What Happened Last Week On Raw: Randy Orton Pinned the Champion, which is actually a pretty big deal this time. Mustafa Ali has aligned himself with Retribution because reasons. The 24/7 Title shenanigans were a literal trash can. And Bray Wyatt showed up on Raw, wow wouldn’t that be cool if it could happen more often?
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HGR Reacts To Last Friday Night’s Edition of the 2020 WWE Draft
I can not put into words, how amazing last Friday’s draft went for us here over at the red brand. Admittedly at first, losing Seth Rollins definetly hurts the overall landscape of Monday Night. He’s an amazing talent, and his promo work albeit incredibly boring substance wise, has still been amazing.
But losing Rollins to Smackdown officially meant the end of the Rollins and Mysterio family feud. It was over, finally. We as WWE fans could take a moment, and recollect ourselves and, what’s this? Rey and Dominic… also got drafted to Smackdown?
I send all my love and condolences to The Real Birdman, I’m so so sorry. Hey it’s not like Smackdown could have an even worse draft this Monday right?
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Fight(ing) For (Literally) Ever
Randy Orton on the mic is at his literal best this year as everyone knows. This promo here was even a step higher in my opinion because Orton showed off the ability to talk crap about someone, while also putting them over. A trick not a lot of people can pull off.
Apparently last weeks tussle wasn’t enough as The Champion Is now Here on the stage telling Orton that it’s fighting time. I’m really looking forward to this feud ending because they’ve at least built it up well and these guys need new people to throw fists at pronto.
My only hope regarding McIntyre’s claim he’s going to kick Orton’s butt (my words not his) any time they are in the same place is that we can get some wwe.com exclusive’s throughout the week of them randomly seeing each other in a Denny’s and just throwing fists at each other.
Never Bring Tights to a Jeans Fight
This match was just a fun time really, well for me, definitely not that fun overall for KO and Aleister. These guys pulled out the safest versions of some dumb set ups for spots and just basically strung them together in a way that made sense. Because you know, they are good at this pro wrestling thing.
This feud to me has been kind of weird in a sense of I can’t even remember why it started, it had an awkward influx of the Fiend in it randomly, and now it’s seemingly over? But who knows, maybe they’ll just keep the feud going over on Smackdown because that seems the rage these days.
Best Draft since the 2018 Cleveland Browns
You’re telling me, I basically traded having to write about Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio forever for getting to write about BRAY WYATT AND ALEXA BLISS?
I don’t even know what to say? Do I even have to say “Well let’s see where it goes” because with Bray it’s ALWAYS going somewhere.. just, wow.
Not only that but with the wonderful foreshadowing done by Zelina Vega during a kind of wasteful Garza vs Andrade matchup in regards to “not caring” about Alexa Bliss. We get to set up right away a potential first go through for the Fiend and Bliss on Raw.
I’m so happy. Sorry, not sorry Birdman.
I’m kind of done with talk shows, OH HI YA MIZ!
It’s a nice refreshing change to finally have a talk show host that you, has some experience actually being on talk shows right? KO and Bliss’ shows were FINE, but they lacked that.. pizzaz ya know? So it’s with great enthusiasm that I welcome MizTV and John Morrison to Raw. Especially if The Dirt Sheet is to follow also? Oh man it’s been such a great draft.
Lars eventually shows up later to attack both Miz and JoMo, but he’s a Smackdown wrestler and he’s stupid so I don’t care.
In regards to the first guests of MizTV, Dana and Mandy, meh I guess. I really hope this is just an effort to get them over as a tag team enough to be contenders once and then split up. Mandy is absolutely about to have a rocket strapped to her back very soon. Also..
Mandy’s shoulders aren’t even as high as the Top Rope. Whatever.
We get another solid tag match from the Sexy Muscle Friends against Natty and Lana. Which thankfully is the LAST tag match between these two we should ever see as after a loss Natty has decided teaming with the least effective wrestler on the roster is now just suddenly not worth the trouble. I’m sure that won’t have any negative consequences later tonight.
Trading Places
The hits keep on coming, and while it’s sad to lose out on Big E’s potential, swapping out this current form of the Street Profits for Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston is an automatic win.
We also get a pretty good tag match out of it as Roode and Ziggler, two more guys who are also leaving Raw for Smackdown (so sad). I’d like to take a minute to talk about how actually underrated Xavier Woods is.
The dude can absolutely go in the ring, and has turned a career of being a TNA after thought and showing up as “R-Truths Friend” who just got his ass kicked every week into a literal Hall of Fame career. By putting his spot in WWE basically on the line and betting on himself and his belief in his friends. It’s just a really great story, and seeing him finally come back from a terrible injury and get right back into a good match was great to see.
When Tampa drafting a Kicker had a better 2nd round than you
This was overall the filler round of people I generally don’t care about but will probably be big parts of the show going forward, so yay?
Gaining the trio of Strowman, Riddle, and Jeff Hardy while losing KO is just that, a net loss. I wsh KO well on the blue brand and hope he can get some solid stories that don’t involve people that have lost an eye soon.
Phriday Night Pharoah
(credit: Birdman)
As said, it’s sad to see Rollins go off the Smackdown and leave the House that Rollins built unattended. To say he hasn’t been the backbone of Raw for the past few years is just not giving him credit. Between the Workhorse IC Title reign and his maturation from being Plan B into a fully formed actual true Main Eventer. It’s been a long run and a good one.
Oh great Jeff Hardy’s here.
I understand the draft isn’t a true one for one swap round by round, but the idea of losing Rollins to gain Hardy is just, I don’t know, laughable? Nothing against Jeff he’s great from what he is, but one thing he is not and never has been is a talker. Short burst of enthusiasm maybe but anything more than that just seems to mumble mumble what now?
Oh hey at least Styles’ is here too.
I am definitely looking forward to a potential McIntyre/Styles program among others. But this somewhat mid-card slot AJ has been in for a while has been pretty solid as well. Almost as if he’s just here to help carry Hardy to serviceable matches or something, huh weird.
Oh, uh hey there Elias.
I’m not going to ignore how dumb this is, but overall having a HEEL Elias back is much preferred. Face Elias literally makes no sense whatsoever. Technically Elias in a stadium not full of people is kind of pointless as well, but anyways.
I can’t tell if Elias actually thinks Hardy ran him over, or if they are trying to retcon an angle from I don’t even remember how long ago. But hey if this somehow gets me Elias vs Sheamus in a big only skrong boi fight I am here for it. Even in a Triple Threat with Hardy, they could like, pick him up and hit each other with him. Would be great.
When Bidness Deals go Bad
I’ve never fully understood the idea of “If I win you have to leave me alone” type stipulations. What does that really mean? If Ricochet wins the WWE Title and Bobby Lashley wins the Royal Rumble can he not wrestle him then? Is there a time limit on it? Whatever.
What I do love is two things, first off this new Cedric Alexander that finally came back to TV this week is AMAZING. Dude’s out here just killing it as a bad guy in the ring. I have a theory that some of the best heel work is done by those who have been basically lifetime white meat babyfaces, and after all that built up aggression, when they finally get to let loose, it’s just magic.
The second thing I love with what would have been Eddie Guerrero’s 53rd Birthday this past Friday was a true tribute to one of the greats. The old hit a weapon on the mat and throw it to your opponent gimmick works. every. time. Not only that but Ricochet’s faint sell gave me a solid laugh. Bravo to all involved and I’m just glad everyone can move on to new stuff.
Going From 0 – Absolute Joke in less than 60 seconds
The women’s battle royal was fine. It told a few stories, probably could have given a few people a bit more shine. The Baeszler and Jax dynamic was fun. When we got down to the final four of Natty, Lacey Evans, and the Riott Squad I was 100% sure Lacey was winning while hoping for Ruby.
Then ended quickly when both the Riotts got eliminated via jumping nothings, great plan gals. So we are down to Lacey Evans and Natalya for a shot at Asuka? Why? Whatever.
In all respect the final two ladies gave a nice effort and put on a believable finish that saw a surprise win for Natty. Everything always points to Lacey getting random title shots for no reason so this was a…
What just happened.
LANA? WHY?
Why does your security suck so much?
We end the show with Randy Orton and McIntyre brawling from the back immediately after the battle royal is over, how nice of them to wait.
Jokes aside I do love moments like these that allow the show to feel like a living and breathing “universe” over just a bunch of separate sketch clips pasted back to back to back.
The show ends with a pull apart brawl and dare I say that yet again we find ourselves sitting here not wanting to inflict damage to our own self after watching an episode of Raw? That’s three episodes in a row? We are on a streak ladies and gentleman!
Draft Recap
Raw did lose some good people obviously. KO, Black, and even people like Crews and the Riott Squad will be missed. But absolutely overall this was a significant win for The Red Brand. Not only did we get rid of the ENTIRE Rollins/Mysterio storyline (kind of wish Buddy stayed to have banger matches with people) we also GAINED the entire Fiend/Bliss storyline that is just now actually picking up steam!
With Hell in a Cell less than two weeks away we can finally end some feuds and start with a really fresh new Raw that hopefully continues at least not being bad going forward.
If you enjoyed Raw, Enjoyed this Column, or just enjoy life in general, give this a share. Stop by the SRP Discord and tell me why you think I’m an idiot or whatever also. Until next time, Tango Mike.
