RAW In A Nutshell: Over The Top Rope To Go Home!

It’s one last RAW In A Nutshell before the Rumble, and we have to go over the top rope to go home!

See what I did there? Of course you did!

We can expect plenty of hype leading us to the Rumble, with being the go home show for the Royal Rumble.

And with Saturday being the Royal Rumble, everything has to go over the top rope, right?

Of course it does! I mean, if Johnny Knoxville can dump Sami Zayn over the top rope a bunch, so too can anyone on RAW.

So, less than a week out, it’s our over the top rope go home show.

The Miz is throwing  Maryse a birthday party…and after last week, it’s a safe bet the Glamazon will crash it.

We can expect the last push for Lesnar versus Lashley too. And, it seems likely that Rollins might be visited by Roman Reigns or his cousins as well.

All that, and plenty more to talk about…so let’s dive in!

RAW In A Nutshell: Over The Top Rope To Go Home!

It’s time we crack open this Nutshell and go over the top rope!

Best Match of the night:

Austin Theory versus AJ Styles.

I fully expected this one to not have a clean ending-gotta protect both Superstars, right?

Instead, Styles got the W, but Theory still came off looking impressive.

Worst match of the night:

The women’s 3 on 3 tag match left a lot to be desired. I have to take it with a grain of salt, if only because it was to be expected.

RAW, go home show ahead of the Rumble…let’s have a match where we can show off a bunch of the match participants.

Knowing it was coming doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

Star of the Night

Do we go with Cowboy Brock?

I like the idea…and he was a trending item on the interwebs.

Austin Theory and AJ Styles were solid too.

Lots to like tonight, though not many shined brighter than those.

Spot of the Night:

Do my eyes deceive me, or did another WWE team just use 3-D?

Beth and Edge, for the record.

Also, Austin Theory with the rolling launch into a blockbuster was pretty nifty.

Jobber of the Night:

All of that hired security for the main event segment.

Because every last one of them had to take the beating from Edge and Beth Phoenix.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

I have to give WWE credit. Certainly expected the human-sized birthday present to contain Edge or Beth…but instead, a swerve and just the brick.

Botch of the night:

Honestly, maybe it wasn’t…but the one security guy, Edge heaved him into the post.

Only, it looked like he hit nothing but balloons…and sold it as though he was hit by a truck.

Maybe it was just my eyes fooling me and he really did hit it.

Or, perhaps he didn’t…and just sold it supremely well.

LOL Moment of the night:

The whole weigh in was all sorts of funny.

Funny for like, why are they even doing this? To emulate MMA, I figure…but it’s a bit much.

Also LOL funny for the banter between Graves and Lesnar. Graves remarking about Lesnar’s not-typical weigh-in wardrobe, with The Beast quipping back, asking if Graves wants to see him naked.

And then…the spelling bee. I mean, I know not everyone loves it…but I was entertained.

Noteworthy Moment:

Nothing crazy. We had more Superstars throw their hats into the Royal Rumble, but they were all talents we expected to go over the top rope anyways.

Overall lowlights:

I suppose the bummer would be…no further fun between Rollins and Reigns. For that, we have to tune in Friday.

Beyond that, I have little to complain about for this week. Not necessarily the greatest over the top rope go home show ever…but good enough.

Overall highlights:

I am sure there was a reason for the order, Lesnar probably had someplace to be…but the order worked.

Like, I think the Lesnar-Lashley weigh-in was a curious-though effective-way to open the show.

My money is on the lack of physicality in that segment, versus all the jobbers getting trashed by Edge and Beth to close the show.

Still, start to finish this show was effective and 100% about the Rumble, and it worked.

After the final bell:

Saturday is the Rumble, and RAW has wrapped up their hype.

Hard not to be excited for the event…perhaps maybe finally Veer shows up?

One gripe, and I am sure I will be saying it after the show too…is that we know too many of the entrants. Like, the women’s match clearly had a lot of slots to fill.

And we knew they’d be filled.

But…hey, WWE…some of us like having a decent chunk of the entrants unknown.