WWE Raw – May 4, 2020 (Review)

Raw had just one item on the agenda this week. Outside of the four items it listed on the pre-show rundown, I mean. And the promised MVP and Drew McIntyre appearances. And the non-title tag team extravaganza. You know what? Allow me to rephrase.

There was just one item on the agenda that I cared about.

Of course I’m talking about the gauntlet to determine who would take Apollo Crews’ spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match this Sunday. Regular sufferers – sorry, viewers – will know that Apollo went down with a knee injury last week. As he had already qualified for the MITB encounter, this unfortunate turn of events opened up a seat at the table.

The LAST CHANCE #GauntletMatch will determine the final spot in the Men's #MITB Ladder Match … and it's NEXT! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/Ye6TmiNIv8

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

But who would be willing to grab the opportunity to dine? (Also, why do so many of many analogies involve food?) Raw announced in advance that the spot would be decided by way of a gauntlet. We weren’t given any of the competitors, but we can certainly speculate. Would it be Bobby Lashley, who has recently re-emerged as a potential force on Monday nights? Or possibly one of Zelina Vega’s crew, who could finally start climbing the corporate ladder?

All are excellent candidates, but potentially fail to account for the rumoured return of a man who was buried just a month ago…

*Insert obligatory “May the Fourth be with you” reference*. On to the review!

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The Best of Raw

The Almighty Gauntlet

Arising from Apollo Crews’ injury last week, Raw was tasked with finding a replacement to fill his spot at Money in the Bank. To do so, they dusted off an old classic. No, not the Punjabi Prison. I’m talking about ol’ faithful – the gauntlet match.

Just like that, @TitusONeilWWE out, @TozawaAkira in. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/0iQZbCGtaw

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 5, 2020

It was rather odd that this was billed as a “Last Chance” gauntlet, considering that it also happened to be the first chance for many of the competitors.

Bobby Lashley kicked things off by crushing a load of largely unimportant dudes. In order, he dispatched of Titus O’Neill, Akira Tozawa and Shelton Benjamin. But just as you thought he might be cruising towards a spot in Sunday’s spectacle, he got carried away during his beatdown of Humberto Carrillo and put his hands on the referee. This was enough to cause the disqualification, but did nothing to discourage Lashley from obliterating Carrillo in a fit of rage.

Angel Garza was next out to pick the bones, like the beautiful vulture he is. Carrillo bravely hung on however, and eventually caught Garza with a surprise roll-up to cause the elimination. His prize? Austin Theory.

After taking care of him, Carrillo moved on to the final boss. AJ Styles – literally returned from the grave. The man effectively no-sold death… all those years in Japan clearly served him well.

HE'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!@AJStylesOrg is BACK on #WWERaw to take on @humberto_wwe in the Last Chance #GauntletMatch NEXT! pic.twitter.com/gm3pl91Uhx

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

A fun final encounter ended with Styles locking in the Calf Crusher on his weakened opponent to seal his ticket to Money in the Bank. After the match, he cut a promo guaranteeing that he will be the briefcase holder come Sunday.

This was a well paced gauntlet, with none of the component matches overstaying their welcome. I do wish that Carrillo hadn’t suffered another loss to Styles, but AJ will undoubtedly be an awesome addition to the ladder match on Sunday. In addition, Lashley was made to look like a destroyer of worlds for a little while.

WWE’s Saviour

Pulitzer Prize winner, Charly Caruso, was on back on the beat once more on Raw. This week, she was sitting down in the ring to interview the number one contender to Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship and man who looks like a ‘World War II aviator’ themed stripper, Seth Rollins.

I hate to rag on Caruso, she seems great, but it’s clear that the directive is to demonstrate as little personality as humanly possible while still remaining conscious. So she asked two mundane questions and Seth did the rest.

"I'm not trying to take anything from him. I am trying to unburden him … I am trying to SAVE @DMcIntyreWWE." – @WWERollins #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/1NJ8wQXqxH

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 5, 2020

Rollins didn’t say anything we hadn’t heard last week and the week before. But it nevertheless remains utterly engaging. Seth said that he wasn’t trying to take anything away from Drew McIntyre. He was just trying to save him from the agony, pain and despair that comes from carrying the WWE Championship.

He spoke with such passion – such convincing honesty – that you simply can’t help but hang on every word. Rollins isn’t just the saviour of Raw, he’s McIntyre’s saviour too. It’s crazy to think considering where he was six months ago, but Seth may be may favourite wrestler in all of WWE at the moment.

An NXT Rivalry Revisited

The Street Profits came out first to cut a short promo about how the team formed in the Performance Centre. Too long to be entirely meaningless and yet too light on substance to be taken seriously, it’s hard to see what the purpose of this pre-fight speech was. If ever there was a circumstance that could benefit from WWE’s magic video packages it was this one, given the history between the two teams.

THERE IS NO ONE MORE PUMPED RIGHT NOW THAN @AngeloDawkins. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/RGmG4JTqM4

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

But none of that was explored here and pretty soon the Viking Raiders came out. The match itself was an impressive showcase of athleticism and hard-nosed wrestling. The Street Profits appeared to be in control until Ivar started wrecking fools. The Street Profits were able to recover to score a near fall, but after Montez Ford was ejected from the ring, Dawkins was hit with the Viking Experience to win.

Presumably this non-title victory will result in the Viking Raiders scoring a shot at tag team gold in the future. I can’t say I’m a major fan of the “beat the champs to earn a title shot” philosophy, but I did enjoy this excellent match.

A Messiah, a Disciple and an Angry Scotsman

Main event time and Drew McIntyre came out first. But it was Murphy’s entrance that got me a little excited. The disciple was accompanied by the ‘Messiah’, Seth Rollins, who took up a position at the top of the ramp.

While Drew set about bludgeoning Murphy, Rollins stood motionless, arms crossed, casting a watchful eye over his ward and the man he’ll face this Sunday. In case I didn’t already make this clear, Seth is awesome.

The disdain in his eyes though…#WWERaw @WWERollins pic.twitter.com/2uoUL31hBd

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 5, 2020

Rollins eventually made his way closer to the ring, but his pose never shifted. The ‘Messiah’ was visibly fuming as Drew continued the assault on Murphy. The Australian had a brief flurry of offence, which only drew a one-count. Despite that, he got a bit cocky and decided to start counting down from three while crouched in the corner. This turned out to be a tactical error however, as once he reached “one!”, Drew booted him in the face and secured the pin.

After the match, Drew begged Seth to step into the ring. After a few tense seconds, Rollins moved to walk away. But as McIntyre turned his back, Seth sprinted back into the ring and blindsided the Champion. He started hurling insults at McIntyre but was distracted by the WWE Championship lying to one side of the ring.

WHERE did @WWERollins even come from?! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/OOHqXtodkt

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 5, 2020

When Rollins turned to deliver the Stomp, the Scotsman instead caught him with the Glasgow Kiss. He was about to nail a Claymore on Rollins, but the ‘Messiah’ wisely scampered to safety. As great as this was, it did little to plant the seed that Seth had any hope of winning at Money in the Bank.

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The Worst of Raw

Verba Non Acta

‘Member last week, when Raw kicked off with a 20-minute VIP Lounge segment and consensus held it was an unengaging, disappointing drag? Well, WWE do nothing if not learn from their mistakes. Because this week it was only 15 minutes!

Yep, the night started with MVP inviting Asuka, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler to the ring to discuss the upcoming Money in the Bank ladder match. Well, not so much “discuss” as “take turns running through some obviously scripted lines”.

Does @WWEAsuka see @NiaJaxWWE and @QoSBaszler as viable threats?

Probably not? #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/aiZCJ4T2Sm

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

Asuka hyperactively prattled through her usual Japanese promos. I appreciate that some people enjoy it, but I simply don’t. It’s always the same regardless of circumstance and rarely adds to the atmosphere of the feud. If anything can be said in her defence, at least she had some energy.

Nia Jax has entered the chat.

Jax languidly said she would have no trouble steamrolling her opponent, as she has been doing in recent weeks. Although somehow that sentence contains more enthusiasm in printed form than it did coming out of Jax’s mouth.

MVP: "I want you to make yourselves comfortable."@QoSBaszler: Way ahead of him.#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/pJ2MYkLcTZ

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) May 5, 2020

The segment ended with Baszler quoting a latin maxim (“acta non verba“) meaning actions, not words. I’m not sure when her character became old-timey, Ivy League college tutor, but I suppose this was alright. Although ironic because this segment was a whole lot of verba. She and Asuka then blindsided Nia Jax and MVP ensured things didn’t get any further out of hand.

What exactly did this accomplish? Nothing.

Stoppable Force Meets Movable Object

Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink got hyped up by MVP ahead of their rematch against Ricochet and Cedric Alexander.

The more I thought about this match, the more worried I became that there was no way to reach a truly satisfying conclusion. Either Ricochet and Alexander would lose some of the momentum they’ve been building in recent weeks – at the hands of a team they beat fairly easily just a couple of Mondays ago no less. Or Thorne and Vink would lose their first contest after aligning themselves with MVP.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯@ShaneThorneWWE & @Sixftfiiiiive just scored a HUGE victory over @KingRicochet & @CedricAlexander on #WWERaw! pic.twitter.com/BxOrtycqYx

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

Five minutes later (after a decent match), WWE opted for the former. Vink hit Ricochet with a big boot to seal the win. So I suppose we’ll see a rubber match between the two teams in the near future… but will anyone be serviced by this 50/50 booking?

Charlotte Flair and the Case of the Missing Identity 

Charlotte came out to address her upcoming NXT Women’s Title defence against Io Shirai this Wednesday. I can’t say I was disappointed when Liv Morgan interrupted this meandering soliloquy. But I was surprised by how… odd… things got from there.

Take note, @shirai_io…@MsCharlotteWWE plans to make you BOW DOWN on @WWENXT this Wednesday! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/Lc4VZHun6L

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

Does anyone remember Liv’s final match before she disappeared for several months (supposedly to start her offscreen affair with Lana)? It was a spirited loss against Charlotte on SmackDown, after which Liv announced that she was going to change things up. I’ll say!

I only wish Raw remembered that continuity, because what we got instead was a confusing discussion on identity. Liv is still trying to find herself, Charlotte knows who she is, and I wanted to figure out what I had done to deserve this nonsense. Point is, we were all on the hunt for something.

#TheQueen reigns.@MsCharlotteWWE builds momentum heading toward her #WWENXT title defense against @shirai_io with a hard-fought victory over @YaOnlyLivvOnce! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/J9lGTSURRy

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2020

Thankfully, we eventually got to a match between the pair and the world was mediocre again for 20 minutes. Yeah, the match was overlong and not particularly exciting, but after a competitive display, Liv went down fighting to a Figure-8. I still can’t figure out what Raw intends to do with Morgan (or Ruby Riott for that matter). And this did little to inspire confidence that WWE had figured it out.

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Overall Rating for the Show (From best to worst: RAWsome, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and RAWful)

This may surprise a few people – none more so than me – but I really enjoyed this week’s Raw. It succeeded on many levels, in particular as a go-home show heading towards Money in the Bank this Sunday.

All of the major storylines (with the exception of the women’s ladder match) received a last-minute boost. The gauntlet arguably provided the best possible outcome, Seth Rollins continues to be the outstanding presence on Monday nights and Drew McIntyre looks near unbeatable at the minute. Perhaps too unbeatable?

THIS SUNDAY: @DMcIntyreWWE defends his #WWEChampionship against The #MondayNightMessiah @WWERollins at #MITB! pic.twitter.com/hAEZOl93rV

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) May 5, 2020

The actual in-ring product was mostly satisfying as well. Which is a good thing because the show consisting almost entirely of wrestling, with little in the way of promos or interviews to break it up. It’s a shame that the women’s and tag divisions continue to be underserved, but that’s a tired criticism at this point.

So, all things considered and with a solid show in the books, Raw this week was a low Cor.

Share your thoughts on Raw with us on Twitter and visit Wrestletalk to always stay up-to-date on all the latest wrestling news.

• May 4 2020
• review
• RAW
• wwe

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