The 06/20/16 edition of WWE Raw reviewed in about 4 minutes – including Seth Rollins cutting a shoot promo on Roman Reigns’ WWE suspension, the return of Kane, an interesting note about the WWE Championship, and more…
SETH ROLLINS SHOOTS
WWE Raw opened on Seth Rollins cutting a promo about how we’ve all been waiting forever to see a Shield triple threat. But that isn’t really what anyone wants to talk about. So let’s talk about Roman Reigns taking some naughty substances.
Rollins called Reigns “embarrassing” and a “mistake,” but never really went full on shoot mode. Everything he said felt sanitized by WWE’s PR team. I would’ve loved for Seth to have gone harder, screaming, “even though Roman cheated by taking banned substances, he still couldn’t beat me!”
Instead, Reigns-gate was only really raised so it could be buried faster than a Zack Ryder Intercontinental Title reign. Stephanie McMahon quickly came out and made John Cena vs Seth Rollins, and AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose. If Cena or Styles won, they’d be added to the triple threat atBattleground.
SETH ROLLINS BEAT JOHN CENA
This set up a narrative to run throughout WWE Raw. First up was Cena, who was celebrating his WWE birthday. The character is 14 years old today, which might explain why he’s still wearing jean shorts. It’s a milestone that’s depressing for two reasons: 1) Cena hasn’t changed for almost a decade, and 2) I’m old.
Rollins and Cena had a really good match, with no busted noses this time round – so calm down Bret Hart – which ended with The Club distracting John, allowing Seth to win with a pedigree. Here’s the other stuff that happened…
PAIGE & SASHA BANKS BEAT CHARLOTTE & DANA BROOKE
Dana Boobs tapped to Banks for this really good match, which provided a neat way to progress all the feuds involved.
TITUS O’NEIL BEAT RUSEV
Titus O’Neil won with WWE’s new favourite finish to a match – replacing the distraction roll-up – a count-out victory!
It’s a rather cowardly way for a babyface to pick up a win in a blood feud, but their storyline is now progressed for another US title shot.
BIG CASS & ENZO AMORE BEAT …JOBBERS?
Big Cass and Enzo Amore continued their push, squashing two wrestlers I didn’t even catch the names of.
The Social Outcasts came out after the match, protesting that they’re not SAWFT, they’re hard. They’re very hard. It was a joke about erections, which gives a whole new meaning to ‘working stiff’.
SUMMER RAE VS BECKY LYNCH
This match never got started, because Becky Lynch just went straight for Natalya on commentary. Natalya is definitely too nice to be a heel, but Lynch’s fire and aggression here more than makes up for it.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: ZAYN AND OWENS
Sami Zayn challenged Kevin Owens for one last match at Battleground on a Highlight Reel segment. Chris Jericho eventually took the spotlight for himself, which ended with Owens and Zayn superkicking Y2J. Seeing them work together like that suddenly made me yearn for an odd-couple tag team run some time after the brand split.
KANE BEAT THE MIZ
Miz’s surprise opponent turned out to be the Demon Kane, who won the match in countout victory number two! Maryse pretended to get injured and Miz carried her backstage.
Miz missed a great heel opportunity here – he should’ve gone to get his IC title belt before helping his injured wife.
APOLLO CREWS & CESARO BEAT ALBERTO DEL RIO & SHEAMUS
This mini-League of Nations reunion ended wonderfully when Del Rio turned on Sheamus. But after last week’s Brexit, I don’t think I can take any more of this international conflict.
NEW DAY FALLING?
The New Day/Wyatt Family feud is actually turning out to be a lot more engaging than I thought it would. Bray cut a very good promo clearly outlining the conflict between New Day’s positivity and The Wyatt Family’s negative realism, and Xavier Woods slowly getting sucked in by his message showed some incredibly subtle acting for a wrestling show.
But now, the main event…
To see what Oli thought of the main event, and this episode of WWE Raw as a whole, watch the video above!
