Nebraska walk with Elias
source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

It’s our usual RAW In A Nutshell, and this week only one question matters: will Nebraska walk with Elias tonight?

No, I am not kidding.

OK, maybe I am being a little funny. But…only a little.

The continuing saga of Elias, Ezekiel and Kevin Owens takes the next big step, with Elias back tonight for a concert.

How WWE pulls this off remains to be seen…with many fans somehow hoping for a return of Damien Sandow.

In fairness, there are more questions to cover than simply…will Nebraska walk with Elias tonight. I can’t help it if that’s the big one though.

As we approach Money In The Bank, however, there are a few more questions.

For one…who else from RAW will land in the men’s and women’s ladder matches?

What about what’s next for The Judgement Day? Will we see Edge back yet?

And…what’s next for Theory and Bobby Lashley?

SmackDown last week provided us a weird appearance by Vince McMahon and a return of Brock Lesnar.

Will we get anything close to that?

It’s time for us to find out on…

RAW In A Nutshell: Will Nebraska Walk With Elias Tonight?

Nebraska walk with Elias

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!

Best Match of the night:

Tough call for me, but I am going with the unexpected fatal five-way to determine the new #1 contender for the RAW Women’s Championship.

Nebraska walk with Elias

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Won by Carmella, of course.

Worst match of the night:

Omos and Riddle.

I truly expected Riddle to somehow pull it off and build on his strong showing, in a loss, on Friday.

Riddle with the briefcase, or just in a ladder match? Fun.

Omos in a ladder match? Not at all exciting.

Crowd Chants of the Night:

Go Big Red.

Star of the Night

Tough call for me.

On a night where I really had no single obvious choice…going with Ezekiel, Elias, Kevin Owens and all involved in pulling that segment off.

Nebraska walk with Elias

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Spot of the Night:

Lashley countering A-Town Down into a nice cradle for the pin was pretty slick.

Jobber of the Night:

Kind of felt like we had a few, but not squash jobbers.

Ciampa did a job so that AJ Styles could get a win.

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Riddle jobbed to Omos, losing clean to an unwatchable giant.

Upset of the Night:

Not a match, per se…but a Superstar because of how a match went…

Honorable mention goes to…

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Well, we got another Vince McMahon appearance. Not expected, not announced, and with nothing worthwhile said.

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

He showed up, hyped the John Cena appearance next week and left.

Botch of the night:

The decisions to let Lashley talk to much.

Topped only by the planning involved that led to giving Veer Mahan any sort of segment where he got interviewed, but that did not result in some new challenger attacking him.

LOL Moment of the night:

MVP asking Riddle if he’s been hanging out with Snoop Dog lately, to think he could beat Omos and make MITB.

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

It was a funny part, and shows once again that yes, MVP is one of the best promo guys WWE has.

Too bad MVP and Lashley got split. Imagine a battle between Lashley and Reigns, where Heyman and MVP got to spar on the mic…

Also…KO wanting Ezekiel, Elias, or Elrod…

source: @wwe, twitter, screenshot

Speaking of Elias…we know they did some tricks-recording segments with the Tron in advance. But how bad/obvious was the fake beard…

Noteworthy Moment:

For reasons not yet made clear, Rhea Ripley is out of the RAW Women’s Championship match at Money In The Bank.

We got a fatal five-way match to give us the new challenger, with a few faces in it that are also in the ladder match.

The winner was a mild surprise: Carmella.

On one hand…she’s a name that Bianca can put away. Or, on another hand…could we see WWE swerve us, have ‘Mella get attacked and have, say, a surprise new challenger?

Overall lowlights:

I hate saying it’s a lowlight…but think about this. As big as Lesnar-Reigns should be (again).

Why wouldn’t WWE consider having the former RAW champ, Lashley, challenge Reigns?

He never directly lost the title to Brock, after all. His knock is he’s terrible on the mic, something we got to hear again tonight.

But…instead…he’s working with Theory…for the United States belt. I see this less about elevating Theory and/or the title, to be honest.

And…I’ve already said that Bobby is not superb on the mic. However…Veer Mahan makes him look like he’s a master.

These are guys that absolutely need a manager, or someone who is their partner who also happens to be solid cutting promos.

Mahan might be a good worker (I’d say maybe). He’s not good cutting a promo.

Overall highlights:

I miss the ten bell salutes to open the show live, but glad Tim White got a tribute.

Funny as it was…and as clear as it was a fake beard…however WWE pulled off the Ezekiel and Elias bits with Owens worked well. And now we have Elrod to wonder about too.

After the final bell:

I hate to say this was a weird show…but it kind of was.

The non-wrestling highlight? Finding out if Nebraska wanted to walk with Elias tonight…and they did!

Becky Lynch closes RAW by losing another shot at MITB. Her having a meltdown…curious where that all goes.

Lashley looking good with Theory…though I wonder if Theory drops the belt to him prior to his own clash with Cena?

I’d argue that the best of the evening might have been the fatal five-way…but thinking back on the show…nothing really hit “that” gear for me.

It felt like a show with lots of decent bits, but in a really disjointed order. Maybe that’s just me, but that’s how it felt.

Next week, Cena is back and it’s our go-home show. RAW needs to really bring it.

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