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Roman Reign’s yard?
Is it Roman Reign’s yard? To kick-off the Monday Night Raw after the Greatest Royal Rumble, we get Roman Reigns. He comes out to address the fact that he should be our new Universal Champion. In the match, Roman speared Brock through the cage, and though the rule is the winner is the person whose feet touch first (which were Roman’s), Brock was declared the winner.
Initially, the crowd in Montreal did not want to hear Roman speak at all. The boos were thunderous, almost completely drowning out whatever he said. The emotional connection with Roman is seriously lacking. Roman lets us know that he will not be addressing that with Brock, because, lo and behold, Brock isn’t there. Just as all of us are sick of hearing this same tune, so is Samoa Joe. Joe “pops up” on the screen and gets a huge reaction. He lets Roman know that at Backlash on Sunday, he’ll be putting the “big dog” down.
So what can help Roman at this point? Maybe putting him against a true heel? Well, that what they try to do with Jinder Mahal. And the crowd reacts well to the possibility of getting to see Jinder face Roman. But that’s not enough. We can get more out of this Canadian crowd. Let’s get some Sami Zayn and some Kevin Owens. Through the use of the ”oui” chant, the crowd decides to have Roman face Kevin. Kevin, Sami, and Jinder then all start beating up Roman Reigns. To his rescue, enters Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman.
At first, I was not enthused to have Lashley and Strowman with Reigns. I mean, we love Strowman and Lashley is so new, it seems cruel to align him with Roman so early. But, later that night, when the trios face each other, I was pleasantly surprised. Roman was actually incredible to watch on Monday. He hit Sami and Kevin with double drive by that looked awesome. He’s an exciting fighter, but he just needs a new character. I also felt that delaying the tag to Braun Strowman was needed. The final sequence of Kevin going for some cannonballs in the corner but getting speared by Roman, then hitting a few super kicks before he gets power slammed by Braun was amazing.
The New Four Horsemen
After a successful title defense in Jeddah, Rollins will again be facing the Miz at Backlash for the IC Title. For a solid 5-8 minutes, Rollins stands back as the crowd in Montreal showers him with chants of, “burn it down,” “you deserve it,” and “ole, ole ole ole.” Eventually, Seth does get to talk to the crowd, and lets us know that he will not be a champion like Brock Lesnar (absent, not regularly defending title, etc.) This is an interesting comment to make. Wonder if this means they’ll be moving away from Roman becoming Universal Champ and setting it up for Rollins to get it and then face Balor again, as they did so long ago before Balor’s injury.
Balor throws his hat into the running for the IC title again, requesting to face Rollins for it on Raw. Seth is good for it, but before the segment is over, we get a little scene with the Miztourage again. This time, they want to join forces with both Seth and Finn, calling themselves the four horsemen. Hard pass from Rollins and Balor.
After the four get into an all-out brawl and the Miztourage is on the retreat, Balor turns on Rollins and drops him into a DDT.
This was a perfect main event. I used to not think much of Finn Balor. I’m not sure why; I guess I just feel like I don’t care to watch him wrestle. I’m changing my mind about that now. Finn and Seth put on a clinic. The kick series, the superplex off the top rope, the reversal of the superplex, the power of Finn’s drop-kick, wow! I feel like I’m getting sweaty just reliving it. Rollins retains with a stomp to Finn’s head, but I don’t think we’ve heard the last from Finn Balor.
Nobody puts Randy Orton in a corner
I really like the Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy story line. Both are amazing wrestler with very iconic moves and interesting styles. But it’s still a very new rivalry. We haven’t gotten much out of it, except that Matt jumped in and took an opportunity to fight Shelton Benjamin from Randy. So naturally, Randy would feel that he’s first in line for a US Title opportunity. But Shelton Benjamin wants one too. It seems that they are still trying to find a place for Shelton Benjamin to go, and I just don’t know if this group is a good fit.
On Tuesday night, Orton and Hardy team up against the Miz and Benjamin in a tag team match. Orton and Hardy win.
The Empress, The Queen, and Straight Fire
These three powerhouse women superstars face the Smackdown Live Women’s Champion, Carmella, and her team of Peyton Royce and Billie Kay (The Iconics). Carmella has a hard time making friends, but these ladies have no problem aligning with her. After all, they did help her become the champion. It’s only a matter of time until they call in a favor.
The Iconics are some good heels to have around. They seem like natural heels and have a solid path forward.
Hits and Misses and Huh?:
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Hits
- Elias and Bobby Roode face each other – ends with Roode taking a hard hit into the ring post
- Authors of Pain take on Jean Paul and Francois – showing incredible strength and toughness, the AOP win
- The expe-dee-tion of gold for Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy
- Paige announces that Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles will be a no disqualification match at Backlash
- Lana’s back! But she wants Aiden English gone (miss)
- Everything the Miz does
- The Bar versus the New Day is a fun series to watch, both teams are very entertaining and a good mix of people you want to cheer for and people you want to boo
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Misses
- Titus addresses the fall (which is a hit), but Baron Corbin comes out and makes a strange comment about how Titus shouldn’t have wanted to fall? I don’t really know, it was weird
- Natalya’s win over Mickie James is missed by the cameras because they were watching Ronda Rousey chase Alexa around the ring over and over and over
- Big Cass picking on Daniel Bryan – they know what story we want, and I think Cass could be better served facing Randy Orton or picking on Bobby Roode
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Huh?
- Samoa Joe wants a shot at the WWE Championship…guess his time on Raw was just to psych Roman out?
