5 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Raw (4 Aug - Results & Review)

2. Another Lengthy Opening Gabfest

Given the events of SummerSlam Saturday, there always was going to be a Seth Rollins “mastermind” type of promo on Raw, where he and Paul Heyman crowed about their master plan and aired their grievances.

Heyman did his part and then handed the mic off to Rollins, who shamed the crowd while name-dropping Roman Reigns and CM Punk (just in case fans needed a reminder that those two were his mortal enemies), telegraphing the climax of Raw. He also finally revealed the name of his stable after more than three months: The Vision. Eh, it’s not the worst name for a group, but it also isn’t going to set the world on fire.

This brought out LA Knight to call out Rollins for faking an injury during their match at Saturday Night’s Main Event and to parlay his win at that show into a World Heavyweight Championship match later Monday night, because Raw GM Adam Pearce felt like impromptu title matches were the order of the day this week.

All told, this was a lengthy, bland – but necessary – opening promo. Rollins’ stable name reveal fell flat, and the nebulous goal of “absolute power” rang hollow when he was forced into a title defense with his charges sidelined just moments later. Seriously, what are we doing here?

If Seth starts twirling his mustache next week, it wouldn’t shock one bit.