Raw (4/17/17) Review

So, this is something new I plan on doing, since I've recently started watching Raw and Smackdown on TV again. Let's get started with Monday Night Raw

We start off with Braun Strowman coming out and gloating about attacking Roman Reigns. The crowd cheers the fact that Roman won't be on Raw, and Kurt Angle comes out. Kurt says that Brawn will be fighting Roman Reigns at Payback, and that Brawn had the night off. Of course, Braun doesn't leave, and instead attacks the Golden Truth, and Kalisto. After he attacks Kalisto, Big Show tackles Braun into the ground, and I just love the look on Braun's face when he looks up at Big Show. He looks like a child who spilled milk. Anyway, Big Show says that Braun should pick on someone his own size, and we get out main event.

As a result of the Golden Truth getting attacked, the Club are left without opponents for the time being. They instead decide to challenge any tag team on the roster. So who should come out to answer their challenge? Enzo and Cass...again.



You have Slater and Rhyno, and you choose to have a team that already fought them multiple times fight them again? Bad form. So, the Club wins...again, with a ...really weird move by Karl Anderson onto Enzo Amore.

 (it's near the end)

Then, we have Chris Jericho taking on Samoa Joe. The match was...eh. It was alright, but nothing special. Seth Rollins was on commentary, to see Joe make Chris tap to the Coquina Clutch. Then, they have a brief promo battle, hyping up their match at Payback. Savvy? Good, let's move on.

Then, we had Miz TV with Dean Ambrose, and we see (or hear, in this case) Corey Graves at his most annoying; whenever he sucks the heel and thinks that they could do no wrong. Dean and Miz then get into a verbal battle to show who is a better representation as IC champion. They then get into a fight, which Dean wins, reigniting their feud from Smackdown. 

There's a match between TJ Perkins and Jack Gallagher, and the crowd was dead for TJ, despite his recent heel turn. It's kind of sad.



Austin Aries and Neville come to ringside, with Aries having a...banana? is that going to be his new thing? Please don't make that his new thing. So, after a fight between Neville and Aries on the outside, TJ wins with the Detonation Kick in a passable Cruiserweight match.

Then, there was a fatal 4 way match between Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, Mickie James and Sasha Banks where the winner would fight Bayley at Payback for the Women's title. Now, this match was awesome, with everyone getting something in, and Nia looking like a monster. and what was even better was that Alexa Bliss won!



It should be no surprise that I love Alexa Bliss. I also love the way she won, with her taking advantage of what Nia's Samoan Drop to Sasha Banks, and pinning Sasha to win the match. I think this potential feud between Bayley and Alexa will be great, due to their conflicting styles; with Bayley being all peppy and a total fan girl while Alexa's craves the spotlight and is sneaky and underhanded.

Then, there's a brief backstage interview where Chris Jericho puts Elias Samson on the List of Jericho with some alliteration. Then, there's a blink and you miss it match where Finn Balor DEMOLISHES Curt Hawkins. It sucks that Curt was treated better feuding with Grim from Grim's Toy Show.



Then, there's a match between one half of the Raw Tag Tem Champions Cesaro against Jeff Hardy. It's great seeing Jeff in a singles match again, and it was even better to see him win. The match itself was really good, and both teams display some good sportsmanship before their tag title match at Payback.

Now, here's the main event, Big Show vs Braun Strowman, which was great! Braun Strowman was amazing, I mean, who thought Braun would be THIS good when we first saw him as a part of the Wyatt Family? Anyway, then we get to the ring collapsing, which I thought was awesome, even if we saw it back in 2011 with Mark Henry and Big Show, but that was 6 years ago. I especially love the way how the referee sells being thrown out of the ring.



This was a great way to build Braun back up as a destroyer, before Roman inevitably beats him at Payback 

Finally, let's tackle some of the backstage segments. Let's start with a promo between Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil, hinting at something between the two. It's not much, but it's better than what Apollo got on Smackdown, which was nothing. 



Then, there's a backstage segment between Emma and Dana Brooke, where Emma causes friction between Dana and Alicia Fox (who cracks me up, by the way). Emma's dead set on making Dana's life miserable for rejecting her. And finally, we have Bray Wyatt's sermon. It was cool, but hard to understand what he was saying sometimes, as he just seems to be saying scary things rather than things that connect to the issue he was talking about, that being Randy Orton.

Final thoughts: This was a pretty good episode, Big Show vs Braun Strowman and the fatal 4 way were defiantly the matches of the night. Also, I forgot how terrible of a commentator Booker T is. I could live without the 50th Club vs Enzo and Cass match, and maybe have SLATER AND RHYNO fight them instead of giving them a short backstage interview. Everything else was OK, so I give Raw a rating of........7.5/10.

Let me know what you thought of Raw in the comments section. Also, R.I.P. Rosey, you'll always be the S.H.I.T. And get well soon, Dash Wilder.