Welcome back to our weekly Raw review, this week Raw landed on July 4th so the American holiday was fully celebrated on Raw. Storylines were not really furthered and this was basically a throw away Raw, I do not expect things to pick up until after the draft.
4th Of July Food Fight
The show opens with an earlier in the day segment where the locker room were celebrating with a big feast and for some reason Golden Truth was singing. The Vaudevillians broke that up, and then The Miz and Maryse turned up, but before long a huge food fight broke out. This was horrendous, I did not laugh at all, in fact I found this to be a huge embarrassment to all involved. The only saving grace was Kevin Owens, he was hiding under the table and he comments that “This wouldn’t happen on Canada Day” and then he gets hit with a dessert.
Rating: 1/5
At least we had Lilian Garcia singing, and she always does that song justice, just beautiful.
United States Title Match: Rusev (c) w/Lana vs. Titus O’Neil
Yet another match between these two, at least this one was the best one they have had so far. Titus came out like Apollo Creed, and was naturally the hero on this patriotic day. I had heard rumblings of a potential title change, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if this had happened. However if it did, I don’t think that would have helped the build for Rusev. I liked the back and forth action, these two felt like they had finally found their flow. But this feud has run its course for me, the end came with The Accolade and despite trying to fight it Titus did tap. Rusev the gloater was a good end to the match.
Rating: 2.5/5
The Social Outcasts vs. Enzo & Cass
The Social Outcasts came out in costumes to fit the mood of the day, and it was pretty fun I have to admit. Heath Slater was selling his table plant from the food fight with his arm in a sling. Enzo and Cass came out and just ruled over everything, with Enzo naming off a bunch of Presidents. This was a pretty short match with the Outcasts getting the upper hand for most of it, but once Cass got the tag it was over with. Pretty much just a match to showcase Enzo and Cass, and I wasn’t complaining.
Rating: 3/5
Charlotte with Dana Brooke Addresses Sasha Banks
This was a pretty good segment with Charlotte addressing Sasha Banks, with Dana just there for show really. Charlotte has improved leaps and bounds on the mic, and she really has honed her craft there. Business picked up when Sasha made her way out (loved the one piece suit), and owned it like a Legit Boss can. I loved her explanation for what a Boss is, and then the attacking happened. Sasha got the upper hand with Dana getting Charlotte out of the ring. Loving this!
Rating: 4/5
Champion vs. Champion: Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz w/Maryse
Well I have to say this was a really good match, and again The Miz may have been away for a month but he hasn’t missed a beat. These two worked really well together and had really good back and forth action. They hit some good spots, and put on an entertaining match, I like the unpredictability of Ambrose and he has definitely felt a lot fresher since becoming Champion. I think he has upped his game a lot, and I don’t doubt he will continue to do so as time goes on. Credit where credit is due, The Miz worked hard in this match and I am glad we are seeing this from him. He certainly has become a valuable player on the roster and absolutely deserving of the IC Title.
Rating: 4/5
Post match Seth Rollins music hits and he makes his way out, Dean Ambrose walks up and the two pass and Dean taps him on the back. Love the mind games, since these two need to build a huge match without the third participant. Rollins gets in the ring, and Ambrose runs down but instead of an attack he jumps in and out of the ring and sits at the Spanish announce table. His attempt at Spanish was hilarious.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins
Match of the night easily, it was just a fraction better than the previous match. These two had a really good flow from the get go, and they went back and forth putting on a bit of a clinic. This is the type of spot I want to see Ziggler in, delivering a great match and being one of the highlights of the show. Hopefully with the draft he will be able to be in an elevated spot, Rollins can do no wrong and he was on fire here. I loved all the reversals and near falls, it was pretty intense and it definitely had the crowd going. Ambrose on commentary was entertaining as always, I got so much out of this match and the right person won.
Rating: 4.5/5
More post match antics here with Rollins jumping on the announce table, basically to mock Reigns and the crowd enjoyed that. Ambrose of course gets up, and the attack is on. Rollins eats a Dirty Deeds on the table, and amazingly the table didn’t break!
There was a pretty cool and creepy Wyatt promo, I loved every second of it. This feud with The New Day is fantastic, I really am loving how they have been building it.
Vicki Guerreo came out, no Shane or Stephanie on this episode. She prattled on about being a contender to run Smackdown, but security escorted her out. Backstage as she was being taken out there was a funny moment with Dolph.
The GoldenTruth vs. The Vaudevillians
They have brought back Tyler’s little ring side area, as Breezedango is out there to watch the match. Welp what I have feared is happening, The Vaudevillians lost in a quick match to a comedy duo. I didn’t think much of the match honestly, it didn’t have a build or anything. I wonder whether The Vaudevillians will get split up with the draft?
Rating: 1.5/5
John Cena Addresses The Club
John Cena got a pretty good reaction, and he rambled on a little bit. This was not as good as he has been lately, it did pick up when The Club came out and AJ owned Cena on the mic. He brought up the word buried again, and I love that, there is no way these are scripted, creative isn’t that clever. AJ and the boys then said they would beat down Cena constantly, on all the holidays. Not sure why I giggled at this, but I did. They head down to the ring and begin the assault on Cena, earlier they mentioned no one would help Cena. Well someone, or someones are helping Cena – Enzo and Cass run down for the save. I really like they are giving them a big push like this, and at Battleground it will be a 3 on 3 tag team match. Nice.
Rating: 3.5/5
Summer Rae vs. Becky Lynch
Here is the match that did not happen last week, which had Natayla watching on from backstage. This was a short match and thankfully so as Summer Rae botched a few moves and one where she dropped Becky on her head. Summer is normally better than this, not sure what happened there. Becky had to carry the match and of course she got the win, she’s one of the most over superstars on the roster. Glad to see they do have two women’s storylines going on, but for Summer? I hope she works on things, that wasn’t pretty.
Rating: 2/5
They had a backstage segment earlier with Big Show getting Team USA excited for their big match. We had one for the other team, with everyone talking different languages, it was silly but I thought it was kind of funny.
The New Day Address The Wyatts
This mostly was more of the same as we saw previous, Kofi and Big E not taking The Wyatts seriously and Xavier being a lot less enthused as they make their entrance. He didn’t say anything as the other two talked smack about The Wyatts. This led to The Wyatts appearing on the screen, and challenging The New Day to come into their compound. This was done so well, I loved how Bray approached this and how he spoke about it. Big E and Kofi accepted the challenge without a second thought and this is where Xavier lost it. He said they aren’t taking this seriously and they should be, I absolutely loved it. Xavier owned this mic work here and it was so well done, with weeks leading to this moment. Their future match will be off the charts, this feud has been built up perfectly.
Rating: 4/5
Team U.S.A. vs. The Multinational Alliance
This was basically here to give 16 guys something to do and play up the holiday episode, otherwise there was no reason for this match. I liked they had the Multinational Alliance come out to the national anthem of their countries, and all of Team USA came out together. So much action in this match it was not easy to keep up, I did like the nod to the former team of Jack Swagger and Cesaro. Team USA had more eliminations until the very end, where things broke down. Mostly due to Owens and Zayn, which was fairly entertaining and I liked their feud had some more build up even as they were meant to be team mates. Once more eliminations happened, it was down to the wire. Big Show cleaned up house a little and this led to Sheamus being left for his team and he got pinned by Zack Ryder. YES ZACK RYDER WAS THE HERO OF THE MATCH! I absolutely loved that Ryder got the win, I was hoping he would and another great moment for him. Not a great match but at least it had its moment and Ryder winning was the right move.
Rating: 3/5
Overall this really was a throw away Raw, nothing special and nothing gained. As I mentioned I doubt this will pick up until the draft, so prefer for another couple of mediocre weeks. Smackdown at least will feature the reveal of who will face Brock Lesnar at Summerslam.
The Super Network 