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31th August Edition Of The Monday Night Raw & Wrestling News

The episode opened with Randy Orton FROM OUTTA two back-to-back pay-per-view losses in a week, gloating about punting Drew McIntyre in the head once… twice… three times a skull fracture - showing a joke image of Drew hanging out in a local medical facility with all the other people Randy has injured. Finally, Shawn Michaels is selling something. This was interrupted by Keith Lee, whose delivery style is so unique, so stylised - that even he can make crappy WWE scripted promos sound cool.


Dolph Ziggler jumped him to start the first of three singles matches on the show, that will see the winners compete in a triple threat in the main event, with the winner of that getting a title opportunity at Clash of Champions. Whackbat. This should’ve just been Lee squashing Ziggler, but Dolph ended up getting almost as much offence in as Randy did the previous night. Keith still looked impressive in victory, though, mostly thanks to Ziggler selling like a madman.


Adam Pearce assembled WWE’s best and brightest to defend Raw against any Meh-tribution attacks. Look at this guy in the middle. He strikes fear into the hearts of Meh-tribution with his puffed out chest!


Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler still don’t like each other despite being tag team champions.


Caruso alert! - and Charly interviewed Asuka in the ring to find out her next title challenger… Mickie James, reprising their NXT TakeOver: Toronto feud that the main roster will likely never reference! Lana and Natalya interrupted, starting a brawl so wild, we had to wait three backstage segments for the ensuing match. Mickie quickly beat Lana.


Caruso alert! Charly was trying to interview Aleister Black, but Randy Orton came out of his locker room FROM OUTTA presumably knocking first. It was a really smart way to weave the Black vs KO feud into the night-long narrative. Orton was ready to face Kevin Owens, but Owens was attacked by Solid Snake Aleister Black (he looks so cool) before their qualifying match. The referee let the match go ahead despite KO being clearly concussed, and Orton hit one RKO to advance.


The Hurt Business hosted a VIP Lounge segment to celebrate Bobby Lashley’s US title win. It turned into a six man against Cedric Alexander and the Viking Raiders - which Cedric won with a surprise roll-up on MVP. Those 24/7 title skills are finally coming in handy. Interestingly, though, MVP sold his loss with a smile, getting the Hurt Business to applaud Alexander. What a genius, subtle way to further their potential recruitment storyline and make a loss not actually feel like a defeat… which was immediately undone by having them beat up Cedric backstage right after.


Meanwhile, in purgatory, the Riott Squad and the IIconics are still wrestling against each other. This match, however, does appear to be the end - with the losing team having to disband. Seeing that Liv and Ruby had only just properly reunited the previous night, the writing was on the wall for the IIconics, with Billy Kay taking the loss. The IIconics are no more, which is incredibly unfortunate. They’re one of the most charismatic acts in WWE, and Peyton Royce has significantly improved as a wrestler this year. But they were never going to get a proper push. WWE sadly just don’t see anything in them - so perhaps, cynically, it’s for the best with Royce likely getting a singles push. It’s just a shame for Kay, as she’s one of the most naturally funny people on the roster.


Neither Dominic’s Dad or Seth’s Buddy were out ringside for the final qualifying match, with Rollins wanting Murphy to think about what he’d done to cause their Payback loss, while Rey stayed backstage because I guess he likes watching his son get beaten up? Dominic had another great showing, surprise clubbing Murphy in the back during his entrance, and then attacking Seth. He has the wild lucha brawling underdog character down perfectly. After yet another very decent showing, perhaps his best so far, Dom missed a Frog Splash, letting Seth hit the Stomp to win. And then another Stomp because he’s a dick - as Rey just watched on from backstage again?!


Now it’s time for Shane McMahon’s secret scuffle club. Titus O’Neil beat some guy. Then Riddick Moss beat Titus O’Neil. The IIconics watched Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir beat people up, to then lay out Billie Kay - leaving Peyton Royce for a super sweaty hug with Shane. And in the Raw Underground main event, Shelton Benjamin beat Apollo Crews.


I think. R-Truth won back the 24/7 title from Akira Tozawa, who just drove into the building with a car full of ninjas dressed exactly like Meh-tribution. Maybe that’s why you keep getting invaded so much WWE? Which unsurprisingly happened soon after, as the Street Profits vs Angel Garza and Andrade tornado tag match was interrupted by the lights flickering, and a Meh-tribution beatdown with the standard nauseating camera cuts. Or it was Tozawa’s invading ninjas in an incredibly serious gear change for the act.


Garza left his girlfriend Demi Burnett high and dry backstage - no, I don’t know why she isn’t with Ivar either - as Meh-tribution seemingly continued to invade. Which was so serious, nobody did anything about it.


The main event, however, was perfect - not just being excellently booked, but having a level of star power that’s felt missing in the lockdown era. Again, this was just as much about making Keith look awesome as anything else - with both Randy and Seth teaming up against him, yet Lee still firing back with his incredible power spots, including an awesome pounce sell from Orton where he slid across the floor like the backwards people in Tenet. Keith almost had it won, too - hitting a Spirit Bomb on Seth, but turning into an RKO. Brilliantly, and this is the match’s masterstroke - Orton then hopped over Lee to pin Rollins. Not just implying that Randy doesn’t think he can beat Keith, but also that Keith’s finisher is more effective than the RKO. I think WWE actually might be great at booking wrestling, they just choose not to be the large majority of the time.


Let us know what you thought of the Monday night raw show in the comments down below. I loved the booking of Keith, and the No. 1 contenders storyline running throughout the night. Everything else though was made up of repetitive feuds that naturally climaxed ages ago, an increasingly stale Meh-tribution invasion, whatever Raw Underground is supposed to achieve, and the IIconics breaking up. The bad outweighs the good.


Wrestling News

Last Sunday’s NXT TakeOver XXX was one of the best shows of the year, having a little bit of everything - great wrestling, title changes, even surprisingly good celebrity matches. But there was one glaring omission: someone yelling ‘Mamma Mia’ on commentary. Longtime lead NXT announcer Mauro Ranallo’s absence was initially reported as because of a family emergency. But now it’s come out he’s done with the company entirely - with Ranallo himself announcing on his Facebook page that he’s left WWE: “I appreciate the opportunity I needed to understand my youth fantasy about working in sports diversion, and I wish WWE well later on. Presently I need to coordinate my concentration and commit my chance to my different ventures and to my psychological wellness beneficent exercises and the prosperity of my mom and myself.” WWE have also issued a statement on Ranallo’s departure, confirming that the two parties “mutually and amicably” parted ways. This is the second time Ranallo has left WWE, after taking an extended leave of absence in 2017, before returning to head up NXT commentary later that year. Despite the jobs market hitting record unemployment figures, which WWE contributed to with their mass layoffs in April, a number of WWE staff took the decision to leave into their own hands last month. Ranallo joins Renee Young and lead NXT writer Joe Belcastro as having also recently quit the company. It’s odd for WWE to let so many talented people leave without putting up much of a fight. This is the company, remember, that effectively held PAC under contract hostage for a year so he couldn’t go to AEW. Well it could be because they’re directing all their contract re-signing powers to Brock Lesnar.


Brock Lesnar’s WWE contract has expired, which means that as of right now, he’s a free agent. Lesnar to AEW confirmed. Mike Johnson’s report reveals that contract negotiations between Lesnar and WWE have “paused” because they’ve reached “an impasse” and haven’t been able to come to terms on a new deal. Seemingly in response to this contract expiration - perhaps as a negotiating ploy to stop Lesnar receiving royalties - WWE have pulled all Brock merchandise from their shop. However, the backstage “belief is that once Lesnar is ready to work again, he’ll let McMahon know. Or on the other hand the other way around, if WWE needs Brock, they will introduce an arrangement he can't cannot. Currently, it’s nothing more than that.”


No stranger to lengthy contract negotiations, Rey Mysterio - who only officially re-signed with WWE last month - was scheduled to face Seth Rollins on Raw last night. In what was thought to be a storyline injury, he was replaced by his son Dominik. Dave Meltzer is reporting, however, that Rey’s injury is legitimate, as he suffered a torn tricep during his Payback tag match. It’s apparently not a full tear, so he won’t require surgery - hopefully meaning he’ll be recovered soon.

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