WWE Raw – May 20, 2019 (Review)

The Worst of Raw

Mr Beast in the Bank

How could it not be? Seeing Brock make another high-paying appearance on Raw to set up his next championship contest was wholly uninspiring. Brock is always in the title picture, simply by being present. He’s proven countless times that he doesn’t need a Money in the Bank briefcase to get a shot at the belt. So not only does that make him holding the contract absolutely worthless, but it also robs us of seeing someone lower down the pecking order be given an opportunity of elevating himself to the top of the card on the back of it.

Moreover, Heyman’s promo didn’t exactly help matters. He confirmed what we already knew about Brock being able to cash in the contract for a shot at the title, insulted Seth Rollins’ “girlfriend” and teased the possibility of Lesnar cashing in on Kofi Kingston. Yeah. As if Brock would ever waste his time with the second-tier WWE Title.

How does that sound, @BrockLesnar? #Raw pic.twitter.com/UfFy7p5uy5

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 21, 2019

The most intriguing aspect of this overly long opening segment was perhaps Heyman’s denial of responsibility for the attack on Sami Zayn, which had opened up a spot in the MITB match for his client. So I guess we still have the resolution of that mystery to look forward to. My money’s on Rikishi being the culprit. He probably did it for the Rock.

Braun Squashes Sami Zayn

Sami should’ve just stayed in the dumpster. In a few short weeks, Zayn has gone from exciting return, to Vince McMahon’s mouthpiece, to Braun’s plaything, to a plot device in Brock Lesnar’s story, to goofy jobber.

It’s a remarkable fall from grace for a truly excellent performer. If WWE wasn’t so averse to building non-monster stars, perhaps they would appreciate that Sami belongs higher on the card.

Mr Wild Card

The biggest danger of the Wild Card Rule was that it would lead to WWE’s biggest stars being overexposed. And predictably the person most at risk is Roman Reigns. The ‘Big Dog’ has rapidly been designated the King of the Wild Card, appearing weekly on both Raw and SmackDown.

With little in the way of compelling story to justify this ever-presence (sorry Elias and Shane), fan sentiment could quickly turn on the multi-time former champ. I hope it doesn’t happen… but we’ve seen it before.

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

Speaking of, this week saw the continuation of Roman’s feud with Shane McMahon, with the two exchanging gentle insults. Reigns called Shane a “spoilt rich kid” and Shane teased a fight. Instead though, McMahon used his ‘Powers of the Mid-Card’ to summon backup in the form of Drew McIntyre. So I guess Drew’s still caught in that vortex.

Shane then announced that he would be facing Roman, with that match happening in Saudi Arabia at Super ShowDown.

Just Everything Baron Corbin

I’m so tired of big, baldy, boring Corbin. Raw saw the vest-wearing knob get slapped by AJ Styles, vow revenge and then secure his spot in the night’s main event. AGAIN!

I don’t even have anything to say about this, I just don’t want to see Corbin main event every week. Just a few months ago he was being blamed for all of the company’s problems. Now he’s headlining the show most nights. Go figure.

The Women’s Division Casserole

There’s a tried and tested method of building stars. And it certainly isn’t by just dumping every warm body into a mish-mash, overbooked talk show segment. But try telling that to Raw, as the only women’s segment of the night saw Alexa Bliss and her new apprentice Nikki Cross host A Moment of Bliss. Has anything good ever happened on this show? It’s like Jerry Springer but with fewer DNA tests.

Regardless, they were joined this week by their guest Becky Lynch who, before even getting a word out, was interrupted by The IIconics. The Aussie duo mocked the newly christened “Becky One Belt” for a while. Becky took a couple of verbal shots at the tag champs, but was cut off by Lacey Evans, who in turn had something to say about men’s manners or something. I had honestly, much like Alexa and Nikki, lost all interest by this point.

It's getting crowded on A #MomentOfBliss! #Raw @BeckyLynchWWE @PeytonRoyceWWE @BillieKayWWE @LaceyEvansWWE pic.twitter.com/w826NBGioI

— WWE (@WWE) May 21, 2019

Anyway, everyone was conveniently in their wrestling gear, so this somehow led to a six-woman tag match pitting Alexa, Cross and Lynch against The IIconics and Lacey Evans. Becky’s team won with Alexa conspicuously standing at ringside, drinking coffee and avoiding all contact. Michael Cole’s over-exuberant call of “nothing gets better than this” only served to make me hate this segment even more.

Farewell, Mean Charly

I enjoyed Mean Charly. Sure she routinely emasculated some of Raw’s top stars. But she did it in that token robotic, unflinching way that always amused me.

This week though she transformed into Recap Charly, pointlessly summarising things that had just played out onscreen before introducing her guest with a tortured segue. It was awkward, unnecessary and – most importantly – robbed us of one of Raw’s more unintentionally great characters. Bring back Mean Charly!

The Champions Slip Into The Mid-Card Vortex

It had been announced ahead of time that the night’s main event would feature Kingston and Rollins taking on Lashley and Corbin. I was struggling to get myself excited for the inevitably lumbering bout, but then it was announced that the match would be no DQ.

This somehow made the match even worse, as Lashley and Corbin got the early jump on the two Champions and proceeded to very slowly wear them down. The match was a slow, plodding affair for ten minutes, until Kofi and Rollins turned the tide and won.

Then Lesnar came out, walked around the ring to tease a cash in, and did nothing. Heyman boasted that his ‘Beast’ was in the heads of both Kofi and Seth, before saying that Brock will make his opponent known next week. So that means we have to wait another seven days to find out that it’ll be Seth.

• review
• RAW
• Money in the Bank
• wwe

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