When Randy is on, he is ON.
Orton came out to gloat and call himself the best wrestler ever since he won the “Greatest Match Ever” at Backlash. It was a very good match, sure. He thanked Edge but wished he could be there in person to torture him.
Enter Christian!
He called Randy cold, calculating, and a son of a bitch. Edge doesn’t quit and he’ll be back. Orton said he’s jealous of his friend and that this isn’t about him. But he knows that he wants one more match. So accept an unsanctioned match against him tonight.
Throughout the night, Big Show and Ric Flair tried to talk Christian out of it but he decided to accept Orton’s challenge.
So Christian came out to fight Orton and Ric Flair came out to try and stop him again. Christian said he had to do this, and Ric walked away, but NOPE! Ric Flair low-blowed Christian as the bell rang and Orton sealed the deal with another Punt!
Woooow, man. He said the Legend Killer is back and Christian made him do it, then apologized and had the medics come in and help Christian. But he got back down and yelled at him that it was his fault and he didn’t want to do it.
Randy Orton was already doing some of his best work in this feud, but goodness gracious he got me even MORE invested in him after this. The dilemma going through Randy’s mind with Christian was amazing. I want more of this. Give me a Randy Orton promo every week, and maybe a Christian match at Extreme Rules on his way to Drew McIntyre at Summerslam. I can’t believe Randy Orton is one of WWE’s best heels right now.
You need to watch the closing angle of Raw. It’s masterful.
Tonight’s MVP - R-Truth
Bobby Lashley/MVP and Drew McIntyre/R-Truth was the second arching storyline of the night. And it had one major player who helped put it all together. R-Truth has great chemistry with all three of these men and let’s start at the beginning.
MVP called Drew a pretender for taking the distraction victory at Backlash. He disparaged Lana for getting in their business. Lana decided she had enough of it and came down to the ring. She said that it is MVP who drove a wedge between her and Lashley and that ever since he showed up, he is the reason for their troubles. Lashley told her that he wants a divorce. They both leave Lana in shock and MVP blew her a kiss from the stage.
Well the divorce had to be coming after last night’s debacle. By the way this is Lana’s second best iteration since her debut. She is absolutely perfect playing the delusional heel role.
Later, MVP and Lashley ran into R-Truth and he offered his “condolences” to Lashley. He laughed at calling the divorce a “raw” deal because that’s the name of the show! He then ran off. Lashley and MVP went to look for him and passed by a ring in the PC and R-Truth came out from underneath and screamed about ninjas being everywhere. This time Drew came to his aid to make sure Lashley and MVP didn’t harm him.
MVP again says that Drew should be putting his title on the line and R-Truth too. So R-Truth being a swell guy, agreed! Once he saw Drew was upset, he went to talk to officials to make it better. Drew didn’t have to worry because now, only HIS title would be on the line!
In the match, Drew made sure to keep himself in the match, but Truth tagged himself in. Immediately he was pummeled and Drew had his hands covering his eyes half the time. The heels knew to work over Truth and stop him from tagging Drew. Didn’t work though, as Drew got back in and Claymored MVP. But he was nice enough to allow Truth to get the pin.
All of this was fantastic. Drew and R-Truth are a great pairing and I want more. I don’t know if this continues Drew and Lashley, but I am very curious to see if they do one more match at Extreme Rules.
The Rest
Sneaky Dom - Seth Rollins said Rey is a hero, and he sacrificed himself for the greater good. He said Rey declined his invitation to Raw, but fortunately his son Dominik has taken it upon himself to come here on behalf of the family. Mysterio interrupted via satellite and said he didn’t know his son would be showing up. Seth said he wants to help Dominik and wants him to join him. Suddenly, Dominik appeared and attacked Seth from behind and escaped Seth and his Disciples.
I’m so incredibly happy that these segments have gotten better rather than worse. Dominik knows how to make an entrance, doesn’t he? That was perfect. When Seth started saying an eye for an eye I thought that Theory and Murphy were going to drag him out and do the same thing Seth did to Rey. Sneaky Dom slid in, attacked, slid out and didn’t get one hand on him.
Seth looks like he’s ready to raise hell and put a hurting on the Mysterio family. No Aleister Black or Humberto Carrillo this time, though. Hopefully that’s not a sign of Bruce Prichard things to come.
Kevin Owens def. Angel Garza - Continuing with the dissension, Andrade came out to join Zelina at ringside. There was never any doubt in my mind that Owens was winning this because, as much as Zelina may try to fix it, Andrade and Garza will probably never see eye to eye again. They’ve both interfered in each other’s matches and caused the other to lose. It’s a classic break up angle, and I feel like it’s time for them to part ways. Will it be amicably? Probably not, and I don’t think it should be. Garza might work out as a babyface for Raw and I’m willing to give that a try.
Bayley Dos Straps accepts the challenge - Sasha and Bayley come out to not just gloat from their win at Backlash, but it’s Bayley’s birthday! The IIconics came out to get their answer to the challenge made for next week. Sasha and Bayley said it doesn’t matter who you throw against them, because the end result is the same. Billie said that they won the titles from them at last year’s WrestleMania and remembered that they whined and cried about it back then, so someone could call the wahmbulance for them next time. Peyton slaps Sasha and Bayley gets big mad at them for ruining her night and accepts the challenge.
Great callback to the reports of Bayley and Sasha from last year. At least they didn’t have the IIconics lose tonight and THEN challenge. We’ll talk about their match soon. Bayley and Sasha are the greatest and I want them together like this forever, to be honest. We can milk this as long as possible.
Apollo Crews def. Shelton Benjamin - MVP approached Apollo before this match and told him that the only way he’ll keep the US title is if he’s with MVP. This was an intriguing moment, because to be honest, I wasn’t a fan of Apollo turning heel so soon into his title reign. However, with Prichard at the helm, I think it’ll be optimal for him. With MVP I think he’ll shine even more.
And guess what? Seeds have been planted! Apollo cheated! Grabbed that rope while the ref wasn’t looking. Granted, Shelton has JUST tried to cheat a moment prior, but still… babyfaces don’t cheat normally. And Apollo has never cheated. I’m very interested to see how this plays out.
Asuka def. Nia Jax - We got a rematch (which isn’t supposed to be a thing but whatevs) from last night. It was pretty much the same stuff, except this time Nia pushed the referee after Asuka’s foot was under the rope and as he was about to DQ her, Asuka rolled her up and he fast counted the win. I don’t know where we go now, but I don’t think Nia is done yet. Charlotte Flair will be waiting in the wings, most likely as she said tonight that she can do whatever she wants. Eh.
Viking Profits def. Akira Tozawa and ninjas - Last night I said I didn’t know how I felt about all of this. Then we got to tonight, and now we add… *checks notes* Big Show. Big Show met Big Ninja and cleared house of the little ninjas. Having said all that my opinion on all of this is now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I just… I just don’t know. I’ve never been stumped like this before. I’m going to let it sink in and hopefully have an opinion next week.
IIconics def. Liv Morgan and Natalya - I was happy to see Liv Morgan and then I knew exactly what was coming and immediately hated everything. Newsflash to WWE - you may not like being creative with 80% of your roster, and you may think that wins and losses don’t matter, but in two nights you took people on the rise and demoted one to the pre-show and then one to a loss in 3 minutes. What’s worse, IIconics are challenging Bayley and Sasha for next week, so Liv doesn’t even get a comeuppance from getting a win stolen from her.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the IIconics a lot. This wasn’t what they should have done though. Why did Liv Morgan have to be put in this spot? She went off to discover herself, and then she gets put in this when anyone else could have been there. Just stupid, man.
There were a few random things tonight, mainly involving the lower card that I don’t know how I feel about. Akira Tozawa is a great wrestler and shouldn’t be tasked with stuff like this. I genuinely have no idea how I feel about all the Viking Profit stuff. It’s diminished the tag division but is also… entertaining? I think? Randy Orton and R-Truth were great on this show. I couldn’t give Orton the MVP of the night only because he’s an evil bastard.
Raw was not bad under Bruce Prichard’s first show. I’m hoping we keep the positive trend with Apollo Crews and maybe do that heel turn I talked about. Since Randy may be tied up for Extreme Rules, I won’t mind Drew getting Lashley one more time. My biggest issue was with booking decisions for LIv, believe it or not. That made me mad, but the rest of the show was pretty entertaining.
Grade: B
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?