RAW In A Nutshell: Setting Up A Super Showdown

Hello again folks! For those of you based in the States, I trust you all enjoyed what should have been a nice, long Memorial Day weekend. From a wrestling perspective, it was certainly an interesting and very eventful weekend, with All Elite Wrestling officially open for business, and Dean Ambrose officially not coming back to WWE any time soon. So this week’s shows should be very interesting to see not only how (or even if) WWE responds, but also how WWE goes about setting up a Super Showdown. The Saudi Arabia show is just a bit more than a week away, so this week’s RAW ought to be very busy. Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!

Best Match of the night:

The four way was OK. Corbin being inserted into it and ultimately winning the title shot at Rollins in Jeddah was kind of already known or expected.

It was bested by Rollins and Zayn, even if WWE did go heavy on the “Maybe Brock will cash in now” angle. It would seem we might have many months of the teasing coming our way.

Worst match of the night:

Has to be the match between Shane McMahon and Lance Anoa’i. In a show that didn’t feel like it had a lot of wrestling matches, this one felt like a bit of a waste of time.

Crowd Chants of the Night:

The USA one to open the show was very clear….there were others, but none as clear as that.

Kofi

A E W

Star of the Night

Man, this is tough…

Brock was actually pretty good for what they wanted him to do (I think).

Dolph Ziggler had great mic work as he’s doing what he can to build up the Jeddah match between he and and Kingston.

Spot of the Night:

I can’t single out a spot. What I can do, however, is to tell you to take a few minutes to watch highlights from Cesaro and Ricochet. Several nice spots in there, and overall, lots of good action.

Jobber of the Night:

That would be the reported cousin of Roman Reigns, Lance Anoa’i. He was jobbed out to Shane McMahon, with an assist from Drew McIntyre.

Upset of the Night:

Nothing that sticks out

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

For another show, Dolph Ziggler attacked WWE Champion Kofi Kingston. This time, it happened early in the show, at the tail end of the first segment. This time, Kingston had backup and got a measure of revenge…Ziggler bled some too (wonder if that was a weak response to some of the action from Double or Nothing).

During the Electric Chair segment, fans were tossing bad questions to Zayn, who was not thrilled with them (I can’t imagine some of these weren’t fed to the fans to ask) , and Zayn flat out said to the fans: “You could have asked me about AEW”. It will be interesting to see what the thinking was behind that, as I am sure we will learn.

Botch of the night:

The Electric Chair segment…was a train wreck. I am really not sure what the thought process was there, but wow…just wow. Some of Sami’s responses probably weren’t stretches for him…like, I don’t think he was really sanitizing it. Fans asked largely lame questions, which leads me to wonder if the questions were given to them to ask…or if Kansas City fans just weren’t interested in asking questions. I fully expected a fan to ask about AEW before Zayn mentioned it.

LOL Moment of the night:

Brock was enjoying things, especially in the opening segment. His new Brock Party shirt, his pimped out briefcase that has become a beat box, it’s hard not to laugh with that.

Even better was WWE trying to have us believe that Lesnar didn’t know he had a full year to cash in the briefcase.

And then we had the Usos hosting a party in the parking lot, which eventually saw a brawl over the 24/7 Championship.

Noteworthy Moment:

It was announced on the show that Rey Mysterio suffered a separated shoulder during his United States Championship win. As a result, Rey will be on RAW next week to relinquish the belt. Anyone else think his son gets involved next week?

Overall lowlights:

While I like Brock smiling and having fun, I was not a fan of the musical mash up.

Can I say that I am sort of not into the new Cesaro entrance package and theme? I wish they brought back his early theme. Thought that was way catchier…though if they want to keep him as a heel, I guess I get the decision.

Overall highlights:

Well, I liked Ziggler here.

Rollins had a nice showing too.

Nice to see Brock Lesnar there two weeks in a row-at least on Mondays.

After the final bell:

This was a bad RAW, if you ask me. Not the worst ever, no…but considering it was a couple days removed from Double Or Nothing, holiday notwithstanding, that was just not a great show. WWE may not have known what was going to happen this past Saturday, in terms of who would appear…but WWE absolutley knew that show was this past weekend.

Color me disappointed, if not a bit shocked, that the only things we seem to have gotten was Sami Zayn mentioning AEW and a bit of blood. Oh, and WWE went sort of heavy on Lesnar, at least for the opening bits of the show. They also surely teased a cash-in  at the end of the 3rd hour, but we didn’t even get Lesnar’s music or an appearance on the stage as the show faded to black.