WWE Raw – June 24, 2019 (Review)

The Best of Raw

A Championship of Pure Gold

When the 24/7 Title was introduced a little over a month ago, I predicted that WWE would forget about it within four weeks. Well, five weeks later and not only is the championship still heavily featured, but it’s one of the best things on Raw.

The 24/7 rule was temporarily suspended this week to allow a paranoid R-Truth to appear on MizTV. They recapped Truth’s ambush at Drake Maverick’s wedding to reclaim the belt he lost last week. This brought out a visibly distraught Maverick, who lamented that he hadn’t yet even consummated his marriage. Truth – hearing that the marriage was “constipated” – responded by prescribing a high dose of fibre.

A few more humorous lines later and a match was set for the 24/7 Title, during which Miz confirmed no one would be allowed to interfere. R-Truth won the bout in a few seconds, which brought out the usual assortment of under-carders. After a brief scrap, the 24/7 Champion scampered off with Carmella in tow.

A crestfallen Drake Maverick was interviewed after the match, but with nothing to say, he meekly crept back up the ramp. It was a unexpectedly emotional moment in an otherwise entirely meaningless title feud.

AJ Tries to Reawaken Some Passion

An agitated AJ Styles stumbled upon Gallows & Anderson in No Way José’s conga line and tried to convince them to be more serious. They, however, were less than receptive to the advice and, in the match against the Viking Raiders that followed, were resoundingly beaten.

Then later in the evening, when the pair came out to assist Styles in the main event, they were sent to the back by their former leader.

Although this angle (and the intervening tag match) were nothing to write home about, at least it was a coherent storyline. And God knows Raw could do with a few more of those.

The Best Combo in the World

Kofi Kingston once again took advantage of the Wild Card Rule to show up on Raw. Or maybe he was invited – who knows what the rules are?

The WWE Champion looked primed to be interviewed by Charley Caruso, only for Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to interrupt proceedings. They quickly excused “Not Renee” and started asking the hard-hitting questions. Questions like “Why are you here?”, “Who do you think you are?” and my personal favourite “Why don’t you just get the hell out of here… *flips to next cue card*… man?”

Tensions rose as Zayn once again harkened back to Kofi needing to rely on Xavier Woods to defeat Dolph Ziggler at Super ShowDown, whole Kofi maintained that he could beat anyone anywhere without outside help. And so, to prove his point, he challenged Sami to match.

A decent match followed, which Kofi won via rollup. Immediately after the bout, KO issued a challenge to the WWE Champion. Again, a largely passable contest ended with a Kingston victory by count-out. The matches were slightly underwhelming – and the results were hugely damaging to KO and Zayn – but I really enjoyed the build. It was slim pickings this week.

A New Challenger Emerges

Kofi’s program with Ziggler has left the WWE Champion feeling largely unspectacular. And after comfortably beating both KO and Zayn in consecutive bouts on Raw, the question became: “Who would his next challenger be?”

Enter Samoa Joe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzHbFxyBzea/

The terrifying former U.S. Champion absolutely demolished Kingston as he made his way up the ramp, in the process setting up a fairly tasty feud. Joe is the rare case of someone who remains largely unaffected by losses, and so still feels like a real menace even on the back of his defeat to Ricochet at Stomping Grounds.

Moreover, Kofi desperately needs a legitimate threat to his title after the lacklustre Ziggler feud. This feels like the right move from WWE.

Main Event That Delivers

The main event of the night saw the advertised match of AJ Styles vs. Ricochet. As you might expect, these two guys put on a pretty good show. In a clear departure from the methodical, plodding wrestling we’d been served all night, this match injected some much-appreciated speed and athleticism.

After several minutes of continuous flips, Ricochet missed a 630 Splash, giving Styles the opportunity he needed to land the Phenomenal Forearm for the win. The ‘Phenomenal One’ then raised the defeated Ricochet’s hand, while the commentary team put him over as potentially being the next challenger to the U.S. Champion’s crown. I could watch it again.

5 years ago by Nicholas Holicki

Trending

Get the latest wrestling news straight to your inbox

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from WrestleTalk