R-Truth vanishing into the back? Major Buzzkill. That’s just one thing. The whole show felt rushed and crammed together around a Lana segment that the crowd hated and a lot of high-quality tag action. There were women’s tags, six man tags and even an eight man tag that started out as an actual match. The whole thing was wild and crazy.
Here are some of the things that you didn’t know from watching Raw on TV.
Dio Maddin may not have been at RAW due to the attack from Brock Lesnar, but he was in the arena. I’m not sure what he was doing but we had seen him at the hotel a number of times before we arrived. There probably isn’t going to be a long term Dio vs Brock storyline but let’s just say I’m not against it. The man is huge.
Becky Lynch was over. Charlotte Flair was moreover with this crowd. This might seem unusual but while Becky is the most popular person in wrestling right now, Charlotte Flair has been more consistently built.
Baszler’s appearance came only an hour or so after her last one during the taping so it wasn’t all that much of a surprise to fans in the audience. Bayley’s attack was very well received, though the brawl between the three women was a little by the numbers. Nobody in the arena was told why Natalya wasn’t in the match but on Friday the match hadn’t been formally announced anyway.
Drew McIntyre’s powerbomb on Sin Cara made everyone in the crowd wince. He landed hard. McIntyre was heavily over though, which should be no surprise. McIntyre had also been working with the media for 2K20 earlier in the day alongside Big E. The man had had a long day and had every right to powerbomb somebody.
The fans were heavily split during Seth Rollins’ entrance but the comments he made were definitely with a view to elicit boos. He played up to the crowd, encouraging a negative response. His comment about being the best wrestler in the world was particularly poorly received. Looked at in the context of a heel promo, it was extremely well done.
Fans were massively behind NXT and massively behind WALTER. It was very obvious who the opponent was going to be, hence a very minor pop. Fans were even more behind Kevin Owens though. His was undoubtedly the loudest pop of the night, and we made sure he knew it.
We didn’t see anything from Aleister Black. We didn’t see any argument between Lana and Lashley backstage. We didn’t see any hype package for the South Wales Subculture. Basically, the fans in attendance were continually left in the dark during this show. Watching RAW on TV was almost a completely different experience.
To say that the Lana segment wasn’t popular is a massive understatement but the cheers that Rusev was getting show that, annoyingly, the whole thing is actually working perfectly.
“What’s in Erick Rowan’s cage?” was unquestionably the hottest angle to come out of this show, with conversations rife as we left the arena in every direction. My theory? It’s his cat. A demon cat. Erick Rowan always follows somebody, whether that be Wyatt, Bryan, Harper or now his demonic cat.
After the main event, AJ Styles stayed outside the ring selling. Once the cameras were off he got the microphone and went all-in on Manchester, calling it and the people some horrendous things. Basic heel heat. He was not bothering with hard cam so we knew it was a dark segment. Lo and behold, there was The Fiend.
This was a very surreal experience live. Firstly, The Fiend is obviously being played as a face but the magic sort of isn’t there when you see the two guys waving the flashlights in his face and you see him running into his spotlight. That said, the red light is far less obnoxious in person.
Fun fact, I ran into Bray Wyatt while I was getting on an elevator earlier in the day and I heard him say the most profound thing I think anyone has ever said. “Is that the way to the bus?”
He changed my life that day.
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