RAW In A Nutshell: Wild Night In The Windy City

At some point, when WWE starts really counting down to WrestleMania, it feels like it is so far away. Not anymore, however. Monday’s episode of RAW is just three weeks away from the biggest show of the year, happening this year in New Jersey. This week’s RAW is all about setting things up for that big stage. Brock Lesnar is in the house. Number one contender Seth Rollins is too. Ronda Rousey is there too, as we wait to see what she does next. Drew McIntyre continues on his tear too, and we see where that takes us. It will be a busy RAW, so let’s crack open this Nutshell!

Best Match of the night:

Only fitting that the show started and ended with Rollins and Lesnar, so it’s only fitting that our main event gets this nod too…even if Lesnar only made a brief appearance.

The show was light on quality matches, in my opinion at least, but the main event was solid. The ending makes sense, both in the short term as well as the long term plans. Overall, hard to complain about the main event tonight.

Worst match of the night:

The Apollo/Corbin match didn’t do much for me, to be honest.

I could have complained about Rousey and Dana Brooke, too. Except, it was wonderfully short, so I can give it a pass.

Crowd Chants of the Night:

Thank you Kurt

This is awesome

Burn it down

Let’s go Rollins

There were a few others, I just had a hard time making those out.

Star of the Night

It was a great night for Seth Rollins, but also for Drew McIntyre as well. I have to say I think it is kind of telling that WWE has two full time Superstars (Drew and Seth) that are in the midst of a hot feud, one which could easily be a top draw at WrestleMania.

Assuming they both stay healthy, and Rollins wins gold as expected, things could be very interesting post-WrestleMania.

Spot of the Night:

I’ll just leave this one right here…

Jobber of the Night:

I think this would have to be all about Dana Brooke tonight, as she was defeated in like under a minute. Then the faux security got involved and Rousey beat on them too. So did her husband. Interesting bit of a development there, not sure where WWE wants to go by having Brown involved.

Upset of the Night:

Definitely NOT Dana Brooke winning. That didn’t come close to happening.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Rollins really unloaded with the chair on Drew McIntyre at the opening of the show. The chair told the story, and Lesnar had some great facial expressions too.

LOL Moment of the night:

Otis getting yelled at for coming out too early as he was a guest leader of the conga line.

Noteworthy Moment:

A few things coming out that were, honestly, expected…but still noteworthy.

Kurt Angle has selected his final WrestleMania opponent, and it is Baron Corbin. Corbin confirmed and accepted following Angle’s victory over Chad Gable.

Beth Phoenix said she would come out of retirement to fight at WrestleMania. Thing is, it wasn’t a move to go after Nia Jax and Tamina…it was to challenge, along with Natalya, for the Women’s Tag Titles. Of course, Nia and Tamina came down after that and broke up an impromptu match between Sasha and Natalya. So, it would seem for now that we might have a triple threat match for the belts…though I have to think the Iiconics will want to join the party too. Certainly not the match against Trish and Lita that had been rumored for so long.

So, is No Way Jose getting a push, or is Elias stuck in a bad program? Aside from the bad advice Jose got about his hair (as Graves said, he woke up one morning and decided he wanted to look like a margarita), these two actually did have a passable rivalry in NXT before Elias got his call-up. That said, if Elias really is being the “headlining” musical act for ‘Mania, here’s hoping WWE has a huge surprise in store to interrupt him (a singing Rock, perhaps?)

Is it just me, or is Lesnar looking smaller again?

Overall lowlights:

I think the only gripe I have for the show is this:

I wish Angle would have had a more nostalgia type choice, but Corbin makes sense. I think a lot of folks liked the idea of Cena coming in and doing the job…which would have been nice. I would have been OK with it being Apollo or Gable even, because you could actually see Angle losing to one of those younger Superstars, giving them the rub as he exits.

Overall highlights:

Lots more talking than action, and the talk was more important. Overall, a solid show. Liked the Brock involvement, liked the main event, liked a lot from start to finish.

After the final bell:

The shows will continue to be important from here on out. Two weeks to go until ‘Mania and most of the major matches are pretty well booked.