Roman Reigns opened the show to call out Brock Lesnar. I feel like I could have started about half the reviews this year with that sentence.
With that said, Miami gave him a favorable response to start the show and an even stronger – dare I say Universal – response by the end of it.
For starters, Reigns left the past in the past. He wasn’t bemoaning his fortunes from his cage match with Lesnar. Instead, he called Lesnar out on his...well. Bull.
Lesnar got in Cormier’s face, but Lesnar certainly wouldn’t get in his, Reigns claimed. And then WWE proved him exactly right. Paul Heyman came out to say the things he usually says. Seriously, he said the exact things he literally always says, right down to his trademark “spoiler” line.
And Reigns, in an exhausted tone, told him to shut up. He reiterated that he’s challenging Lesnar to come out and Heyman had no response. He had no defense when Lesnar wouldn’t back him up.
The “my bitch” line was WWE’s usual corniness, but you’ve gotta let some stuff slide. Especially when Lesnar’s backstage segments were gold all show.
Reigns had a quick segment backstage where the Authority forced him out of the building. His “this-ish-again” eyeroll was fantastic and he called Kurt Angle out for being a spineless waste of a general manager who backtracks everything he says.
And then he punched Baron Corbin in his stupid smarmy face because that’s exactly what should happen to Corbin in every room he walks into.
But of course...that’s not the story, is it? No. It’s Brock Lesnar.
The way he treated Paul Heyman...perfection. Utter perfection. What a monster. What a callous, cruel fraud of a human being. He broke Heyman’s phone, for starters. He insulted the crowd. He insulted the show. He disrespected the roster, the WWE, and spent three hours reading some dumb magazine.
And then Heyman came to Lesnar to plead from the bottom of his heart. “Brock, they’re going to fire me. Please, as a friend, help me.”
What would you do if your friend came to you in need? Whatever your answer, it’d be better than what Lesnar did.
Lesnar threatened violence on a man who loves him. Who’s stood by his side and defended him for the greater portion of two decades. That’s...that’s monstrous. Heyman went down to the ring with none of his usual fire and begged Angle for his job.
My heart hurt for him. Heyman, if you read this, you are too good of a damn actor and I hate/love you for getting me.
Lesnar’s music hit and Heyman’s Cheshire grin returned. Lesnar hit an F-5 on Angle for calling him the worst Universal Champion in history and then once again turned on Heyman.
My god. You have to give WWE credit. You may not like Roman Reigns, but Lesnar looks like Lucifer himself after this show. The show faded to black with Lesnar standing amongst his carnage with the crowd chanting for Reigns.
2018, eh? Wow.
McIntyre’s the Real Deal
Rollins hit a Stomp on Drew McIntyre on this show. The crowd popped and Rollins dropped into a cover. And y’all...the desperation with which Ziggler climbed into the ring to earn a disqualification was incredible.
It seems silly to glaze over the “Rollins having a fantastic match” bit, but it’s quite literally par for the course for Rollins. Incredible is his average. McIntyre hit a White Noise from the top rope and was awesome as well.
But the story here is Ziggler.
He scrambled into the ring. Dove, really. He started throwing fists at the back of Rollins’ head in a violent fury.
And it’s because he knows.
He knows that he cannot afford McIntyre to be seen as anything other than unbeatable. He knows McIntyre’s his “meal ticket,” so to speak. For all their talk about people on the roster coasting, no one is coasting more than Dolph Ziggler.
He won his Intercontinental Championship in the weakest of ways. He fought an injured Rollins, had outside interference in his favor, and pulled the tights to secure a win.
And once you realize that, it’s easy to see why he’s running scared. The duo even assaulted Rollins once more when he was having a post-match interview with Renee Young. Ziggler and McIntyre are vicious and urgent for two different reasons and that nuance is really cool.
In my opinion, this feud has consistently been the best one on Raw at the moment. I love it to bits.
Best of the Rest
A Demon awaits? - Finn Balor’s gear felt like foreshadowing. The Red and the Black. (All out of luck again. How many chances can anyone have?)
I thought this was a good opening. The first match of the show is generally a tag match, so it was a nice little curveball. Balor broke out some new moves and a few slick counters and Constable Corbin’s in fine form at the moment as well.
I didn’t agree with the finish, though. Balor lost clean and it took a Corbin beatdown after the bell to progress this story any. That felt like a missed chance to make Balor look relevant and give Corbin some extra heat.
I’d imagine Corbin battering Balor’s head into the barricade was a setup for demonic activity, though. And as sad and inexcusable as it is that Balor’s fallen this far down the card, we’re probably getting Demon Balor reintroduced right as Lesnar leaves. That’s a good thing, folks.
The Monster is Vulnerable – Speaking of Corbin, did you notice how he refused to help Kevin Owens with his Braun Strowman problem? That’s great stuff – and so totally in character for Corbin. Strowman had a match against Jinder Mahal that instantly went awry when Owens ran down to steal the briefcase. Strowman charged after him and actually cost himself the match by getting counted out.
This is probably Strowman’s biggest weakness. He gets tunnel vision because he can afford to get tunnel vision. And with a schemer like Owens and the stipulation of their Summerslam match, that might actually be cause for concern.
Ronda Rousey didn’t do much – This is probably the feud that disappointed the most on this show. It’s one of the Raw headliners, and we simply got more of the same. With James on the sideline, Alexa Bliss recruited Alicia Fox to her side. Fox got a pinfall on Natalya before a scuffle that had the heels standing tall. Fox vs. Rousey next week.
I don’t think this cat and mouse with Bliss is as fun as WWE thinks it is. It’s no fun at all, actually.
Mojo Rawley bullies the locker room – Rawley boasted about some victories until Bobby Roode interrupted. Apparently Roode’s catchphrase is a sensitive spot. Either way, they brawled and must have gotten a ton of rug burn. Ouch.
Reviving the Tag Division? – The tag division has underwhelmed. Luckily, the Revival is ready to step up. They touted their victory over Reigns and Lashley before the Deleters of Worlds tossed them to the outside.
Something something tag team match! It featured the crowd doing what crowds do nowadays – chanting nonsense that doesn’t apply to the product at hand. Dumb. The Revival won, so that’s neat.
Titus Worldwide steals a win – Apollo Crews got a singles win versus the Authors of Pain. It was uninspiring.
Don’t accept duets, Elias - Elias is electric. Bobby Lashley is not. Holy cow this was bad.
Boss & Hug Connection def. Riott Squad – Ah, an uninspired name to go with an uninspired match. Hopefully they do something fun with this tag team in a hurry or they get back to fighting for real.
I never thought we’d get cheers for Reigns in this build. Never in a million years. And sure, Brooklyn will still hate on it and I imagine he’ll get booed as champion, but still. Gotta live in the positives, folks.
And for that miracle...
Grade: B
I thought that Reigns/Lesnar, Rollins/Ziggler, Strowman/Owens, and Balor/Corbin were all good on this show. Unfortunately, the rest was lacking. What were your thoughts, Cageside?
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