3 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (31 Aug - Results & Review)

By Scott Carlson /

2. A Jarring Opening

Knowing that Monday night’s episode of Raw was taped, expectations weren’t that high heading into the evening (and they were somewhat justified), but WWE tried to subvert those low expectations with a shocking opening to the show.

Raw opened with the Usos arriving at the arena, only for Royce Keys and OTM to box them in and jump them with weapons. Keys used a tire iron to take out bystanders and break the windshield, then dragged Jey out of the car. (Apparently, OTM brought the NXT parking lot attack trope to the main roster with them.)

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The beatdown was brief, but violent (for WWE), with a bloodied Jey (blurred out by the camera), and Jimmy slammed onto the trunk of the car (also obscured by a camera skip). Jacob Fatu stalked after them with a lead pipe, and the attackers fled, leaving the Samoan Werewolf to interrupt the match in the arena to cut a short promo threatening Royce and his running buddies.

Following on the heels of last week’s main event attack by Keys and OTM, the trio opened the show with another attack on the top stable on Raw. That’s a clear attempt to boost their profile and legitimize the group from the jump. That’s a good sign for them.

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Of course, the shock and awe didn’t carry through the entire episode, but this was a nice attempt to kickstart the program.