I apologize for this being a bit late and for the Raw reviews being inconsistent this year. I've been a bit busy. Anyway, Raw opened with Shane McMahon coming out. Due to social media support, he was running Raw again. Look at that Shane. You nearly killed yourself at WrestleMania but all you needed to take control were some tweets. He announced that Sami Zayn would face AJ Styles and if Zayn won, he'd make the upcoming WWE Title match a Triple Threat. Kevin Owens showed up, angry about it and demanded his Intercontinental Title rematch. Shane made him earn it due to his actions against Zayn last week. So our opening match saw Cesaro face Owens. Man, this was really good. Also, they added a 007 like mini-tron for Cesaro, which is awesome. As always, Cesaro does great in TV matches. This was better than their SummerSlam match. Cesaro won after about fifteen minutes and will now face Miz for the Intercontinental Title at Payback. Great way to start the show.
Dr. Phil, the guest, spoke to Charlotte adn Ric Flair in the back. He told Charlotte that she doesn't need to cheat to win. Ric got in his face but actually got out "Wooed". It was surprisingly funny. Another thing that Shane McMahon announced was a tag team tournament to determine new contenders for New Day. They came out and hyped the tournament by cutting a fun little promo. That led into the Dudleys vs. Lucha Dragons. The Dudleys won and it seemed like Kalisto got hurt. Hopefully it isn't too serious. After the match, Enzo Amore and Big Cass came to the stage. The Dudleys said Enzo and Cass only exist because of teams like the Dudleys. Enzo said he exists because his mother and father got it on. Howyoudoing? Great stuff. Their charisma is off the charts. Next up, Roman Reigns came out to talk about Zayn/Styles. He was interrupted by the League of Nations. Not this shit again. Only Rusev was good throughout this segments. The Wyatts showed up and helped Reigns clean house. Shane came out and liked Bray and Roman working together, so the main event would be Bray and Roman against the League of Nations. None of that sounded interesting in the slightest.
Moving on, we got a WWE Women's Championship match between Charlotte and Natalya. I hope this is the end of the program and it doesn't go until the PPV. They worked a good match that was marred by Ric Flair interference. That got Charlotte DQed so she could keep the belt. Been there, done that. The tag tournament continued as the Usos defeated the Social Outcasts. Their celebration was short lived though as Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows arrived! They destroyed the Usos, sending them into the ring steps and even hitting Magic Killer, which Michael Cole somehow called correctly. Color me surprised. This was a well done debut.
There was a fun backstage segment involving the Miz, Maryse and Cesaro. Miz and Maryse nail their characters. Now it was time for the show to be stolen. AJ Styles met Sami Zayn with the stakes being very high. You could kind of tell that Styles was happy to see his buddies debut. This was even better than the opener. Two of the best in the world competing in a personal dream match of mine. Sami worked the underdog as always and it was great. Styles won with the Phenomenal Forearm. After the match, both men shook hands and even Shane praised them in the back. Good TV. Moving along, Chris Jericho held a Highlight Reel with himself as the guest. Only someone like Jericho could pull this off as well as he did. Dean Ambrose interrupted and took over, renaming the show the Ambrose Asylum. He was funny here for the most part and Jericho played his role well. This worked pretty well but had some hiccups. Jericho/Ambrose should be good when it goes down. Next up, we got our second Raw look at Apollo Crews. He wrestled Adam Rose. Unfortunately, just like in NXT, Crews is lacking a character. The fans popped for some of his moves but were pretty dead throughout.
In the main event, we got the odd pairing of Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt joining forces. I still don't fully understand why. They met Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus. This was your standard tag match. They surprisingly worked the hot tag to Bray, who did well with it. The rest of the Wyatts showed up before Bray pinned Del Rio with Sister Abigail. Bray and Roman had a staredown at the end but it seems like we've moved into tweener Bray territory. Overall, I found this to be a much better show than last week's post-Mania episode. We got two great matches, more from Enzo and Cass, the start of a cool tournament, the debut of Gallows and Anderson and more. Worth checking out. 8/10.
