Monday night’s edition of RAW had its moments without exactly firing on all cylinders. Here’s where it went right…and where it went very, very wrong.
— The Hits —
Trios pow-wows
Tag team main events are usually throwaway affairs in the WWE universe. As such, those backstage huddles featuring all six Money in the Bank ladder match entrants were very welcome. Recycling the “Sami is Canadian too” joke from last week worked well, as did Jericho’s continued brilliant use of the word “idiot”. That, of course, led to a wonderful “stupid idiot” chant during the main event, directed at the Fozzy frontman. The match itself was merely fine, but featured a hot finish and a much-needed attempt to rehab a cooled-off Dean Ambrose.
Cena’s return and AJ’s turn
While I’m not entirely sold on AJ’s full-fledged heel turn, it must be acknowledged that its execution was excellent here. Further, the company is quite light on the heel side at the moment. While I could have done without the cringeworthy, jingoistic intro, John Cena’s comeback promo was one of his strongest in some time. Delivered with fantastic fire, it underlined the veteran’s new role as the gatekeeper of the WWE: “The future must go through me”.
The Golden Truth shine
I’m as surprised as you are, believe me, but Monday night’s first hour segment involving the Golden Truth actually worked. Key to its success was allowing two of the most naturally amusing men on the roster to be themselves, free from the writers’ awful input. Truth and Goldust’s contributions on commentary during The Usos’ quick win over Breezango were often hilarious with Truth reprising his inability to distinguish Byron Saxton from Jonathan Coachman – despite the fact that “Coach has talent” as JBL helpfully pointed out.
I must admit I’m also a big fan of Truth’s remixed rap, heard in its full form on Smackdown, but sadly cut off here by a commercial break. Credit also to Tyler Breeze for his inset promo (“The Ewww-sos”) for showing how his mastery over his character has been shamefully wasted on the main roster.
Enzo & Cass
They seem to be featured here every week but even though their promo ostensibly just listed cheeses at one point, everything this team touches turns to gold at the moment. Although, I could do without that double team Rocket Launcher finish as they never seem to execute it convincingly.
–The Misses–
Using The New Day to distract from the brand split fiasco
Last week’s news that the debut of live Tuesday night Smackdown would usher in another brand split conjured up many appalling vistas. Chief among them was the prospect of having to watch nine hours of WWE programming in three days on PPV weeks, closely followed by the harebrained possible reintroduction of two world titles. Worries about the potential for tag teams to be forcibly separated weren’t exactly high on folks’ lists of concerns.
But that’s the draft-related horror that New Day asked us to consider in RAW’s overlong opening segment in which their comedy was used to distract from the fact that company is figuring the detail of this guaranteed failure out as it goes. The idea that the Vaudevillains denying us the “pleasure” of Stephanie’s dancing is supposed to generate heel heat was where the real humour lay, however, as was that team’s failure to upbraid The Club for getting them disqualified from what was effectively a number one contendership opportunity.
Rollins The Mute
Following on from the abrupt ending to his in-ring promo on Smackdown, the returning Seth Rollins went one better on Monday night by saying absolutely nothing – for a very, very long time. I’d love to tell you what Rollins’ fakeouts were supposed to achieve, but sadly I’m not one of the 28 typewriter-armed monkeys that this company employs. On that note, every time I hear Roman’s “I’m not a good guy….” catchphrase or JBL parroting Vince’s “polarising figure” nonsense, I want to scream. Nails on a chalkboard, every time.
Dolph Ziggler baiting Baron Corbin into a “technical wrestling match” (translation: a match) only to kick him in the cojones was extremely dumb. Not only did Dolph cost himself a third loss to Corbin, he also made himself look like a coward. Wouldn’t a real babyface pour everything he had into besting the balding one in a fair fight?
Titus confronts the “Bulgarian Blowhard”
Speaking of poor writing, is anyone getting tired of Zack Ryder cutting pre-match promos about overcoming the odds only to lose comprehensively? What is the point of that exactly? US Champion Rusev crushed Ryder in short order before being confronted by proud American Titus O’Neil. O’Neil nervously delivered his scripted verbiage, including the embarrassing insult transcribed above, to a relatively underwhelming response. Still, at least this means the Bulgarian won’t be dropping the strap to the returning Cena any time soon as many predicted. Finally, what was up with Lana’s accent in her pre-match introduction?
The Charlotte follow-up
Where do I start with this one? I could talk about how Stephanie felt it necessarily to once again verbally tear strips off one of her major champions. I could talk about the lameness of the talking heads’ contribution in the preceding video package. I could discuss how little sense it makes that Charlotte throwing off the yolk of her cheating father is being portrayed as a heelish progression for her character.
Whichever way you look at it, Monday’s follow-up to what was a disastrous promo from the Women’s champion last week was just as crummy as the distraction finish she caused in Dana Brooke’s match against Natalya. Apparently it’s important that all these women are made to look dumb, face or heel. Dreadful.
After sitting on the sidelines since January recovering from shoulder surgery, the Memorial Day edition of Raw from Green Bay, WI, will feature the return of former WWE Champion and top draw John Cena to action.
Unlike the return of Seth Rollins last week, Cena’s reemergence has been hyped for weeks with vignettes and an appearance on the Today show this morning. (Also, remember that we just saw him do a run-it at Wrestlemania.) With the brand split coming up in July, it will be interesting to see if they will start the buildup to the July 11th draft show tonight, or give it time to build and wait after the Money in the Bank PPV.
If this show does a poor rating, expect blame to be placed on Game 7 of the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder NBA playoff series. There is also Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals between San Jose and Pittsburgh that kicks off tonight — more of a regional ratings hit.
Our coverage starts at 8 ET. Join us!
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The Big Takeaway: A.J. Styles reunited with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in what may be the angle of the year. It happened during John Cena’s return. Styles came out to put over Cena and welcome him back to Raw. Anderson and Gallows came out to accuse Styles of kissing Cena’s ass. Just when it seemed they were gearing up for a tag team match, Styles jumped Cena, and the Club joined together for a collective beatdown. Styles repeatedly left the ring, then ran back in to beat up Cena some more. Only other news of note was Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon acknowledging Smackdown’s move to Tuesdays starting in July and the upcoming brand extension.
Shane & Steph Open The Show
They opened with a 10-bell salute in tribute to the soldiers for Memorial Day with all of the roster’s superstars lined up on the ramp. Vince, Stephanie and Shane McMahon were out there, but there was no HHH. They replayed a speech that Ronald Reagan gave on Memorial Day in 1982 with various personalities reciting the address.
Shane came out, but was cut off by Stephanie. They were more antagonistic towards each other this week. Stephanie was wearing shorts so brief, they wouldn’t have been able to wipe up a small amount of milk spilled on your kitchen floor. Shane announced that Smackdown would go live every Tuesday in July. Stephanie announced John Cena’s return, which got mostly cheers.
The New Day showed up. They all put over Smackdown going live. Then they mentioned the brand extension, showing mainstream news publications about the looming split. Kofi Kingston said he was new era, which Big E. and Xavier Woods laughed at. Woods said Kingston was his favorite wrestler in middle school. Kingston asked where is the New Era going?
Stephanie said they didn’t know yet. Kofi accused her of dodging the question. New Day asked to not be split up. Shane said nothing is off the table. Big E. was worried. Woods didn’t want Francesca the Trombone to be raised without her three fathers, and said trombones raised without a father don’t have as good a track record.
Kingston said Shane and Stephanie hadn’t decided who will run which brand, but Big E. sensed there was a sibling rivalry brewing. So Big E. called for a dance contest. Shane started dancing to the New Day’s music while Stephanie stood back in the corner and laughed at him. Stephanie acted like she was going to dance, which she did to the New Day’s music last year with HHH watching on. Before she could begin, the Vaudevillains came out for a match with the New Day. Michael Cole said going into the break that Smackdown live would return. JBL busted his chops over later.
WWE Tag Champs The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E.) defeated the Vaudevillains by DQ in a non-title match (8:50)
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows came through the crowd and jumped New Day for the DQ. Gallows threw Woods into the dasherboards, then Anderson gave Kingston a Yakuza Kick. While this was going on, Simon Gotch kicked Big E. from behind. Vaudevillains left Big E laying so Gallows and Anderson could deliver the Magic Killer on him. Crowd is already dead and we’re only 35 minutes in.
Anderson and Gallows were backstage. Renee Young asked them what that was all about. Anderson said that was to show they could inflict as much damage without A.J. Styles than with him. He said they were just getting started.
Apollo Crews met with Big Show backstage. Show said he liked Crews and told him Sheamus was a bully. Show said he didn’t mind the New Era because he’s been knocking out guys since the Jurassic Era and it didn’t matter to him. Show said Sheamus is in desperation mode and he jumped Crews last week because he wanted to see if Crews would back down. Show told Crews the question is whether Crews will back down.
The Usos defeated Breezango (1:43)
Jey Uso pinned Fandango with a crucifix. Goldust and R-Truth were at ringside. Truth was all the place, calling Byron Saxton “Coach.” To which JBL shouted “Byron’s not Coach. Coach has talent!” Tyler Breeze and Fandango started jawing off to the Golden Truth and the two sides brawled. Truth threw Fandango into the barricade. Goldust gave Breeze a powerslam on the floor. The gimmick with the Golden Truth is they’ve lost both matches to Breezango so far, and JBL makes fun of them for being a babyface tag team that loses.
Roman Reigns came out before the Warriors-Thunder game could tip off.
He got his usual reception. He talked about how Seth Rollins sold out two years ago when he broke up the Shield. Rolins said he was calling himself “The Man”, but how can he be The Man when he’s running from The Guy? He challenged Rollins to come out.
Rollins came out to noticeably more cheers, even after his heel promo last week. He teased getting into the ring, came down the ramp, then went back up the ramp. He acted like he was going to speak for about a minute, but stopped before he could utter a word. He threw the mic down like he was going to fight, but then held up. He kept starting and stopping. I was getting flashbacks to the Sheamus-Reigns angle from last December. Some fans chanted “boring.” Then he picked up the microphone again, threw it down and left. Reigns music played. Rollins ran down again, but stopped when Reigns turned his back and caught his eye. Not a great segment.
The most newsworthy thing of the night happened during the commercial after this for 2K17. In an ad you can see here, Goldberg appeared walking with security to his WCW theme music, looking in great shape for a 49-year-old. The setting, scenery and placement after that abysmal Reigns-Rollins angle made him look like more of a star than anyone so far tonight.
U.S. Champion Rusev defeated Zack Ryder via submission in a non-title match (2:33)
Rusev won with the Accolade, which looks more like a rear naked choke now than a Camel Clutch. Ryder had just hit the Broski Boot and went for the Rough Ryder, but Rusev tossed him over and Ryder landed on his ass. Lana’s outfits get skimpier by the week. She’s now relegated to just introducing Rusev, but didn’t even get in the ring for his postmatch promo.
Rusev cut an anti-American interview afterwards where he called the Green Bay fans “Cheese gobbling cheese…whatever you call yourselves.” Titus O’Neal walked out and did a robotic promo about the nerve of Rusev running down America on Memorial Day. O’Neal said he comes from America, where they fight. O’Neal decked Rusev with one forearm to send him out of the ring.
Primo and Epico did another interview putting over Puerto Rico.
There was a piece reviewing the Charlotte-Ric Flair breakup from last week. Various wrestlers weighed in on Charlotte. Dean Ambrose said he felt Charlotte wanted to humiliate her father. Dolph Ziggler said he felt Charlotte kind of told the truth. What? Becky Lynch said Ric always wanted the best for him. Ambrose got another quip saying Flair may have taught Charlotte everything she knows, but not everything he knows. Cole, JBL and Saxton read off various tweets. Then they showed an angle from earlier today where Stephanie dressed down Charlotte, saying she was embarrassed to have her as champion and screamed how Charlotte was spoiled and privileged. Basically, the entire segment was to get Charlotte over as a heel. Then in the last minute of said angle, they made the entire thing moot by having Stephanie berate her and she came off as another wounded pup under the Authority’s rule.
Enzo Amore and Big Cass came out to the biggest pop of the show. Enzo said since they were in Green Bay, they reeled off a list of cheeses. Cass scrolled them off one by one while making a double entendre about you know what.
Enzo and Cass defeated The Dudley Boyz (9:16)
Third tag team match in two hours. I thought the Jim Crockett Cup had broken out. Enzo pinned Devon Dudley after the Rocket Launcher. Just a month after suffering the concussion at Payback, Enzo got the heat after falling off the top rope. Bubba Ray got slammed off the top rope by Cass, but had to wait forever for him to get up. Match had the most heat of the night.
The main event will be a six-man tag involving the known participants in the Money in the Bank match, with Ambrose, Cesaro and Sami Zayn facing Alberto Del Rio, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. Ambrose, Cesaro and Zayn talked privately backstage. Ambrose said you couldn’t trust Owens because he was a Canadian. Zayn started to point out he was a Canadian, then Cesaro said Jericho was also dangerous. Ambrose derided Jericho as also being Canadian. Zayn spoke up and asked Ambrose if he knew he was Canadian. Ambrose looked like that was a revelation and said “That explains everything.” Zayn looked confused.
John Cena Returns
John Cena returned to a nice pop. He got a short “welcome back” chant, but it was surprisingly very brief. Of course, he got his usual share of boos. He started very serious reciting the Ronald Reagan speech earlier, then said there were many brave heroes who had fallen. Memorial Day was a celebration of that sacrifice and he was very thankful to be back home. On this day, it was with the utmost respect that he honored the heroes who helped keep liberty intact. Cena said liberty was freedom, and freedom was our lifeblood. It enabled pople to dress how you want, listen to whatever music you wanted, stand on your chair and scream at the top of your lungs.
Now, the question was whether he still belonged on Monday Night Raw? Cena said a new era arrived in his absence. That means new names and new faces. All of those people had the same thought: that Cena’s best days were over. Cena said he wouldn’t go quietly into the night. And if the future is upon us, then the future must go through him.
Styles came out. Cole put over seeing Styles and Cena in the same building was something many thought we would never see. At first, the crowd seemed quiet. Then it turned into a lengthy battle of dueling chants. Styles and Cena just let the fans take over the show for a few minutes. It built and built to where it was really loud and made this potential program feel like something special.
Styles said he had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Cena said, judging by this crowd, so has everyone else. Styles said Cena has kind of a bad rep. Styles said he always heard Cena was the first guy to get to the building and the last to leave. Styles said they have been in two different worlds, but he respected Cena’s hard work. Styles said he wanted to be the first one to say “Welcome back.” They shook hands.
Gallows and Anderson then walked out. Gallows told Styles they agreed to go their separate ways, and he saw what they did with the New Day. He accused Styles of sucking up to Cena. Anderson said he thought that was beneath Styles, but apparently not. Anderson said, unlike Styles, they were not there to kiss ass, but to kick it. That included Styles.
Just as Anderson and Gallows were ready to square off and an impromptu tag match was about to take place, Styles jumped Cena. Anderson and Gallows then jumped in and they all put the boots to Cena. Styles, Gallows and Anderson stood over Cena and gave each other Clique signs to some real heat. A fantastic angle to turn Styles heel. Styles ran back in to pound on Cena some more while Anderson said that’s the A.J. they love. Styles left, then ran back in again to lay the punches in some more. Crowd was incensed. After the referees came in, Styles came back in to pummel Cena some more. Styles screamed he was doing the world a favor and “You’re welcome, world.”
Dana Brooke defeated Natalya (1:20)
Brooke won after Charlotte distracted Natalya, which led to Brooke winning with a Samoan Driver. Cole called it a Michinoku Driver. Charlotte and Brooke put the boots to Natalya. Lynch ran down for the save. For someone who was supposed to be a heavy heel after last week, Charlotte got a disappointing response, probably because the star of the show stole her heat last hour.
Ziggler did a promo saying he was going to outwrestle Baron Corbin tonight. He brought up Jericho’s 1004 holds promo from 1998 Nitro. To show how badly it bombed, Ziggler bragged he had 1006 holds and starting naming them just like Jericho did 18 years ago. He listed armbar 3 times. He stopped after seven and said “He’s Dolph Ziggler and Corbin isn’t.”
Baron Corbin defeated Dolph Ziggler by DQ (:33)
The announcers built up Ziggler’s amateur record, including a school record 121 wins at Kent State University. When the bell sounded, Ziggler put on amateur wrestling headgear. So the first thing he did was kick Corbin in the balls for an immediate DQ. Ziggler announced he had been disqualified, but the loser of the match was still Corbin. JBL mentioned the original man of “1,000 holds” was Earl Caddock, who wrestled Joe Stecher in 1920 in the oldest known pro wrestling match that has footage.
Maryse introduced the Miz, who is on location shooting the Marine 5. He talked about how he’ll return soon to his adoring public to defend his Intercontinental Championship.
Jericho, Del Rio and Owens argued in the back over who should start their match tonight. Jericho finally got them to agree they should make sure Zayn, Ambrose and Cesaro don’t make it to Money in the Bank. After they left, Jericho called his teammates “idiots.”
Cesaro, Dean Ambrose & Sami Zayn defeated Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio (17:51)
Good match with an excellent finishing sequence ending with Ambrose pinning Owens after Dirty Deeds. Jericho hit a codebreaker on Ambrose, but Owens made a blind tag trying to get the pin. That led to Owens and Jericho arguing, which they had done throughout the match. Zayn hit the Helluva Kick on Del Rio, moments after Del Rio caught Cesaro with the Back Stabber.
Earlier, Ambrose hit a tope as the heels bickered with each other some more. Felt like a house show match just thrown out on live TV because the company knew they were going to get creamed by the NBA Finals, but the main event slot hasn’t felt like the true main event of the show lately.
SUMMARY:
It says a lot for Cena’s presence that frequently has memorable swerve angles. Mark Henry’s career highlight was the angle in 2013 where he teased a retirement speech, but jumped Cena instead. Styles’ heel turn tonight could be every bit as memorable. It was extremely well done and the only thing worthwhile in an otherwise forgettable 3 hours.
The Monday, May 23rd edition of WWE Raw was up slightly this week to 3.26 million viewers, up three percent from last week.
This show came the day after the Extreme Rules PPV with the cliffhanger ending featuring the return of Seth Rollins.
The number was hurt by the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Toronto Raptors NBA playoff game that did 6.14 million viewers. For a comparison, Raw last week did 3.17 million viewers but the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder NBA playoff game did 8.71 million viewers, which was much tougher competition.
The first hour was actually slightly down from last week, but the rating was up because the show didn’t have the big third hour drop of the week before.
The three hours were:
8 p.m.: 3.36 million viewers
9 p.m.: 3.33 million viewers
10 p.m.: 3.12 million viewers
Dancing with the Stars’ final Monday night show of the season featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant in the final three contestants did 12.34 million viewers. The show brought in 69% of its audience by women in the 18-49 demo.
The Friday replay of Monday Night RAW from May 16th did 467,000 viewers on SyFy with no promotion whatsoever. That show, and Wynona Earp (which site friend Lance Storm has a small role in) were the only two shows on that network to crack the top 150 cable programs for the night.
It’s time to run down the highlights and lowlights of the first RAW in the build to next month’s highly anticipated Money In The Bank PPV:
–The Hits–
The matches had stakes….for once.
For long-suffering fans that have been long accustomed to three hour RAWs filled with meaningless time-filling matches, Monday night’s show was refreshing. Five of the seven matches on the card were high-stakes Money in the Bank qualifiers, with only Chris Jericho’s win over Apollo Crews lasting less than 10 minutes. This relatively strong episode of RAW proved just how much better televised wrestling is when the in-ring content feels like it actually matters.
The ‘Phenomenal’ main event.
One day removed from putting his body on the line with outrageous abandon at Extreme Rules, AJ Styles produced the goods again in his show-closing MITB qualifier against Kevin Owens. Owens’ heel mannerisms were as on-point as ever, again dubbing himself the ‘Headlock Master’ and failing to deliver on a teased dive. Telling Cole to “shut up, I can hear you from here!” at one point was also a major highlight.
Both men pulled out all the stops in this 18 minute bout with AJ hitting a springboard 450 splash and Owens busting out his springboard moonsault and a package fisherman buster. While it was marred slightly for me by the expectation of interference from the spurned Club, that refreshingly did not arrive with Owens instead picking up the clean victory. I felt that the powerbomb onto the ring steps, coupled with the aforementioned battering he sustained the previous night, provided adequate cover for Styles to take a second consecutive loss here.
Good booking and clean finishes.
The main event wasn’t alone in having a well-executed clean finish that made sense. All seven matches on the show finished conclusively without distraction or interference. (I’d love for someone to go back and check when that last happened!)
Although the match took time to build, putting Sami Zayn over Sheamus clean with a hot finish felt like a significant moment for the Canadian. Later, Cesaro’s selling of his shoulder, including failing to execute the swing, was marvelous, and the finish, consisting of a quick uppercut/Neutralizer combo, was thrilling.
To the best of my knowledge, no finishing moves were kicked out of on the show either despite it being filled with clashes between top guys. This is something the company has moved away from in the last half-year or so, which makes the silly decision to double-down on Roman Reigns’ unbeatable, unsympathetic superman image by having him kick out of two Styles Clashes on Sunday all the more glaring.
Enzo’s comeback.
Although the recently concussed Mr. Amore appeared to forget his lines at one point – with Cass on the verge of jumping in to save him – his comeback was still absolutely electric. Even the repetition of the “no dimes” gag wasn’t enough to nullify this man’s bountiful charisma. Having Cass squash Bubba Ray Dudley underlines how high the company is on the big man. If he learns to work quickly and keeps his lil’ buddy in his corner to do his talking, the sky’s the limit for these two.
No McMahon interaction.
Following on from Stephanie and Shane’s segment being cut from Extreme Rules, we saw no interaction between the McMahon siblings on this show. Given that last week’s main event Women’s title segment revolved around them, all I can say is this: long may it continue.
–The Misses–
Charlotte’s third hour nightmare.
While I must give credit to her always emotional father for being able to cry on cue, Charlotte Flair’s promo at the top of the third hour was an absolute unmitigated disaster. Charlotte has demonstrated before, on the RAW after Wrestlemania, that she is not capable of handling the heckling of a hostile crowd and her attempts to overcome Baltimore’s dissatisfaction here was even worse than that bomb. Like Richard from Silicon Valley, Charlotte becomes more inarticulate as the pressure increases. Hark at the line: “You’re just….to me….DEAD!”.
WWE pulls a Del Rio with Seth Rollins.
Despite Rollins’ massive babyface reaction on this show and on the previous night’s Extreme Rules, the WWE chose to instruct the former champion to cut an unambiguous heel promo in the opening segment. Forfeiting the natural sympathy accrued by a guy who has been through rehab hell is reminiscent of the opportunity missed by the company earlier this year when they forced the returning Alberto Del Rio into the perplexing Mex-America nonsense, against the wishes of the fans. The company has just exited a program between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles, where the latter remained a babyface, and it was arguably the most well-written main event feud in some time. The decision to go in a more black and white direction with Rollins feels like a huge misstep.
Apollo Crews loses his first match of consequence.
After schlepping around primarily on the C-shows, Apollo Crews finally met a WWE opponent of significance in Chris Jericho on Monday night. Alas, he conclusively lost the weakest of the five MITB qualifiers and botched a spot where he was supposed to kip-up and avoid a Lionsault along the way. Falling victim to a beatdown by Sheamus earlier in the show was supposed to provide cover for the loss, but the fact that Crews was still smilin’ upon his entrance and showing no ill-effects whatsoever completely ruined that. The future is not looking bright for him.
The Big Takeaway: It was a night of Money in the Bank qualfiers, returns and breakups. Of course, the big news was the return of Seth Rollins. Despite the wishes of the fans, he’s going to be a heel in his program with Roman Reigns. Those two will be facing each other in the main event of the Money in the Bank PPV for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Enzo Amore also returned. Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, and Sami Zayn all qualified for the Money in the Bank match at MITB. Charlotte broke up with Ric Flair, saying that he had been living in her spotlight for months. It was an angle that hit on various points very close to home, but Flair’s performance was fantastic. A.J. Styles also split up with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Shane and Stephanie McMahon were limited to cameos, which was a welcome change.
Show Recap:
Seth Rollins started the show getting a huge ovation, though there were some scattered boos. He was playing up to the crowd as a babyface and got “Welcome back” chants. Rollins said he’s waited 200 days to step inside his ring once again and he’s back. He’s waited for seven months to take back the title he never lost and he fired the first shot last night when he gave Roman Reigns the Pedigree. Crowd chanted “Thank you, Rollins.” Rollins asked if the fans missed him? That got “Yes” chants. Rollins said that was interesting because when he put a chair against Reigns’ back, the fans booed him. Then when he captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, fans said he was the weakest champion in history.
Then something profound happened: his knee buckled from carrying the company for so long. That was supposed to get boos. It got cheers instead. Rollins said he got so much fan mail he didn’t know what to do with it, so he put it all in the garbage can and lit it on fire. So Rollins went heel in the interview, saying he never needed the fans when he was going after the World Championship, and he doesn’t need them now. He said there was only room on the Seth Rollins bandwagon for one dude, and it was him. Rollins claimed the fans were never with him during the process to rehab his knee for seven months, which was harder work than the fans have ever put in in their entire lives.
Rollins said he, and he alone, would take back the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. That got a mixed response. Reigns’ music hit. Suddenly Rollins’ response seemed like Ric Flair in Charlotte by comparison. Booed beyond belief.
Rollins acted like he wanted to fight, but when Reigns got in the ring, Rollins left, saying he was going to fight on his time. Shane McMahon showed up. Rollins reluctantly got back in the ring and Shane’s request so they could have a conversation. Shane brought up Rollins has had several defining moments, including breaking up the Shield and winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 32. Shane said Reigns would defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Rollins at Money in the Bank. Both men were content with that announcement. Reigns held up his title to get booed some more.
Later tonight, a series of Money in the Bank qualifying matches: The Miz vs. Cesaro; Chris Jericho vs. Apollo Crews; A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens along with Sheamus vs. Sami Zayn.
Renee Young did an interview with Sheamus, who denounced the “new era” in the WWE. He made fun of Zayn’s name and the fact he was form Canada. That was a weird thing to say since Canadians have been carrying a good portion of the company’s workrate lately. Young started to mention she was from Canada before Sheamus interupted her and instructed parents to get their children out of the room because what he would do to Zayne wouldn’t be suitable for all ages. They brought up Sheamus winning Money in the Bank last year, then cashed it in at the Survivor Series and defeated Reigns for the title after Reigns had just defeated Dean Ambrose in a tournament final.
Sami Zayn defeated Sheamus in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match (10:02)
Zayn won with the Helluva Kick, moments after attempting a tope which Sheamus blocked with a right hand. Lots of selling by Zayn, but the two didn’t click as well as you would think. The announcers played the result up like an upset, explaining Sheamus didn’t even qualify for Money in the Bank one year after winning it. I credit it to lousy booking last June. Sheamus was furious after the match. At one point, Zayn did satellite head scissors, which Michael Cole called a huracanrana.
Crews did an interview with Young. She asked him if he felt like he had an advantage after the damage Jericho suffered against Ambrose last night. For some reason, Sheamus jumped Crews from behind. Sheamus screamed about the new era as he rammed Crews’ head into a truck case.
The New Day came out. They’re up to 274 days as tag team champions. There was a Happy Birthday cake in the ring. Kofi Kingston said the cake was there to celebrate Raw’s 1,200th episode. Xavier Woods said Raw is over 23 years old. Big E. said a WWE ring is never safe from a cake, so they decided to take the cake out of the ring. Woods said they would never want the cake to wind up in anyone’s face. Big E. teased throwing it in someone’s face at ringside, then JBL, then Byron Saxton. Then Social Outcasts (sans Adam Rose, of course) jumped Woods and Kingston. The Vaudevillains are out of a tag team title program after one PPV.
The New Day defeated Social Outcasts (1:50)
Kingston pinned Heath Slater after the Midnight Hour. Highlight was Slater taking the Unicorn Stampede. He rolled out of the ring barely able to stand, so Bo Dallas called for a Bo Train. Slater made it about three steps before collapsing. Of course, the cake had to end up in somebody’s face before the segment could end. So Kingston and Woods threw Slater into the cake, which splattered everywhere. They showed three highlights of the cake spot.
Miz and Maryse came out. Miz said he was still the Intercontinential Champion and a future Money in the Bank winner. He compared himself to the movie “Rudy” by overcoming overwhelming odds to retain the championship at Extreme Rules against Zayne, Owens and Cesaro. He wondered who could play him in an underdog movie, and brought up Brad Pitt and Dwayne Johnson. Maryse pulled in for a kiss, but Cesaro came out before they could get it on. Saxton said Cesaro looked like someone from “The Professional,” a weird reference to a 1994 film featuring a 12-year-old Natalie Portman. JBL then compared Cesaro to Roger Federer because they both have genetic superiority. Roger Federer pulled out of the French Open last week because of injuries.
Cesaro defeated the Miz (C) in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match, as well as a nontitle match (11:16)
Another solid match with these two, ending when Miz jumped off the top rope into a Cesaro uppercut, leading to the Gotch Neutralizer. Miz did the usual spots working over Cesaro’s injured left shoulder. Cesaro tried the Giant Swing, but couldn’t complete it because of the shoulder. Maryse has totally revitalized Miz’s career. He’s working better than he has in years, his promos are entertaining, and it has even helped the Intercontinental Championship, which really seemed on the backburner again after WrestleMania.
Rollins did an interview with Young. He said it would be fitting if he defeated Reigns for the Money in the Bank championship since he won it 2 years ago, leading to him cashing it in. Rollins walked up to Stephanie McMahon. Rollins wanted to hug her, but she said things have changed around here. She just wanted a handshake, and a confused Rollins complied.
Chris Jericho defeated Apollo Crews in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match (7:37)
There was a mixup near the finish. Jericho went for the Lionsault. Crews did a nip-up while Jericho was in midair, but didn’t get out of the way. Jericho’s knees hit Crews on the head and they both fell to the mat. Looked like the rest of the match had to be ad-libbed from that point. Jericho won with a codebreaker. Finish kind of buried Crews since Jericho was supposed to be less than 100% after the Ambrose match last night. Jericho was all taped up from last night’s thumbtacks bump. Crews came out without selling anything from the Sheamus beating. Crews didn’t get much of a reaction and looked disappointed.
The latest from Darren Young and Bob Backlund, who chastized Young for taking notes. Then Backlund ordered him to recite all the presidents in honor. Young said he couldn’t do that. Backlund started to do it, and Young said “Damn, coach!” in a way to put Backlund over. Backlund got mad at him for swearing and ordered him to do 100 jumping jacks.
Baron Corbin did an interview with JoJo. They showed Corbin delivering a Draymond Green-caliber low blow to beat Dolph Ziggler last night. Ziggler walked in and said Corbin couldn’t beat him in a technical wrestling match. Corbin said he wasn’t worried about technical wrestling, he was worried about handing out beatings. You haven’t heard mechanical delivery of promos until you’ve heard Corbin. Ziggler said he was going to face Ambrose tonight and do something Corbin could never do: steal the show.
Big Cass came out. Then he waved toward the entrance and Enzo Amore made his return to a huge pop. They did the usual routine with the fans singing along. Amore had Michael Jackson’s jacket from the Thriller video on. Amore claimed he forgot to pay his electric bill and they cut his lights out. The doctors diagnosed him with a concussion, which he calls a hard sneeze. Amore said if he had a dime for every time he got knocked down and didn’t get back up, he would have ZERO DIMES! Amore said as for Bubba Ray and Devon Dudley, “do us a favor and don’t do us no favors.” Cass said throwing his size-17 boot was going to be like throwing a basketball into a swimming pool, because he wasn’t going to miss. If 10% of Amore’s interview ability could somehow transform over to Crews, he’d headline WrestleMania before 2020.
Big Cass defeated Bubba Ray Dudley (2:46)
Devon hit Amore from behind at ringside. This led to Cass’ comeback, which spilled out on the floor. Cass threw Amore into Devon. In the ring, Bubba Ray took the Ric Flair slam off the top rope, and Cass pinned him after the Empire Elbow.
Charlotte, Dana Brooke and Ric Flair came out for a “State of the WWE Women’s Championship Address.” JBL talked about how the Fabulous Moolah started her championship reign in 1956 in Baltimore. Flair took the mic and how proud he was of her. Flair looked emotional, which signaled something was up since this was suppsed to be a heel promo. Some fans started to chant boring. Flair compared Brooke to “Charlotte’s Uncle Arn.” Charlotte said she wanted to thank one person, “and it was obviously me.” She also thanked Brooke, who thanked Charlotte and put over Flair as the “dirtiest player in the game.” Charlotte brought up what she remembered growing up. She remembered various holidays and birthdays where her father wasn’t around for her. She had to watch him on television. Fans chanted “What” at Charlotte and she was getting really mad and appeared to lose her train of thought. Charlotte said she understood why her father missed those holidays because she was the champion. She then turned to her father and ordered him to get out of her ring. Flair didn’t understand what she was talking about. Charlotte said everyone from Flair’s generation was the same because they never wanted to leave the spotlight. Charlotte said Flair never understood how it felt to walk into a room and hear people say “There’s Ric Flair’s daughter.” She said now Flair was Charlotte’s father. Flair started to cry. Charlotte said Flair was “the 2nd dirtiest player in the game” and she doesn’t have time for people who come in 2nd place. She said she doesn’t need him anymore.
Charlotte accused Flair of neglecting her. Flair was in tears. Charlotte said Flair was an immortal to everyone in Baltimore, but to her he was dead. Now, Flair can watch Charlotte on TV just like she watched him through her childhood. She ordered him to leave the ring, which Flair did with remorse. Flair walked to the back and Charlotte crowed about how she was the champ. Flair’s facials were excellent. Charlotte had to work hard to get through this despite al the hecklers, but she’s very skilled on the microphone and did a good job getting this breakup over. JBL, Cole and Saxton sold this heavy, speaking in hushed tones wearing long faces like they had just seen a career-threatening injury angle.
For those who complain that this angle hit too close to home and was uncomfortable to watch, this isn’t the first time Flair’s parenting skills have been used in an angle. One of the few good segments of WCW Thunder in 2000 featured Flair and Arn Anderson in a microphone dual that centered around their personal lives and children. Not to mention Flair wrestling his son David in 1999 & 2000. Granted, that was among the worst booked programs in history, but it was still a subject. Flair himself, as a shoot, called that program “a nightmare.”
Dean Ambrose defeated Dolph Ziggler in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match (12:10)
Ambrose won with Dirty Deeds after blocking the Zig Zag. It was a scientific match to get over Ziggler facing Corbin in a “scientific match” next week. During an Ambrose comeback, JBL said “Can you imagine what it would be like to have two former members of the Shield fight for the championship?” How many times did we see that last year? Then Ambrose did his ricochet off the ropes into the clothesline spot and Cole belted out “How in the world did he do that?” We see that spot every week.
A distraught Flair walked back stage where he came across Arn Anderson, who consoled him and said he was sorry. Young walked up and asked if he had anything he wanted to say. Flair, who tried to smile, declined and left the building.
The Shining Stars put over their debut last week and invited everyone to Puerto Rico, “The Shining Star of the Carribbean.”
Styles came out and said you never know how good someone is until you get in the ring with them. Styles said Reigns is every bit the man he says he is, which got him roundly booed. Styles said Reigns was one of the best he ever got in the ring with, but he still wasn’t phenomenal. Then Styles did another subtle heel dig, saying if it wasn’t for the Usos, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, you would be looking at the new WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This brought out Anderson and Gallows. Anderson was upset that Styles would say they cost him a chance to beat Reigns. Anderson accused Styles of changing since their days in Japan. Gallows said if he and Anderson hadn’t dropped every person that wanted to fight Styles, there would be a lot of bars that Styles would have never made it out of. Styles tried to be amicable and said they needed to seperate. Styles said, for now, they were done as a team. But nothing can seperate them from being brothers. Gallows wasn’t going for it, saying they weren’t brothers anymore. Anderson said they weren’t friends anymore. Styles said if that’s the case, they don’t need to be in the ring together anymore. He said, as of right now, this was his ring. Anderson and Gallows took the cue to leave and did without shaking hands. Another breakup angle.
Kevin Owens defeated A.J. Styles in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match (16:30)
Owens won with the Pop-Up Power Bomb after Styles attempted a springboard move, but Owens kicked Styles’ legs out from under him. Styles hit the Pele Kick after escaping an attempt at the Pop-Up Power Bomb. Earlier, Owens missed a moonsault and Styles nailed a springboard 450 splash for a near fall. One night after bumping all over the place for Reigns, Styles wasn’t having an off night. Biggest spot came outside the ring when Styles ran up the steps, but Owens caught him over his shoulders and slammed him across the top of the steps. Later, Styles ran towards Owens, who power bombed Styles on the steps, leading to a countout tease. It was like Styles was 30 again and was in TNA putting over Kevin Nash. And yes, that really happened. Clean. Crowd seemed to be waiting for the near falls, but got more involved towards the end. Finish seemed to catch them by surprise.
SUMMARY: Very solid wrestling show. Frankly, this should be a pattern for the summer because the roster is going to be as deep as ever once John Cena, Randy Orton and Neville return. It’s just a question of which programs are made and how to gain the most from them. The Reigns-Rollins program isn’t really unique. Fans have booed Cena for years and cheered various heels against him. Rather than make a new superstar out of Reigns, the WWE has just made him a Cena clone. And the fans will treat him as such, as well as whoever is in a program with him. the good news is there’s plenty of guys he can have quality matches with that won’t expose him.
In an interesting move, SyFy announced Friday that WWE Raw is coming to the network. Well, a version of it anyway.
A two-hour airing of the show will air in Smackdown’s former timeslot on SyFy from 8-10 PM EST. It’s assumed that this will be what was previously just the Hulu version of Raw, and bring more WWE saturation to the Universal family of networks. Airing some wrestling content on the network could be an indicator that they want to keep some wrestling fans tuned into it, or to see how well a two hour version fares in the ratings compared to the first-run three hour version. It also could be SyFy looking for a time fill that pulls some sort of rating.
With Raw’s ratings constantly in question on a weekly basis, is this the answer on how to engage lapsed fans that want a shorter, better version of RAW every week? As always, the numbers will tell the story.
A big third hour drop and a massive NBA playoff game resulted in WWE coming close to seasonal lows for the May 16th edition of Raw, but ending just above that mark.
The show did 3.17 million viewers — just above the 3.12 million viewers for the April 25th show — but lower than any other non-holiday Raw outside of football season since 1997.
The first hour, which didn’t oppose the Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder game, was the highest rated show on cable. Raw was No. 3 on cable behind the game and the post game show, Inside The NBA
There was a huge drop in Raw’s third hour, which was predicted given everything that was going on. The basketball game was up 28% in viewers from a similar Warriors playoff game last season.
The key is that even though there are more viewers of Dancing With The Stars (11.64 million) than the NBA game (8.1 million), the latter seems to have impacted Raw more significantly.
DWTS draws double the women’s adult audience as men, while the NBA game was made up of 66% males or about double the women’s audience in the 18-49 demo. Raw does numbers similar to that of the NBA in that regard. Also of note in sports Monday, the San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues NHL playoff game did 1.71 million viewers.
Raw was only down two percent from last week with that tougher competition. The first two hours were similar to last week with hour one slightly up and hour two slightly down. But, the third hour was down four percent from last week.
The continuation of the “New Era” of Raw didn’t ended up being a positive factor in the ratings as the Monday, May 9th edition of the show did 3.23 million viewers, down six percent from last week. It was the second lowest rating for a show outside of football season since 1997.
A week ago, the combination of a post-PPV show and the first Stephanie & Shane McMahon show did 3.43 million viewers. The modern era low for a show outside of football season or a major holiday was 3.12 million viewers which was set two weeks ago.
Dancing With the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, remained the most-watched show on television with 11.33 million viewers.
Raw was third on cable for the night, trailing two NBA playoff games on TNT. The first, which went head-to-head with Raw, did 4.01 milliion viewers while the late night game, which started just before Raw ended, did 6.16 million viewers.
In this week’s case, the culprit was that the audience at the start was lower than usual. The second hour was the high point, although the first two hours were virtually identical. There was a third hour drop, but it wasn’t as bad as some have been. The real story of the low number wasn’t people tuning out, but that they didn’t tune in at their usual levels to begin with.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.35 million viewers
9 p.m. 3.36 million viewers
10 p.m. 3.01 million viewers
Subscribers can access Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez’s Wrestling Observer Radio Raw report here.
Monday night was bad news ratings-wise for WWE as not only did RAW decline six percent from last week’s seasonal modern record low, but the 3.12 million viewers the company garnered for the 4/25 edition of the show were marginally better overall than two fall episodes that suffered due to NFL programming.
The drop showed that it was the pattern that is the key issue and not because last week’s show was taped. Daylight Savings Time also isn’t an excuse as it was the first hour that was the most viewed with a decline throughout the show’s final two hours. (The really bad number, based on patterns, was hour two.)
Even so, it was a bad night for cable as Raw was the only show to top 3 million viewers (that includes two NBA playoff games on TNT). The game going against RAW did 2.54 million viewers and the late game that started at 10:46 p.m. did 2.97 million viewers.
ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, did 11.75 million viewers — the most watched show on television.
Going against the NBA playoffs and with a taped show, Raw last night broke a new record for the least watched episode on its regular night outside of football season with 3.32 million viewers.
The show fell victim to a big third hour drop which led to it falling below the previous low mark set on 2/1 at 3.37 million viewers.
Dancing with the Stars, featuring UFC’s Paige VanZant, also had a big drop to 10.95 million viewers.
There were a number of shows during football season last year, as well as the 1/11 show against the college football championship game, that did lower numbers than Raw.
Raw was still the second highest rated show on cable, beating the NBA game on TBS that went head-to-head and did 3.21 million viewers, but falling behind the Warriors-Rockets late game that did 4.42 million viewers.
Keep in mind that the actual viewers of both games would be significantly higher if you included the local market broadcasts of each game.
The seasonal pattern of people tuning in late that comes after Daylight Savings time was in effect, but the pattern that the third hour doesn’t drop as much during that season was not. The first two hours were in the same range as last week, so the record low was entirely due to the big third hour drop.
The three hours were:
8 p.m. 3.49 million viewers 9 p.m. 3.54 million viewers 10 p.m. 2.98 million viewers
