Rate Raw 08/22/2016

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Rate this week's Raw!

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Jacob Fox

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Rate this week's Raw in our poll and make sure to leave your comments about the show below!

Opening

Raw opened with details regarding Finn Balor's shoulder injury. Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon welcomed Finn Balor to the ring and introduced as the WWE Universal Champion. Finn thanked the fans, the WWE and even Seth Rollins and relinguished the belt.

As Balor was leaving the arena, Seth Rollins came down to the ring. He requested to be handed the belt. He was interupted over and over by Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Enzo and Cass, Roman Reigns came to the ring. So Stephanie and Mick announced that they would have a series of matches which would culminate next week with the crowning of the new Universal Champion. The first match would be Sami Zayn vs Seth Rollins.

Sami Zayn vs Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins defeated Sami Zayn by pinfall to advance.

Kevin Owens vs Neville


Kevins Owens defeated Neville by pinfall after hitting a reverse cutter.

An announcement was made after the ring that the match for the Universal Title next week will be a fatal fourway match. Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are the first two participants.

New Day Celebration

They New Day celebrating being a three member team again and thanked the fans for being consistently vocal through the good times and the bad times. They celebrated with a unicorn pinata filled with Booty O's.

Gallows and Anderson came out and called the New Day stupid for celebrating and that they had nothing to celebrate. They demanded a rematch because they won the match the previous night.

Big E vs Karl Anderson

Big E defeated Anderson by pinfall after hitting the Big Ending. There was a lot of fighting outside the ring between Gallows, Kofi and Woods.

Titus O'Neil

Titus referenced that although the New Day won the tag belts last summer, the Prime Time Players were the champions going in. Titus said losing the belts was the best thing in his life because he dropped the dead weight that was Darren Young. He then criticized Darren Young for causing Titus all of his failures since coming to the WWE. He then asked Young to come out.

Finally Bob Backlund got tired and came to the ring, putting Titus in the crossface chicken wing. O'Neil was able to escape and beat down Backlund. When Young came out to help Backlund, O'Neil hit him with Clash of the Titus.

Stephanie McMahon addresses the Lesnar Situation

Stephanie said that Lesnar crossed a line and there would be repercussions. She then walked away without saying more.

Rusev vs Big Cass

Cass won by countout when Rusev refused to return to the ring. Cass advanced to the fatal fourway with Owens and Rollins.

Charlotte Promo

Charlotte came to the ring with Dana Brooke to put down Sasha and brag about being the champion again. Before she could leave, though, Mick Foley came out on the ramp and congratulated Charlotte.Charlotte demanded a night off but Foley announced a new addition to the women's division on Raw. Bayley came to the ring. She thanked Mick for drafting her before Charlotte got angry that she felt Bayley was trying to upstage her. Bayely challenged her for the belt, but Charlotte was not dressed to wrestle so they made the match Bayley vs Dana Brooke.

Bayley vs Dana Brooke

Bayley defeated Dana Brooke after hitting the Bayley to Belly followed by a pinfall.

Braun Strowman vs Johnny KnockOut

Before the match Johnny Knockout pointed out that he liked big and sweaty men. This was a typical Strowmen squash match and he won by pinfall.

Dudley Boyz

The Dudley Boyz thanked the audience for all the years of support. They were the approached by Primo and Epico who began bad mouthing the Dudleyz. The Dudleyz attacked Primo and Epico and had succeeded in taking them down before Gallows and Anderson came down, beat up the Dudleyz and put them through a table.

Chris Jericho vs Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns defeated Chris Jericho by pinfall in spite of interference from Kevin Owens. Roman Reigns advanced to the fatal fourway.
 

Mr. Roman Empire

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I gave it a 6/10

It was a fine show but it felt a little underwelming for a post SummerSlam Raw
 

Just Kevin

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6/10

Zayn vs Rollins was a good match

Owens vs Neville was okay, I like the way they are setting up the upcoming Owens/Jericho feud.

New Day is always fun to watch as far as I'm concerned.. the Big E/Anderson match was just ok.. I think it's funny that they make The Club look weak here and then later in the night they do just the opposite.

The O'Neil/Backlund/Young mess was just a waste of time and almost succeeded in killing the crowd.

The fact that they barely addressed the Lesnar incident at SS was kind of intriguing to me... what was scripted and what wasn't and are they having trouble figuring out how to address it?

I like Big Cass and think he could be a good solo performer... this is a good shot for him, him as Universal champion with Enzo as his mouthpiece? Hmmm.. interesting...

I don't think Charlotte was supposed to win the Women's title back at SS... I think she only did so because of Sasha's injury.. I really do believe the call was made during the match to switch decisions. With that said.. I never knew that Bayley was so damn cute.. WOW.. I could live with her being in a feud with Charlotte just to be able to see her every week.

The squash match thing is cool but it's getting very close to getting boring... hopefully they do something with Strowman soon.

Why couldn't they just allow the Dudley Boyz to leave without all the bullshit? Both interferences with stupid and unnecessary.. unless they aren't really retiring.. but they seemed pretty sincere.

Roman Reigns ending the show standing tall... I guess Vince isn't quite done trying to get his way. I'm looking at the 4 people in the title match next week and I only see Reigns and Rollins being legitimate contenders. I think Jericho will cause KO to lose somehow and Cass will have a good showing but ultimately be knocked out somehow.
 

Jacob Fox

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I gave the show a 7. I really enjoyed it. A huge improvement on last week and a superior bit of entertainment in comparison to Summerslam.

I liked:

Sami Zayn vs Seth Rollins ***

Kevin Owens vs Neville ***

Big E vs Karl Anderson **1/2

Bob Backlund getting Titus in the crossface chicken wing! Go Bob!

Rusev vs Big Cass **1/2

Chris Jericho vs Roman Reigns **

Bayley vs Dana Brooke **1/2


I didn't like:

The New Day Celebration even though I liked the match

The Dudleyz... it was just boring

Stephanie barely addressing the Lesnar situation

Braun Strowman vs Johnny KnockOut * Getting really bored with this.
 
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Prince Bálor

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The follow-up to SummerSlam was good all things considered.

3 hours of RAW felt like heaven compared to the hell that was 6 hours of SummerSlam. 7/10

Positives:
- Rollins vs Zayn was a pretty good show opener. Good effort by both men. Sami Zayn's selling was excellent. He should open the school of selling.

- KO vs Neville was good, but I felt the Y2J shenanigans were unnecessary.

- Big E vs Anderson was OK.

- "How's Bob Backlund gonna make Darren Young great again, when he was never great to begin with?" - Truer words have never been spoken.

- Bob Backlund putting Titus in the Crossface Chickenwing was great.

- Big Cass vs Rusev was OK. It was just there.

- Y2KO torturing Tom is fun stuff.

- The debut of::bayley:. Also, her match against Dana was fine.

- Sheamus cut a decent promo. His effort to get the crowd to hate him is appreciated.

- "Because I like big, sweaty men." - Johnny Knockout on why he's facing Braun Strowman. Hilarious. I LOL'd.

- The "DELETE" chant when the Hardy Boyz were mentioned was awesome.

- Reigns vs Y2J was decent. It felt lackadaisical till the homestretch, which is when things picked up and the crowd started caring, and turned out fine. As expected, Reigns won with a Spear.

Negatives:
- The New Day celebration segment.

- Titus' promo was a disaster.

- WTF are they doing to Rusev? They're crapping on him every week. Unacceptable. Also, has his feud with Reigns come to an abrupt end? LOLWTF

- The Strowman squash was boring. The first one was a'ight and exactly what it needed to be, but every single one since then has been meh and quite frankly, I have no interest in seeing it every week. However, the jobbers they've been feeding to him so far are great.

- The Dudleyz 'farewell' segment.
I was hoping for Bubba to turn on Devon, but instead we got them awful Shining Stars, followed by Gallows and Anderson attacking The Dudleyz.
I mean, what are they trying? Are The Dudleyz done for real? Was it an attempt to get some heat on G&A after weeks of bad booking? I don't know.
And we are likely to get a TLC match 'tween The Dudleyz and G&A on their way out. Can't say I'm excited.
Also, I couldn't help but notice that their (The Dudleyz) initial heel turn had them saying something like they weren't just a nostalgia act, that they didn't care about the fans and more importantly, they refused to use the tables from that point on... But now, we got that same old stuff. Meh.
 
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alexb

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Certainly not the best show but it surely had it's moments, whether good or bad, so I think a 6/10 is just about fair. Some thoughts:

- Tough week for WWE as far as their champions are concerned. First they are pretty much forced to alter the ending and swap titles between Sasha and Charlotte due to Sasha (apparently) suffering from some injury, thus the 30 days time off, and now Finn Balor was forced to relinquish his title due to injury as well. Really hard luck for Balor, hopefully it's a speedy recovery...

- The good thing coming out of the Universal title being vacated is we got some really meaningful matches on the show to determine contenders so that was definetely a plus however on the flipside, I personally felt kind of awkard seeing Big Cass added in the mix. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Enzo & Cass but that's percisely my point; these two are a hell of a tag team and for the time being they belong together, more so when they still haven't had a run with the belts...

- Sami Zayn: What else is there to say about this guy that hasn't been said already?

- When doing my predictions for Summerslam, even though I picked Anderson and Gallows, I did mention the possibility that maybe WWE will keep the belts on New Day for a little while longer, only so they can break the ultimate record set by Demolition. It was, if I'm not mistaken, a week or two prior to the PPV that the commentary team made that reference and mentioned Demolition so...who knows? On another note, I really hate the fact that Carl Anderson is getting beat all the time...

- The Strowman squash matches...Sigh...They ought to start bringing a bit more serious competition for Strowman cause this getting too old too quick. Speaking of, I'm not sure liking sweaty big guys is a really good reason to step in the ring with a monster...Oh, and huge props to the New York crowd (they simply one of the best) for the "Let's go Jobber" chants. Simply hillarious and LOL'ed big time...

- Titus O'neal: What a disaster of a promo. Not only should Vince fine him but he should probably get another 4 months of suspension for that horrible performance on the mic...

- Someone please tell Backlund to take it easy; man is this guy taking some serious bumps...

- I'm not sure of what to make out of the Dudleyz promo after how things unfolded with the interferences but it seems they are legit done. On a side note, that reaction from the crowd when Devon mentioned the Hardy's: Delete !!! Delete !!! Delete !!! Wow...:matt:. I feel like, if WWE were to sign Matt Hardy next year and bring him in as broken Matt, we might actually witness the biggest pop in history...I mean like Austin or Rock pop and then some...


- Welcome to the big leagues Bayley !!!

- Agree 100% with Prince Balor regarding Rusev. I too am not pleased at all with how they are using him lately...

- There will be repercussions??? That's it???? Gee, we know Brock will, per storyline, get a 3 month suspension but could they not toy with it a bit more? One freakin sentence and...that's it?

- Another end of the show with all mighty Roman standing tall...Sigh...


On a final note, I'm pretty sure most will be predicting Seth Rollins to be coming out victorious from the fatal 4-Way and be crowned the new Universal champ, which, to a degree, probably makes the most sense. Personally, if it were up to me, I'd say fuck that and give the strap to KO...Just saying....:henry2:
 
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Krendall

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Does anyone know if Zayn's injury during his match with Rollins was a work or was it legit?
 

Snowman1

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Loved this show! 9/10. Would have been a 10/10 if Roman didn't have the power of 100 Nevilles.

If you're trying to make this little blob of standing water happy, there's not many things you can say better than "A tournament for the World Title".... and a couple of those few words are "It's Bayley!"
I still worry about her main roster run but half of that is worked at this point. This was just happiness. :)
There was enough stuff going on that the Long Boring 20 Minute Raw Opening Promo was actually a Short and Somewhat To The Point 10 Minute Promo. Always a plus!
Man this Dudley's latest run was weird, I just can't buy one of the best tag teams in HISTORY as mere fodder... but hey, great to see a great goodbye and putting someone over on the way out like the veterans you are. Thank you Dudleys for all the memories, y'all. (And never forget Sabin kicking out of the 3D. ;) )

That's all I've got to say.
 

Prince Bálor

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Does anyone know if Zayn's injury during his match with Rollins was a work or was it legit?

It was a work. His selling was excellent. Brother Ambrose, Brother Ziggler, watch and learn.

Sami Zayn should open the school of selling.
 

Snowman1

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So I'm thinking a little more about this 4-way next week, with little else to think about right now why not, and...

-Maybe Roman midcarding at all is making it seem this way, but it seems like Seth Rollins is the overwhelming favorite for 2nd Universal champion, and why not?
But... even for the dude with the avatar Rollins winning the title just seems kinda anticlimactic, doesn't it? Kind of a typical WWE PPV finish that just leaves us underwhelmed... And despite that, Roman Reigns will be booed like crazy. :lol1:

There's a few creative things they can do here. But I'd LOVE to see KO walk out as champ...
Maybe Seth hits the Pedigree on Cass and KO steals the pin, turning Rollins face and setting up Owens/Rollins as a feud (yes!) with Jericho waiting in the wings, a way to get Sami Zayn up there (PLEASE), and one more...
Or: Roman realizes it's No DQ and just destroys Seth for the double turn.... but the champion should likely be a heel.
If this Best of 7 Series leads to someone getting a title shot, it's the PERFECT way to get Cesaro up there... Seth/Cesaro for the World Title? HELL YEAH!
 

Prince Bálor

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So I'm thinking a little more about this 4-way next week, with little else to think about right now why not, and...

-Maybe Roman midcarding at all is making it seem this way, but it seems like Seth Rollins is the overwhelming favorite for 2nd Universal champion, and why not?
But... even for the dude with the avatar Rollins winning the title just seems kinda anticlimactic, doesn't it? Kind of a typical WWE PPV finish that just leaves us underwhelmed... And despite that, Roman Reigns will be booed like crazy. :lol1:

There's a few creative things they can do here. But I'd LOVE to see KO walk out as champ...
Maybe Seth hits the Pedigree on Cass and KO steals the pin, turning Rollins face and setting up Owens/Rollins as a feud (yes!) with Jericho waiting in the wings, a way to get Sami Zayn up there (PLEASE), and one more...
Or: Roman realizes it's No DQ and just destroys Seth for the double turn.... but the champion should likely be a heel.
If this Best of 7 Series leads to someone getting a title shot, it's the PERFECT way to get Cesaro up there... Seth/Cesaro for the World Title? HELL YEAH!

Oh, yes, please! To all of that. :please: