Last Night's WWE Raw Was 'Heaviest Influenced Paul Heyman Show' Yet
And it was noticeable.
There was a marked difference to the general tone of last night's episode of Raw - particular coming off the big Reunion nostalgia-fest - and apparently, this was no accident. According to Dave Meltzer, writing for the Wrestling Observer, Monday's show featured Paul Heyman's influence the most heavily since he assumed his role as the brand's Executive Director last month.
It's not known precisely the extent of Heyman's involvement in the episode, but Meltzer speculated that the Gauntlet match, which ultimately saw Ricochet earn a SummerSlam shot at AJ Styles' US Championship, was his idea. It seems the company hoped such a stipulation could create a new star out of the spectacular Ricochet in the same way it worked for Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston.
Elsewhere on the show, we saw a return of the angle involving Maria Kanellis cuckolding poor husband Mike, and surely the first instance of the word 'vagina' being uttered on the programme in some years.
The episode also saw Brock Lesnar deliver a brutal beat-down on Seth Rollins, as the showrunner, in character, looked on.