seen around as of late. (Popped for someone in the crowd shouting “She’s hiding!”) Jax demanded a Raw women’s title match and out came Shayna Baszler, and she got right in Jax’s face and said she doesn’t give a damn what she wants. A brawl ensued and a match did not come out of it.
So a little while later they had a match. Well they had a brawl that went to a double count out. They then destroyed all officials that came out and tried to separate them. So I am unsure why that couldn’t have just been in the opening segment, but it was quite a brawl nonetheless. Shayna putting away the big bad monster Nia should be the End Game.
Murphy def. Humberto Carrillo – This was a quick high flying bout that I didn’t get to see much of due to stream issues. They’ve wrestled before so we pretty much know what to expect from them.
Raw was mostly great, with a few moments that were not great. I loved everything about the Banks/Asuka match, the Seth/Murphy/Dominik segment, Orton’s promo, and tag team triple threat. Mustafa Ali’s booking is something I really disliked. Let him win! Don’t book a match that both men shouldn’t be losing. SummerSlam is near and we’re seeing some of what Raw will be featuring. I’m liking it so far!
Grade: B
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?