7 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Raw (14 July - Results & Review)
Reigns returns to seek revenge; Punk, Lyra, Rhea, and Iyo all make travel plans for SummerSlam.
Well, look who showed up to work on Monday night…
Barely 48 hours after one former member of the Shield went down with an injury, another returned to television Monday night as WWE Raw ramped up its booking for SummerSlam, which is less than three weeks away.
Roman Reigns made his first appearance since WrestleMania 41, coming out to save Jey Uso (and by association, CM Punk) from a beatdown by the Seth(less) Riders, chasing off Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, and sending Paul Heyman into hysterics. Roman might be huge in the building, but he really has become more of a Samoan Brock Lesnar in that he shows up, dominates the main event scene, and then leaves after a major PLE. Whoopee.
Title pictures got a lot clearer on Monday night. CM Punk dispatched Breakker to win the gauntlet match and earn the right to challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship. Naomi learned that she will have to defend her Women’s World Championship against two opponents. And the Women’s Intercontinental Championship will be defended, with Becky Lynch facing a familiar opponent.
As usual, Raw had some stumbles along the way, but the directions coming out of the show for several major programs were quite clear, and the matches could be great on the night. That’s enough to hand out some positive marks. Still, WWE remains an enigma with some really egregious booking and action, yet continuing to sell out arenas.
Let’s get to it…