IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 12, 2004
Location: Allstate Arena, Chicago, Illinois
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the go home show for Backlash and we’ve actually got a big time main event this week. Last time, we had a huge closing angle to set up an eight man tag main event with Evolution facing off with Mick Foley/Shelton Benjamin/Shawn Michaels/Chris Benoit. The question now is can they live up to the hype. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of the eight man tag being set up, starting with HHH being counted out against Shelton.

A bandaged Shelton yells at Eric Bischoff (with Johnny Nitro in the background, somehow still with Barbie) for letting everything happen last week. Threats are made but Shelton’s partners come in to get him out before it gets bad. Foley takes Barbie back and violence is promised later.

Here’s Foley for the opening chat. Foley tells us to be very very quiet because he’s hunting Randys. Barbie is back where she belongs but tonight, he has to hand her over to someone, just not a nimrod like Johnny Nitro. Tonight he’s going to have to follow a few rules that won’t let him do what he wants to Orton. This is going to be his first match on Raw in four years and with his incredible partners behind him, he’s going to do some Mick Foley romping and stomping.

This is one of the reasons Foley is my favorite wrestler of all time. Instead of playing multiple characters and rarely acknowledging the previous versions. Foley however is the real person who can turn into whatever he needed at the time. It’s such a different way of doing different characters and rather fascinating.

Kane vs. Grandmaster Sexay

Well there’s a surprise return. This would be Sexay’s first match on Raw since May 2001. Kane looks disgusted by his mere presence and shrugs off the early right hands. A missed elbow lets Sexay get two and an enziguri staggers Kane again. The big boot (which didn’t connect) puts Sexay down and it’s the side slam into the chokeslam for the pin. Not as much of a squash as you would have expected.

Trish Stratus is annoyed at having to face Chris Jericho on Sunday. Eugene comes up and recognizes the makeup lady but calls Trish s***. William Regal comes in for the save and Christian calms her down. He’ll do the work on Sunday and Trish can get the pin.

Tajiri vs. Five Star Ninja

Feeling out process to start with Tajiri getting the better of a wristlock battle. The Ninja strikes away but gets kicked in the arms, followed by the handspring elbow. Tajiri goes for the mask but gets kicked in the back of the head. King: “Don’t tug on Superman’s cape and don’t ever try to unmask a ninja.” The referee gets poked in the eye and doesn’t see Coach break up the Tarantula with a cheap shot. That’s only good for two as JR makes fun of Coach’s screaming. Tajiri kicks him twice in a row for the fast pin.

Rating: D. I’m fine with them setting up something like this as it’s an actual story with a reason for the two to be fighting and a way to get to the match. That’s more than you get with a lot of the things around here so somehow, this is better than a lot of the current stories. Not bad, especially considering how low level this is.

Of course it’s Snow.

Ric Flair yells at Bischoff about Shelton and gets a match with him at Backlash. He opens the door and is immediately punched out by Shelton, who seems to become the only wrestler in history to actually watch the show live on a monitor. A beatdown ensues and Flair is left laying.

HHH talks about how the main event of Wrestlemania was great but now they all have something to prove. Benoit needs to prove that it wasn’t a fluke. Shawn needs to prove that he’s still the Showstopper. HHH will prove that he’s still the best in the world.

It’s time for the Highlight Reel with JR mentioning that this is the arena where Jericho debuted. Jericho can’t wait for Backlash because he’ll finally be getting the match he’s wanted since Wrestlemania. What a long wait it must have been. He rips on Trish some more, saying it’s Y2J vs. CLB vs. FDDBBTH and once he gets the W, their careers will DOA and they’ll be MIA, just like DDP, forced to sell DVDs of the OC from HBO on AOL and QVC at the DMV and all the while, Trish will wish she had a little Vitamin C baby.

Jericho knows Trish likes it rough, so he starts barking. That brings up the clip of Trish barking for Vince three years ago, complete with some added sound effects. You can imagine the name that Jericho calls her as a result and brings up last week’s loss in the battle royal. That brings him to Lita, his guest for the week. Lita comes out but Trish jumps her, drawing out Bischoff to make a match.

Lita vs. Trish Stratus

Joined in progress with Trish hammering away and Jericho still at ringside. That means Christian comes out to even things up as Trish gets two off a bicycle kick. The chinlock keeps Lita down for a long time until Lita fights up with a knee in the corner. Stratusfaction is countered into a belly to back suplex and some HORRIBLE right hands keep Trish in trouble. A Russian legsweep gets two and Trish misses a charge to send her outside. Lita suicide dives onto her but Christian whips her into the barricade for the DQ.

Rating: D. Just a mess of a match and Lita’s comeback wasn’t exactly strong. I know these two are considered the greatest women ever until the Women’s Revolution but they really leave a lot to be desired more often than not. To be fair though, compared to some of the other women of their era, they were leaps and bounds ahead and I get why they’re beloved.

Post match Jericho beats the heck out of Christian but takes too long going for the Walls on Trish, allowing Christian to beat him down. Trish slaps Jericho in the face, allowing Christian to hit back to back Unprettiers. The Chick Kick wraps it up.

La Resistance wants to show the United States the error of their ways and they’ve moved to Quebec to be closer to their mission. As Conway goes on a rant against America, Eugene comes in behind them and plays with the Quebec flag. Regal makes the save.

Here’s Johnny Nitro for a chat. Nitro isn’t happy with what Edge did last week and would like Edge out here right now. Cue Edge, with his hand still in a cast. Nitro gets to the point: if Edge uses the cast against Kane, he’s suspended. Edge doesn’t care and spears Nitro down.

Sylvan Grenier vs. Hurricane

Feeling out process to start with Hurricane scaring him down off the superhero pose. A cheap shot in the corner doesn’t work for Grenier but he drops Hurricane ribs first across the top rope. Grenier knees him in the ribs a few times and sends Hurricane into the corner to stay on the ribs. We hit the abdominal stretch as Lawler thinks JR should steal Hurricane’s mask and be the Lone Ranger. A gutbuster gets two….and here’s Eugene with a stuffed bunny for Conway. That’s a no so he tries Grenier instead, with the bunny being ripped in half. The distraction sets up the Eye of the Hurricane to end Grenier.

Rating: D-. While Trish vs. Lita wasn’t very good, this was just really dull and there’s no other way to put it. La Resistance as the evil French (Canadian) guys isn’t interesting and putting them with Eugene isn’t going to make that any better. It’s a case of characters not working and WWE chugging away with them anyway because they don’t know when to give up, which is never a good idea.

Shawn Michaels has been asked how he’s going to top the Wrestlemania triple threat. It’s easy: He’s Shawn Michaels and that’s what he does. Three men are going to try to top what they did, but only one is walking out World Heavyweight Champion. “Why? Because I’m Shawn Michaels.” is the most Shawn answer ever and also rather accurate.

Smackdown Rebound, looking at JBL becoming #1 contender because there’s nothing else going on around there.

Video on Mick Foley’s history of violence, including clips of the Japanese death matches. This is just a way to catch the newer fans up and that’s fine.

Orton is very scared as he realizes what he’s gotten himself into.

Backlash rundown.

Chris Benoit talks about Wrestlemania being the biggest night of his life. It wasn’t about luck because it was all the hard work paying off. He’s going to do it again at Backlash and luck will have nothing to do with it. These short promos have all been very good.

Evolution vs. Shawn Michaels/Chris Benoit/Shelton Benjamin/Mick Foley

Shawn and Flair get things started in a good idea, though there aren’t many bad combinations to be found here. Flair gets sent into the corner and Shawn gives us a strut and WOO. A slap to the face sets up the Flair Flop, which still gets a reaction because it’s a funny spot. Some chops set up the backdrop and it’s off to Foley for the running knee lift. A right hand knocks Flair into the falling tag to HHH….which doesn’t count for whatever reason. The announcers sound confused as well and I can’t blame them.

Anyway, Benoit comes in to fire off some chops to Flair, who crawls over to tag HHH. This one counts, despite the referee’s back being to them this time. I know he’s been around forever but come on Chioda. Benoit throws HHH from corner to corner, including a trip to the good corner for some shots to the head. The jumping knee gets HHH out of trouble but it’s way too early for the Pedigree. It’s not too early for the Sharpshooter though and everything breaks down (BIG pop for that). Evolution is cleared out and Shawn dives onto everyone but Orton.

Back from a break with Benoit in trouble and HHH coming in sans tag (it doesn’t really matter) to choke away. Some chops to Flair allow the first hot tag to Foley for a right hand to knock Orton off the apron. The running knee in the corner rocks Flair and Shelton springboards in with a clothesline. A low bridge sends Benjamin to the floor though and HHH whips him into the corner for bad measure.

Back in and Shelton fights out of the corner until a spinebuster plants him all over again. The abdominal stretch goes on (with Orton pulling from the apron) for a bit until Foley comes in for a save. That’s not enough for the save though as Flair hammers away to keep Benjamin in trouble. We haven’t seen much from Batista so he gets to stomp on Benjamin’s ribs until a Dragon Whip finally allows the hot tag to Michaels. Shawn cleans house and hits the flying forearm on Orton, only to nip up into Batista’s big clothesline.

Everything breaks down and Shawn drops the top rope elbow on Orton. Sweet Chin Music hits Flair but Shawn walks into an RKO. It takes a long time to cover though, allowing Benoit to make the save with a Swan Dive. Foley backdrops HHH to the floor to break up a Pedigree and grabs the Mandible Claw on Orton. Batista makes the save but Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music on Orton for the pin.

Rating: B+. Who knew that putting eight highly talented wrestlers, including some of the best ever, in a long match with some very good young guys and letting them all do something would result in an awesome match? The crowd ate this up and the fact that they had so many Backlash matches in one showcase was all the better. This was a blast and flew by with a great ending to make it even better. Check this out if you get the chance.

Benoit and Shawn stare each other down as HHH pulls himself up between them to end the show.

Overall Rating: C+. As usual, this did what matters most for a go home show by making me want to see the pay per view. They built things up, even if the stories aren’t that great in the first place (Coach vs. Tajiri). The big matches look awesome though and the show has the potential to be outstanding, with this being the last big push that it might have needed. The main event is the only thing worth seeing, but the show did its job.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: September 10, 2018
Location: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, Louisiana
Commentators: Renee Young, Michael Cole, Corey Graves

It’s the go home show for Hell in a Cell, though I’m not sure how much attention that is going to get since we’re about a month away from Super Show-Down and a month and a half away from Evolution. WWE doesn’t seem to mind about going that far into the future so Sunday might not get the most attention. Let’s get to it.

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

Here are Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman to open things up with the roster (the lower portions of it that is) around the ring. Dolph says we told you so because they beat the Shield down. We get a recap of Strowman vs. Reigns, which has morphed into the trio vs. the Shield. This led up to last week’s huge beatdown, with most of the roster getting together to wreck the Shield, with Seth Rollins nearly being thrown through a police van window.

Back in the arena, Strowman calls Ziggler and McIntyre his Dogs of War, which really doesn’t fir a guy wearing pink tights. Cue the Shield to beat down the guys at ringside with Dean Ambrose busting out some ax handles to make things easier. Strowman, Ziggler and McIntyre bail and Shield stands tall to wrap a pretty hot opening. Above all else: it was eleven minutes, not twenty.

Earlier today, the Riott Squad wrecked the Bellas’ locker room. That’s like desecrating a national monument.

The Shield is trying to keep up the fight but cops cut them off. Baron Corbin tells Shield to get out or forfeit their titles. Rollins, seemingly with a plan, says no problem and they leave.

Nikki Bella vs. Ruby Riott

Ruby headlocks her down to start as the announcers IMMEDIATELY start talking about how the Bellas are such legends and how the locker room reveres them. Maybe if the Total Bellas cameras are around. An STO gives Riott two but Nikki hits that lame spear. Ruby kicks the rope to send Nikki outside though and we take a break.

Back with Nikki hitting a spinebuster and some clotheslines, followed by the Disaster Kick (one of the few things that looks good) for two. Sarah Logan offers a distraction though and it’s a Downward Spiral to give Riott two of her own. Back up and the Rack Attack 2.0, with Brie intercepting Logan, is good for the pin on Riott at 9:13.

Rating: D+. Perfectly watchable match, which is about par for Nikki. That’s all well and good(ish), but you would think the twins were Moolah and Trish in their primes based on the commentary. It’s kind of hard to take that seriously when you see what the other women, if nothing else some of the bigger names in the Mae Young Classic, are doing.

Big Show is on the stage with some pediatric cancer survivors. Cool indeed.

More kids got wrestling personas. Stephanie handles their introductions because of course. Gripes about narration aside, there is nothing wrong with this whatsoever and it’s always going to bring at least a smile.

Show talks about how greater these kids are than wrestlers trying to win a match. Each one gets their own introduction.

We look back at last week’s Shawn vs. Undertaker segment. I really hope this doesn’t set up Shawn getting back in the ring.

Drake Maverick gives AOP (yes that seems to be their official name, likely because Vince had a random idea one night) a pep talk. I’m sure they’ll need it.

AOP vs. Ronnie Ace/Nathan Bradley

Ace tries his luck on Rezar, earning himself an early fall away slam. A powerslam puts Bradley onto Ace and it’s the Super Collider for the pin at 1:18.

Video on Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton in the Cell.

HHH arrives in a limo.

Here’s HHH for a chat. HHH talks about how the era was back and the upcoming Undertaker match was on. Undertaker dominated a poll among the fans and that didn’t bother him. It did however bother Undertaker last week when Shawn Michaels picked HHH. He watched it back and Undertaker hadn’t lost respect for HHH or Shawn, but for himself. Undertaker has lost a lot since those matches and now he’s just a reputation. Now it’s personal though and HHH is going to put him down. More great stuff here as they’re doing everything they can (and succeeding) to turn this into an epic showdown.

We recap Shield’s issues tonight.

Tag Team Titles: Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre vs. B Team

The B Team is challenging. Ziggler and Dallas start things off with Bo hitting an early neckbreaker for two. Axel comes in and slugs away as we take a break. Back with McIntyre working on an armbar before stomping on Axel’s hand. A superkick into a reverse Alabama Slam gives McIntyre two but Axel catapults Ziggler into the corner. Everything breaks down and Ziggler rakes Dallas’ eyes, setting up the Zig Zag/Claymore combination to retain at 8:48.

Rating: D. The B Team are still comedy guys and there’s still no reason to believe that Ziggler and McIntyre shouldn’t slaughter them. They were fine for what they were as short form comedy goofs but they were designed to lose huge to a better team. There’s nothing wrong with that, but this match should have been what the title change was: near if not complete and utter dominance.

Post match Ambrose and Rollins run in to beat down Ziggler and McIntyre, who bail before McIntyre can get Stomped.

Video on the Undertaker vs. Mankind Cell match, with Foley being here tonight to commemorate the 20^th anniversary. I mean, it was two and a half months ago but points for the thought? Maybe?

Corbin yells at Ambrose and Rollins for coming back in but they insist that they’re individuals and not the Shield. They threaten to have Corbin arrested for filing a false police report last week with the local sheriff coming in to read him his rights. Corbin wants to talk in private and Dean says they won’t press charges. WWE really needs to have David Otunga explain how law works.

Kevin Owens vs. Tyler Breeze

Cole: “We thought Kevin Owens had quit.” Well he did quit, but what we’re curious about is why he’s back. No match as Owens wrecks Breeze before the bell and gives him the apron bomb.

Post destruction, Owens says Corbin immediately called him after he quit and begged Owens to come back. Owens agreed, under the condition that he suffers no consequences for his actions. Therefore Owens is back and blames Bobby Lashley injuring Sami Zayn for the whole thing. This is still his show and you can expect agony, anarchy and destruction. You can almost picture Lashley’s hand being raised from here.

Video on AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, which is miles ahead of anything on Raw at the moment.

Bobby Roode/Chad Gable vs. Ascension

Rematch from last week where the new team won. Gable tags himself in to suplex Viktor a few times but Konnor kicks him in the face. The chinlock goes on early and it’s Konnor’s running splash setting up a Viktor jumping knee for two. Gable backdrops his way to freedom and hands it off to Roode to clean house. Roode loads up the GLORIOUS pose but Gable tags himself in again and hits Rolling Chaos Theory for the pin at 3:16.

Rating: D. They’re not exactly hiding what they’re going for here and that’s not the worst idea in the world. There’s a story there of having Gable turn heel because his partner isn’t doing enough, but WWE isn’t likely to think that way with a story like this. What we’re getting is long overdue though and finally getting it done is the right call. I mean, it should have happened months ago but at least it’s happening.

WWE has been nominated for People’s Choice Awards. Good for them.

Ziggler is annoyed at the Shield being back when Corbin comes in to announce McIntyre and Ziggler defending the titles against Rollins and Ambrose. It’s what Stephanie would want you see. Strowman is off to hunt the Big Dog.

Ronda Rousey/Natayla vs. Alexa Bliss/Mickie James

Alicia Fox is in Bliss and James’ corner. Natalya and Bliss start things off with Bliss being taken down off a headlock. The basement dropkick gives Natalya two and it’s off to Rousey for a nice reaction. Of course Mickie comes in as well, meaning Rousey gets to toss her down and bring Natalya back in.

The threat of a Sharpshooter sends Mickie bailing to the ropes and Alicia gets in a cheap shot from the floor. Bliss comes back in for an armbar attempt, drawing Rousey in for a glare. Everything breaks down and a Hart Attack (with Natalya playing her father of course) takes us to a break.

Back with Bliss throwing Mickie into the corner but stopping to mock Rousey’s punches, allowing Mickie to make the hot tag. Rousey is a bit too aggressive though and Mickie gets in a cheap shot to give the villains control. Bliss stomps away in the corner and James kicks her in the ribs to put Rousey in some very rare trouble. Rousey start throwing punches though, including rolling into a right hand to Bliss. James gets tossed around and the armbar is good for the tap at 13:53.

Rating: C. Perfect formula based tag match here and that’s a good idea for Rousey. They were playing up the rib injury here and that’s the kind of thing that can give Sunday’s match a little flavor. You can only have her steamroll people for so long and while the idea of Bliss hanging with her is a stretch at least, someone has to do it.

Post match Bliss kicks Rousey in the ribs to bang them up a little more.

Video on the Smackdown Women’s Title match. I can dig this cross promotion.

We run down Sunday’s card.

Elias spits water at someone when Strowman comes through the hallway, screaming for Roman.

Rousey is ready to fight again and doesn’t worry about her ribs.

Here’s Elias to talk about how he’s perfected rock and roll. The fans certainly seem to approve and he wants to know who wants to walk with him. Of course he makes fun of the Saints, swearing the Drew Brees told him that the season was already over. Cue Mick Foley, with a bad looking perm, to interrupt.

Foley says he’s a big fan and while Elias isn’t Nita Strauss, Elias doesn’t have a sincere bone in his body. Elias talks about being in the arena to watch Foley vs. Undertaker inside the Cell. That was a special moment but now Foley is a sad man who has been singing the same sad song for twenty years.

Foley actually isn’t here to discuss the past but rather the future. Apparently Foley lives pretty close to Stephanie McMahon and went to her with an offer. He wants to be part of Sunday’s show, which has made him flash back to 1998. That night, Foley got off the stretcher and got back on the cage. That’s why this Sunday, he’s going to be the guest referee for Reigns vs. Strowman. Elias doesn’t like the idea and tells Foley to leave while he can. That’s not cool with Foley, who is allowed to make one match tonight to take some pressure off of Corbin. The match is after a break.

Strowman wrecks more stuff.

Elias vs. Finn Balor

Elias starts fast with a clothesline and we hit the early neck crank. That lasts even less time than usual as Balor is back up with a basement dropkick. Elias whips him hard into the corner though and grabs a nerve hold. Balor pops back up again and hits a Sling Blade, only to charge into a jumping knee. Back from a break with Balor sending him to the floor but Elias charges back in with a hard clothesline. An electric chair Batista Bomb gets two but Balor grabs a small package for the pin at 10:18. It’s as sudden as it sounds.

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here, again, as neither really has anything going on at the moment. That being said, I’ll take this over another Balor vs. Corbin match anytime as at least this one had some potential to be entertaining, just from Elias having a microphone. At least they both made it onto the show, and that’s about all the positives there are here. Just a match really.

Earlier today, Bobby Lashley was working out when Lio Rush was talking him up. Lashley got a bit annoyed but told Rush to motivate him. I’ll take the cruiserweights doing these little roles. It’s far better than signing new talents when you already have them there in the first place.

Strowman knows Reigns is here and is going to call him out from the ring.

Undertaker is here next week.

Here’s Strowman to call out Reigns. No one shows up and Strowman says Reigns won’t be able to run on Sunday. Strowman will get his hands on Reigns and then hurt Foley far worse than Undertaker ever did. Reigns pops up on the announcers’ table so Strowman goes after him, earning himself a Samoan drop off said table through part of the stage to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. This show has gotten lost and is having a really hard time getting out. Again, at least part of that is due to trying to hype up multiple shows at once. The big story is still Undertaker vs. HHH with Reigns vs. Strowman a close second. The problem is they’re not making me believe that this Sunday’s show means much. It’s pretty clear that we’re heading to a big six man tag between the top trios and while that’s good, it’s not exactly making me want to see the next matches.

Results

Nikki Bella b. Ruby Riott – Rack Attack 2.0

AOP b. Ronnie Ace/Nathan Bradley – Super Collider

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre b. B Team – Zig Zag/Claymore combination to Dallas

Chad Gable/Bobby Roode b. Ascension – Rolling Chaos Theory to Viktor

Ronda Rousey/Natalya b. Alexa Bliss/Mickie James – Armbar to James

Finn Balor b. Elias – Small package

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/09/07/new-book-kbs-complete-smackdown-2003-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: April 5, 2004
Location: Toyota Center, Houston, Texas
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross

We’re less than two weeks away from Backlash and things are already starting to come together. It’s a rare case of the Raw crew being miles ahead of their Smackdown brethren as the combined forces of Chris Benoit, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley and Shelton Benjamin fight Evolution. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of Shelton beating HHH. Still a very nice surprise.

Opening sequence.

Here’s HHH (with his music only starting halfway down the ramp) to open things up. He’s not happy with some young punk coming over from Smackdown and thinking he can get in the ring with the greatest wrestler alive today. Then the guy (HHH won’t say his name) actually WINS and gets his hand raised. It was just a fluke though and it’s not happening again in a million years.

Just like Chris Benoit beating HHH again in a rematch of the greatest main event in Wrestlemania history. See, this time Benoit is in the same place that HHH was in before: he doesn’t even have to get beaten to lose the title. The odds are stacked so high against Benoit in the first place but when you consider that both triple threat matches include HHH, it’s just impossible.

Cue Shelton Benjamin to brag about winning, much to HHH’s annoyance. Shelton actually challenges him to a rematch tonight but HHH doesn’t sound impressed. He turns the rematch down but it’s him doing a favor for Shelton. No one beats HHH. Shelton: “Correction: I did.” That’s enough for HHH to accept the rematch for tonight. HHH: “It’s going to be the greatest wrestler in the world vs…..what the h*** ever your name is.” Shelton laughs it off because after tonight, HHH can call him Mr. Benjamin. Longer than necessary (as always with HHH) but the no name thing was great and Shelton sounded good.

Video on the recent trip to Mexico.

Chris Benoit vs. Rob Conway

Non-title. Hang on though as Johnny Nitro (now coming out to the old Nitro theme song for a little flashback) is guest referee again, despite his arm being in a sling. Benoit goes straight to the chops but stops to yell at Nitro. Sylvan Grenier grabs the champ’s foot and Conway rakes the eyes. A snap suplex gets two and it’s off to a neck crank.

Benoit powers out and throws more chops, followed by a backbreaker for two. A snap suplex to Conway takes out Nitro so La Resistance comes in for what would eventually become known as the Magic Killer, which gets two from a replacement referee (who apparently saw the bump but not the interference). The Crossface makes Conway tap.

Rating: C-. Conway’s time on offense wasn’t the best but Benoit didn’t have much trouble and beat up a team who wasn’t exactly intimidating in the first place. Nitro makes for a nice little pest and hopefully they leave it at that instead of going with Benoit vs. Bischoff in the same old story.

The returning William Regal comes in to see Bischoff but Eric isn’t sure he can have a job. After a discussion of Regal joining Vince’s club, Bischoff says he’s brought Regal here to manage a special talent. He’s in his 20s, 6’1 and 240lbs and a very “special” talent. His name is Eugene Dinsmore, and Regal thankfully agrees.

Chris Jericho vs. Matt Hardy

Matt has broken his nose three times and never over-orders in restaurants. Trish Stratus and Christian bring a chair to the stage and watch the match, allowing Matt to get in a cheap shot from behind to start. An elbow to the back sets up Matt pulling on both of Jericho’s arms but Jericho scores with the running bulldog. The Lionsault misses and the Walls are broken up so Jericho hits the running enziguri instead. Now the Walls are enough to make Matt tap.

Rating: D+. Just a quick match here but it gives Jericho a win for the sake of some momentum, which he really needs after everything that’s happened to him in recent weeks. Matt’s losing streak continues because that’s his lot in life for some reason. The match didn’t have time to go anywhere, but this wasn’t really supposed to be competitive.

Christian kisses Trish to mess with Jericho some more.

Mick Foley is sitting in a rocking chair with a box over his lap and a flower in his hand. As he smells the flower, he talks about never forgetting your first time. During his career, he would pick up a few during the week, use them for a few days, and hand them off to a lucky fan. He means the flannel shirts of course, and he got his first one in 1977. The other day he found the original one, and that brought him back to the hardcore state of mind.

Hardcore isn’t about chairs or trashcans, but about being willing to put himself through unimaginable pain for the sake of the fans. When he went to Japan and took part in some barbaric matches, he did what he had to do for the sake of paying the bills. Foley has sworn that he would never do that again or even watch the matches, but now he’s seen them all fresh. He did some inhumane things but they didn’t catch his eyes.

No it was his eyes that caught his eye because deep down, maybe there was a little part of him that didn’t mind hurting people like that. Maybe deep down he loves it. Foley did those things to people he didn’t hate so what is he going to do to someone like Orton, who has done so many things to him?

Everyone promises to hurt someone, but that’s not what Foley is going to do to Orton. He’s going to use one of his old friends named Barbie (which he takes out of the box) and use it to cave Orton’s skull in, drawing the kind of blood usually reserved for special effects in Mel Gibson Biblical epics. Foley uses Barbie to break the set and promises to love it. This was the Foley that we’ve been needing to see and you believe every word he said.

Orton watches this and is as scared as he should be. Flair’s pep talk doesn’t work this time, nor does HHH talking about beating Shelton.

Shelton Benjamin vs. HHH

Before the match, Flair is in the ring and demands his own introduction. According to Bischoff, anyone out here must be on official business. Therefore, Flair is your announcer, Batista is timekeeper, and Orton is the official trainer (complete with stool and spit bucket). JR: “This is starting to reek like nine week old cheese.” HHH is all annoyed and punches him into the corner to start.

A crossbody gives Shelton two so JR lists off all of his college accolades. HHH cuts him off with a spinebuster and throws Shelton outside for a drop onto the barricade from Batista. Back in and Shelton scores with some right hands until a facebuster cuts him off again. HHH shouts a lot but charges into a raised boot as Lawler is starting to get a little nervous. The Stinger Splash (which finished HHH last week) sends HHH outside with Shelton catapulting HHH into the post for the countout win.

Rating: D. The wrestling was nothing but that’s not the point here. Shelton gets another win over HHH and even defeats the forces of Evolution to pull it off. He already has the pinfall win so while the countout wasn’t as impressive, it’s a huge relief to have HHH lose again instead of getting his win back. I’m not sure how smart it is to do this before he’s main eventing a pay per view, but this could be more important in the long term.

Post match the Evolution beatdown is on with Shelton being busted open. Benoit, Michaels and Foley (with Barbie) make the save.

After a break, Bischoff storms the commentary booth and says Shelton is going to the hospital. Benoit, Michaels and Foley are getting yelled at later.

Battle Royal

Lita, Jazz, Nidia, Molly Holly, Stacy Keibler, Gail Kim, Trish Stratus

That goes nowhere so here’s Jericho to cheer for Lita. You know, the other person involved in his bet with Christian. Trish hangs on as Lawler is worried about her damaged pectoral muscles. Jericho trips Trish though and Lita dropkicks her out (through the bottom two ropes) for the title shot.

Rating: F. Sweet goodness what’s the point? No really, I’d love an explanation of why this was a seven woman battle royal when about three seconds of the four and a half minutes that we saw had more than two people involved. Just do a triple threat match or something but don’t do this, which was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen them air match wise.

Smackdown rebound, looking at the Great American Award Nominee matches.

Regal finds Eugene and let’s just get this over with. Eugene is of course mentally handicapped (you know the word they’re likely going to skirt around) and can barely say anything besides his own name. He does have a nametag saying “Hello, my name is Eugene.” Regal gets a hug and Eugene says “manager”. Regal calls Bischoff a dirty rotten swine.

Coach comes out to commentary to show Tajiri misting him last week.

Christian tells Trish that the match against Jericho at Backlash is actually a handicap match. Trish is NOT happy.

Christian vs. Tajiri

Coach is on commentary. Christian shrugs off some early kicks and it’s already time for Coach to come to the ring. Back up and Tajiri hits the handspring elbow, followed by the Tarantula. The Unprettier is broken up with another kick but Coach breaks up the Buzzsaw kick with a trip. Now the Unprettier connects to give Christian the fast pin.

Backlash rundown.

Regal leaves Eugene outside of Bischoff’s office before going inside to say Bischoff can’t put him with that window licker. Bischoff freaks out because Eugene has been left alone (like he was when Regal found him) and of course he’s gone. Eugene is now on commentary with Lawler saying “special” over and over. Lawler says Eugene’s gear is wacky so Eugene starts walking around like the Bushwhackers and licks Jerry. Regal comes in for the save and gets rid of Eugene, as this is already looking bad.

Kane vs. Rhyno

Rhyno gets jumped before the bell and Kane wraps his arm around the post. Back up and Rhyno slugs away, followed by a flying shoulder which breaks the middle rope. That always looks cool. The Gore gets two but Kane pops up with a big boot and the chokeslam for the pin. I wonder if the broken rope made that one shorter.

Post match here’s Edge, with a cast on his hand, for the brawl. Kane gets the better of it but goes for a chair, allowing Edge to lay him out with a cast shot.

Benoit and Michaels don’t think much of Bischoff’s orders to meet him in the ring. Last week’s near title win was awesome so Shawn has his back anytime. Until Backlash that is. Foley comes in and says they’re united tonight. Johnny Nitro shows up and makes Foley put the bat down. If anything happens to it, Nitro is responsible. Benoit hits Nitro in the bad arm.

Here’s Bischoff for the big show closing yelling. Benoit, Michaels and Foley come in and Bischoff makes an eight man tag with the three of them teaming up to face Evolution next week. Evolution’s music plays and they try to come in from behind so the fight can be on. HHH sledgehammers Shawn in the back and chairs Benoit down. A Pedigree onto the chair plants Benoit and Evolution stands tall with HHH holding the title up to end the show. Nice segment here and it’s going to make Shelton look all the more important when he’s there to even the odds next week.

Overall Rating: C+. They’re actually going somewhere at the moment and that’s a lot more than I was expecting. Benjamin is starting to get a push and putting him in the main event with that level of talent is a good sign for him. Jericho and Christian are still going pretty strong and we’ll see what can come out of the Edge vs. Kane stuff. Some of the stuff isn’t all that great, but there’s clearly a point to most of the stuff (even Coach vs. Tajiri is a story) and that’s WAY better than some the stuff this company was doing just a year or so ago.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: September 3, 2018
Location: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

As the months change, so do things around here on Raw. Last week saw Braun Strowman turn heel and join forces with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre for the sake of fighting the Shield. Now that being said, the fans aren’t likely to boo them anyway, because that’s just how things work with Roman Reigns. Let’s get to it.

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

Here are Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to open things up. After a clip of last week’s attack on the Shield, Strowman talks about how that was justice. Two weeks ago, Strowman was ready to become Universal Champion but the Shield got involved. All that Reigns had to do was take his beating like a man, but now we have to go a different way, like it or not.

Strowman says that he has a path now with Ziggler and McIntyre at his side. Inside the Cell, he’s going to break Reigns’ spirit and body and there is no one to stop him. McIntyre says no one will ever be as dominant as they are. Ziggler promises to be more dominant than any group ever, including the Nation of Domination or D-Generation X.

The challenge is thrown out so here’s the Shield, only to have Baron Corbin send out some goons to stop them. That goes nowhere so Corbin sends out more of them but they’re taken out as well. The third batch is finally enough to keep Shield back, though they eventually break free and chase Strowman and company to the back.

Post break, Shield is arrested and taken away in an ambulance.

Riott Squad vs. Bella Twins

The Bellas get the big entrance, including a plug for the premiere of Total Divas. Nikki hiptosses Morgan down to start as the announcers talk about Brie having a baby six months ago and all the wedding planning. A tornado flying armbar out of the corner gives Nikki two and it’s off to Brie for another armbar. It’s not enough to prevent a tag though and Morgan comes in for a kick to the back. It’s already back to Morgan, who get YES Kicked in short order.

The BRIE MODE knee hits Logan and Brie tries a suicide dive….but either completely botches it by getting caught on the ropes or Logan wasn’t ready to forearm her out of the air. Either way it looked like a disaster and takes us to a break. Back with Brie fighting out of a chinlock and diving over for the hot tag to Nikki. Everything breaks down and Brie botches another suicide dive, this time just not clearing the ropes. Nikki gives Morgan the Rack Attack 2.0 to finish things at 11:04 before Brie can botch anything else.

Rating: D-. Those two botches were terrible and didn’t do anything to get rid of the theory that the Bellas are really not very good in the ring. The announcers sounded like they were reading a list of awesome facts about the two of them and it felt more like a plug for Total Divas than a match. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them in the future, probably because the reality shows need new storylines. Lucky us.

Corbin is on the phone with Stephanie when Finn Balor comes in. Balor wants a rematch and thinks Corbin is overcompensating for something. Tonight, the rematch should be one on one, man against man. Corbin agrees, with the match taking place in two hours in the main event. He’s a more scheduled boss than Angle ever was.

Chad Gable and Bobby Roode are now a team because Roode has impressed him. It’s not like they have anything else to do.

Chad Gable/Bobby Roode vs. Ascension

Before the match, Konnor says Roode was a flash in the pan and couldn’t make it in the singles division. Then you have Gable, who is short. That’s not something you say to Gable, who German suplexes both of them and hands it off to Roode for a suplex of his own. Konnor takes him into the corner to stomp away and it’s off to the chinlock. Viktor gets in his own stomping before it’s back to Gable to clean house. A cannonball off the apron drops Konnor and it’s a missile dropkick to Viktor. Rolling Chaos Theory finishes Viktor at 6:01.

Rating: D+. I mean, it’s not like we have anything better for the tag division and there’s no need to bring in someone new when you have these people sitting around doing nothing. I’m fine with the team and maybe they’ll go somewhere. The match wasn’t too bad and once they get some chemistry together, things could go well. Take a shot and see what happens.

Here’s Elias to talk about living in an insane world and being slapped by an insane girl last week. The only solution is to follow him to the promised land. Last week Trish Stratus came out here and slapped him, which is clearly due to her struggling with the fact that WWE stands for WALK WITH ELIAS. Next up, what is up with the Ohio State Buckeyes? What is a Buckeye anyway? It’s not something like a Wolverine, which actually sounds intimidating.

Before he gets too far though, here’s hometown girl Alexa Bliss, along with Mickie James and Alicia Fox. Bliss is proud to be from here and graduated high school right here in this very building. She starts an OH-IO chant….and it’s time to rip on the crowd of course. She recognizes some of the zombies that she went to high school with and look where they are while she’s in the spotlight. Alexa apologizes for Trish’s actions last week and doesn’t even want to get started on Ronda Rousey and her pet cat Natalya. She’s like some music but here’s Rousey to interrupt.

Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss

Rousey, Fox and James are at ringside. Bliss hides in the ropes a few times to start before having a Stratusfaction attempt countered (with Cole and Graves making fun of each other and missing the move entirely). A hard forearm to the face drops Natalya in the corner so Fox and James can slap her a lot. Bliss hits a DDT and grabs an armbar to make Natalya scream a lot and tap at 3:14.

Rating: D. Anyone want to have a good match tonight? This was short and bad, though it did give Bliss some momentum before she gets annihilated by Rousey. The shorter time helped it a bit but when that’s about as high praise as you can give a match, it’s pretty clear that there’s a problem.

Post match Bliss stays on her but Rousey cleans house. Fox gets knocked to the floor but the distraction lets Bliss chop block Rousey. Some right hands send Bliss to the floor as Rousey is having trouble standing.

We recap the opening brawl.

Shield has been processed and fingerprinted at the precinct.

Corbin gives someone his Rolex to get cleaned. Not a good idea at 9:15 at night. Strowman and company come in with a demand for competition tonight. Drew and Dolph want a Tag Team Title shot tonight and imply that they’ll take out Revival to get their title shot. The two of them leave and Strowman tells Corbin to find him some competition tonight.

Revival is ready for their title shot when Ziggler and McIntyre jump them for the big beatdown.

Tag Team Titles: B Team vs. Revival

Tag Team Titles: B Team vs. Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre

The B Team is defending and McIntyre drops both of them in about five seconds. Dallas low bridges McIntyre to the floor though and Axel gets two off a backslide. A clothesline puts Ziggler on the floor and the champs actually make it to a break. Back with McIntyre holding Dallas in an armbar and getting two off a suplex.

Ziggler comes in for some right hands and kicks the air in front of Dallas’ knee to set up a dropkick. McIntyre gets caught in a neckbreaker and the hot tag brings in Axel for the PerfectPlex on Ziggler. A quick save lets everything break down and Axel eats a superkick. The Claymore into the Zig Zag gives us new champions at 10:10.

Rating: D+. Where do I start? First of all, if you want to get Ziggler and McIntyre over as killers, don’t have them take ten minutes to beat a pair of comedy guys. This should have been about 90 seconds long and ended in the opening domination. Second, if you want Ziggler to break out of the mold of being a midcarder who never gets to break into the main event picture, don’t have him win a title that is viewed as lower than the midcard title.

The Authors of Pain and Drake Maverick are walking in the back with Maverick in a matching vest.

Connor’s Cure video, with a kid dressed up as a wrestling superhero. Cancer can’t see him.

Authors of Pain vs. Rakib Thompson/Jimmy James

Before the destruction, Maverick says he’s the Authors’ new manager and they’ll win the Tag Team Titles. I mean….sure why not. The Super Collider is good for the pin at 52 seconds.

Remember last week’s videos where legends talked about HHH vs. Undertaker? Well here’s another video, this time featuring a lot of the same clips in a different order. I really hope they stop with this promoting three shows at the same time thing.

Rousey is checking on Natalya when the Bellas come in. Natalya leaves and the Bellas praise Rousey, using those acting abilities. They offer to be her training partners or to help her with outside ventures, like starting a business or writing a book. Rousey thanks them and they talk over each other.

Here’s Shawn Michaels to talk about HHH vs. Undertaker in Australia. After allowing fans to shower him with praise and plugging some things (new shirt, the Network and Super Show-Down), Shawn talks about his fellow Hall of Famers’ predictions for the match. He wonders if the Streak being over has something to do with the picks, but he’s still picking HHH. Yeah they’re best friends, but HHH still has more left in the tank.

At Super Show-Down, with Shawn in attendance, the Cerebral Assassin is going to cerebrally assassinate Undertaker….and there goes the gong. Undertaker comes out and in a really cool visual, the lighting flashes against Shawn’s shirt, making the heart logo flash on and off. After the two hour and seventeen minute entrance, Undertaker says this just became personal. He talks about HHH and Shawn’s twenty year friendship (minus the part where they tried to kill each other) and brings up taking Shawn’s career.

Shawn says that’s not what this is about. He’s a man of his word and someone had to be a man of his word by actually staying out of the ring. He’s the only person to stay retired and he’s done it out of respect for Undertaker. Cue the ONE MORE MATCH chants, which Shawn says he hears every time he steps into an arena.

For nearly a decade, everyone knocks on his door at Wrestlemania season, begging for a dream match and he has to turn down millions of dollars because he respects Undertaker. Shawn goes to leave, but Undertaker asks if it’s respect or fear. If Shawn had ever chosen to come out of retirement, it would have been for Undertaker, and he would have put him down all over again. In Australia, Undertaker is going to put HHH down again.

It’s a good segment and I want to see HHH vs. Undertaker again, but I’m worried about the match being a huge letdown. I can’t imagine that doesn’t close the show in a 20+ minute match and that’s not really Undertaker’s strong suit anymore. Teasing Shawn vs. Undertaker again isn’t the best idea as I can’t imagine Shawn actually working one more match, no matter what. Still though, this was effective and had the result they were shooting for.

Corbin comes in to see Balor and says they can’t have their match tonight. Don’t worry though because Balor can face Strowman instead. So they’re doing a bait and switch on a match they made an hour and forty minutes ago?

Shield has been arraigned. Harold T. Stone thinks that’s a fast court.

Sasha Banks/Bayley vs. Dana Brooke/Ember Moon

Remember when Moon was given the big debut on Raw about five months ago? Banks hits a seated Meteora and we take a break less than a minute in. Back with Moon headscissoring Bayley and hitting a spinning springboard crossbody to take both of them down. It’s off to Brooke, who has to fight out of the Backstabber. Titus Worldwide offers her advice but she says she has this. She’s rolled up for the pin a few seconds later at 5:53. This match totally needed that break in the middle.

Post match Brooke says she’s had it with Titus and Apollo and walks away.

Renee talks about Balor vs. Strowman tonight, even though the graphic still has Corbin’s picture on it. That’s a pretty rare error.

Bobby Lashley leaves Corbin’s office with a piece of paper. It’s a performance review (ERG), saying he’s rather violent and has to undergo meditation in the ring with Jinder Mahal tonight.

Jinder is in the ring for the meditation and Lashley joins him. There is an angry energy coming from Lashley so Mahal has him sit down on the rub and they talk about Lashley being water. Mahal says shanti over and over again until Kevin Owens runs in through the crowd and stomps on Lashley. A distraction from Mahal allows Owens to hit a superkick, followed by the apron powerbomb. Well it lasted longer than I thought it would.

Clip of Shawn/Undertaker.

Next week: Mick Foley.

Shield has posted bail and left the precinct.

Finn Balor vs. Braun Strowman

McIntyre and Ziggler are out with Strowman. Balor gets knocked down in a hurry to start and a side slam makes it even worse. A sleeper doesn’t do him much good either so it’s a low bridge to send Strowman outside as we go to a break. Back with Balor fighting out of a chinlock but being sent outside for his efforts.

That’s a little better for Balor, who catches Strowman with a Sling Blade on the floor. They head back inside with Balor trying another sleeper before avoiding a charge to send Strowman into the post. That means the running flip dive to all three villains and Balor is rolling. Back in and Balor slaps on a triangle choke but Strowman muscles his way out. The powerslam finishes Balor at 10:37.

Rating: C. Match of the night here by about a mile. There was a little history here with Strowman being Balor’s friend for all of five minutes before destroying him in the match. A clean win like this does give Strowman some more momentum heading into the Cell and that’s a good idea. It certainly means more than beating the comedy goons.

Post match the beating is still on until a police siren goes off. A police van backs into the arena and it’s Reigns driving. Ambrose and Rollins come out of the back but the roster jumps them from behind. Reigns gets crushed by the steps, Rollins is knocked off the stage and Ambrose is laid out on the announcers’ table. The big beatdown continues to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. The Undertaker/Shawn segment and the closing segment were god but that’s nowhere near enough to fix the rest of this dismal show. You could tell it was a holiday edition this week as there was no fire to anything and the wrestling was as dull as you could have imagined. I’m not sure what it says when two mostly retired wrestlers having a match to renew a rivalry that ended six and a half years ago are more interesting than another rather good rivalry going to the Cell, but that’s what they’ve managed to pull off here. It’s a really weak show and Raw isn’t showing any signs of getting better at the moment.

Results

Bella Twins b. Riott Squad – Rack Attack 2.0 to Morgan

Chad Gable/Bobby Roode b. Ascension – Rolling Chaos Theory to Viktor

Alexa Bliss b. Natalya – Armbar

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre b. B Team – Claymore/Zig Zag combination to Axel

Authors of Pain b. Rakib Thompson/Jimmy James – Super Collider to James

Bayley/Sasha Banks b. Dana Brooke/Ember Moon – Rollup to Brooke

Braun Strowman b. Finn Balor – Running powerslam

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 29, 2004
Location: US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s the first week with the new cast of characters and hopefully we can get something a little better than having the new wrestlers in completely run of the mill (at best) matches like last week’s Smackdown. HHH is already back on Raw, having never actually gone to Smackdown in the first place. You can’t have the company’s diamond on the B show or something like that. Let’s get to it.

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

We open with a recap of last week’s Draft Lottery and the trade that brought HHH back to Raw while sending Booker T. and the Dudley Boyz over to Smackdown.

Opening sequence.

Here’s Evolution, minus HHH, to open things up. Flair talks about being thrilled to defend the Tag Team Titles against Chris Benoit/Shawn Michaels tonight but they’re much happier about HHH being back in the Raw locker room. That’s it for the good stuff though, as Flair is tired of the lack of respect around here. There’s no respect for HHH and there’s no respect for Randy Orton, who defeated the hardcore champion (little slip there) Mick Foley at Wrestlemania.

More respect is demanded and Orton, who had a tonsillectomy last week, says he knows that Foley is a coward. Cue Foley to say Orton proved himself at Wrestlemania. That match showed that in a 3-2 situation, Orton can defeat a Hollywood actor and a guy who writes children’s books. That’s why Foley wants a one on one chance to face Orton at Backlash for the Intercontinental Title in a street fight with Evolution banned from ringside. In other words, if Orton agrees, he gets hurt. Orton actually agrees and Flair starts the pep talking.

La Resistance and Garrison Cade (Huh?) tell Tajiri to mist the next guy who comes through the door as his welcome to Raw. Eventually Coach comes in so screaming and flailing can ensue. The French guys say he’s in trouble because Coach is Eric Bischoff’s boy.

Nidia vs. Molly Holly

Let’s see how good Molly, who now has curly brown hair, really is. Molly takes her down with a judo throw and sends Nidia to the apron. That means a hard posting and Molly wraps the banged up arm around the ropes. The arm gets wrenched down some more but it’s fine enough to catapult Molly into the corner. A northern lights suplex gets two so Nidia pulls off the wig, setting up a rollup for the surprise pin. Nothing wrong with this one, though I don’t think anyone is buying Nidia as anything of note.

Clip of Edge returning last week and spearing Bischoff.

Bischoff isn’t happy with the clip being aired, Edge not being here, or Johnny Spade calling him EB. Edge gets Kane at Backlash.

Hurricane comes out for a match but HHH jumps him from behind. HHH doesn’t think much of the locker room being glad he was traded last week. Those people meant so little that Bischoff traded three of them to get him back. Bischoff wants this show to be the biggest in the world, which is why he needs HHH right here.

Now that he’s back on Raw (after being gone a total of zero weeks), Bischoff is going to come out here right now and give him the World Title shot at Backlash instead of Shawn Michaels. Bischoff comes out for some sucking up but since he’s already given Shawn the title shot and doesn’t want to annoy Steve Austin, he’ll just make another triple threat match. I’m really not sure that they should be running a rematch just a month later with no changes. But hey, we wouldn’t want to be without HHH.

Post break Batista yells at Shelton Benjamin for laughing at HHH last week. HHH knocks him into a cabinet and welcomes him to Raw.

Here’s Lance Storm for a chat. Storm says cut his bad music because he can’t stand it anymore. The having fun hasn’t gotten him anywhere because everyone is still mocking him. Last week he could have been drafted to Smackdown and gotten a new beginning. Cue Rhyno and it’s time for a match.

Lance Storm vs. Rhyno

Spinebuster and the Gore finish Storm in about thirty seconds.

Tajiri tries to apologize to Coach and Bischoff but Coach adds a few details to the story to get Tajiri a match with Kane instead. You kind of deserve it dude. Tajiri’s panicking is funny.

The WWE received an award from the USO.

Tag Team Titles: Chris Benoit/Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair/Batista

Flair and Batista are defending. Actually hang on as we have a guest referee in the form of Johnny Spade. Actually hang on again as that’s now Johnny Nitro. The threat of an early superkick sends Batista bailing to the floor, leaving Flair to have the Figure Four reversed into the Crossface. Batista makes a fast save so Shawn dives onto the two of them as the hot start continues. Somehow Batista is legal as Benoit starts in on his leg, followed by Shawn coming in for some splashes to the knee.

It’s off to Flair but Shawn takes him down into a quick Figure Four. With Nitro not knowing what to do, Flair grabs the rope for the break. Benoit chops him down in the corner and it’s already back to Batista. That doesn’t go well either as Shawn hammers away in the corner, knocks Flair off the apron, and continues punching Batista. A spinebuster finally gets Batista out of trouble as JR talks about Trish Stratus.

Flair butterfly suplexes Shawn and now it’s time for JR to complain about Nitro wearing a big belt buckle, suggesting that he’s heading to a rodeo after the show. I’ll let that one sink in for a second as the champs start in on Shawn’s ribs. Shawn gets in some chops though and it’s a double shoulder for a double knockdown. Flair goes up (JR: “Flair thinks he’s in Kentucky somewhere.”) and gets slammed down, allowing Benoit to come in and clean house.

The Sharpshooter to Flair is broken up in a few seconds so Shawn jumps Batista. A staredown with Nitro takes us to a break pretty late in the match and we come back with Benoit hitting an enziguri on Flair. Shawn comes in and everything breaks down again, with the legal Batista being knocked to the floor. The Swan Dive sets up Sweet Chin Music on Flair for the pin and the titles. The celebration doesn’t last long though as Nitro says Flair wasn’t legal so the match restarts. Shawn wastes no time in punching Nitro down for the DQ.

Rating: B-. Kind of messy at times but at least they didn’t go with the Tag Team Champions heading into a World Title match in a few weeks. The fans popped hard for the title change as you would have expected them to, though the match was nothing that hasn’t been done better before.

Post match, Nitro gets beaten up before.

Shelton comes in to Bischoff’s office and, thanks to an intervening Steve Austin, gets a match with HHH instead. I didn’t realize this was so soon after the Draft. Unless there’s a small cameo later, that’s Austin’s last appearance until next Wrestlemania.

It’s time for the Highlight Reel with Trish Stratus as the guest. Before she comes out though, Jericho has to promise revenge. See, he can’t do anything or he’ll get fined and suspended, but tonight is all about an explanation. This brings out Trish, doing the Jericho pose first. Trish says that Jericho can’t touch her, even if he wants to. She talks about the knee injury that kept Jericho from saving her, even though “Hello, I’m Trish Stratus.”

Christian was there for her at her hotel room though and he explained everything. Jericho just tried to use her like he used Christian. Trish is a three time Babe of the Year and he’s not even in her league. She and Christian planned all night long, plus did something else all night long. I hope not at the same time. Jericho calls her the s*** of the century and Trish freaks, as she should.

Jericho: “All I did was put my foot in my mouth, and that’s nothing compared to what you put in your mouth.” Kurt Angle isn’t the one who really sucks and Trish may be a three time Babe of the Year, but wasn’t Babe a talking pig? Jericho congratulates the CLB and the FDDBBFTBH (filthy, dirty etc.) and even starts a chant of the second, which is enough to get Trish to leave. Trish’s stuff was fine, even though it didn’t really explain anything new. Jericho’s response though was great as he had some hilarious lines and had Trish looking like she was going to kill him.

Post break Trish freaks out to Christian, who has gotten another match with Jericho at Backlash.

Tajiri vs. Kane

No DQ. Tajiri strikes away to start but the handspring elbow only knocks Kane back a step. The big boot puts Tajiri down but he ducks the top rope clothesline. The Tarantula attempt works as well as you would expect and they head to the floor. A posting has no effect so Tajiri mists him and dives back in for the countout win.

Post match Kane chokeslams Tajiri, taking away whatever limited benefit Tajiri got from the win. Edge runs in to spear Kane.

Benoit tells Benjamin to take HHH down because no one likes him. Hurricane and Mick Foley want him to do the same.

Smackdown Rebound, looking at Kurt Angle being announced as GM and the new talent making their debuts. JBL also gets a focus, because that’s the world we live in.

Flair gives HHH a pep talk.

Shelton Benjamin vs. HHH

Shelton now has his own generic rock music. HHH takes him into the corner to start and offers a polite slap to the face for the break. Shelton easily wrestles him down twice in a row, with a little slap of his own after the second. A shoulder drops Shelton but he pops up before HHH can even try the knee drop. The Pedigree is escaped but HHH says it was that close. A backslide gives Shelton a very close two and he does the “that close” gesture right back to HHH (which was in Shelton’s Titantron video for a long time).

HHH chops away in the corner as the fans remind HHH that he tapped out. The dragon whip gives Benjamin two and it’s off to an armbar. Cue Flair to back HHH up but Benoit follows him out and we take a break. Back with Shelton holding another armbar until HHH sends him in for the jumping knee. Shelton goes shoulder first into the post twice in a row and you can hear the relief in Lawler’s voice.

Right hands and the knee drop give HHH two and it’s time for the sleeper. You can hear Benoit playing cheerleader (there’s an image) until Shelton sends HHH face first into the buckle for the break. A jumping back elbow puts HHH down as he just can’t put Shelton away. Lawler is starting to panic a bit but HHH suplexing his way out of a sleeper calms him down a bit.

HHH dives into some raised boots (still the least believable spot in wrestling) and falls to the floor, allowing Shelton to hit a clothesline from the apron. The top rope clothesline gets two back inside and a powerslam is good for the same. A Pedigree attempt is countered into a jackknife cover for two more but Flair gets in a cheap shot. Benoit goes after Flair to distract HHH and it’s a Stinger Splash into a rollup to give Shelton the big upset.

Rating: B. So he won’t work Tuesdays but he’ll do the job on Mondays. This is the way you make someone look like a star and that’s exactly what they did here. Shelton is a great choice for a major push and it’s not like HHH is going to lose anything by putting him over here. It was even mostly clean with HHH getting distracted on his own and not being able to put Shelton away earlier. They did a good job here at making Shelton look good here though and that’s the right idea.

Overall Rating: C+. There were two good matches on the show and while I’m not wild on the triple threat rematch at Backlash, it’s hardly the worst decision in the world. Some of the weaker stuff here wasn’t great but it was mostly fast enough that it wasn’t that hard to get through. They’ve gotten rid of a lot of the worst stuff and that’s always an improvement.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 27, 2018
Location: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman

I’m interested in where the big story goes this week. Last time around Shield came in and cost Braun Strowman the chance to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, which in theory should make them villains. I mean, Strowman told everyone what he was going to do and Reigns knew he was there but Shield came out anywhere. Maybe we’ll get something this week, especially with the Cell coming up. Let’s get to it.

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

Here’s Roman Reigns to open things up and the fans aren’t exactly thrilled. He does however do the always cool fist bump to a very excited kid. Cole recaps last week’s match with Finn Balor, calling it a “thirty minute barn burner”. Eh, nineteen minutes, thirty minutes. Close enough. Cole also talks about Reigns defending the title over the weekend at live events, which is a nice touch.

Reigns says he told Braun Strowman to meet him out here at 8pm and it’s 8:05. If Strowman isn’t out here, the open challenge is on because he won this title to defending it. Cue Strowman to say he doesn’t think much of Reigns because of how he got out of trouble last week. Reigns says the Shield is a brotherhood of workhorses. All Strowman knows how to do is say GET THESE HANDS, but those hands never raise titles. Reigns has won everything there is to win around here so cash in that briefcase and let’s have this title match.

Strowman isn’t doing that tonight because he knows Rollins and Ambrose will run straight in for the save. Instead, he’ll cash in on September 16 inside the Cell, where no one can help Reigns. That’s cool with Reigns, but here are Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre to interrupt. Ziggler says Summerslam was a crime because the Intercontinental Title was stolen from him. He’ll cash in his rematch clause on his terms, but for now he needs a new challenge.

Drew says Reigns and Strowman are at the top of them mountain and now they have to come tumbling down. That’s a challenge, but Reigns wants to do it right now. Baron Corbin comes out, approves Strowman’s cash-in for the Cell, and makes the tag match that was just announced.

I’m split on the Strowman vs. Reigns announcement. I really, really like the idea of announcing the cash-in in advance to mix things up for a change, but Strowman is done when he loses again (which he will). It’s almost like having Reigns wait an extra four months to get the title was a really bad idea as Reigns is going to keep the belt for a LONG time, meaning Strowman still isn’t going to win and we spent over a year waiting on him to get a grand total of nowhere. But hey, at least Reigns had another crowning moment, because winning the World Title in the main event of Wrestlemania was just a thing.

Corbin comes to the ring and announces himself vs. Finn Balor, right now, meaning he’s ready and Balor isn’t.

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

Corbin runs him over and does the slide underneath the ropes clothesline. The chinlock (take a shot) goes on as the fans think Corbin can’t wrestle. Balor fights up and jumps over the ropes, only to get knocked to the floor. Back in and we hit the chinlock again (that has to be a rib of some sort) before Corbin throws him outside again. A Sling Blade on the floor puts Corbin down and we take a break.

We come back with, you guessed it, Corbin holding a chinlock. The second slide underneath the ropes is cut off by a forearm but Deep Six gets two. Corbin gets knocked outside for the big flip dive but he can’t hit the Coup de Grace. Instead Corbin hits him with the chair for the DQ at 11:10. Actually hang on as Corbin says he forgot to mention that this was No DQ. More chair shots set up the End of Days for the pin at 12:38. So Balor goes from squashing Corbin at Summerslam to nearly winning the Universal Title to losing to Corbin in a pretty weak match to continue their already too long feud. Thanks for that WWE.

Rating: C-. This can be added to the list of matches I never need to see again. That being said, I could probably see the match coming up again at the pay per view, possibly even in the Cell. The problem continues to be that WWE seems to have no idea how to end a feud, because there’s no good reason to keep this going after the destruction at Summerslam. Give Balor ANYTHING else to do, like feud with Ziggler or McIntyre for example. Actually we can’t do that either, because their several months long feud with Rollins is still going. See how this is a problem?

Clip of HHH’s big speech against Undertaker last week.

Various legends (Jeff Jarrett, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Christian and Mick Foley) have weighed in on the match. It’s not that big of a deal.

Dana Brooke and Apollo Crews talk about flips and getting Dana on Evolution. Titus O’Neil comes in and says she has a match tonight. It’s against Sasha Banks. Dana is nervous and leaves as Apollo thinks Titus is nuts. Titus believes in her though and Apollo goes along with it.

Sasha Banks vs. Dana Brooke

Dana rolls her up for one to start and seems to let Banks up before the kickout. The threat of a Bank Statement sends Dana bailing to the floor but it’s time to pose back inside. A step up enziguri gives Dana two and she hammers away with some right hands. The top rope Meteora drops Dana and the Bank Statement is good for the tap at 2:31. Dana got in some offense here and it was nice to have Banks and Bayley get away from the Riott Squad for a bit.

Jinder Mahal comes up to Dean Ambrose and talks about all the anger inside him. Meditation is offered and Dean sees himself breaking a lot of Mahal’s bones. That’s enough for Mahal.

Here’s a well received Seth Rollins for a chat. He looks at the Shield shirt and says it’s time for the family business. They’re proud of being workhorses (second member of the team to say that) so let’s have an Open Challenge. Cue Kevin Owens to a MONSTER pop to say that his return to Raw has been a nightmare. If he had his best friend at Summerslam, he would be Universal Champion right now. The terrible summer ends tonight because he isn’t leaving here without a title, even though he’d rather be in Montreal. Owens speaks some French

Intercontinental Title: Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens

Rollins is defending and Owens is still rather popular here. Feeling out process to start with Rollins hitting a clothesline to put Owens on the floor. Back in and Rollins hits a slingshot Fameasser onto the middle rope. A clothesline off the steps puts Owens down and we take a break.

We come back with Owens holding a chinlock and getting two off a backsplash to the arm. The armbar goes on and Rollins starts to scream. They head outside with Owens missing the Cannonball into the barricade, allowing Rollins to chop away. Back to back suicide dives have Owens in trouble but he blasts the third attempt with a right hand. Rollins hits the other dive anyway and we take a second break.

We come back with Rollins hitting the frog splash, stopping to shake his bad arm, and then getting two. Owens sends the bad arm into the post and puts on a Crossface. As Rollins crawls to the ropes, Owens turns it into something like a camel clutch to keep Rollins in trouble. A foot on the ropes gets Rollins out of trouble and frustration is setting in. Some right hands to the face just annoy Rollins and he jumps over the Pop Up Powerbomb. A low superkick rocks Owens but he counters the Stomp into a Stunner of all things for two.

The fans are WAY into this and Owens takes him up top, only to get reversed into a running buckle bomb. Owens no sells it and superkicks Rollins for a hot near fall and they’re both down. It’s Owens up first but Rollins catches him on top and they slug it out. Rollins gets shoved down and lands on the arm but is still able to avoid a moonsault. The Stomp retains the title at 22:11.

Rating: B+. Heck of a fight here and I was actually buying the chance that the title was going to change. Owens is someone who can bring the great stuff when he’s given the chance and that’s what happened here. It’s amazing how much better Rollins is when he doesn’t have Ziggler doing the same stuff every week as this was a nice change of pace.

Post match, Rollins nods at him in respect.

Kurt Angle isn’t sure if his vacation is permanent or not.

We recap the opening segment.

Strowman officially gives Corbin the briefcase to confirm the cash-in.

Back from a break with Owens sitting in the ring in a chair. He says he quits and leaves, taking the tape off his hands as he goes.

Ziggler and McIntyre are ready to face Strowman and Reigns because there is no way they’re healthy either physically or mentally after last week. It’s time to change things around here.

B Team vs. Revival

Non-title and JoJo seems to laugh during the B Team’s entrance. Scott Dawson really isn’t happy with B Team holding the titles and sent out a tweet apologizing to the Midnight Express for allowing it. Axel gets sent into the corner to start but comes back with a running dropkick. The announcers talk about Owens, which does mean more at the moment. Revival is sent outside and we take a break. Back with Dallas trying to fight out of a chinlock but getting taken down with a drop toehold.

A tornado DDT doesn’t work though and Dallas hits his hanging swinging neckbreaker. Wilder seems to be holding his neck and brings Dawson in while laying on the apron. The hot tag brings in Axel to clean house but Wilder breaks up the PerfectPlex. A small package has Axel covered but Dallas turns it over again, just like at Summerslam. Unlike at Summerslam, this one is only good for two and the Shatter Machine finishes Axel at 8:50. That’s the B Team’s first loss and thankfully Wilder seems fine.

Rating: D. Another match that just came and went as WWE gets to show off its creative muscles by using option B to set up a title match. The whole point of the B Team is they use dumb luck to win matches and now they’re just losing clean in a short match on Raw. That’s the result of their face turn though, because WWE doesn’t know many ways to book a face act.

Post match the Revival holds up the titles and says we went from the Road Warriors to the Andersons to this. They can take the titles whenever they want them so keep the them warm. Top guys out.

Here’s Elias for some guitar. He talks about how things will get tough but never stray from the truth: WWE stands for Walk With Elias. The fans seem to agree but it’s time for Elias to sing. Actually hang on as Elias just had a moment of clarity. When Drake said he started from the bottom, he meant Toronto. Cue Trish Stratus of all people to interrupt and of course that gets a reaction. Elias makes this seem like a big deal for her and Trish says she’s a fan.

Trish tells him to hold his applause and shut his mouth but Elias says another performance in Toronto is like the Maple Leafs winning the Stanley Cup: it’s never happening in their lifetimes. Trish: “Kind of like you winning a WWE Championship.” She talks about ending her career here in Toronto but she’s coming back to face Alexa Bliss at Evolution. Elias says he’s looking forward to the swimsuit pillow fight so Trish tells him to get out. She clearly just wants to walk with Elias but he doesn’t date women in their 60s. That’s good for a slap and here are Ronda Rousey and Natalya as Elias bails.

Natalya vs. Alicia Fox

Before the match, Alexa Bliss says Trish is looking great but all that Stratusphere Yoga isn’t going to get her ready for the beating at Evolution. For tonight though, Bliss says she’s invoking her rematch clause against Rousey at Hell in a Cell. Of course it’s not here because she doesn’t like Canada and those accents freak her out. Mickie James comes out to keep an eye on Trish and we’re ready to go.

The threat of an early Sharpshooter freaks Fox out so Natalya dropkicks her in the ear instead. Back in and Fox knocks her down for two and asks WHAT IS GOING ON. The chinlock doesn’t last long and it’s the Sharpshooter to make Fox tap at 2:15. Like the Canadians were losing here.

Post break Trish, Ronda and Natalya run into the Bellas and take a picture.

More legends speak on HHH vs. Undertaker.

Corbin is calling for a masseuse when Bobby Lashley comes in to laugh at him. Therefore, Lashley can face someone next.

Bobby Lashley vs. Ascension

Lashley runs Viktor over with a shoulder to start but Konnor gets in a shot from behind to take over. Viktor’s front facelock has almost no effect and gets thrown away. The spinebuster gives Lashley the pin at 2:26.

Dean Ambrose vs. Jinder Mahal

Dang he looks a lot like HHH. Ambrose clotheslines him outside in a hurry and chops Mahal up against the barricade. Back in and Mahal knees him in the face, followed by a knee drop for two (I guess they’re both like HHH). Ambrose drops him ribs first on the top rope, shrugs off the Khallas, and finishes with the Dirty Deeds at 3:48.

Rating: D. The match was nothing but happy days are here again with Jinder being treated like the jobber that he always should have been. A win over him doesn’t mean anything but Dean gets to look dominant after a competitive match last week. Thankfully they didn’t try to make this competitive because Mahal is right back where he was two years ago, but with a big line on his resume.

Strowman and Reigns don’t like each other but they’ll work together tonight. In 20 days, Strowman destroys him. Reigns says in 21 days, Strowman is waking up.

Next week: Bellas vs. Riott Squad, B Team vs. Revival for the titles and Shawn Michaels talking about HHH vs. Undertaker.

Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns/Braun Strowman

Roman and Ziggler start as it’s already after 11pm. A clothesline puts Ziggler on the floor and Strowman approves. The apron dropkick rocks Ziggler but McIntyre kicks Roman in the face to take over. Back in and Ziggler gets two off the running DDT, followed by the sleeper. The big jumping elbow gets two and it’s right back to the sleeper.

Reigns finally shoves him away and the big boot drops Ziggler. The hot tag attempt is broken up by McIntyre, who throws Reigns with an overhead belly to belly. Reigns Superman Punches Ziggler out of the air and Strowman gets the hot tag….but doesn’t get in. Reigns gets stomped down as Strowman watches from the apron. The referee disqualifies…..I’m not sure actually but the match ends at 8:50.

Rating: D+. Just an angle and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s something wrong with wasting the last year plus on Strowman for the sake of having him be Reigns’ first victim, but that’s another rant for another time. As usual McIntyre looks better in ten second than Ziggler looked working most of the match, but that goes without saying.

Post match Strowman says he’s not finished with Reigns and beats him down. Ziggler and McIntyre join in until Ambrose comes in for the failed save. Rollins runs down and gets beaten up as well. A bunch of powerslams leave the Shield laying and Strowman poses with his new friends to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. I’m not sure what to think of this show. I wasn’t bored and they kept things moving, but there were so many issues in it that the good took some hits. First of all there’s the big angle, which makes me shake my head at how long we waited on Reigns to win the title, all while Strowman was the most popular guy in the company. I’m so glad that we spent all that time, just so Reigns can have a big name victim. It’s nice that they have something in mind, but this company really doesn’t buy into the concept of striking while the person is hot.

Then there’s the women’s stuff, which was more of the “oh we’re all sisters and love each other” between the Bellas and Rousey and Natalya, which is really just rather annoying. Then again that may be the Bellas in general (I guess wine and lingerie weren’t paying the bills now that Cena is gone).

Evolution is turning into one of the weirder builds they’ve done in a long time, especially since it’s over two months away and there are two other big shows in the middle. I’m curious about where Lashley and Owens’ stories are going, though at the same time you have Balor vs. Corbin killing interest every time the non-Demon version of Balor is out there.

It’s like they’re trying to focus on everything at once and that doesn’t really work when the stories aren’t the greatest in the first place. The show wasn’t bad, but I could go for them cooling it with Super Show-Down and Evolution for a week or two. At least until after the Cell, which should be a bigger deal than it’s being made out to be with two and a half weeks of shows left.

Results

Baron Corbin b. Finn Balor – End of Days

Sasha Banks b. Dana Brooke – Bank Statement

Seth Rollins b. Kevin Owens – The Stomp

Revival b. B Team – Shatter Machine to Axel

Natalya b. Alicia Fox – Sharpshooter

Bobby Lashley b. Ascension – Spinebuster to Viktor

Dean Ambrose b. Jinder Mahal – Dirty Deeds

Roman Reigns/Braun Strowman b. Dolph Ziggler/Drew McIntyre via DQ when Ziggler and McIntyre double teamed Reigns

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 22, 2004
Location: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Tazz

Things are staying hot around here with the second annual Draft (called a Lottery this year), meaning people are going to be changing shows. Tonight everyone from both rosters are here and they have a chance to go from Raw to Smackdown or vice versa. This could be anywhere between really interesting and a big waste of time. Let’s get to it.

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

The locker rooms are assembled, of course in their matching show shirts because UNITY!

Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman (in a neck brace thanks to an Undertaker Tombstone) are glaring at each other when Vince McMahon comes in to explain the concept: there will be a tumbler for each roster with six picks from either show. At the end of the night, there can be trades until midnight. Bischoff asks about champions and Vince says EVERYONE is eligible, including Randy Orton, who isn’t here tonight.

Opening sequence.

The GM’s come out for their first picks but Heyman has to give a speech about being attacked on Smackdown. He’ll deal with Undertaker on Thursday, but it’s time for the first pick: Rene Dupree.

After a quick photo op, Dupree comes to the ring to say he doesn’t want his last moment on Raw to be taking a beating from Steve Austin. Therefore, let’s have a match right now.

Chris Jericho vs. Rene Dupree

Dupree shoves him into the corner for a slap but gets taken down and smacked in the face over and over. The Walls don’t work so Jericho settles for the springboard dropkick off the apron. Back in and Jericho dropkicks him out of the air, setting up the French Tickler. Dupree tries it twice for some reason and Jericho rolls him up (with trunks) for two. Jericho hits a running crotch attack to the back and the step up enziguri is good for the pin.

Rating: D. I’m not sure what the point is in having your first draft pick lose clean in a short match but then again I’m not sure what the point is in having Rene Dupree as the first pick. The new aggressive Jericho is good and him winning like this would have made sense on any other night, but here it’s kind of questionable.

Post match Dupree yells a lot more so here’s Austin for a Stunner to send him to Smackdown. Beer is consumed.

Bischoff, after insulting Smackdown, makes his first pick to Raw: Shelton Benjamin. I’m still not sure why that team only got two Tag Team Title reigns and both of them in 2003.

Rico is in the ring for a match but it’s not Shelton coming out to face him.

Kane vs. Rico

Chokeslam in about twenty seconds.

Post match Kane makes it clear: he does NOT want to be on the same show as Undertaker. Kane leaves so Heyman makes his next pick: Mark Jindrak.

After a break, Bischoff’s pick is Nidia. This draft has been….interesting so far. Nidia’s graphic bio includes her measurements because what else could it be? Nidia comes out and takes off her Smackdown top to replace it with the Raw one.

It’s Heyman’s turn but here’s John Cena to interrupt again to a rather nice reaction. Cena says Heyman is wearing the neck brace because he’s blowing the whole lottery. Both shows want him but this isn’t a junior high dance so keep your pants on. Cena makes the next pick and hands Heyman one ball, though he still has no…..you can figure that out. Heyman and Bischoff argue over whether or not this counts but Bischoff insists. The pick is HHH, who does a spit take in the locker room. It’s about time we got a big name. The Raw locker room singes the Goodbye Song in a funny bit.

Christian vs. Spike Dudley

Spike charges to the ring and hits the running headbutt to the ribs. Some right hands in the corner draw Trish up to the apron for a distraction, allowing Christian to take over. Spike reverses a slam into a DDT and hits a big dive off the top to the floor. Back in and a top rope double stomp gives Spike two more but he gets sent into the post. The Unprettier gives Christian the pin.

Rating: D+. Not the worst match in the world as Spike was trying. There was no way that Christian was losing this soon though, especially when you have him facing Spike Dudley. They’re going to keep a lot of the matches short tonight though and that’s the right call, especially given how big tonight is. Spike was trying though and that’s not exactly a surprise.

A distressed Bischoff is ready to make his next pick but leaves to find Vince. Post break Vince says nothing can be done but Heyman comes in with an idea: tonight we have Eddie Guerrero defend the WWE Title against HHH. That’s the kind of thing Vince would do so he’s down with the idea.

Back in the arena, Bischoff picks Rhyno and gives him a shot at Chris Benoit tonight.

Raw Tag Team Titles: Evolution vs. Rob Van Dam/Booker T.

Ric Flair and Batista are challenging. Booker dropkicks Flair to start but gets chopped down, allowing the double tags to bring in Batista and Van Dam. That lasts all of ten seconds before it’s back to Booker, who is driven into the wrong corner. Flair comes back in and gets punched into a Flair Flop, followed by the required backdrop. A poke to the eye and more chops have Booker in trouble but he scores with a kick to the face.

Van Dam tags himself in and hits the fastest Five Star I’ve ever seen but Batista makes the save as we take a break. Back with Booker fighting out of a chinlock as they’re not exactly having people stay in the ring for very long. A Hart Attack with Van Dam coming in off the top with a kick to the face instead of a clothesline gets two on Batista. Flair chop blocks Van Dam down though and the champs are in trouble again. A few kicks to the leg set up the Figure Four but Van Dam is pretty close to the ropes.

Rob gets up and hits a spinwheel kick (with very little elevation due to the leg) to Flair’s arm (called the nose by JR), allowing the hot tag off to Booker. The Book End drops Batista and we hit the Spinarooni. An ax kick gets two with Flair making the save so Rob gives him Rolling Thunder. Rob tries to break up the Batista Bomb but kicks Booker by mistake, setting up the Batista Bomb to give us new champions.

Rating: D+. Is it any wonder that Booker and Van Dam are forgotten champions? They won the titles, held them for about a month, and lost them back to the same team. Now the question is whether Booker or Van Dam go to Smackdown, though both of them would benefit from the move. Evolution getting the titles back is hardly thrilling, but it’s not like any of the other teams are worth anything at the moment.

Heyman makes his next pick and it’s….Rob Van Dam. So there’s your answer to the previous question. For some reason Van Dam’s bio includes being an ECW Tag Team Champion but not the ECW TV Champion.

Booker and Van Dam promise to get the belts back because they have a rematch clause. Coach comes in to say no rematch because Van Dam is going to Smackdown. This is news to Van Dam and Booker isn’t happy.

Raw World Title: Chris Benoit vs. Rhyno

Benoit is defending and comes out wearing the title, I believe for the first time. They chops it out to start and Benoit runs him over with a hard elbow. An Alley Oop onto the top turnbuckle gets Rhyno out of trouble and he puts on a pretty good looking Sharpshooter. Benoit makes the rope and can’t get a Sharpshooter of his own. Instead he settles for the rolling German suplexes to set up the Swan Dive but Rhyno plants him with a spinebuster. The Gore is reversed into the Crossface though and Rhyno taps.

Rating: C-. Totally watchable match and there’s nothing wrong with giving Benoit a short win on a big show. Benoit is still getting established as champion and wins like this, where he Crossfaces anyone he faces, are going to help him. It’s not like Rhyno loses anything by tapping out here so everything is fine.

Shawn Michaels comes up to Bischoff and demands a trade to Smackdown so he can fight HHH. Instead, Bischoff gives him a title shot at Backlash, assuming he and Benoit stay on Raw. That’s cool with Shawn, likely along with several other people.

Bischoff gets another pick: Tajiri.

Heyman goes next and gets Theodore Long. Jazz is happy to see him go because he never made her any money anyway.

We keep going as Bischoff picks Edge. It’s about time Raw got someone big.

Smackdown’s last pick is Spike Dudley.

We’ll wrap it up with the final Raw pick, which is….Paul Heyman himself. Heyman panics and Bischoff makes it worse by suggesting that Heyman can wash his car. That’s a big negative though as Heyman refuses to come work for Bischoff and quits instead. Bischoff goes to the ring to celebrate but here’s the returning Edge (to a BIG reaction) to spear him down.

Smackdown World Title: Eddie Guerrero vs. HHH

Eddie is defending and HHH is still in his Raw shirt….which he tears off to reveal a Smackdown shirt. The early handshake offer is switched into Eddie telling HHH what he can kiss so HHH takes him into the corner. A hiptoss gets Eddie out of trouble and it’s an armdrag into an armbar on the arm that was in a sling last week. The rope gets HHH out of trouble and he heads outside, only to have Eddie ram the arm into the steps. Back in and the jumping knee cuts Eddie off and we take a break.

We come back with HHH whipping him into the steps and various other objects to work on Eddie’s back. A pair of hard whips into the corner stays on the back and a backbreaker plants Eddie again. HHH slaps on the abdominal stretch but gets caught grabbing the ropes. Smackdown referees don’t go for cheating like that. Eddie fights up and gets two off a tornado DDT but the facebuster gives HHH the same.

The Pedigree is countered into a catapult into the corner and Eddie hits the Three Amigos (FINALLY dubbed that by Tazz). Cue Flair and Batista though as JR and King suddenly take over on commentary. Batista hands HHH the title but here are Mysterio and Cena to even things up a bit. The distracted referee misses Shawn Michaels running in with Sweet Chin Music on HHH. Eddie goes up for the frog splash but Christian of all people shoves him off for the DQ.

Rating: B. This is more of a curiosity than anything else but it turned out to be a heck of a match. When you get rid of all the Evolution shenanigans (and HHH winning), you can actually get a very good performance from HHH. Eddie is of course golden right now and they made me believe a title change was possible. Good match, which this show needed.

The locker rooms empty out and it’s a big brawl. Kane and Big Show come out very late but here’s Austin on the ATV to bring out more Raw guys and beat up some goons to end the show. Cool moment, though I doubt it leads anywhere save for maybe a quick bit on Smackdown.

The final Draft moves:

To Raw

1. Shelton Benjamin

2. Nidia

3. Rhyno

4. Tajiri

5. Edge

6. Paul Heyman

To Smackdown

1. Rene Dupree

2. Mark Jindrak

3. HHH

4. Rob Van Dam

5. Theodore Long

6. Spike Dudley

Overall Rating: C. Aside from the main event this wasn’t much of a wrestling show, but at least we got a good main event and some interesting changes. The midcards of both shows need some upgrades so switching things up is a good idea. Now just do something new with those names and maybe we can go somewhere this summer.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 20, 2018
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Corey Graves, Jonathan Coachman, Michael Cole

We’re starting a new stretch for the company as Summerslam has come and gone. The big story from last night is Roman Reigns taking the Universal Title from Brock Lesnar to finally end his ridiculously long reign. Other than that, Braun Strowman still has the Money in the Bank briefcase, which likely means at least one title shot going forward. Let’s get to it.

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

Here’s Reigns to open the show, receiving exactly the kind of reaction you would expect him to get. After a little booing, Reigns says he’s a man of his word because he beat Brock Lesnar last night. He also said that when he won the title, he would be a fighting champion, which starts tonight. There’s a man who won the Universal Title right here in Brooklyn and never got a one on one rematch. Finn Balor can come out here and have a title match tonight. Now that’s a little more interesting.

Balor does indeed come out and the title match is official, but here’s Baron Corbin to say this doesn’t work. Last night, Balor breached his contract by fighting as the Demon and due to all of the smoke and lights, Corbin couldn’t even hear the bell ring. Therefore, the match never even happened. Reigns laughs him out of the building and here’s Kurt Angle to say the title match is on. Oh and Corbin can have a match right now.

Baron Corbin vs. Bobby Lashley

Corbin is already in trouble early on as Lashley wrestles him down and sends Corbin face first into the corner. That’s enough to send Corbin bailing to the floor but Lashley throws him back in, only to clothesline him right back out. Corbin gets in a ram into the barricade and puts on a chinlock but Lashley fights up and clotheslines him down. Someone is bleeding as Corbin sends Lashley hard to the floor (nearly getting hurt hitting the ropes/apron so hard), followed by a clothesline as we take a break.

Back with Lashley hitting a spinebuster but getting popped in the jaw with a right hand. The fans find this boring (that’s a little unfair) as Lashley knocks Corbin off the top but dives into a chokebreaker for two. Corbin’s slide underneath the ropes is broken up and Lashley loads him up for a Dominator before spinning Corbin down face first for the pin at 12:48. Was the spinebuster really that bad?

Rating: D+. Nothing to see here as Corbin’s offense really doesn’t work very well. They were smart to keep this at least somewhat shorter than Corbin’s most recent Raw outings. Lashley is someone they could easily build up for a title shot down the line so giving him a win here is the right idea. Not terrible, but too much from Corbin.

Paul Heyman comes in to see Angle and asks about a rematch for Lesnar. Angle says no, so Heyman says it can be at Hell in a Cell. That’s a big no as well, as Angle says he wants a fighting champion and not someone who shows up when they feel like it. Something tells me we’re not done with this yet.

Corbin comes in to yell at Angle about not being fair. Angle doesn’t think much of it, but Corbin says Stephanie is here tonight and he’s going to tell her about it. So tonight, we have three authority figures here and they’re arguing about the chain of command.

Video on HHH vs. Undertaker at Super Show-Down in October. They’re really going long term with the hype to these fall shows.

HHH is here tonight. There are now FOUR authority figures on this show.

Bayley/Sasha Banks/Ember Moon vs. Riott Squad

Banks is fired up to start and hammers on Riott before handing it off to Moon for a kick to Logan’s face. Everything breaks down and the Squad bails to the floor, allowing a series of dives to take them out, with Moon’s being left about a foot short. Back from a break with Riott sending Bayley to the floor for an STO to take over. Logan gets in a cheap shot to give Morgan two and it’s off to the chinlock.

Bayley’s comeback is cut off by a headbutt from Logan (makes sense for her to use something like that) and it’s another chinlock to keep up the quota. The jawbreaker doesn’t get Bayley far enough out of trouble as Logan forearms Moon off the apron. It’s off to Riott, who gives up the hot tag to Banks a few seconds later as everything breaks down. Bayley gets dropped with a clothesline on the floor, only to have Banks take Logan down with a Meteora. Back in and the Riott Kick finishes Banks at 10:11.

Rating: C-. Cool, now next week Bayley and company gets their win back and we keep going for weeks on end. I really don’t get where any of this is supposed to go but that hasn’t stopped WWE yet. There’s not much of a story here other than a trio is better than Banks/Bayley and whomever they have have with them that week. Lucky for us.

Here’s HHH for a chat. The fans chant for NXT and HHH talks about them blowing the roof off the place. He was on the edge of his seat Saturday night because he’s been a fan his entire life. Weekends like this give him the itch though and he wants to lace up his boots one more time. HHH got a call about facing the Undertaker in Australia and at first he said no. The truth is because he can’t forget the moment at the end of the Cell match where he, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels all hugged on stage.

That moment is as real as it gets in this business and none of them will ever forget it. That moment changed all of them because they knew it was the end of an era. Right after that, Shawn was gone, the Streak was dead (two years later), the Undertaker would leave his hat in the ring and disappear (five years later) because everything changed. They’ve talked about that and everything has changed since then. Their era was something special and now he’s saying yes to face Undertaker. In Melbourne, Australia, the feeling and the era are back, and it’s happening one last time.

That was….long, as HHH continues his tradition of taking forever to get his point across. I’m sure the match will be good though as the big, one off show matches have tended to be, though I hope they wait a little while before plugging this again. I don’t think I can take six weeks of HHH putting himself and the old days over like this.

Stills of Reigns vs. Lesnar from last night.

Dean Ambrose vs. Dolph Ziggler

Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre are at ringside because this feud is continuing. They actually go to the mat to start with a headlock keeping Ziggler in trouble. A shoulder knocks him to the floor and things slow down a little bit. Ambrose chops away but McIntyre grabs the leg, meaning it’s time to have a big staredown, allowing Ziggler to score with a dropkick.

Back from a break with Ambrose fighting out of a chinlock and hitting his string of clotheslines. Dean is limping a bit but uses the bad knee to take Ziggler down. The Zig Zag is countered into a fall away slam of all things but Dean gets knocked to the floor. The four way fight is on until Dean sends Ziggler back inside. The running DDT is countered into Dirty Deeds for the pin at 9:48.

Rating: C. This had two benefits as they get Dean back with a bang and help continue the feud for a likely tag match at the pay per view. Of course your individual miles on the feud continuing may vary, but at least it’s a logical continuation. I’m more curious about the teams splitting, but we’ll get to that in time. A very long time given the nature of this feud, but you can probably guarantee both of the splits.

Elias yells at his helpers, saying he’s the special one and to not steal his spotlight.

Braun Strowman comes in to see Balor, saying he won’t cash in as a surprise tonight. He wishes Balor luck but holds up the briefcase. Balor gets serious and nods.

Here’s Elias for a song. After a little guitar, he talks about how he knows someone is trying to sabotage him. He’s already fired three of his assistants and knows it can’t be the quality Fender guitar. His doctor has warned him to not come back to Brooklyn because these people are bad for his health. Elias starts playing….and here’s Curt Hawkins to interrupt.

Hawkins knows that Elias wants to be #1, but maybe he can be the first guy to lose to him in a long time. Elias doesn’t think so because Hawkins is a loser just like everyone around here. He tells Hawkins to get out and Hawkins starts walking up the ramp, but stops to say Elias is hiding behind the guitar and a goofy scarf. The match is on.

Curt Hawkins vs. Elias

Hawkins gets two off an early rollup but Elias is right back with a great looking jumping knee to the face. Elias drops an elbow but gets rolled up for two more. The fans chant what sounds like YOU CAN DO IT….and Drift Away ends Hawkins at 1:36. I want to see Hawkins win eventually but putting him over Elias would have been nuts so this was the right call.

Titus O’Neil comes up to Dana Brooke and Apollo, who seem to need a quick excuse to hide whatever they were talking about. Dana has an idea for the Authors of Pain.

Titus Worldwide vs. Authors of Pain

Joined in progress with Titus being driven into the corner, followed by Akam forearming him in the back. A suplex gets Titus out of trouble and Apollo comes in, only to be front facelocked in short order. The side slam/middle rope stomp combination gets two but Rezar charges into an elbow in the corner. Rezar slaps the jumping enziguri away so Apollo goes with a middle rope moonsault press. A standing shooting star gets two as everything breaks down. Apollo can’t roll Rezar up and the Last Chapter is good for the pin at 5:01.

Rating: D. Egads how has WWE screwed the Authors up this badly? First they can barely get on TV, then they can’t get away from these two schmucks. I have no idea why we’re coming up on the third month of these teams feuding, especially when the story seems to be about Titus Worldwide instead of the Authors.

The women’s division is around the ring (including the Bellas) for the presentation to Ronda Rousey and here’s Stephanie strutting to the ring to soak in their applause. After putting over Evolution, we see a package on Rousey destroying Alexa Bliss last night to win the title. Stephanie is proud of Rousey because this never would have happened without Stephanie’s business prowess. She shined Rousey up like a diamond and now everyone around the ring wants to be like Stephanie and Ronda.

Here’s Rousey but Stephanie wants to know why the fans aren’t chanting for her. Rousey says this isn’t about Stephanie for once and wants to know why the women aren’t all in the ring. They get on the apron and Rousey cuts Stephanie off again, saying that this is about everyone instead of just one person. Rousey puts over Natalya as the cornerstone of the division and the Banks vs. Bayley match from Takeover a few years back. She’s not Brock Lesnar because she’s going to be a fighting champion.

Stephanie says it’s true that Rousey isn’t Lesnar because this isn’t the Rousey who wanted to break people’s arms. Just look at poor Alexa Bliss, like in this clip where Rousey dislocated her elbow. Rousey wants to break everyone’s arm and take all of the spotlight. Actually that’s not true as Rousey is only going to break the arms of those who deserve it.

Stephanie gets her arm barred again (with the elbow being regularly bent, meaning it shouldn’t hurt that much) and since it’s not Wrestlemania, it works just fine. The face women, including the Bellas, pose with Rousey and it’s a big group hug because they’re all sisters or something. I’m not sure why this was necessary but at least it ended well.

We recap the opening segment.

Bo Dallas vs. Scott Dawson

Before the match, Dallas talks about how crazy life can be. Until a few weeks ago they had never won a single match but then one single letter changed everything. Tonight, these singles matches are dedicated to the fans, because the B in B Team stands for Brooklyn. Dawson wastes no time in snapping Dallas’ throat across the top rope and catapults him face first into the bottom buckle. A neckbreaker is reversed into a backslide to give Dallas two and the fans hit the Wave. The hanging swinging neckbreaker is broken up and a fisherman’s DDT gives Dawson the pin at 2:28.

Dash Wilder vs. Curtis Axel

Well at least they’re not waiting for next week. Axel challenges Wilder to a match right now, even though he himself announced it three minutes ago. The announcers laugh at Curtis as we take a break. Joined in progress with Wilder getting two off a backbreaker and bending Axel’s back over his knee. Axel gets out and stops a charge in the corner with a raised boot. The middle rope elbow misses though and a Gory Bomb gives Wilder the pin at 2:17.

Post match Dallas says they’re still champions.

Reigns isn’t worried about Balor or Strowman tonight because he’s going to defend his yard.

Stephanie is getting her arm looked at with Corbin and Bliss in the trainer’s room with her. Angle comes in and Stephanie yells at him, saying he needs a vacation. Stephanie makes Corbin the new acting General Manager. If that means one less boss, fine. I’m so sick of this story anyway that I’ll take any change at this point.

Universal Title: Roman Reigns vs. Finn Balor

Reigns is defending and runs Balor over to start. Balor does his jump over the top to avoid a charge but gets punched in the face to send us to a break. Back with Balor fighting out of a chinlock (good grief come up with something else) and kicking Reigns into the barricade. The running apron kick is broken up and Reigns drops him onto the apron. A hard whip sends Balor into the corner and Reigns yells at him a bit.

Balor takes him down though and scores with the double stomp to the chest. That’s all for the comeback as Reigns takes him into the corner for the clotheslines but Balor knocks him to the floor again. A good looking running flip dive has Reigns in trouble and we take a break. Back with Reigns hitting an uppercut but getting caught by a Pele. Balor gets all fired up and stomps away with an aggression you don’t often see from him. Reigns is right back with a sitout powerbomb for two but the Superman Punch is countered into an Eye of the Hurricane for a very hot two as the fans are completely into this one.

Rating: B+. The fans helped carry this one and they had me believing that a title change might happen. I mean, that went away as soon as Cole kept saying “HE’S GONNA DO IT!” but they had me for a few seconds. Reigns needs a win like this and as usual, when he’s putting in the effort, the match was very good. Really strong main event and the post match stuff is going to be a big deal.

Post match Strowman is in the ring and kicks Reigns down as the cash-in is…..hang on a second as we’ve got Shield music (and no bell, meaning the cash-in didn’t take place). Cue Rollins and Ambrose in the Shield gear as the fans are VERY pleased. Strowman goes after Reigns but the triple beatdown is on. The trio knocks Strowman outside but he fights off the TripleBomb, only to get speared down. Now the TripleBomb connects to end the show.

I’m not sure what the thinking here is, but Strowman looked like a face with the cash-in and Shield looks like heels by thwarting the cash-in, but since Shield won’t be booed, they’re going to wind up being the faces no matter what. It should be fun seeing WWE try to twist Strowman into a heel, especially when he was willing to fight Shield on his own and Reigns welcomed the challenge of a cash-in.

Overall Rating: C+. They did a good job with the followup to last night’s huge show and that’s a positive sign for things going forward. There were some bad moments on here (the B Team vs. Revival, feuds that just keep going and the rotating bosses) but they did another good job of (mostly) keeping the fans from taking over the show. It’s another case of trying to escape from Brooklyn without the crowd doing whatever they want with the show and on that front, well done.

Results

Bobby Lashley b. Baron Corbin – Spinning over the shoulder faceplant

Riott Squad b. Bayley/Sasha Banks/Ember Moon – Riott Kick to Banks

Dean Ambrose b. Dolph Ziggler – Dirty Deeds

Elias b. Curt Hawkins – Drift Away

Scott Dawson b. Bo Dallas – Fisherman’s DDT

Dash Wilder b. Curtis Axel – Gory Bomb

Roman Reigns b. Finn Balor – Spear

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: March 15, 2004
Location: Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Attendance: 17,148
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

It’s time for the season premiere as we’re past Wrestlemania XX and Chris Benoit is the Raw World Champion. That should open up some fresh doors, but a rematch with HHH is the most likely way to go. It’s time to start getting ready for Backlash, and that could mean a few different things. Let’s get to it.

Here are Wrestlemania’s results if you need a recap.

Here’s HHH (you can’t make up jokes like this) with his arm in a sling and anger levels higher than normal. He can’t even speak and a BENOIT chant makes it even worse. HHH finally manages to talk, saying that one match doesn’t make someone the best. Putting a belt around your waist one time doesn’t mean a thing. It’s about defending the title night after night, month after month. That’s what makes you the best.

HHH has beaten them all every single night, which is why he woke up this morning. Yeah he tapped out and maybe that can make the fans happy. Last night was 2-1 and it took both of them to beat him. That’s how he knew he was still the best when he looked in the mirror. He’s not done with Chris Benoit, because Benoit is the new target. When the arm heals, he’s coming for Benoit, but here’s the new champ to interrupt.

Benoit beat both Shawn Michaels and HHH last night to earn this title. When the arm gets better, HHH can bring on his rematch because Benoit will make him tap over and over. HHH says not on Benoit’s best day, so Benoit hits with the belt to send HHH running. Evolution comes in and Shawn makes the save. Sounds tag matchish. Cue Eric Bischoff to make the 3-2 handicap main event but also to say that Vince McMahon is here for a huge announcement. Good opening though, as Benoit looks like a star and HHH finally gives something up.

Post break Shawn says he made the save because he wants Benoit healthy for a future title shot. Makes some sense, but wouldn’t it make more to have Benoit take a beating and then make the save?

Victoria/Lita vs. Jazz/Molly Holly

Molly already has the wig on, now sporting hair down to her elbows. The chin strap doesn’t hide much either. It’s a brawl to start with Molly rubbing Victoria’s face in the mat and Jazz coming in for a legdrop. The fans chant MOLLY’S BALD as Victoria comes back with a middle rope moonsault to take Jazz down. It’s already off to Lita for some running clotheslines and a headscissors. Molly kicks her in the back though and there goes the wig, revealing a very round bald head. That sends her running, leaving Lita to DDT Jazz for the pin.

Rating: D. This was nothing but the visual gag and they were smart enough to keep things moving. There isn’t much of a reason to go with some big new angle so soon after last night’s huge show so just go with some lighthearted fallout like this. If nothing else, points to Molly for shaving the whole thing off. Not many people would do that.

Stills of Chris Jericho vs. Christian with Trish Stratus turning on Jericho for reasons that will need to be explained. Evil Trish is always worth a look.

The ticked off Jericho won’t answer any questions.

Matt Hardy vs. Chris Jericho

I feel bad for Matt, who is ridiculous underrated. Jericho is as aggressive as you would expect and clotheslines the heck out of Matt before choking away. A rake to the eyes allows Matt to hit a belly to back suplex. Jerry: “Maybe Jericho and Fozzy can redo the old Rolling Stones song: I can’t get no Stratusfaction.” Jericho throws him outside and chokes with an electrical cord for the DQ. That’s the best way to go here and Matt doesn’t even lose for once.

During the break, Jericho leaves without saying a word.

Randy Orton wants Mick Foley one on one. How will Foley feel about his son Huey growing up with Orton as a role model instead of his dad? Those are fighting words.

La Resistance is here, now with the returning Sylvan Grenier and Fifi the poodle. Steve Austin comes in to stare at Fifi and gives the French b**** a ticket. He means Rene Dupree, who isn’t happy and speaks French to show off the anger. If this is where Austin is now, he might as well leave now.

Val Venis vs. Kane

Before the match, a fan gets to remove Val Venis’ towel. She’s happy enough that she tries to flash Val but the pyro cuts her off. Side slam, top rope clothesline and chokeslam in about forty seconds.

Hall of Fame ceremony video.

Miss Jackie vs. Stacy Keibler

Vince says it’s time to shake things up around here because people are getting too complacent. The fans want new superstars, new matches and new rivalries. Therefore, next week, the Smackdown superstars will be here next week for a good old fashioned lottery. Everyone from Steve Austin to Mick Foley vs. Kurt Angle to Eddie Guerrero will be in the lottery and even Vince’s relatives could be changing shows.

Post break Eric Bischoff isn’t sure what to think when Evolution comes in to say they can’t be split up. HHH demands that he stay on Raw but Bischoff says it’s out of his hands.

Tag Team Titles: Dudley Boyz vs. Rob Van Dam/Booker T.

Van Dam and Booker are defending. Booker declines a handshake from Bubba in a bit of an out of character move. They fight over a lockup to start until Booker’s leapfrog is shoved away in what might have been a slight botch. D-Von comes in and gets clotheslined so it’s off to Van Dam for some kicks to the chest. Rob kicks Bubba down as well and brings Booker back in as the chemistry isn’t exactly flowing at the moment.

An elbow to the jaw gives Bubba….nothing as Rob made a blind tag and come in off the top with a stomp to the back. A suplex takes Booker down as the champs are wrestling as heels for some reason, despite being faces for their entire run now. It’s back to D-Von for some fast right hands and a neckbreaker gets two on Booker. Everything breaks down and the 3D hits Booker, with Van Dam making the last second save. It’s a very bad sign when one of the biggest finishers of all time gets no reaction.

Van Dam comes in and takes a running neckbreaker out of the corner to send him all the way outside. We actually take a break and come back with Van Dam hitting a spinwheel kick. Booker is still down on the floor though so Bubba comes in and smacks Van Dam in the head. Something like a brainbuster gets two and D-Von puts on a neck crank. A reverse chinlock from Bubba keeps this going because going twice as long as they should have just isn’t enough.

Rob finally kicks him away and gets over to Booker for the hot tag. Booker cleans house to very little reaction A spinebuster plants D-Von and there’s the Spinarooni. The scissors kick into the Five Star gets two on Bubba as D-Von makes the save. The Bubba Bomb is blocked and Booker hits the Book End to retain.

Rating: D. What the heck was that? I know some teams don’t have the best chemistry together but egads this felt like they were told to just go out there and fill in about twenty minutes no matter how bad it was. You don’t get to often say this but the match was about three times longer than it needed to be. If you cut this WAY down it might have been ok, but as it is it’s a long mess with the fans not caring in the slightest.

Video on last night’s show.

Spike Dudley comes out for a match but Christian and Trish Stratus jump him from behind. Christian hits an Unprettier on the floor and Trish makes a fast count. What a cheater. Christian introduces Trish for the big explanation, which starts with the big bet from Jericho (Christian’s participation is forgotten, as is Lita’s). Trish: “What kind of a cheap s*** do you think that I am anyway?”

It’s a shame that Chris’ night ended prematurely because she wound up screwing him instead. Well, actually screwing someone else. Christian insults New Jersey and says he won because he got the girl. Trish didn’t want someone who was bringing her flowers and candy because she was looking for something a little more rough. It’s Jericho’s fault that he won’t be getting any Stratusfaction. Kissing ensues.

La Resistance is panicking about being split but Dupree isn’t letting Austin get under his skin. Grenier will be here keeping Fifi company.

Here’s Dupree for a chat. There is a bad perception that the French are nothing but cowards. He raises the French flag to prove otherwise though and the Americans will learn that soon. A French rant brings out Austin to beat the heck out of Dupree without saying a word. I have no idea what this was supposed to accomplish.

Evolution vs. Shawn Michaels/Chris Benoit

HHH is out with the trio. Batista clotheslines Shawn’s head off to start and it’s off to Flair for a little less success. Some chops and a backdrop have Flair in trouble and Benoit comes in to keep it going. One heck of an elbow drops Flair and a snap suplex has him screaming, which to be fair isn’t the hardest job in the world. Benoit gets taken into the corner for some forearms from Orton but you don’t keep a new World Champion down for very long. Instead it’s Shawn coming in and taking the backbreaker (you can keep old Shawn’s down pretty easily)….and we see Foley arriving in the back.

The referee gets bumped and everything breaks down with Evolution taking over due to the power of numbers. Cue Foley to hammer on Orton though and send him into the crowd. With the numbers even, Shawn forearms Flair and nips up for the top rope elbow. HHH comes in with a Pedigree to cut off Sweet Chin Music (so much for the arm) and Flair gets a delayed two. For reasons of pure stupidity and overconfidence, Flair goes up and comes right back down.

We settle back down to Batista hitting the spinebuster for two on Shawn and slapping on the chinlock. Flair comes in to drop a knee and Shawn is busted open again. He’s fine enough to roll Flair up for two but can’t follow up. For some reason Flair is down too, meaning the hot tag can bring in Benoit. The German suplexes start up in a hurry, followed by the Swan Dive for two on Batista, who powers out without much effort. HHH comes in again but a Pedigree to Benoit is broken up with some Sweet Chin Music. Another superkick drops Flair and Batista taps to the Sharpshooter.

Rating: C+. You can see where things are going from here, assuming nothing changes next week in the Lottery. Foley vs. Orton was pretty clearly not over yet and you could guess about Shawn and HHH going after Benoit even more. The match itself was fun, though I question having Batista take the fall when you have Flair available to give up instead.

Overall Rating: C-. This was kind of a weird show as nothing really happened this week (the Lottery announcement is big, but for next week). Instead it felt like a recharged version of the stories continuing, which was fine as a lot of them were advanced last night. That long tag match in the middle ruined things though and there was no coming back from it. The other problem is how everything changes next week, leaving a lot of this rather useless. Not a bad show, but you wouldn’t have guessed it was the post-Wrestlemania show.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: WWE

Monday Night Raw
Date: August 13, 2018
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, Renee Young, Corey Graves

Now this should be an interesting one as Renee Young will be the first woman to do a full night of commentary on Raw. We’re also in WCW country and it’s the go home show for Summerslam. It’s hard to say what we’ll be seeing tonight as it’s not clear if Brock Lesnar will be around or not (I wouldn’t get my hopes up). Let’s get to it.

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

No In Memory of Jim Neidhart graphic. Seriously?

Here’s a somber Ronda Rousey to say that Natalya won’t be here tonight. She talks about the importance of fathers, including Neidhart who passed away earlier today. Natalya was the first person to help her out when she got here and Rousey will be the first person to stand up for Natalya in her absence. Alexa Bliss had to cheat to beat Natalya and on Sunday, she’ll beat Bliss to win the title. That’s the same thing Ember Moon is going to do right now so it’s time for a match.

Ember Moon vs. Alexa Bliss

Bliss has Alicia Fox, with plants in her hair and wearing one sleeve of a jacket due to the armbar from last week. Hang on though as Bliss wants to rant about Rousey being such a bully. Bliss is tired of having everyone say Rousey is going to destroy her on Sunday. Rousey has had three matches and Bliss is a five time Women’s Champion.

It’s not fair that Kurt Angle is willing to protect Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns but Rousey is allowed out here during this match. Therefore she’s talked to Constable Baron Corbin and has gotten her own security tonight. Four large guys come out and get in the ring, allowing Bliss to knock Ember into Rousey, knocking the latter off the apron. Rousey beats up the security and the match is after a break.

We’re joined in progress after a break with Moon grabbing an armbar so here’s a promo for Reigns vs. Lesnar. The match wasn’t back on for a minute and it’s off to the split screen nonsense. Back with Moon getting two and Bliss rolling to the floor, earning herself a baseball slide. Back in and we hit a chinlock for a bit before Bliss dropkicks her in the ribs. Bliss gets kicked to the floor again and we take a break, four minutes and fifteen seconds into a match with a minute of that in split screen.

Back with Moon rolling her up for two but getting caught in a chinlock. A basement dropkick cuts Moon off again and Bliss glares at Rousey, who doesn’t seem happy. Moon screams a lot and comes back with the tornado DDT into the snap suplex ala Wade Barrett but Rousey stops to beat up Fox. Bliss actually goes after Rousey and throws her into the barricade in a bit of bravery/loyalty you wouldn’t have expected. Back in and Moon hits a gutbuster, followed by the Eclipse….for two as Fox comes in for the DQ at 12:20.

Rating: C-. All of the cuts didn’t help things but they did the right thing by not having Bliss take a fall there. I was expecting Rousey to come in and get Moon disqualified but this way works better. Bliss being loyal to Fox was surprising as she tends to change friends a lot (Mickie James anyone?) and it was nice to have them not go with the champion losing going into a big match.

Long recap of two weeks ago when Brock Lesnar attacked Paul Heyman (but we need to cut out time from a match for a promo video) and Heyman’s interview from last week. We get some extra footage, with Heyman implying that there might be a way for Reigns to win but cutting himself off and leaving. Heyman turn or Shield reunion perhaps?

Angle and Corbin argue about Corbin making the match earlier. Corbin doesn’t apologize for going over Angle’s head and goes to the ring. Dolph Ziggler (with his hair down and straight for a weird look) and Drew McIntyre come in to complain about Seth Rollins not being here. Angle says Rollins had some travel issues after his publicity tour of China but he’ll be here tonight.

Baron Corbin vs. Tyler Breeze

Corbin is picking both his and Finn Balor’s opponents tonight. Breeze has his old NXT music back for a nice change of pace. Corbin breaks up a wristlock attempt with a hard shove and we’re already in the chinlock. As the hold stays on, Renee and Corey argue over Corbin’s abuses of power. Breeze fights back with a dropkick to put Corbin on the floor, only to catch Breeze coming off the apron.

Graves asks Renee how she can prefer Balor to Corbin, with Renee saying she plays favorites a bit. We hit the second chinlock (someone has to be telling him to do that hold so often as he couldn’t be dumb enough to think it’s a good idea) but Breeze fights back up with a kick to the face. Corbin gets clotheslined to the floor, where he sidesteps a dive to send Breeze crashing to the floor. They get back in and a wicked Deep Six ends Breeze at 4:13.

Rating: D. The ending was the right result, even though it continues this really bad story between Corbin and Balor. I like Corbin using something other than his finisher to get the win here, as it fits the narrative of Corbin being big enough to beat someone that much smaller. Then when Balor kicks out of it on Sunday, he’ll look like a bigger star. Not a good match, but they kept it short.

Post match Corbin praises himself and brings out Balor’s opponent: Jinder Mahal. Actually hang on a second as we’ll throw in Kevin Owens to make it a handicap match.

Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor

Corbin introduces Balor as the little engine that can’t. Hang on again though as here’s Angle to give Balor a partner.

Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor/Braun Strowman

I had this written before Angle’s music stopped playing because WWE is that predictable. Strowman gets a heck of a home state reaction and Graves calls him the Meat Castle. Renee: “….the Meat Castle?” Jinder takes Balor down to start as Renee talks about her Monday meditation app. Renee: “Everybody get your chi right.” Balor rolls through a sunset flip and dropkicks Mahal but it’s quickly off to Owens for some stomping.

We hit the armbar for a bit but Balor slips out and knocks Owens down, allowing the hot tag to Strowman. Owens bails to the floor as Strowman runs over Mahal, followed by picking up an unsuspecting Balor and slamming him onto Jinder. It’s time for a big dive from Balor but Owens trips him (or at least swipes at his feet), drawing Braun over for the chase. That’s enough to put Mahal and Owens together for the big flip dive and we take a break.

Back with Mahal holding Balor in a chinlock (the same arm trap one that Corbin uses) before handing it off to Owens for some right hands to the head. That sounds like the time for an NXT Takeover: Brooklyn promo and we’re back WITH THE SAME MAHAL CHINLOCK. Balor comes back with a Sling Blade on Owens and there’s the hot tag to Strowman. After running Mahal over, Strowman heads outside for a lap around the ring, though this time he picks up Sunil Singh and drives him into Owens for a change of pace. Back in, Strowman shrugs off Mahal’s jumping knee and powerslams him for the pin at 14:00.

Rating: D+. As sick as I am of that chinlock, I’m at least slightly interested in Owens vs. Strowman. I’m not sure who is going to win there and they could go either way with the briefcase. That being said, Strowman is in big trouble if they have him drop the briefcase and not become Universal Champion at some point. Eventually you have to win something that matters, and being a failed Mr. Money in the Bank isn’t enough.

Post match Strowman chases Owens off, leaving Corbin to hit End of Days on Balor. For the love of all things good and holy, please let this terrible feud end on Sunday.

Angle can’t get hold of Rollins so here are Ziggler and McIntyre again to mock Rollins for not being here. If Rollins can’t be here for the contract signing, there’s no title match. Ziggler asks to see the contract for the title match to make sure nothing has slipped through the cracks. Angle calls them idiots after they leave.

Here’s a singer named Ricky Roberts, who says Elias is his favorite singer. He’s not very good right not but he’s going to wind up in the Country Music Hall of Fame. With a name like that, I’d expect him to be more of a Rock N Roll fan. Then Elias is going to come find him and he’ll say “Hello, I am Elias.”

Cue the real Elias to shill the What Would Elias Do bracelet and offer his respect to Roberts if he can beat Bobby Lashley tonight. Elias mentions his New York City concert on Saturday and mocks the North Carolina fans, but here’s Lashley to interrupt. Lashley says we already have a no talent musical clown around here so Roberts hits him with the guitar. The annoyed Lashley hits a heck of a spinebuster and glare at Elias. No vertical suplex?

Bo Dallas is doing the math before tonight’s triple threat match when Curtis Axel comes in to tell him to be positive. Dallas panics because the odds are lower against them than usual. Axel: “The odds are always against us.” Dallas has checked the numbers over and over, even DM’ing mathematicians on Twitter. Axel: “You can’t spell Raw Tag Team Champions without B team!” Dallas: “Or a whole bunch of other letters!” They’re going to go out there and run for their lives. B Team!

Ziggler and McIntyre are looking over the contract.

Tag Team Titles: Revival vs. Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt vs. B Team

The B Team is defending and it’s one fall to a finish. Wilder pulls Dallas into the corner to start and it’s already time to take turns on him. Matt comes in pretty quickly though and clotheslines Wilder in the corner (not a splash Cole), followed by a Side Effect for two. After a shout of V1 (little flashback), the middle rope elbow to the neck looks to set up the Twist of Fate. Dawson makes a blind tag though and a Hart Attack (nice touch) gets two. Wilder gets two more off a legdrop and we take a break.

Back with Wyatt hitting release Rock Bottoms on everyone but Axel (and Hardy, but I thought that was understood). Dawson sunset flips Wyatt, sending Axel flying in a German suplex at the same time. Wyatt heads outside and counters Wilder’s suicide dive into another Rock Bottom onto the apron. A dive off the steps from Dallas knocks Wyatt down but Hardy superplexes Dawson onto the big pile. Back in and the Revival reverses a double Sister Abigail into the Shatter Machine, only to have Axel steal the pin to retain at 10:30.

Rating: C. It dragged a bit at the beginning but they got to a nice pace for a few moments there after the break. The B Team retaining is fine and hopefully they don’t have a title match on Sunday. The card is already loaded and there’s no need to do a rematch, or just a two on two title match, and make the card even heavier than it already is. What we got here was good enough and the B Team’s roll continues.

The B Team celebration goes to the back and they run into an unimpressed Roman Reigns.

Ziggler has found an issue in the contract: Seth is allowed to have someone in his corner. Angle is willing to take it out if Drew isn’t allowed to be in Ziggler’s corner. Ziggler lets it go.

Here’s Roman Reigns for his last big speech before Sunday. Reigns says every day he tells himself to leave a place better than he found it. He can’t do that with Brock Lesnar still around though and Lesnar needs to go. Reigns is sick of hearing about him and seeing him so it ends at Summerslam. On Sunday, he’s taking back his Universal Title (which he’s never held) and sending Lesnar so far back into the UFC that his head will be stuck inside Dana White.

Cue a perky Paul Heyman to say it’s a new day, yes it is. If he was going to steal a line from someone on Smackdown though, it would be the Usos, who are the future of the tag team division. He doesn’t actually steal an Uso line, but he’s looking at the future of another division in Roman Reigns. Roman: “This is gonna be good y’all.” After being accused of crying on command, Heyman says Reigns can make history right here, right now. He brings up what he was about to mention last week in the interview: he’s willing to tell Reigns each and every single one of Lesnar’s secrets.

Reigns thinks he can beat Lesnar on his own, but with Heyman in his corner, he’s GUARANTEED to win the Universal Title. Heyman extends his hand and that gets a big YES chant. Reigns says he knows all those secrets already because he won in Saudi Arabia and would have done it a lot faster without Heyman. That’s true and Heyman hopes his sins won’t be held against him. Heyman sees himself as the new advocate for Reigns next week and offers his hand again.

Another YES chant gets turned down as Reigns talks about his father teaching him to swim with the sharks. He also knows how to see someone who is drowning, like Heyman. The thing is Heyman isn’t worth saving so the answer is no. Heyman talks about riding with Reigns’ father Sika and speaks some Samoan, which gets Reigns’ attention. Heyman even has an agreement written up, which Reigns can answer on Sunday.

As Reigns looks at it, Heyman pepper sprays him and leaves. Cue Brock Lesnar to beat Reigns up and put him out with a guillotine choke. Lesnar and Heyman walk up the ramp but Lesnar goes back for an F5. So did Heyman and Lesnar make up or was two weeks ago a big ruse? I ask rhetorically because I don’t expect an answer from WWE. Heyman was great here as usual and Reigns sounded good for a change. I still don’t want to see the match, but they did a nice job here.

Mojo Rawley/Authors of Pain vs. Titus Worldwide/Bobby Roode

Rezar runs Crews over to start and we hit the neck crank, meaning let’s have an inset promo about Rousey vs. Bliss. Back with Akam holding his own neck crank but Rawley comes in and can’t hit a belly to back suplex. Instead it’s a hot tag to Roode for some clotheslines and a Blockbuster for two. Everything breaks down and the Glorious DDT finishes Rawley at 2:47. At least it was short and ended clean, so expect multiple rematches in the coming weeks.

Reigns is getting his eyes washed out.

We get a tribute to Jim Neidhart, focusing on how he broke into the business and the Hart Foundation. Thankfully we get some of Neidhart’s over the top promos and laugh. I was worried when they didn’t even have a graphic earlier tonight so this was a welcome surprise.

The announcers talk about the Hart Foundation, including a mention of their Summerslam 1990 match with Demolition. I loved that one.

Summerslam rundown, including the Revival vs. the B Team added to the Kickoff Show. Better than adding it to the regular show. The Cruiserweight Title is on the Kickoff Show as well, because we NEED three matches on the Kickoff Show.

We look back at Rousey snapping and beating up Bliss’ security, including one running away in a funny bit.

Sasha Banks vs. Ruby Riott

Banks wastes no time in taking Riott down and pulling on her head. A very early Bank Statement has Riott in the ropes and they head to the floor. Ruby uses a Riott Squad distraction and kicks Banks into the steps, with her hand getting caught to really give Riott a target. Back in and Riott twists the hand around before stomping on it as we take a break.

We come back with Riott working on the hand until Sasha runs the corner for an armdrag to break the hold. The hand is hurting, so Banks dives onto Sarah Logan in a big crash. Liv Morgan pulls Banks off the apron so Bayley is right there for the save. Banks hits Ruby in the hand though and a rollup is good for the pin at 8:59.

Rating: C-. They’re going to add something else to Sunday aren’t they? This Bayley/Sasha feud has been running on a treadmill for months now and there’s no sign that it’s going to get better anytime soon. The hand thing was fine but how many times can we see these people wrestle over and over without getting anywhere?

Photos of Seth Rollins in China last week.

Rollins isn’t here so Corbin tells Angle that Stephanie will NOT be happy.

Here’s Angle for the contract signing, though first he says that Lesnar isn’t going to be suspended or stripped of the title, because he wants Reigns to bring the title back to Raw every week. Cue Ziggler and McIntyre to say they don’t believe Angle. He’s already lost one title match since Rollins isn’t here so Angle won’t let the other one fall through. Ziggler says there’s no Rollins here tonight because he’s scared.

Angle intros Rollins twice but no one shows up. McIntyre goes into a rant about why they got together in the first place: to battle complacency from people who think they belong on top just because they got here. People like Rollins are on top of that list because he worked so hard to get where he is. Ziggler would know because he did the same thing. The fans mean nothing though because the second a shiny object loses its luster, everyone turns on you.

It’ll happen to everyone because this vicious cycle can never end because of people like them. Where were they during the hard times? Ziggler knows what it’s like to have someone who has his back and now he doesn’t care about anyone in the crowd or in the back. He signs and here’s Rollins, just a few seconds late because for the first time ever, we don’t have a camera watching people show up.

Rollins has actually been here for awhile but he didn’t want to come out here until Ziggler actually signed. It’s true that he was dealing with travel issues, but they weren’t his travel issues. See, there was that clause in the contract about Rollins having someone in his corner because he’s tired of dealing with McIntyre all the time.

Since there’s going to be a Scottish psychopath in one corner, Rollins better have a lunatic in his. Cue the returning Dean Ambrose, now with a beard and a big haircut (he looks like a less muscular HHH), to a major reaction. The fight is on (with Renee not saying a word) and a superkick knocks McIntyre into Dirty Deeds and Rollins signs the contract to end the show.  I like the new look and this is exactly where the story should have gone.

Overall Rating: C+. The first hour was really, really rough with some flat out bad segments and stories (Corbin vs. Balor makes me want to rip by hair out, especially anything Corbin does) but the rest picked it up a few notches. Ambrose returning helped a lot and the Reigns/Heyman/Lesnar segment was quite good.

The biggest problem around here though is not knowing how to advance and then end stories. How many stories and feuds just keep going week after week and match after match? Corbin vs. Balor, Rollins vs. Ziggler, Bayley/Sasha and Reigns vs. Lesnar among others. That was on display tonight with several matches and segments that I feel like I’ve seen a dozen times already. There were some good ones, but this company needs a seminar in structuring a wrestling story. I’m more interested in Summerslam (at least parts of it) than I was coming in though so we’ll call it a slight success.

Results

Ember Moon b. Alexa Bliss via DQ when Alicia Fox interfered

Baron Corbin b. Tyler Breeze – Deep Six

Finn Balor/Braun Strowman b. Jinder Mahal/Kevin Owens – Powerslam to Mahal

B Team b. Revival and Matt Hardy/Bray Wyatt – Shatter Machine to Wyatt

Titus Worldwide/Bobby Roode b. Authors of Pain/Mojo Rawley – Glorious DDT to Rawley

Ruby Riott b. Sasha Banks – Rollup

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/07/23/new-book-kbs-complete-2003-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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