Monday Night Raw – June 3, 2019: SHUT UP!

Monday Night Raw
Date: June 3, 2019
Location: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

It’s time for another big show as we have a combination of the go home show for Super ShowDown and apparently a guaranteed Money in the Bank cash in. After last week with Brock Lesnar not knowing the rules of the briefcase, Stephanie McMahon was angry and that means we MUST do the cash in this week. Or another bait and switch. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Here’s Roman Reigns for an opening chat but Shane McMahon cuts him off. After getting his traditional introduction, Shane talks about being a fine wine who gets better with age. He promises to hit Coast to Coast and then pin Reigns, or make him tap out for the first time in his career. The referee will tell Shane to make him let go of the triangle choke but he’s going to keep it on so Reigns’ eyes pop out as Shane is announced as the Best in the World.

Reigns tells him to shut up because he’ll powerbomb Shane through the mat at Super ShowDown. He’s tired of hearing about how great Shane is because Shane always needs help. Once Reigns gets done with Shane on Friday, he’ll beat Drew McIntyre at Stomping Grounds. As for right now though, the two of them are ready for Reigns. Cue the Revival to jump Reigns from behind, drawing out the Usos for the save in a preview for tonight’s six man tag. It looks like we’ll be having that match after the break.

Usos/Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre/Revival

Nine minutes into the show is better than the fifty five from last week. The Usos start fast with the stereo dives and we’re off to a break less than a minute in. Back with Jimmy coming in off a tag but getting caught by McIntyre, who starts pulling on the arm. Reigns breaks up a cover off a belly to belly but Dawson keeps Jimmy down in the corner.

The chinlock goes on until Jimmy powers up, only to have Wilder cut off the hot tag attempt. Back from a break with Reigns knocking McIntyre to the floor. Reigns goes after an interfering Shane though and eats a Claymore, leaving Jimmy to take the Shatter Machine on the floor. The Claymore finishes Jey at 14:22.

Rating: C. This was a little messy but I liked having a fast paced match to open the show instead of waiting for two and a half hours in. Having the show start with a twenty minute promo doesn’t help the show out whatsoever so this was a nice change of pace. Now don’t have Reigns or Shane show up for the rest of the show so we can let something fresh get in.

Post match Reigns takes a Shatter Machine, the Claymore and a spear from Shane.

Matthew McConaughey and Lance Armstrong are here.

It’s time for MizTV with Miz starting off with a McConaughey impression. He wastes no time in bringing out his guest for the week: Seth Rollins. Miz talks about Rollins facing Baron Corbin for the title at Super ShowDown but Brock Lesnar has promised to cash in Money in the Bank tonight. Seth says Miz is assuming that Lesnar will even show up tonight because Paul Heyman has a tendency to lie. True but STEPHANIE ordered it so it must be true.

Actually Rollins wants Lesnar to cash in so he can have a little relief, because he has a major title defense on Friday. No one likes Corbin but he is the #1 contender and Rollins needs to focus on stomping Corbin’s head into the mat. We cut to the back where Heyman and Lesnar arrive. Heyman says let’s cash it in and Lesnar hands him the briefcase before seriously walking towards the ring. They get to the entrance to the arena….and then walk down a hallway instead.

Here’s Lucha House Party for a match but Lars Sullivan comes out instead. The brawl is on until the luchadors manage to clear the ring.

Nikki Cross is upset so the IIconics mock her for teaming with Becky Lynch. Alexa Bliss comes in and asks if they have a Blooming Onion to eat somewhere. Billie calls Peyton her wifey and they’re ready to win a match tonight. Alexa: “Wow. That happened.” Alexa offers Cross coffee because she’s used to having no one like her. They seem to strike up a friendship.

Here’s Becky Lynch for a chat. She’s been doing some thinking and it’s time to make some changes. She was home for the first time in 63 days and it’s been a hectic schedule. Since then, she’s switched brands, won titles, made appearances and main evented Wrestlemania. Becky is content, but that’s the worst thing that can happen to a fighter like her. It makes them get passed over or beaten but that’s not happening.

That’s why she’s been woken up and it happened when Lacey Evans cost her the Smackdown Women’s Title. Becky swears revenge and here’s Lacey to cut her off. Lacey says Becky is like a dog chasing a car so Becky imitates her accent and promises to rip Lacey’s arm off. Lacey doesn’t like the idea of Becky representing the division but here’s Charlotte to interrupt.

Charlotte talks about taking the title from Becky, who asks where that title is now. Lacey calls Charlotte a daddy’s girl who needs attention so she’s out here like a peacock. Charlotte laughs it off by saying she’s more than halfway to breaking her dad’s record. On the other hand, Lacey has been here for about four minutes and all she’s done is make tea. Lacey sees the lack of titles for Charlotte at the moment so she can run along back to Smackdown. She decks Charlotte and it’s time for a match.

Lacey Evans vs. Charlotte

Charlotte goes straight at her as Becky watches from the floor. Lacey gets knocked next to Becky on the floor and it’s time for a breather. She gets back in for some power grappling until Charlotte sends her outside again and we take a break. Back with Charlotte stomping away in the corner and cutting Lacey off with some chops.

Charlotte knocks her to the apron but runs into a knee to the face, only to have Lacey miss a slingshot elbow (with Charlotte moving before Lacey ever jumped). The Figure Eight attempt is broken up and they collide in the middle of the ring for a double knockdown. Charlotte slowly gets up and Becky pulls her to the floor for the DQ at 10:12.

Rating: D+. Not much here and with Becky around on the floor, it was clear that she was going to be involved in the finish. I’m still not entirely sure why Lacey is getting this kind of a push aside from a lack of anyone else to get it, but she already lost to Becky once so it’s kind of hard to buy. At the same time, it’s getting harder and harder to care about Charlotte when they’re trying to get her to seventeen titles so fast. She hasn’t even been here four years yet so maybe they could slow down a bit?

Here’s the injured Rey Mysterio to vacate the US Title. After a quick talk about wrestling being in his blood and hoping his son will do the same, here’s Samoa Joe to cut Rey off before he can actually vacate the title. Joe says he heard the word champion and thought it was his cue. He knows what’s going on here: Rey is vacating the title because he knows Rey is scared and never actually beat him (the replays showed Joe’s shoulder was up). Rey says he’ll be back and vacates the title to Joe. That’s good for Joe, who jumps Rey and chokes him out before leaving with the title.

Cesaro is ready for Ricochet tonight because he’s not losing again.

Ricochet knows he can beat Cesaro and he’ll do it again.

And now, arm wrestling between Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman. Lashley slaps him then pulls his hand out before losing the regular match. That’s not cool with Lashley, who throws powder in Strowman’s face and suplexes him.

We look at Jinder Mahal attacking R-Truth on a golf course and winning the 24/7 Title. Then R-Truth rolled him up as well and ran off, being dragged along by the golf cart.

Carmella is looking for R-Truth with Drake Maverick and EC3 following her, knowing she’ll lead them to the title.

Nikki Cross vs. Peyton Royce

Alexa Bliss is in Nikki’s corner. Nikki gets sent into the corner to start but Peyton comes right back with a right hand to take over. A double arm crank over the ropes has Nikki in more trouble and it’s off to another arm crank on the mat. Peyton sends her head first into the mat and starts pulling on the arm some more. Nikki finally fights up but misses a high crossbody as this boring match continues. Hang on though as Bliss has coffee delivered. Peyton kicks it out of her hand though and Billie shoves Bliss, in white pants, into the coffee. Nikki uses the distraction to hit the hanging swinging neckbreaker for the pin at 5:58.

Rating: D-. Sweet goodness what a waste of time. Did they really just do this for a sight gag of Bliss slipping into coffee? It’s one thing if it leads to a face turn that sticks, but I’m not sure I can imagine that actually happening. The match itself was a disaster but face bliss has some serious potential.

Post match Bliss is ticked and DDTs Peyton until Nikki pulls her off.

Here’s Seth Rollins for Lesnar’s cash in. Brock’s music plays but he doesn’t come out so Rollins calls him out again. Instead he gets Baron Corbin, who promises to crush Rollins’ dreams on Friday. The fight is on with Corbin getting caught with an enziguri to the floor. Rollins hits a suicide dive and there’s Lesnar’s music again. Corbin hits End of Days though and NOW it’s Lesnar with a chair. Lesnar kicks Rollins low and unloads with the chair, followed by a German suplex.

Heyman wants him to cash in but instead Lesnar throws Rollins outside. Lesnar hits an F5 on the floor (with Rollins bouncing), followed by more chair shots. Heyman starts swearing about how this is the time but Lesnar suplexes Rollins again. Lesnar: “FRIDAY!” And they leave with no cash in, come back to hit Rollins in the back with the briefcase and chair, and leave again with Lesnar doing the boom box thing with the briefcase. Rollins does a stretcher job. As long as this doesn’t lead to more Stephanie promos, I can live with this.

Post break Rollins is put in an ambulance with Becky Lynch going with him.

It’s time for the Firefly Fun House with a very special episode. This time around, Bray wants to talk about….exercise. Wyatt introduces us to a new character: Huskus the Pig. Bray talks to him about his bad health habits but promises that one day, everyone will tell him that he’s a genius with the whole world in his hands. Then a Vince McMahon puppet with devil horns pops in and threatens to fire Huskus. This leads to a dance workout called the Muscle Man Dance, with Huskus, Vince and Bray all dancing. Now Huskus is in shape.

We recap the opening match and post match beatdown.

Here’s HHH for a chat. After he hears the NXT chants, he says he’s here to talk about Randy Orton. Before Orton can say anything, HHH says he knows what this is about: building up interest and maybe even getting in a fight. After twenty years together, what else is there left to say though? Orton says he’s not Batista so this isn’t going to be so easy. HHH says fair enough and talks about their early history together.

It’s true that Orton is one of the best ever but a lot of people have tried to put HHH down. They’re all gone and he’s still here, so Orton won’t do it either. HHH goes to leave but Orton tells him to retrieve his balls from Stephanie’s purse before Friday. HHH likes the idea, but they’re so big and hard to get out. Orton wouldn’t know though because he doesn’t have any. See you in Jeddah. This was as good as they were going to get for a thrown together match.

Corbin is ready to leave….so he can celebrate facing a beaten up Seth Rollins on Friday.

Ricochet vs. Cesaro

Cesaro starts fast with the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and it’s time to slowly stomp at the ribs. The chinlock doesn’t last long as Ricochet pops up with a very spinning headscissors to send Cesaro outside. A barricade walk (or stumble) sets up another hurricanrana sets up a middle rope moonsault to the floor as we take a break.

Back with Ricochet fighting out of a chinlock but getting caught with the apron superplex. Ricochet heads to the floor and tries the same thing he did last week but gets blocked this time. Instead it’s a Code Red attempt, which is countered into the Swing. Cesaro uppercuts him for two and rolls through a springboard high crossbody for two. Ricochet gets the same off a rollup, followed by another rollup for the pin at 9:13.

Rating: C+. A few botches held this back and HAHA CESARO LOSES AGAIN. That’s all he does around here and I don’t know why anyone was expecting it to be anything different this time around. If only there was a title that was being vacated earlier tonight that could have been on the line here. Or say a title being vacated earlier in the night that the winner could have fought Samoa Joe for instead of just handing it to him. Oh well. Why go with something when you can go with nothing?

Post match Cesaro decks Ricochet again and goes under the ring for a ladder. For some reason he throws that away and finds a table….with R-Truth on it. Ok that actually got me. The chase is on but Cedric Alexander flip dives onto the mob for some reason, allowing R-Truth to get in the ring. Drake Maverick is ready for him but Carmella superkicks him down. The chase is on again.

Here’s Undertaker with five minutes left in the show to address Goldberg. Undertaker asks if you ever think about what happens when you face death every time. Do you choke at the stench of the souls that are already gone? Goldberg will find out on Friday and Undertaker doesn’t want the family. Undertaker wants the unstoppable icon GOLDBERG. If Goldberg brings anything less, their first match will be his last. When the reaper beckons, you answer his call, because Undertaker will claim his soul for all eternity. Goldberg is next. And we’re off the air less than a second after Undertaker finishes talking.

Overall Rating: D. Maybe I’m just getting numb to how terrible things are around here but this one wasn’t as terrible. They didn’t waste as much time getting to the first match but they certainly wasted time getting to everything else. The biggest problem here was they just spent SO much time talking. They really can’t trim a few minutes from some of those segments and let someone get in a five minute match so they can at least be on television for a change?

They could sum up some of those promos with a few lines from commentary but instead it’s just people standing there talking for seven or eight minutes at a time and get something a little more interesting on the show. At least some of the talking with the build towards Super ShowDown served a purpose, but it doesn’t make for a better show. This show still needs a completely fresh direction and that clearly wasn’t the case this week.

Results

Drew McIntyre/Revival b. Usos/Roman Reigns – Claymore to Jey

Charlotte b. Lacey Evans via DQ when Becky Lynch interfered

Nikki Cross b. Peyton Royce – Hanging swinging neckbreaker

Ricochet b. Cesaro – Rollup

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