With the United States Title back in his grasp, John Cena brought back the Open Challenge. It is answered by the sound of John Cena's theme being played on a trombone! New Day came out to save us from another dreary Cena promo and were fantastic. Xavier Woods was the one to accept the challenge, which I loved since he tends to get the least amount of shine, despite being very good. New Day ran in to cause the DQ, bringing out the Dudley Boyz. This led to the Teddy Long Special, as we got a six man tag. New Day would win the fun six man tag, building up their title defense for MSG, while allowing the show to get off to a different start. I appreciated all of this as, while it wasn't great, it was all fine and enjoyable.
Backstage, we have the Authority and a rep from HR who is going to review Kane after an anonymous complaint. It's clear that it was Seth Rollins who complained. Kane was hilarious as the happy go lucky Director of Operations. Raw was off to a pretty fun start but then, right as I was thinking about it, we got Big Show vs. Mark Henry. Yuck. Show won in short fashion to try and hype his MSG match with Brock Lesnar. Moving on, MizTV was next, with Charlotte and Becky Lynch as the guests. This was a mess last time, but went a bit better here. Becky was the star, delivering some pretty good lines, though Charlotte seemed to struggle. Team Bella came out to ramble about nonsense before Paige showed up. She took credit for the fame of the NXT women and delivered some zingers to everyone, especially the Bellas. Teddy Long must be running things backstage as we get a six person tag match playa. Paige teaming with Charlotte and Becky was so dumb here. JBL quickly pulled the "all women are catty and hate each other" mantra to try and cover up for the pointless decisions the Divas make. They did a miscommunication thing that caused Paige to leave. Did the booking team forget that the team already split? She should have gotten the the hot tag, kicked ass and then left because she doesn't need this and proved her point. Natalya tried to take her place, but Paige attacked her and the Bellas won. Also, Charlotte at the pin because "fuck strong champions" right?
Time for the big hype video to promote Big Show against Brock Lesnar for this Saturday. Who gives a fuck? There is a backstage segment with Seth, Kane and HR Ashley that's kind of just there. Going to a tag match, Luke Harper and Braun Strowman defeated the Prime Time Players. Yes, those guys that were JUST Tag Team Champions, are back to losing. Where are Los Matadores? Next, Stardust was set to face Neville for about the 100th time. They worked for a few minutes until Bad News Barrett returned. He laid out both men and told everyone to hail the returning king. There were zero fucks given because none of these three men are booked competently.
Ashley from HR is out to give Kane his evaluation. Yup, in under two hours she's done. Seth shows up to show a video of Kane being evil, so Kane shows one of Seth being a dick. Ashley decides that Kane is fit for the job but Seth could use an evaluation. Seth attacks Kane and takes out his leg with a chair. Kane has to be taken out in an ambulance and Seth gets to look good. Then Kane returns as the "Demon" and proceeds to kick Seth's ass. Kane could still look like a viable challenger without making Seth look like a total joke. Whatever. Randy Orton then beat Bo Dallas in under two minutes. That was fine as nobody was harmed by a loss and Orton got a free win.
The great Tong Po (Rusev) was set for a match against the great Kevin Owens next. I was worried because if one guy turned face down the line, this could be a damn good PPV match. Instead, they wisely threw the match out as both guys attacked Ryback at ringside. This led to Dolph Ziggler showing up to make the save. This was fine as I guess we're going towards a four way for the IC Title. That's okay. Paul Heyman was out for the next segment, to hype Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar. He tried, but it wasn't on the level of the normal Heyman stuff. He can build a match but it's the Big Show and he's no miracle worker.
Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns was the main event. Commentary reminds us that the feud has been going for five months though it seems like it has been about a year. They went through the motions until we got a double countout. Only then did things get interesting as they had a big brawl through the crowd and Reigns speared Bray through the announce table. This is all obviously going to lead to a Hell in a Cell type match between some combination of them. Fine ending but the match wasn't good. Raw started well with the New Day, but as usual, it went way downhill after. There was a sever lack of Sasha Banks and Cesaro as well, which wasn't good. The booking continues to be nonsensical at times and the in-ring work isn't helping the cause. Just another poor episode of Raw. 3/10.
