General musings on tonight’s episode:
- There’s an obvious formula in place for Monday Night Raw: start the show with a long-winded 20-minute promo, and then cut to commercial. That’s not entertaining. Can we find out who is responsible for this?
- I’m a huge fan of Seth Rollins, but having him fill this role just because he’s the champion is making his promos feel forced and boring.
- There’s no way Sheamus cashes in at Night of Champions.
- Paige and Sasha Banks have chemistry after all. I’d love to see round three at Night of Champions.
- Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns are fun as a tag team. Baltimore was on board with Reigns – maybe some of the Ambrose rub is working after all?
- The WWE seems absolutely mortified of the idea of having clean finishes for first-time matches on Raw. Ryback and Seth Rollins had a fantastic match that Ryback could have won clean. Instead, Sting interferes via Titan Tron and Rollins is a victim of the old roll-up. In reality, a win via Shell Shock would’ve been huge for Ryback (who is struggling to keep the Intercontinental Championship relevant in the shadow of the United States Championship), and would not have been detrimental to Rollins at all. In fact, it would’ve furthered the intrigue surrounding Night of Champions by showing that Rollins is indeed vulnerable.
- This whole Dolph Ziggler/Lana/Rusev/Summer Rae angle is atrocious. I’m starting to feel like the WWE Universe, as a whole, is being pranked. Maybe Dolph Ziggler has taken Swerved way too far with this one.
- I guess Randy Orton is going to be Ambrose/Reigns’ partner against The Wyatt Family. Surprisingly, I’d actually rather it have been Baron Corbin…okay, maybe that’s not true.
- I’m not sure if it was child abuse, animal cruelty, or some form of racism, but Los Matadores definitely just committed some sort of crime.
- I hate the mood swings with Cesaro. Every few months, they push him as the main event attraction he is. Then, for whatever reason, he falls back down to being a plot device in a feud between Big Show and The Miz.
- The only thing I caught myself thinking during the awful Nikki Cena promo was, “Man – Alicia Fox is vastly underutilized.”
- The New Day is so over it’s not even funny….technically, though, it’s very funny. It’s very hilarious. I could see these guys becoming this generation’s classic, quintessential tag team.
- I can’t remember the last time that the crowd was so dead for an act that should be wildly popular. Titus O’Neil and Darren Young are tremendously entertaining and have an amazing antagonist to work with (New Day), but the fans just don’t seem to care.
- Did someone on commentary just fart during Seth Rollins’ entrance? Oh, right. Xavier Woods has the trombone.
- Great main event followed up by a classic Attitude Era-style conclusion.
Overall, a standard issue edition of Monday Night Raw – highlighted by The New Day, Ryback vs. Seth Rollins, and Sting destroying the Rollins statue – 2.5 stars.
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo
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