Two recaps in one this week as I was swamped with coursework and didn't have the time to do them as they happened.
Kurt Angle kicks off the show by addressing the Braun Strowman injury situation, he's out for 6 months. He then announces that there will be a fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules to determine the number 1 contender for Brock Lesnar's title. It will be Reigns vs Balor vs Wyatt vs Joe vs Rollins. Reigns appears to tell everyone that there was no need for the match because he's Reigns and fuck you. Everyone else then showed up to make their point and it inevitably turns into a mass brawl. It was a good opening segment that established what the plan was going forward. Braun's injury will hit hard though.
Sheamus vs Jeff Hardy - Decent match that played out pretty much as expected. Jeff won after some shenanigans involving Matt and Cesaro.
Sasha Banks vs Alicia Fox - It appears they wanted to try this again. It was better than the last match they had but that isn't saying much. Fox picked up the surprise win in under 3 minutes.
Dean Ambrose vs The Miz (IC Title) - This was pretty good but ended in a DQ finish so that they can do it again at Extreme Rules. It could be a good match judging by this.
Balor cuts a promo on Reigns.
Alexa Bliss comes out to run down the crowd, which is great as always, and Bayley comes out to tell her she is exercising her rematch clause at Extreme Rules. Bliss decides to hit her with a kendo stick for her troubles. The difference in confidence between Bliss and Bayley when on the mic is huge. Bayley has struggled to find her way on the main roster.
Miz and Maryse are talking to Angle, who tries a spot of French, about a rematch with Ambrose. The Drifter makes an appearance. I would honestly be happy if all he did was this. No need for a match. Him just randomly meandering into other people's backstage skits is fucking gold.
Neville & TJP vs Austin Aries & Jack Gallagher - Decent match but like most Cruiserweight matches on Raw it didn't have enough time to really hit it's stride. The heels picked up the win.
Angle is backstage checking on Bayley and goes all Vince Russo for a minute and books a Kendo Stick On A Pole match Extreme Rules.
Golden Truth are talking about something. I'm not sure what, I phased out.
Roman Reigns vs Finn Balor - This was a really good match but I don't really understand why they gave it away on Raw. They could have used this as an upper card PPV match. Reigns wins to level it at 1-1 between the two and hopefully they put the decider on on a decent PPV as there is a top quality match to be had.
Bray Wyatt cuts a promo.
Seth Rollins cuts a promo.
Goldust attacks R-Truth during their entrance, which instantly makes me like Goldust much more. Goldust tells him 'That's what's up'. Hopefully this leads to a Loser Leaves And Never, Ever Come Back Match on the Extreme Rules Kickoff show.
Enzo & Cass come out and do their thing. I'm convinced it's the only reason WWE keeps putting them on the show at this point. Cass needs to go solo.
Cass vs Titus O'Neil - O'Neil is wearing a suit as he doesn't realise he has a match. He jumps Cass at the bell but gets a big boot and loses. So, yeah.
Austin Aries will face TJP for the 132nd time in 2 months on 205 Live. Neville and TJP talk about it backstage.
Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt - Main event time. This was a by the numbers main event with a DQ finish. Joe runs in and attacks Rollins before Wyatt lays them both out with Sister Abigails.
We start the show with Kevin Owens co-opting the Highlight Reel. He introduces his guest in French. Styles comes out but it turns out he wasn't the guest, Styles just doesn't understand French. They have some verbal sparring and Jinder Mahal comes out to say that he is the guest for the Highlight Reel. They both agree that Styles will lose and we have our first match of the evening. It was a decent way to start off the show.
AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal - This match highlighted my only problem with the Jinder push, his matches are boring . If this is how good a match with Styles is then God help us on Sunday. Hopefully he shows me something else.
It's time for the greatest segment in wrestling, the Fashion Files. Tyler Breeze is undercover as a janitor. There is a hilarious bit where they hold up an Usos shirt and try to figure out why it says 'DAY ONE IS H' on it. They claim that on Sunday their day one will be h. Then they do a freeze frame. I love everything about it. Put the titles on them, I insist on it.
Renee Young interviews Orton about Sunday's match. Orton says that people don't like Mahal because he is an ass. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Fashion Police vs The Colons - For some reason we are joining this in progress. Way to make it feel less important. The Colons control most of the match before the Fashion Police pick up the win. Weird structure.
The Usos cut a promo that is much better than the one they cut last week.
For some reason there is a contract signing for the 6-woman tag match at Backlash. This segment was shit. All of it. Utter toss.
Naomi vs Carmella - This went over 10 minutes and it suffered because of it due to Carmella not handling longer matches very well. Carmella won with a roll up. This didn't do any favours for the Smackdown women's division.
Dolph Ziggler comes out to run down Nakamura again. He plays a video of Nakamura's best bits which is just a 'file not found' video. Other than that it was basically the same thing he has said for the last month.
Sami Zayn is cutting a promo about his match with Baron Corbin at Backlash. Corbin then ruins Sami's day.
Randy Orton vs Baron Corbin - This was not as good as most other recent Smackdown main events. It had an air of going through the motions about it. Orton won with an RKO.
Following the match Mahal and the Singh brothers leave Orton laying and end the show standing tall, which of course means he will lose at Backlash.
Kurt Angle kicks off the show by addressing the Braun Strowman injury situation, he's out for 6 months. He then announces that there will be a fatal 5-way match at Extreme Rules to determine the number 1 contender for Brock Lesnar's title. It will be Reigns vs Balor vs Wyatt vs Joe vs Rollins. Reigns appears to tell everyone that there was no need for the match because he's Reigns and fuck you. Everyone else then showed up to make their point and it inevitably turns into a mass brawl. It was a good opening segment that established what the plan was going forward. Braun's injury will hit hard though.
Sheamus vs Jeff Hardy - Decent match that played out pretty much as expected. Jeff won after some shenanigans involving Matt and Cesaro.
Sasha Banks vs Alicia Fox - It appears they wanted to try this again. It was better than the last match they had but that isn't saying much. Fox picked up the surprise win in under 3 minutes.
Dean Ambrose vs The Miz (IC Title) - This was pretty good but ended in a DQ finish so that they can do it again at Extreme Rules. It could be a good match judging by this.
Balor cuts a promo on Reigns.
Alexa Bliss comes out to run down the crowd, which is great as always, and Bayley comes out to tell her she is exercising her rematch clause at Extreme Rules. Bliss decides to hit her with a kendo stick for her troubles. The difference in confidence between Bliss and Bayley when on the mic is huge. Bayley has struggled to find her way on the main roster.
Miz and Maryse are talking to Angle, who tries a spot of French, about a rematch with Ambrose. The Drifter makes an appearance. I would honestly be happy if all he did was this. No need for a match. Him just randomly meandering into other people's backstage skits is fucking gold.
Neville & TJP vs Austin Aries & Jack Gallagher - Decent match but like most Cruiserweight matches on Raw it didn't have enough time to really hit it's stride. The heels picked up the win.
Angle is backstage checking on Bayley and goes all Vince Russo for a minute and books a Kendo Stick On A Pole match Extreme Rules.
Golden Truth are talking about something. I'm not sure what, I phased out.
Roman Reigns vs Finn Balor - This was a really good match but I don't really understand why they gave it away on Raw. They could have used this as an upper card PPV match. Reigns wins to level it at 1-1 between the two and hopefully they put the decider on on a decent PPV as there is a top quality match to be had.
Bray Wyatt cuts a promo.
Seth Rollins cuts a promo.
Goldust attacks R-Truth during their entrance, which instantly makes me like Goldust much more. Goldust tells him 'That's what's up'. Hopefully this leads to a Loser Leaves And Never, Ever Come Back Match on the Extreme Rules Kickoff show.
Enzo & Cass come out and do their thing. I'm convinced it's the only reason WWE keeps putting them on the show at this point. Cass needs to go solo.
Cass vs Titus O'Neil - O'Neil is wearing a suit as he doesn't realise he has a match. He jumps Cass at the bell but gets a big boot and loses. So, yeah.
Austin Aries will face TJP for the 132nd time in 2 months on 205 Live. Neville and TJP talk about it backstage.
Seth Rollins vs Bray Wyatt - Main event time. This was a by the numbers main event with a DQ finish. Joe runs in and attacks Rollins before Wyatt lays them both out with Sister Abigails.
Thoughts
This was by no means a horrible episode of Raw but there is very little to really go out of your way to watch other than the Reigns vs Balor match.
AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal - This match highlighted my only problem with the Jinder push, his matches are boring . If this is how good a match with Styles is then God help us on Sunday. Hopefully he shows me something else.
It's time for the greatest segment in wrestling, the Fashion Files. Tyler Breeze is undercover as a janitor. There is a hilarious bit where they hold up an Usos shirt and try to figure out why it says 'DAY ONE IS H' on it. They claim that on Sunday their day one will be h. Then they do a freeze frame. I love everything about it. Put the titles on them, I insist on it.
Renee Young interviews Orton about Sunday's match. Orton says that people don't like Mahal because he is an ass. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Fashion Police vs The Colons - For some reason we are joining this in progress. Way to make it feel less important. The Colons control most of the match before the Fashion Police pick up the win. Weird structure.
The Usos cut a promo that is much better than the one they cut last week.
For some reason there is a contract signing for the 6-woman tag match at Backlash. This segment was shit. All of it. Utter toss.
Naomi vs Carmella - This went over 10 minutes and it suffered because of it due to Carmella not handling longer matches very well. Carmella won with a roll up. This didn't do any favours for the Smackdown women's division.
Dolph Ziggler comes out to run down Nakamura again. He plays a video of Nakamura's best bits which is just a 'file not found' video. Other than that it was basically the same thing he has said for the last month.
Sami Zayn is cutting a promo about his match with Baron Corbin at Backlash. Corbin then ruins Sami's day.
Randy Orton vs Baron Corbin - This was not as good as most other recent Smackdown main events. It had an air of going through the motions about it. Orton won with an RKO.
Following the match Mahal and the Singh brothers leave Orton laying and end the show standing tall, which of course means he will lose at Backlash.
Thoughts
This followed the recent trend of pretty poor go home shows. There is absolutely nothing on this show, other than the Fashion Files, that you need to check out. I do not have high hopes for Orton vs Jinder, hopefully I'm wrong. Also, there was no Rusev, even though there was supposed to be. According to his Twitter he was at a hockey game.
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