It didn’t take long for Alexa Bliss to show that she along with The Fiend are going to be dominant after their move to the red brand. RAW opened up with Bliss in the ring surrounded by the red light that she has grown accustomed to. She welcomed The Fiend by saying “he’s here” and urged everyone to Let Him In. The Fiend made his full entrance into the Thunderdome as Bliss stood perfectly still in the ring waiting for him to arrive.
When The Fiend made it to the ring, he reached out for Bliss’ hand. She gave him her hand and kept her stoic stance as RETRIBUTION’s music hits. As the members of the stable surround the duo, they both stay still until the lights go out. When the lights come back on they are both gone leaving RETRIBUTION in the ring alone. The Hurt Business would then come out to continue the segment.
Later on in the night we had a new Firefly Funhouse. Bray Wyatt said that he was sad to leave his “friends” from SmackDown. He says he cannot wait to make some new friends on RAW. Clips are then shown how he attacked RETRIBUTION earlier in the night after their loss to The Hurt Business.
Afterward, he started to laugh and then starts hearing a woman’s laughter from the other side of the door. He lets in Bliss who is dressed in her best Freddy Krueger look and says that he saved the best for last. She says that the fun is just getting started. Wyatt says, “yowie, wowie” as the two waves goodbye to end the segment.
We witnessed two women’s matches this week with one being the advertised Asuka (c) vs. Lana for the RAW Women’s Title. Lana being the forever underdog went into the match with her hopes held high. Truth be told, many felt that this would be a quick squash match and although it wasn’t a long fight, Lana showcased offense. In a typical circumstance, after she was put in the Asuka Lock the first time in the match she would have tapped out. Luckily for her, this was not the case as she was close enough to the ropes to cause a break.
In the end, she would succumb to the Asuka Lock and tap out. Lana did get in several near falls though and worked well with the champion. I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing a round two.
Commentary did mention Lana’s promo that she personally put on her social media over the weekend. I feel that this could have been aired before the match to give it more buzz.
After Asuka retained her title, the highly unneeded Women’s Tag Team Champions showed up. Nia Jax‘s music would hit and they would appear from behind Asuka who was still in the ring. After Jax knocks down The Empress, the tag champs target Lana, yet again. They put her through the announce table for the fifth time. Yes, the fifth time. Back in the ring, Baszler would attack Asuka, but she was unable to do much damage. Asuka would counter her and deliver a hip attack which knocks Baszler off the ring apron and in front of Jax at ringside. She would then make her way up the ramp to end that part of the segment.
After the unnecessary involvement of the tag champs to the RAW Women’s Champion, the duo took to the mic. They went on about their dominance and how even though it never looks like it, they are on the same page and deliver teamwork. They would then give an open challenge daring anyone in the back to come and challenge them.
All of this led to a very random and confusing four-way tag team match. A match that even commentary wasn’t sure if the titles were on the line or not. They weren’t by the way.
Once we got that straightened out, two of the teams were headscratchers to say the least. The four teams were Jax & Baszler, Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke, Peyton Royce & Lacey Evans, and The Riott Squad.
The random makeshift team of Royce and Evans should be focusing on their singles career and going after Asuka…not being in a random tag team. What sense does it make to break up The IIconics just for Royce to be in a tag team with Evans (even if this is a one-off)? Furthermore, why have two more people who have the same disdain for each other that Jax and Baszler already exude?
The other team that made no sense was The Riott Squad. Seeing as the team is now on SmackDown and couldn’t even be used on their own show on Friday, I am not sure why they were in this match. The tag team division is non-existent and all of this showed exactly that.
Regardless, the match itself was okay, nothing spectacular, but it didn’t help that Jax and Baszler won it. They could have easily used this as a further stepping stone for Rose & Brooke. A pin from Rose or Brooke on let’s say Evans or Royce could have been all they needed to earn a shot at the titles without having the champions take the fall. The Riott Squad being in this match also meant nothing as they didn’t even win it for it to make any sense. Jax ended up pinning Evans after a Samoan Drop which was the least exciting result.
Let’s summarize all of this:
- Baszler and Jax shouldn’t be going after Asuka if they are the tag champs.
- The Riott Squad shouldn’t have been in this match unless they were going to win in order to have the champs come to SmackDown to defend.
- Rose & Brooke should have won the match if The Riott Squad didn’t in order to position themselves for a title shot.
- Evans & Royce should be chasing after Asuka as singles competitors.
- Baszler & Jax shouldn’t have even been in the match and could have sat back to see who would face them next for the title if they made it a number one contender’s match.
- Make it make sense.
Before I get into the Winners & Losers, we have Hell in a Cell coming up on Sunday and only one women’s match on the card at the time of this writing. If my memory serves me correctly, last year’s HIAC had the same issue and only had three matches until the day before. Then randomly they added like four or five more to get a full card.
Nothing to take away from the one match that is on the card as it is a highly anticipated one and hopefully will be the main event but we need at least one more if not two. Asuka has no feud right now and unless Rose/Brooke or The Riott Squad face the tag champs…they will be left off the card as well.
We have all of this and we still don’t know what brand Mickie James is on.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers of the week.
WINNER: Alexa Bliss
I know that Alexa keeps winding up on my winner’s list but I just can’t help it. She is doing a phenomenal job at this character and even if the smallest bit is shown of it, I enjoy it. Her staying so still that entire opening segment was great. Her joining the Firefly Funhouse is great. Everything is perfect.
WINNER: Lana
I might get a lot of disagreement with this one, but I feel Lana did very well in her match. There’s more to just winning the actual match for someone to come off with a good week. She may have lost, which was to be expected, but I am just glad they let her work a match. A match with one of the bests in the business I might add. Putting her through the announce table was old about three times ago, so I am just going to start ignoring that.
LOSER: Peyton Royce
Why? This is the opposite of a singles push. It isn’t even a knock at Lacey either. Even if this was a one time thing pairing these two up, it wasn’t necessary. At all. Peyton should be chasing Asuka for the title right now.
LOSER: Lacey Evans
Much like Peyton, Lacey shouldn’t be randomly put in a tag team. None of it made any sense. Even if they had her attack Asuka after the title match then that would have been logical.
With only having three tag teams at all times, and Asuka without a solid feud, we should have her calling out people – not the tag champions.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers of the week? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
