27th July Edition Of The Monday Night Raw & Wrestling News

The Review last night’s episode of Raw... Welcome to Championship Monday Part II! We’ve got a triple threat to become the tag team title’s No.1 contenders. We’ve got Asuka vs Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Champinoship. And Drew McIntyre vs Dolph Ziggler for the WWE title in an unspecified stipulation.

The main show opened on Randy Orton explaining why he’s better than both Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson and Stone Cold Steve Austin - which might tease SummerSlam build appearances from either man for a Legend Killed spot - and how when he woke up this morning, he decided he wants the WWE Championship now. So give him a match, Drew McIntyre. This was yet another fantastic promo in both content and delivery from Orton, and it finally positions him in the WWE title picture - after expertly building him up for a half a year as the biggest heel in the company.

The same can’t be said for Nia Jax, who walked out for her own promo as Randy exited - RKO from outta now-ah, it didn’t happen again! - to say she wants to be a champion too, which brought out Shayna Baszler for a brawl to set up their match later on.

The first match was Andrade and Angel Garza beating The Viking Raiders vs Cedric Alexander and Ricochet (who were really just there to be pinned) to get a Raw tag team title shot against the Street Profits at SummerSlam. This was a really fun bout.

Following on from their brawl earlier, Baszler then took on Jax. It was always going to be a tough match to book, given their dominating styles would clash against each other, and the heel vs heel dynamic, so WWE decided to just not really book it at all. The match was called off when the two fought with each other too much, eventually ending in Jax beating up a random official.

In the random WWE legend backstage spot following Ron Simmons last week, Mark Henry was shown talking to Ruby Riott and Bianca BelAir. Look more adoring, Ruby. No, more. Adore Mark Henry, Ruby. Adore him more.

Seth Rollins invited Dominic Mysterio to the ring for hugs, but Dominic unsurprisingly just wanted to hurt him. Murphy and Seth took out Dom, which brought out Aleister Black for the kind-of save, before he was quickly overwhelmed by the numbers too. And with Black beaten down, that’s when Seth gave Murphy the look. He realized what to do, yet he would not like to do it. Murphy grabbed Aleister, and jammed the jam of Black’s eye onto the corner of the steel steps - we need more people wrestling in eye patches, especially if SummerSlam is taking place on a boat. The brilliance here was how conflicted and almost disgusted Murphy seemed with himself. Heels being heels is fun, but heels showing remorse for their own actions is fascinating. All this brooding gave Dominic a chance to find a kendo stick, though, and he fought off Rollins and Murphy to stand tall. Unfortunately, that segment was followed by the worst thing on the show.

After making his return from not having anything to do for all of 2020, getting drafted to Raw and pinning MVP in the six-man tag last week, WWE continued Mustafa Ali’s momentum by… getting beaten clean by Bobby Lashley. The frustrating thing is how good this match was. Lashley and Ali had a great strength vs speed counter battle, but neither man should be losing right now. WWE booked themselves into a corner they could’ve easily avoided, as Shelton Benjamin was right there for Mustafa to beat instead. Lashley submitted Ali in the Full Nelson.

Thankfully, Raw was picked right back up with the fantastic and genuinely newsworthy Asuka vs Sasha Banks match - which didn’t just see Banks confirmed as the Raw women’s champion and Kairi Sane written off TV forever, but also a really exciting in-ring bout. This should’ve easily main evented the show. What I liked most was how the title can change hands on a DQ or countout stipulation wasn’t overegged. It only had a few angles, as opposed to how WWE sometimes books their matches, where it’s every other spot. Sasha hit Frog Splashes and fake title shots - did you know she really likes Eddie Guerrero? - and Asuka fought through a worked-over left leg. Banned from interfering at ringside, though, Bayley and Kairi Sane interfered from backstage instead, with the TitanTron suddenly playing Bayley beating up Kairi. Asuka ran backstage to help, meaning she was counted out for Banks to legit win the title. I genuinely didn’t see that coming. I thought Asuka would retain to start the Baszler feud. And I find that exciting. I’m very much into the Banks and Bayley Power Trip with all the gold, and I think this can set up a really exciting storyline heading into SummerSlam. I’ve seen some people already moan that Sasha and Bayley are being booked too strong, and I can see where you’re coming from. But I think they’re doing it exactly right.

In a weird reward from his Messiah, Murphy was granted a singles match beating Humberto Carillo next, who was actually the bigger heel - because where was he when Black was getting his eye gouged out?! Aleister has saved Humberto loads of times.

And after their really good Horror Rules at Extreme Rules match, the main event saw a Ziggler vs McIntyre rematch for ratings, I mean the WWE Championship. Why are you here, Mark Henry? McIntyre accepted Orton’s SummerSlam challenge first, and then revealed this main event stipulation was an Extreme Rules match for both men this time, after it only applied to Ziggler last Sunday. It was a fun encounter, but the law of diminishing returns meant it was nowhere near as exciting as their Horror Show match. Drew won with a Claymore through the table. The show’s closing angle, however, was an RKO FROM OUTTA being foreshadowed earlier in the night, with Randy posing with the WWE title. That was this week’s Raw review. Let us know what you thought of the this week raw show in the comments. This was a really solid episode. The Banks vs Asuka storyline is the best thing in WWE right now, but that’s being closely matched by Orton and Seth’s fantastic character work. And with the very exciting Drew vs Randy feud now here, SummerSlam is looking pretty, pretty good right now.

Wrestling News

After finally admitting that SummerSlam won’t take place in the Boston Garden in front of tens of thousands of fans because - let me just check the calendar for August, yep - the world’s still ending, WWE is now trying to find a new way of presenting coronavirus-era wrestling, as they’re determined to not hold yet another big show in the Performance Center like all the Raws, SmackDowns, NXTs and pay-per-views since mid-March. And according to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live, Vince McMahon has “wacky” ideas - are there any other? - for where the show should take place instead. It’s on a boat (it’s on a boat), it’s on a boat (it’s on a boat) Everybody look at SummerSlam, 'Cause it’s sailing on a boat. Mike Johnson of PWInsider corroborates Wrestling Observer’s report that WWE doesn’t want SummerSlam to be another empty-building show filled with a mask-wearing crowd, so they’re looking for an outdoor location for the show, which could just be for one or two of the top matches, or the whole card. Because, as we all know, cruise ships are really, really safe during a pandemic. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful has also heard the news, tweeting: “WWE could possibly run outdoor locations for Summerslam, according to some of the murmurs within the company. They should. UFC got a ton of buzz for a Fight Island that looked precisely like the remainder of their shows. WWE could do something different” Apparently WWE aren’t just looking at boats, though, it could also take place on a beach. Bash at the Beac-oh, wait no. WCW used to hold their Bash at the Beach events on an actual beach, and earlier this year, AEW held an episode of Dynamite on Chris Jericho’s cruise. WWE will also have a lot of pirate-themed promotional material and props from WrestleMania 36 they never got to use. So let’s get this on a pirate ship! SummerSlaaaarrrrm! What do you think the awful tagline for the show will be? Let me know in the comments down below, where I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE with the terrible suggestion: ‘Full Speed Ahead At SummerSlam’. And, to save costs, the entire WWE roster and crew could then just stay on the boat, and set sail for the Gulf. Because it looks like we might be getting another Saudi Arabia show this year.

During WWE’s annual shareholder conference call earlier this month, Vince McMahon was asked whether the company would return to Saudi Arabia this year given the pandemic’s travel restrictions making it even more difficult to travel than normal. And that’s saying something. To which Vince replied “there’s a possibility” it’ll happen in 2020 as the country hasn’t been as badly affected as the United States. WWE is contracted to hold two events a year in the Saudi Kingdom. So far, they’ve only got in one, with February’s Super Showdown where Goldberg beat The Fiend with a suplex. Which genuinely feels like it happened two years ago. Although, given the unprecedented nature of everything, WWE have said they can put on more Saudi shows later in their 10 year deal if they can’t fulfill them in 2020. Elsewhere in wrestling news, an all-women Evolution 2 pay-per-view is reportedly happening, AJ Styles wants a ‘loser leaves WWE’ match with The Undertaker, and more.