8 Things The WWE Got Right with This Weeks Monday Night RAW

After what was an eventful and entertaining Extreme Rules PPV the WWE looked to keep fans interested the following night with the latest episode of Monday Night RAW. Now, its been a while since I wrote a RAW review but after spending a few weeks investing time into watching the longest-running weekly product I thought it was about time to let you in on my honest thoughts. With that in mind, today I will be taking a look back last night’s show and discussing what I believe the company got right with this week’s edition of RAW.

The Road to SummerSlam

This week’s episode of Monday night RAW heavily focused on the biggest event of the Summer, SummerSlam. From the get-go, it was clear the company were looking to set up two huge title matches for the up and coming PPV booking a ten men battle Royal to determine who will face Brock Lesnar and a fatal four-way that will reveal the new number one contender to Becky Lynch’s RAW Women’s championship. Now, I wasn’t quite impressed with the ways in which the WWE went about booking how these superstars would be picked but I did like was how many talents had the chance to make an impact and earn an opportunity. A mixture of superstars was thrown into the picture last night creating a tad bit of hope and it was refreshing, to say the least. In the end, it was Natalya and Seth Rollins who walked away as the new number one contenders which in all honesty didn’t surprise me. Natalya is an odd pick for many and it will be interesting to see what the WWE do storyline wise to grip fans and leave a genuine interest but I believe both these SummerSlam matches have potential and it's great to see a focus on the PPV early.  

Cedric Alexander's Win 

As a major fan of Drew McIntyre its safe to say that I haven't been all too impressed with how the WWE has been using and booking him in recent weeks and was most certainly surprised to see him left out of this week's all-star main event. However, with that being said, Cedric Alexander's big win over the former NXT champion did leave me pretty happy and excited. While it's vital the WWE begin to look at turning things around McIntyre majorly, this was a huge win for Alexander and I'm hoping this genuinely is the start of great things to come for him on the main roster. 

The Faction Effect

If you know me you know that I have been complaining about the lack of factions on the WWE main roster for quite some time now, pointing out that using a faction would benefit the company all round massively and with the Club re-formed and stronger than ever it looks as though I and everyone else may have been onto something. Styles along with Anderson and Gallows continued to send a message and make an impact this week on RAW and it was evident that a faction most certainly can bring so much to the weekly product. Now, there is still plenty to see from this trio and the WWE have so many options creative wise when it comes to the Club but their win over Lucha House party and the attack that followed sent a clear message and gave them even more momentum.   

Bray Wyatt’s Return

The highlight of this weeks Monday Night RAW, in my opinion, was the return of Bray Wyatt. For weeks, the WWE has been teasing the former WWE champions on-screen return with backstage hints and segments promoting his new gimmick. Fans have been educated on the journey at which Wyatt has been through in recent months and his children’s presenter turned terrifying monster has had audiences completely gripped. Last night, Bray made his first appearance live on RAW in months and boy did he get everyone talking! Attacking Finn Balor in the middle of the ring, the haunting mask left the WWE Universe with inevitable nightmares and chills! The staging, the setup, the timing was all done to perfection and the “holy shit” chants let the WWE know they had got things completely right with Bray Wyatt’s return.

The Street Profits Backstage Work

Over the past couple of weeks, the current NXT Tag Team champions have been appearing on Monday night RAW doing backstage work that has shown off their character perfectly! The two charismatic NXT stars have begun to get main roster fans talking and for all the right reasons. Hyping matches on the night's card while showing off their characters is setting the two up for greatness while also ensuring their popularity increases in the meantime. This is a smart use of the Street Profits and their backstage work genuinely does have me entertained and more excited for up and coming matches.  

24/7 Championship

It has got to be said, while I wasn’t initially a fan of the 24/7 championship and its concept I have been won over more and more as the weeks have gone by. The work we are seeing between Drake Maverik and R-Truth makes for genuinely funny, creative and entertaining content and that continued this week with the hotel scenes. It was a small part of the show but it provided fans with something light-hearted and fun and stood out as a comedic angle that did leave us all cringing. The adult jokes inserted also made this pretty damn entertaining too. This is a section of the show that everyone in the WWE Universe can enjoy.  

Strong Mic Work

Something I personally complain about a lot here on my blog and over on social media is cringe-worthy segments and mic work but what I loved about last nights show was how strong the promos and segments actually were. When we look at Natalya and Dolph Ziggler for example, the mic work was on point! We saw, heard, and felt genuine passion, personal shots and fire behind what they were saying and it made for genuinely good and entertaining content. Everything said between Nattie and Lynch sold me on their up and coming SummerSlam match up and has left me honestly excited for what is to come from them in the following weeks while I find myself also now just as interested in future work between Ziggler and Miz. It must also be pointed that Maria and Mike also had a solid showing this week with more character development and while I’m not sure where things are going exactly especially for Mike it's great to see them both finally involved in something.  

2- out of – 3 Falls 6 man Tag team match

Okay, so this one defiantly divided fans but personally I liked the idea of the two out of three falls six-man tag team match. Now, I understand that the main issue fans had here was how confusing the concept was and it was clear online and even in the arena that not everyone was sure as to what the rules were and what was going but what I liked about this was the fact it was different and the booking made sense. Ricochet picked up some much-needed momentum after his loss this past Sunday while we also got to see Robert Roode in action the RAW tag team championship rivalry continue.   

While this wasn’t the best episode of Monday night RAW you will ever see it most certainly was a good show. We had a great focus on SummerSlam with rivalries for the biggest event of the Summer kickstarting. There was also genuinely strong comedic angles, great matches, solid segments and one huge return! All round, the WWE evidently got plenty of things right during this week's show but what was your favourite moment? Leave a comment below or tweet me over at @TezangiVictoria letting me know. 

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