The Raw Rundown is a new feature to SLTD Wrestling, providing my opinion on what was the good, and what was not so good of this past episode of Monday Night Raw as well as giving the night’s Standout Superstar, so I present to you, the highlights of the August 3rd edition of Monday Night Raw and my feedback on the brand new Raw Rundown!
New Faction
Raw started with some technical issues, is this to do with the new “faction” coming, we have no news on what this faction is about nor the members of it, clearly, they want to cause mayhem upon Monday Nights, with later in the night, what looks to be the faction throwing Molotov Cocktails at a power generator, this looks to be just the start of the takeover of the faction.
Segment Rating: 4/10
I think they could have done more from the faction, instead of just doing all the technical issues at the start, keep it going throughout the whole show to keep the viewers guessing on what is causing it.
Undisputed United States Championship: Apollo Crews vs MVP
The storyline behind Apollo Crews and MVP could be coming to a close in my opinion. With Apollo Crews coming off the match with the win cleanly and wins both championships, as well as MVP asking after the match for a rematch at Summerslam, in which Apollo accepted, and later in the night, MVP and his “Hurt Business” interrupted Raw Underground, clearly the Hurt Business want to hurt on Shane McMahon’s new creation.
Segment Rating: 6/10
The United States Championship match was far better than I thought it was going to be when they rang the bell to start the match, I feel like MVP kept up with Apollo throughout the match, considering the apocalypse that was his first singles match back against Rey Mysterio on the Raw Post-Rumble show.
The KO Show & Riott Squad vs IIconics
The Kevin Owens Show returns with Ruby Riott as his guest, with Kevin bringing out Liv Morgan to the surprise of Ruby Riott. In my opinion, Ruby played her role excellently, she is desperate for Liv to give her a second chance, which she has to do as The IIconics come to ruin the show, with The IIconicseventually both slapping Kevin Owens for his stubbornness to get them off his show, so he turns to the new Riott Squad to help, making the tag team match between The IIconics and the newly reformed Riott Squad, with The Riott Squad getting the win.
Segment Rating: 3/10
I feel like the reunion of Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan isn’t quite right, nobody is really asking for this reunion, even if they were I personally wouldn’t even call it a reunion unless they brought back Sarah, and I feel like the tag team match, in general, was given a little more time and have a completely different finish, it would have more of an impact if the finish was a clean pin, not a rollup.
Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton: Face to Face
Things are definitely heating up between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton, with Drew McIntyre stating that they were both chosen ones of Vince McMahon, the future of the industry.
Drew talks about how he wasn’t handed everything as he was just a little kid from Scotland dreaming of becoming WWE Champion, whereas everything was handed to Orton on a silver spoon because of his father, “Cowboy” Bob Orton. Then Randy comes out onto the stage with Ric Flair and have their exchange of words, all leading to Drew calling Orton “a selfish prick” and telling Orton that he has loads of receipts to hand in and he’ll definitely see them coming.
Segment Rating: 7/10
This face to face between Drew and Randy was a pretty good segment, it definitely didn’t feel like they were just reading line by line off a script, McIntyre definitely came off as his own in terms of the words he was saying to Randy. I personally can’t wait for this match between them at Summerslam.
Seth Rollins and Dominik Mysterio Rivalry Intensifies
Another rivalry that is advanced on this episode of Raw was the rivalry between Seth Rollins and Dominik Mysterio, with Dominik Mysterio challenging Seth Rollins to a match at Summerslam in an interview earlier in the show. When it came to what Seth Rollins had to say, his immediate focus was not on Dominik, instead of on Tom Phillips. Seth addresses Tom on how he is not doing his job properly, not being impartial, and how he was part of “The Grand Plan”, instead he failed at his job and now he must be sacrificed.
Although Samoa Joe had something to say about that, that he either has to go through him or get out of the way, Seth chose to go through him, then as we get back from commercial, Rollins and Murphy have chairs in hand, ready to attack Joe, instead Dominik comes with the kendo stick and attacks Rollins and Murphy again, then performed the 619 on Rollins and dived off the top rope on him and Murphy. Seth goes to say he had enough and accepts Dominik’s challenge to a match at Summerslam.
Segment Rating: 8/10
I’ve heard nothing but good things about the in-ring development of Dominik Mysterio, and now he and Seth Rollins are now scheduled to have a match at Summerslam, I feel like this is going to be a good match, although we’ve seen what Dominik can do outside of a match, we are yet to see what he can do in a match, we’ll have to wait and see at Summerslam.
Raw Underground
Shane McMahon’s brand new creation to spice up the 3rd-hour ratings, Raw Underground is what Shane McMahon has planned and clearly it divided the viewers. Some people loved it, some people hated it. It saw what I presume is an area of the Performance Centre turned into a Fight Club, with Shane leading the charge with loads of people around the ring with no ropes, the idea is okay by Shane, completely bringing a different aspect of what WWE has been doing in the past.
During these times, WWE has had to experiment with new things to keep up viewership, with the cinematic matches and now this, it could definitely be something that is here to stay if WWE works on it and see if they can add anything to spice it up a little bit.
Segment Rating: 5/10
I am on the side of liking Raw Underground, mainly because I see the potential of what it has, I definitely think it has some improvements that WWE could do to make it better, perhaps trying to make it a more prominent feature of the show with some familiar faces added to it so that people can get on board with it. I see potential in it to grow and am interested to see what WWE will do with it.
Superstar Standout
The Superstar Standout of this episode of Raw, in my opinion, was Dominik Mysterio
Dominik has really became a star of his own during his time on Monday Night Raw as of late, to now have a main stream match with Seth Rollins at the biggest pay-per-view of the Summer, I definitely see the potential in Dominik and hopefully with working with the experienced superstars like Seth Rollins, it can only increase his experience inside of the ring, so that’s why I think Dominik Mysterio was the standout of the show.
Overall
So that is the main highlights of the 3rd August edition of Monday Night Raw, overall I give the show a 4 out of 10, I liked most of the show, there was definitely some bits of the show that kind of lost me, like the 24/7 championship segment, I know that they have to feature the 24/7 championship at some point, but at this point, I just think it is getting boring. The two main storylines of McIntyre and Orton as well as Rollins and Mysterio is what keeping the show interesting in my opinion, those pairings bring the heat on Monday Nights.
Raw Underground was interesting, I see potential in it, we just have to see what WWE plan to do with it to make it a better feature on the show.
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