Raw Review: SummerSlam Building Up the Midcard

Raw Review: SummerSlam Building Up the Midcard 

By Justin Blakeman 

Good evening wrestling fans! I wanted to take a quick second to talk about tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw! There was a lot that happened tonight on Raw and despite being an obvious filler episode; it was actually very entertaining to watch. With just two weeks to go until the big four hour Summer Slam extravaganza I expected tonights Raw to be packed with loads of story telling. To this point I really don't feel like we have 4 hours worth of material for the show. The content level WWE is showing us right now is that of a normal 3 hour pay-per-view. Tonights Raw touched on a lot of the mid-card feuds like Cesaro vs Owens, the Diva's Revolution angle, the Tag Team Championships, and the Stardust and Green Arrow feud. Personally I think the biggest hit of the night was New Day! I enjoyed their entire segment from hilarious clapping entrance to Big E's awkward hip thrusting dance moves. They continue to have me laughing each and every week. I notice that the fans tonight were actually chanting "New Day Rocks" instead of the normal "New Day Sucks" chants.  You have to give those guys props, they took a terrible gimmick and turned it into a strong Heel act. It was so good that now people are starting to like them and cheer for them. It will be interesting to see where this goes at Summer Slam. 

I really enjoyed the opening segment with Rollins, Owens and Cesaro. I knew someone would come out and break up Seth's shenanigans but I never would have guessed Cesaro would be the guy to do it. The crowd popped huge for him and it seemed like the Cesaro Section signs were everywhere. My excitement was short lived however because Orton came out to spoil the party. I knew as soon as the match was made that Orton would be going over which was a real disappointment. I would have loved to see Rollins and Cesaro in the main event. That match would have be absolutely insane!! While Im on the subject I guess I will go ahead and talk about the fantastic triple threat match that took place pretty early on in the show. These three guys really crushed it in this match! They worked their tails off and it showed. Cesaro was flying anywhere and everywhere. His new moves have really helped to make his offense more explosive. The crowd went absolutely crazy for the flying corkscrew uppercut! Owens and Orton did well in this match and they only really complaint I have is the finish. I would have rather seen one of the younger guys go over in this match. We have all seen Rollins vs Orton before and this would have been a great chance to let one of the young guns take the lead in a main event versus the Champ. 

The Diva's revolution continued to impress as it always does these days! The Boss Sasha Banks got a massive pop when she finally got into the ring and you can tell she is very over with the crowd. Bree Bella got a nice pop too, obviously this was more for her association with Daniel Bryan but who care she can take the credit and probably needs it at this point. I continue to be impressed by the matches these ladies are putting on. I have no idea where the story lines are going or what the point of all these matches are but they have certainly been entertaining to watch each week. I am really looking forward to the huge Diva's match at Summer Slam. I just wish someone would take that belt off Nikki Bella before she beats AJ's record. I don't mind the record going to someone else but for the love of all thing holy please don't give that to Nikki. There are so many people that would be far more deserving of such a nice record. 

In conclusion I feel like this was a solid effort tonight by the WWE folks. I know this was a filler episode that was mainly aimed at building up the mid card matches but it was still a great show. I am interested to see when John Cena comes back to challenge Rollins and I can't wait for more story line development for the Brock vs Taker match. They did a great job of continuing to build that match up with more videos this week but nothing compares to having both of those men kicking the crap out of each other in the ring on live TV.  I hope you enjoyed Raw as much as I did and don't forget to come back to the site tomorrow to check out Part 2 of our series Wrestling: Real, Fake or Something else. I should have the article up tomorrow evening around dinner time! 

Thanks for reading and as always Until Next Time Wrestling Fans!!