The final spot for the women’s MITB match is filled. From the outcome of a women’s gauntlet match. Seth Rollins takes on Jinder Mahal for the Intercontinental Championship. Braun Strowman continues to unleash destruction. The Chosen one, Drew McIntyre makes a statement with his in ring performance. Let’s get this Memorial Day Rawtrospective going. Right… now.
A salute to the ones who gave their lives for this country. Braun unleashes. Something went wrong for Elias.
The show starts off with a Memorial Day video package. Remembering the ones who gave their lives for this country. We salute you.
Enter The Monster.
Braun Strowman walks down the ring and cuts a promo. Only to have Finn Balor arrive. Finn not only responses to Braun’s statements, but slaps The Monster in the face. Strowman proceeds to launch The Demon across the ring. Raw’s General Manager Kurt Angle immediately schedules a match between the two.
Rematch. Finn Balor vs Braun Strowman. Kevin Owens is a commentator.
The match starts off with Braun dominating Finn with pure strength. The fight spills outside and Strowman hits a vicious shoulder tackle on Finn. Sending Balor over the barricades. Braun carries Finn back over the barricades only to have Finn fight back. Balor string together a set of good moves and ends up knocking The Monster over the top rope. This prompts Kevin Owens to give an inspirational speech to Finn.
Braun hits a couple of moves. However, Finn goes back on offense. Hits a Slingblade and two Coupe De Grace. Fin goes for a third, but Kevin Owens interferes. Ending the match in a disqualification. He attacks Finn with a ladder. Then goes after Braun. The Monster stops the ladder attack and Owens goes running.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoWQ6vKpOng&w=640&h=360]
Botched segment?
The Drifter Elias comes out. He asks for many accommodations for his performance. Whether it was focusing the spotlight on him, so he can’t see the crowd. Turing up his mic, so he could not hear the crowd. However, when he asked for the crowd to be silent, something happened. What ever it was it seemed to cause an impromptu announcing of the Seth Rollins vs Jinder Mahal match and Elias walked out the ring. After a commercial break Elias is back in the ring and Seth Rollins interrupts his performance.
Intercontinental Championship match. Nia plays mind games. Deletors of Worlds. Glorious Bobby Roode vs Kevin Owens.
Seth Rollins vs Jinder Mahal
Seth Rollins arrives in the ring to kick out Elias. The Drifter, annoyed. Makes his way out. Seth vs Jinder begins. This was actually a decent match. Jinder doing every heel move to win the title and Seth being the best wrestler on Raw overcoming it. Singh eventually interferes. Which leads the referee to kick him out. However, Singh comes back to interfere again. Leading Seth to lose control of his emotions. Rollins grabs a steel chair and attacks Jinder. Disqualifying himself, but remaining champion. Soon after Elias attacks Seth. Smashing his guitar over Seth’s head.
Nia the heel.
After months of giving inspirational speeches about bullying. Nia Jax turns heel over night. Jax has squash match with a local jobber. Rowdy Ronda Rousey enters and makes her way to the commentators table. Before the match starts. Nia starts to taunt Rousey. Letting the local talent apply an arm bar on her. Nia effortlessly powers out of and apply a powerbomb. After a few statement moves. Nia lures Ronda in to the ring and tells the crowd to shut up. The two face off, but Nia leaves.
Deletors of Worlds vs Ascension
Another quick match to make Bray Wyatt and The Woken Matt Hardy look strong. Bray and Matt seem to be getting in to a groove with their in-ring performances. They hit what is now called The Kiss Of Deletion ( a tag team modified Sister Abigail) for the win.
Kevin Owens vs Bobby Roode.
After the stint Owens pulled earlier in the show. Kevin Owens tried to leave the arena. Angle caught up to him and made this match. The match started off great. Both men feeling each other out and trying to find an advantage. The Glorious One slipped up and missed a ring apron move. Allowing for Owens to capitalize with a Cannonball in to the barricades. The fight followed back in ring. With both men fighting on the top turnbuckle. Roode wins the fray and delivers a flying clothesline.
Owens then runs away, only to have Roode catch up with him. Back in the ring, Owens delivers a super kick to the entering Roode. What follows is a quick succession of counters and Owens gaining the win. But it is not over. Braun Strowman arrives and decimated Owen. After a fierce shoulder tackle and multiple powerslams. Bobby Roode acting as a cheerleader has the same result. Leaving The Monster with two crumple men in the ring.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSfH7fPhhYE&w=640&h=360]
The Chosen One makes a statement. Women’s Gauntlet Match for MITB spot.
Drew McIntyre vs Chad Gable
The Chosen One is followed to the ring by Dolph Ziggler. Chad Gable enters freshly from his loss against Ziggler last week. Gable starts off the match with a vengeance. Trying to quickly end the match. However, McIntyre squashes all his hopes. Drew hits a nice suplex from a fall away slam position. Then launches Gable with ring distance, Brock Lesnar type belly to belly suplex. Gable strings a few moves together. Yet, the chosen One lands a Claymore for the win. In writing, it may not seem much. However, if you saw the presence McIntyre possessed. It is a totally different story.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptTaq5c8Tqg&w=640&h=360]
Women’s Gauntlet Match for final spot in MITB.
Bayley starts off as number one in the Gauntlet. After a quick in ring interview. Her first opponent enters. Liv Morgan. Within ten seconds Bayley eliminates her. Next up, Sara Logan. Immediately Bayley hits the Bayley to Belly suplex. Logan rolls outside. Back the ring, Sara pulls together a few moves and has Bayley down. Yet The Hugger quickly eliminates her. What follows is an attack by Logan and Morgan. Bayley now beaten down. Ruby Riott enters. Bayley puts up a good fight, but Ruby hits a Riott Kick to a pin.
Dana Brookes enters. Brookes puts a good fight up. However, Ruby powers through the former weightlifter model and hits another Riott Kick for the win.
Down to three gauntlet participants.
Next up is Mickie James. This match lasted longer than the three matches that precede it. Mickie James capitalizing on her veteran career to take it to Ruby. Eventually, Ruby gains control. The two have it out with Mickie gaining the upper hand. After James missing with the Mickick and Ruby whiffing on the Riott Kick. Mickie goes for the springboard DDT. Only to have Ruby roll her up for the pin.
Ruby vs Sasha Banks.
The Boss enters last. Sasha quickly goes for a crucifix pin with Ruby kicking out. The Boss then tries for the Bank Statement, only to have Ruby desperately grab the ropes. Ruby eventually gains offensive momentum. Wearing down Banks. Sasha finds an opening and lands a top turnbuckle double knee. The Boss tries to get Ruby in to position. However, Ruby lands a springboard DDT and a two count. The Riott Squad leader follows up with a Super Kick. Again for a two count.
Ruby starts to get frustrated . This leads the two to fight it out on the top turnbuckle. Sasha escapes to the apron and delivers a hard knee to Ruby’s head. Banks follows it up with a turnbuckle powerbomb and locks in the Bank Statement. The Riott Squad arrive to attack. Sasha fends off both members. Ruby goes for a distracted Sasha pin. The Boss kicks out and locks in the Bank Statement for the win. Gaining the final spot for the Women’s MITB Ladder Match.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFp2Ux6trkA&w=640&h=360]
Was it worth the watch?
Well, yes and no. Mostly no. The action in the ring was decent. The overall sdvancing the story was really dull. We also had a B-Team food fight. In which maybe made you realize on how weak Raw’s tag team division is. Having Nia turn in to a heel so that Ronda Rousey can be the face of that match, may end up hurting Ronda and Nia. Sami’s and the WWE creative providing a pseudo apology for last week’s Lashley segment was almost as bad as the original. Soon the MITB PPV will be here and hopefully the WWE creative will find a way to entertain us again. The recent Raw shows makes me want to watch Smackdown Live more often. Which is also covered in our Smackback recap.
