1- Putting Shane in charge again seems like a good decision, which becomes a ce1rtainty when he announces Owens vs Cesaro for a shot at the IC title! We are treated to an excellent match between the indie veterans, and it was great to see Cesaro pick up the win on his return. I look forward to more matches between these two.
2- Adding Dr Phil to the Charlotte storyline does nothing to increase my interest, but a tag team tournament is an awesome idea, particularly if they handle it as well as the Dusty Rhodes classic on NXT a few months ago.
3- And it only takes one match for my hopes to be dashed, as the Lucha Dragons have a horrible outing against the Dudleys. It looks like Kalisto might have legitimately injured himself in one of the many botches, and it looks like the Dudleys hit that 3D on Sin Cara super hard to send a message about how unhappy they were. Fortunately Enzo and Cass come out to say howudoin and save the day.
4- Reigns enters the ring to booing, says some words to more booing, gets confronted by the League of Nations to bored silence and then is paired with Bray Wyatt for a tag match. Wait, what?
5- Rather than go to the Women’s Championship match its time for more Dr Phil, because who doesn’t love that creepy pseudo-science pushing blowhard? When the match finally starts it is great, until the predictable screwjob finish. So the storyline is that Charlotte is a loser without the assistance of her old man? Way to get her over, writers…
6- And in another match proving how bad the Raw tag scene is, we’ve got The Usos vs Social Outcasts up next. Complete waste of time until the m’fing Bullet Club show up and destroy the Usos! Anderson and Gallows have come straight to Raw, and somewhere Samoa Joe has just punched a hole in a wall…
7- I never thought I would be watching Sami Zayn vs AJ Styles on Raw, and despite a reserved crowd they tear it up. Nice long match with Sami looking like a genuine threat and AJ proving he has what it takes to wear the big gold belt.
8- Next up we get a long segment with Jericho and Ambrose, which was mildly amusing but dragged on. After that Apollo Crews comes out and squashes Adam Rose, while Primo and Epico are now Puerto Rican tour guides, because WWE is still racist even when Vince isn’t in charge.
9- Bray and Roman vs Shamus and Del Rio was better than expected considering two out of the four participants generally suck. Wyatt’s bad back seems to be okay as he carries the lions share of the match, setting up Reigns for a chorus of boos when he finally gets the tag. Just turn him already.
10- Overall a far better than average episode of Raw, featuring some up-and-coming talents, the return of two great workers and a couple of matches given time to tell a solid story. Four out of five stars.
