“WWE Raw” in Boston was all about John Cena, and wasted no time getting to the “Never Seen 17.” Believe it or not, the all-time great continued to make moments, claiming his final championship before he puts that big bow on his iconic career.
Triple H decided to throw pretty much all logic out the window and pat himself on the back to start “WWE Raw.” The man loves his moments, as we were reminded through the “Unreal” docuseries. But this was as blatant as it got.
First, let me say all that to say the opener was bad, especially in a vacuum. It wasn’t, but Triple H took plenty of time to put himself over, along with John Cena, before he introduced his fellow legend. That was just unnecessary, and his appearance was nothing more than a vehicle to set up the Dominik Mysterio match which is funny because of how often matches in WWE get booked without authority figure presences.
Cena received the expected huge ovation in his home state. He was thankful, cutting the biggest face promo ever, before announcing there would be NXT wrestlers on his Saturday Night’s Main Event final WWE match. Then the whole thing saw the past so many years of Mysterio’s career thrown out the window.
The Intercontinental Champion interrupted with a randomly newfound confidence after being a cowardly heel ever since he turned years ago. He got in Triple H and Cena’s face, acting completely opposite of how he’s been. It just felt funny, but it was in place to ramp up Cena, who countered with intensity before the match was made for the title.
In the end, Cena added one more accolade to his résumé by becoming a grand slam champion, dethroning Mysterio.
The match was fine. Nothing special because again the moment. It was super Cena in full effect, “burying” the up-and-coming talent, fully playing into those old complaints. The finish exemplified that when Cena ate a 619 and Frog Splash, he immediately rolled to pick up and stand for the AA and pin.
Again, none of this was bad, really. But it was purely a short-sighted moment, and likely one Mysterio is totally happy with. The problem now, however, is that the Intercontinental title will be briefly held up for about a month, and presumably on the line in Cena’s final match.
Hear me out. The War Games match is awesome. However, having it as an annual event purely for PLE purposes is stupid, and the men’s match that’s building up to be is perfectly illustrating that. War Games should only happen if it makes sense, and it is not shaping up to do so.
CM Punk’s ring arrival instantly led to him calling out Logan Paul, wanting to fight rather than have a match. Sure, sure. That’s all fine and good until Paul arrived.
Paul’s logic for aligning with The Vision last week was practically the same reason Seth Rollins brought in Bronson Reed and that’s because he kicked his a** and hit him with the Tsunami. Yeah. It really is that stupid, folks. It’s clearly all set up to get Paul in a War Games match, which is forced. This whole thing is so forced because, for some unexplainable reason, Jey Uso continued to come to the aid of Punk. It’s complete character abandonment from the direction he was clearly heading. Sure, you can excuse it as a pivot after Rollins’ injury, but, man, how all of that gets tossed like it never happened is beyond me.
Oh, then Cody Rhodes came to their aid, too. That made slightly more sense, considering his history with all of them. But still, Triple H has found a way to make a War Games match (so far) unbelievably uninteresting.
To find a positive, this is still a better alternative to Paul vs. Punk one-on-one though that will surely still happen regardless. Ultimately, the match was made official later in the show, leaving two openings on each side.
Let’s essentially take most of what was just said about the men’s War Games match and apply it to the women although theirs admittedly has more intertwining logic.
The good here is two consecutive “Raw” Women’s Tag Team title match main events. Great. Some love for the titles. We’re here for it. And Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs. The Kabuki Warriors was great then interference occurred toward the finish via Lash Legend and Nia Jax, helping Asuka and Kairi Sane win the titles.
This entirely set up the returns of Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky, saving Bliss and Flair. Who would have thought that? Either way, at least there’s a lot more immediate history between all these wrestlers compared to the other match aside from Legend. Let’s hope this leads to the “Rhiyo” title run, too.
Raquel Rodriguez is always going to receive the love around these parts. And unsurprisingly, her title match against the Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer was excellent.
Those two meshed together so well, with Rodriguez playing the powerhouse role, picking up and countering Vaquer to make many fun spots. As is the case with every single Judgment Day match to ever exist (like seriously), there was a brief Roxanne Perez interference attempt, but it didn’t directly affect the finish, and the more Vaquer matches and clean finishes the better.
To score the win, she hit her Corkscrew Moonsault after failed attempts at the SVB throughout the match. It was an overall fun time.
1. Circling back to the Triple H self-put-over, it made this sign so much better. (I didn’t pay the fan, I swear.)
2. Rusev defeated Damian Priest in the Cena retirement match tournament with a Matchka Kick after an eye rake. Commentary sold the hell out of Priest’s eye injury from his Aleister Black feud. It was almost a bit too much, and somehow made the finish anticlimactic as hell. Nonetheless, it was a clean finish, which is essential for this tournament, and Rusev has the Cena history and is the better wrestler. All around, it was good for what it was.
3. Sheamus won the other Cena retirement match tournament match, pinning Shinsuke Nakamura after a Brogue Kick. The finish and overall match were much better than Priest vs. Rusev, primarily because of the ending portion. It was a pretty mediocre slow burn with each playing their hits until then. Again, the right man won, thanks to his history with Cena and now the Intercontinental title.
4. Sticking with the Cena tournament, it was announced for the next “Raw” that Gunther is returning and taking on Je’Von Evans. Wow. Talk about an intriguing pairing. Then, there’s Solo Sikoa, who will take on a mystery opponent. So far, so good with this whole thing.
1. Commentary was awful tonight, trying to sell the audience on Paul’s false double-turn last week was “shocking.” Right. Because the dude hasn’t been the most dastardly character he can be since he arrived in WWE.
2. Nikki Bella turned heel, attacking Vaquer after the latter’s win. This was wildly predictable, and an edge to Bella is interesting, but talk about an absurd, pure name-value first feud for Vaquer. Title bookings for talented champions like Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton are in a rough, rough state.
3. AJ Styles and Dragon Lee are on “Raw” thinking of their team name. Clearly, WWE has no clue what to do with either of its tag team divisions right now on either brand.
I give this show a Crown score of: 6/10.