RAW Review (22-10-2021)

We kicked off the show with a Vinny Mac promo about THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN CLEOPATRA EGG, whilst watching this I couldn’t get away from the fact it felt unnecessary and when it was announced that the finder gets a WWE title shot it felt very shoehorned into me.

A backstage interview with Randy Orton being asked if he knows where Riddle is after being angry for a couple of seconds in comes Matt “RKO” Riddle, dressed in full Viper getup complete with goatee and tasche he then asks for Randy's music to hit and walks out to the ring to it doing the complete Randy Orton entrance, he does it fairly well in my opinion!

This has to be the best comedic relief stuff that WWE has done in years for me. Its stuff that genuinely makes me laugh without the complete cringe factor you usually get.

Matt Riddle vs Dolph Ziggler

Whilst watching the early parts of this match I couldn’t help but think Dolph has got to be one of the most under-utilised people in WWE. They put on a very entertaining match between them, and Riddle is surprisingly good at doing Randys moveset, to end the match Riddle hits a very picturesque RKO and gets the win.

Even Randy appreciated that one and hits Bobby Roode with the bro Derek when he tried to attack riddle from behind.

It has been great to see this tag team develop and their character development as a team has been really good so far, long may it continue,

In my opinion, RKBro are the best thing to happen to the tag division in a while.

Winner: Matt Riddle.

Next, we cut to a backstage segment where

The raw roster is tearing apart a room trying to find the “golden egg”, I was bored of this storyline already, you could see from so early on that it was going to a running theme throughout the show and probably have a terrible payout, but more on that later.

Next up! Big time becks coming out for a promo.

They show a Video package of her match against Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series last night shown with that incredibly annoying “uh oh” promo being shown again.

Becky Lynch follows this up with a typical heel promo, she’s so good on the mic and she’s so good at this type of promo.

She will never not get cheers, she is so over with the crowd.

Next up Biancas music hits and she comes and delivers a promo on Doudrop before her match with Tamina, and Bianca is another person on the roster who is very very good on the mic. I think theyll probably keep her out of the title picture for a while because she doesn’t need a title to have a good feud she’s so good on the mic and in the ring.

Bianca Belair vs Tamina

A fairly short match but fairly entertaining

Bianca is so athletic, possibly my favourite in ring performer right now, Bianca hits a KOD on Tamina which is pretty impressive as Tamina is not a small girl for the 123

Typical Bianca performance just brilliant in my opinion, I can’t remember ever watching a Bianca Belair match and not enjoying it! This match seemed like one of the matches in this show that they could have given a decent amount of airtime to instead of all the Golden Egg stuff, however, I do get it made Bianca look really good and carried on WWEs strong booking of her, which in all honesty is completely deserved. After the pinfall Bianca gets attacked by Natalya who she quickly throws out the ring then Piper (yes Piper, because I refuse to refer to her as Doudrop)

If they carry this out well in the coming weeks Bianca and Piper could be a really good feud for me.

Winner: Bianca

Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor

BURN IT DOWN

Seth Rollins music is possibly my favourite entrance music in WWE right now, After watching both entrances I couldn’t help but think these two are like yin yang with their entrances

Is there anyone who doesn’t love Seth Rollins outfits?

Seth hits a promo before the match. Another typical heel promo having a go at his team from last night.

He has a go at Kevin Owens for betraying his team which I thought was a bit odd as wasn’t it Seth who dropped to his knees and let someone superkick him to eliminate him last year?!

When Seth starts going for Finn Balor his music hits, Seth attacks Finn during his entrance, the match never officially starts and Seth puts the beat down on Finn, hits him with the steel steps at rings side and then throws him in the ring to hit a stomp he looks like he’s going to leave, but comes back for another stomp. Whilst he’s walking out properly A FAN ATTACKS SETH ROLLINS?!

People who do this are idiots quite frankly,

1. these are professional sportsmen and women, how much do you realistically think you’re going to do to them?!

2. You get yourself kicked out of the show, it all just seems ridiculous to me.

Seth's mouth is bleeding when he finishes his entrance after the fan attacks him.

Not what you expect to see on a live show taping to be honest

Winner: No Contest

Another Golden Egg segment.

And Sami Zayn is in with Vince Macmahon, I really dislike Sami but that probably means he’s really good at what he does, because I can appreciate that he’s a good wrestler and very good on the mic, but I just have such disdain for him.

Street Profits vs Aj and Omos

The Street Profits come out for their performance of an entrance, I said earlier that Seth has the best music, well the Street profits have the best “ringwalk” I find it so entertaining to watch and after seeing it twice in person in the last couple of months it’s every bit as good in person if not better.

They come out with a black duffel bag for their entrance is it the “golden egg”?

Kevin Owens is backstage “looking for the golden egg” has an interview that seemed a bit inconsequential, just playing up a feud with Seth somewhat, this seemed like an odd time for this as it had nothing to do with the match at hand.

Back to the match, Aj and Montez start in the ring, watching this is just another indication of Montez fords huge star power,

They seem to be pushing Omos hard at the minute, and nothing changed in this match, I wonder what the plan is for him to be honest because I can’t see him being a legitimate top title challenger any time soon.

This was a decent match that culminated in Omos getting tagged in and Dawkins pulls a fire extinguisher out of the black duffle bag from their entrance and uses it on Omos resulting in a DQ.

What was the point of this? Is this going to have some level of long term payout or is it just going to be something that never gets mentioned again.

Winner: AJ and Omos via DQ

We cut to a Zelina and Carmella backstage “interview”

Zelina needs to drop this fake British accent, cannot stand it

Super Brutality (Nikki and Rhea) vs “royal beauty” (Zelina and Carmella)

for the Women’s tag team championships

This match started by portraying Rhea as a proper powerhouse by absolutely dominating Zelina Vega and not selling all of her attempts at moves. I don’t know about anyone else but I can’t stand Nikki ASH, bring me Nikkis got a secret back from NXT.

This was an okay match that ended with a cheap shot on Nikki by Carmella that the referee didn’t see, which leads to a code red from Zelina on Nikki

1…

2…

3…

AND NEW

This match seemed unnecessarily short for a title match, but in all honesty I hope they break “super brutality” up now and let Rhea shine, she’s brilliant!

Winners: Carmella and Zelina

Yet another golden egg segment

And Sonya and Adam have found the culprit!

Austin theory comes in holding the egg when Sami Zayn is in the background

Austin is pleading with Vince McMahon saying he wanted to take a selfie with the egg.

Vinny Mac is dropping the charges on Austin for the “theft” and has given him the WWE championship match. Instead of Sami,

This felt like a ridiculous way to give Austin Theory a title shot, and I was sick of this Golden egg stuff by this point, hope we never have to deal with it again.

Reggie vs Cedric Alexander

Reggie comes to the ring for a 24/7 championship match vs Cedric Alexander, he dominates the whole match and Cedric is the new 24/7 champ… as he’s celebrating.

Winner: Cedric Alexander

BUT…

Dana Brooke hits a sort of neck breaker off the top rope and stacks up Cedric for the 123 Dana Brooke is the new 24/7 champion. All the 24/7 mob who have made their way to the ring look shocked that Dana has won it and are reluctant to pin her.. not really sure why? Women have had the title and been pinned for it before, so what’s the difference here, So she’s allowed to just celebrate in the corner.

The 24/7 mob on this show included Alpha Academy, the Viking Raiders, Akira, Jinder Mahal, T Bar, Shanky, Los Lotharios. And obviously R Truth! If they’re going to keep doing the same old with this title, this is an incredible waste of talent.

HOWEVER

Now they have the chance to make this a legitimate title with some decent contenders and a different angle in the fact that literally anyone can compete for it. Instead of this joke segment we have to put up with every Monday.

If I was on the Recharge Wrestling Podcast. The 24/7 championship and particularly this week's dealings with it would be my “Skidmark of the week” if you haven’t already, go and listen to them, you can find them on all podcast streaming sites or on the robot republic.com website!

Next is a video promo about the story of Lashley getting The Mysterios out of the survivor series team and a promo backstage with the Mysterios before their handicap match with Bobby Lashley

Another weirdly placed interview was next with a backstage interview with Dana Brooke about being 24/7 champion and despite this, doesn’t seem to have anyone chasing her.

After watching this I came to the conclusion she is not good at promos, she has odd volume changes and just doesn’t seem convincing, sticking strongly to a script that has been written out for her in my opinion…

Bobby Lashley vs the Mysterios

MVP cuts a promo before the match, another fantastic mic worker, getting at Rey being a bad father. Great heel promo ending with MVP telling Rey to tell his wife to call him a great way to get some heat. My first thought from this match was it’s the first time in a while where I’ve seen the team actually stick to tag rules in a handicap match. The match starts with Lashley being overwhelmed, he looks to take control a couple of times but the Mysterios bail each other out, Bobby Lashley eventually gets control of the match and starts dominating, Dominik manages to get a reversal in and get the hot tag, Rey hits some vintage Mysterio offence, together the Mysterios hit a double 619 a double frogsplash then a double cover and Bobby Lashley kicks out, Lashley gets a spear on Rey and puts Dom in the hurt lock Dom Taps out and Bobby wins the match.

Enjoyed this match more than I thought I would and it continues Bobby's strong booking.

This is the first time I’ve watched the Mysterios and thought they’re actually a good tag team who work really well together.

Winner: Lashley

Big E has a backstage interview talking about his championship match with Austin Theory, typical Big E promo however seemed a bit shoehorned in to make E be involved in raw other than just coming out for his match.

Damian priest open challenge

Not a fan of his new entrance music

YET ANOTHER weirdly placed interview, Liv Morgan is backstage having her interview,

Becky interrupts Livs interview, Becky does some great work and Liv gets to the point of tears then hits Becky and storms off.

Becky was brilliant, not a fan of how they portrayed Liv there.

Back to the open challenge, Apollo Crews comes out and starts preaching about his Nigerian heritage, is it just me that thinks this accent and gimmick is dicey? I certainly hope that Apollo came up with this and is comfortable with it.

Damien saves the segment in the ring with some good mic work but it turns out Apollo doesn’t want to fight Damien now, I couldn't help but think why did he come out to reject an open challenge.. then we have Sami come out and back to talking about conspiracies again, which is a gimmick that I didn’t mind and makes him truly intolerable but has come out to accept the open challenge.

Damien Priest vs Sami Zayn

Damien took control early and Sami goes to run away… from a title match, that he entered, out of his own choice?! After being back in the ring Sami gets a reversal and hits a blue thunder bomb on Damien, Sami picks up the US belt and taunts Priest with it and Priest loses his mind as he did at survivor series, hits the reckoning AND STILL again, seemed like a waste of a match, they could have got rid of the “golden egg” stuff and given them a great match instead of this barrage of a couple of finishers and Priest losing his mind, I think this angry gimmick that they’re giving him sort of goes directly against the last gimmick of being the sort of cool calm and collected champion.

Austin theory is up next with a promo backstage

Talking about becoming WWE champion and being the future, he actually surprised me with how good he is on the mic, and this was probably the first appropriately placed promo in the show!

Big E vs Austin Theory

Big E and Austin are in the ring ready for their match….

BURN IT DOWN

Seth makes his way down to the ring and sits at the commentary desk,

Big E takes early control of this match rightly so. Hits the apron splash then

Kevin Owens music hits… this all seems to be leading to a three-way match for the WWE championship. Which I for one would not complain about.

Austin theory hits an upright brainbuster on Big E, there’s seemed to be a lot of distraction from what seems to be a very good match. This match wrapped up with a big splash in the ring, Austin wriggled out of the big ending and hits a shotgun dropkick, which I have to say he does so elegantly, Austin gets Big E in a fireman carry and it’s Es turn to get out reverse a move in the corner with his Rock bottom like move he does.

Seth grabs Big Es injured leg from the nights before Survivor Series without the ref seeing and goes to get involved in the ring, KO pulls him out and they start having a domestic at ringside, Austin gets distracted by this and Big E uses the distraction to hit the big ending on Theory, he then attacks both KO and Seth, KO gets away but Seth ends having a big ending in the ring as well.

Winner: Big E

A decent show, 6/10 for me.

Raw is just too long in my opinion, either make it shorter or fill the time with great matches that don’t end in shenanigans instead of these joke segments about golden eggs! There’s nothing wrong with some funny segments every now and again, but you just don’t want to be made sick of the joke by the end of the show.

With this particular show, it seemed a bit muddled, with someone’s entrance music hitting and them coming out for their match then cutting to a promo which was nothing to do with the match at hand, seemed somewhat hard to follow at times. However, there were a couple of great matches in this show and there are some potentially fantastic feuds coming.

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