5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE Raw (July 25)
4. Winners: Stephanie McMahon & Mick Foley
As damaging as the introduction of a second top championship may prove to be for SmackDown, Raw’s administrators have immediately saved their main event scene with the Universal Championship. Rollins, Reigns, and Balor quite simply have nothing to fight for post-Battleground: the belt now gives them a clear target to work towards, and its presence should benefit Raw immensely.
This represents a big turnaround from Battleground, when Stephanie and Foley were marked as two of the night’s biggest losers. Stephanie in particular had been very vocal in her promise to bring the WWE Championship to Raw, and she ultimately failed. The 2nd belt doesn’t quite undo the embarrassment, but it goes some way to recovering Raw’s diminished inter-brand status.
It wasn’t just the belt that made Raw such a success for McMahon and Foley, though. The duo put together one of the most exciting editions of WWE’s Monday night flagship in many a moon. At a time when WWE fan interest has veered dangerously close to an all-time low, Battleground and Raw have done wonders to reinvigorate the product in the short-term.
Their match card was fresh, exciting, and full of talking points, and they’ve already set a very high standard that SmackDown will do well to match tomorrow night.