What Happened Last Week On Raw: We Bid Farewell to the Rollins/Mysterio video packages, The Profits and New Day literally traded tag belts backstage, AJ Styles vowed to make Raw his show, Lana went through a table again, Ricochet used DUSTY FINISH and it was super effective, Lana won a battle royal because reasons..
No Prelude needed this week so let’s get right into the October 19th edition of.. RAW Emotions
Oh, Hello there new Friends
Can every episode of Raw from now until forever just start with Alexa Bliss in the ring? I wouldn’t complain too much, especially if we get full on Fiend spooky entrances too which I realized during that I hadn’t actually seen in a while.
While team FireFly is amenable to just standing there being spooky all day, which would be a really great episode of Raw mind you. Another other group has decided it’s time to throw down over luminescence based entrances.
Sometimes Bidness goes a little too Well
I don’t want to be the guy who talks about what the “endgame” of an angle that I thoroughly enjoyed is. However I can’t not notice that we spent multiple months on the Retribution storyline and kinda just nuked them in one entire match.
I’m glad they all got actual wrestling gear and aren’t wearing baggy hoodies to wrestle in now but how worried am I supposed to be about a team that got throughly dominated in this entire 8-Man Tag and lost absolutely clean via submission?
And while we know the Fiend is super skrong and powerful, him just walking through the entire faction doesn’t make me want to watch them wrestle him one on one or do much really of anything going forward. Besides get wrecked more, cause it’s fun.
Has AJ found the Deisel to his HBK?
That man, is very tall. My drivers license says I’m 5’8 and I have multiple younger brothers that are taller than I am. I’m used to looking down at people I have to physically look up at. So I can say as an expert that that man is very, very tall.
I love Cocky AJ Styles so much, and Cocky AJ Styles with a (legit) 7’3 Bodyguard is a contender for the best version of AJ Styles going forward. If Jordan (Omogbehin) can at least get to “comfortable” in the ring he’s got an amazing future ahead of him at the young age of 26.
I also absolutely love that he didn’t just immediately start murdering people, allow the simple threat of a man that size to get over first before he starts throwing very large fists at people.
The match with Riddle is pretty good as you’d expect with the pre-match visual of the referee politely asking Jordan to leave the ring being one of the highlights of the show. Who knew all this time all you needed to do to not get DQ’d was forcibly stop the refs hand from counting?
That Drew McIntyre promo was pretty Ok
Not listed in WWE’s Youtube section was a very solid promo from Drew McIntyre setting up the later events of the evening regarding Randy’s promo. Huh, a promo to set up a promo, Promo-ception? To fully digest the words that Drew said and how they are to make you feel, here is a picture of a kitten looking mad.
Well I’m glad this is Over
Asuka defending here Women’s title against Lana was fine. Sometimes it seems that Asuka might be a little too giving in the ring to opponents she definitely should absolutely just wreck from the start. However I’m not going to be mad at them attempting to make someone not look like a total goober in the ring. While I’m all for a future Asuka/Shayne matchup, Lana at least came out of this looking like someone who’s obviously not a challenger, but someone that can at least be walked through an acceptable match, Oh wait Nia’s here… Nevermind.
How to set up and Nuke an entire Division in One Segment
First off, let me get this straight. We had to sit through you breaking up the IIconics, JUST so you could team Peyton with.. LACEY EVANS!? Don’t get me wrong the dichotomy between the two of them tying to get all the attention over the other one has potential and was fun to watch, but also no.
With ManDy Rose and Dana Brooke, The Riott Squad, and then potentially also the IIconics you would have a better Women’s tag division than both Men’s Tag Divisions combined basically. Now it just comes across as having one actual team and a bunch of people thrown together, including your Champions.
Not only that, you then set up quite randomly a big ole non-title 4-Way that shows your Champions are just better than all of those teams anyways, so what is even the point?
Watching everyone beat up Lacey was fun though.
TIL: Elias actually puts out albums
There is a stunning history of Pro Wrestlers carrying things to the ring that they don’t know how to actually use. Van Hammer in WCW with his guitar, Cactus Jack with his whip, for examples. Elias has always shown that he has musical ability though, but I will be honest if I didn’t find out for the first time last night that he actually puts out albums, which is pretty cool to be fully honest.
My worst fear about this feud now is that it’s just going to lead to me having to watch a musical performance by Jeff Hardy and his band, which probably wouldn’t be as bad as Smackdown’s Karaoke Segment but is still not something I’m interested in watching.
The feud itself still makes no sense unless you’re ok with the idea that Elias not only didn’t watch Smackdown after he was hit by a car, but also hasn’t been involved at all in the investigation that for some reason still seems to be open. Hardy coming back at Elias at least makes sense as he took a loss last week because of him.
The Power of Positivity knows no Bounds
I’m really glad to see Woods and Kingston back on TV, their promo ability is still a little rusty mind you, but the overall message they gave was a good one. The New Day got split up, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still all together, they even had Big E on an LED screen during the match this week. Sheamus, who should probably be in jail right now, comes out to show us that it’s not just people who’ve been gone a calendar year that can struggle on the mic.
The match itself is very good, as you would expect from two guys who’ve been here forever and have wrestled each other in singles and tags about a billion times. The question moving forward is if Sheamus is going to find himself a tag partner and go for the belts or if both he and the tag champs are treading water.
The Truth shall set you Free
Ali is here to set the record straight and actually close up some loose ends on a storyline from months ago, which is nice. The issue is we’ve already seen ya’ll take the L earlier on so your threats of exposing “secrets” and what not are a little soft, but while I’m here..
Gotta keep
One bump ahead of the Clothesline
One swing ahead of the Spear
I hack, only what I can’t endure
(That’s Every Raw!)
One bump, ahead of the Hurt Biz
That’s all, and that’s no joke
These guys, don’t appreciate I’m woke
Riffraff!
Slapjack!
Scoundrel!
Take that!
Just a little hack, guys
Rip him open, take it back, guys
I can take a hint, gotta face the facts
You’re my only friend, T-Bar!
Should have picked Juan Cena
Earlier in the show Tucker (Knight) went off on The Miz and John Morrison about their vindictive plot against his friend and the MITB Contract. While JoMo being Miz’s hype man is something I’m absolutely here for, I really just need this storyline to end because I’m still not entirely sure what they are doing with it, or if they even are.
Tucker bringing out “El Gran Gordo” as his partner, aka Otis in a mask and cape wasn’t predictable but it probably should have been. Doesn’t being the MITB Breifcase holder basically allow you to go back and forth between shows anyways? Whatever.
[Insert “I’m So Happy” Gif Here]
Aside from Rambling Rabbit talking about his wife and kids making me laugh a lot more than it probably should have. The debut of Alexa Bliss in the FireFly Funhouse was as we all knew it would be, a resounding win. I hope this isn’t just a one off thing, I really hope it gets a lot more depth to it. I’m fully ok with FFH episodes that are just Bliss by herself going forward. There are so many ways this can go, and with Bray involved it’s not the usual “wait and see” approach because he’s just really good at this pro wrestling thing. How this wasn’t the main event segment I’ll never know..
This Match was pretty Nuts
This is what their third match now? All three having ended under weird contexts. It’s not going great for that Keith Lee super push when the only reason he can get offense in on Strowman is because Braun got a booboo four days ago.
The low-blow with the back of your head to counter a powerbomb actually made me laugh though so I’ll give him that. I just don’t get throwing these two big dudes at each other over and over and what it’s supposed to accomplish. These are the guys you keep apart for a while so they can finally meet up in the middle of a Royal Rumble. What do I know.
Aww nuts, we’re out of Time!
Oh how do I hate the red caged Hell in a Cell so much. I don’t know who’s idea that was or why it’s still like that, but it just looks so dumb on so many levels.
Orton’s promo was absolutely a Randy Orton go home promo, not up to what he’s been doing all this year but still pretty good at setting the table for his upcoming matchup. McIntyre coming out and finding CONVENIANT BOLT CUTTERS was a nice touch. If you’re going to go off air right before a death fight then when Smackdown starts the cage better still be there with both men lying dead in the ring. I’m just saying.
So that was another not terrible episode of Raw. It’s kind of weird how quickly this show has turned itself around from soul sucking to “eh it wasn’t that bad”. I’m not going to be greedy and ask for like, a good show or anything. It wouldn’t hurt occasionally you know?
So if you enjoyed Raw, Enjoyed this Column, or just enjoy life in general, give this a share. Until next time, I’m HGR and Tango Mike.
