WRESTLING WITH RAW 09/02/19

WWE Raw - 09/02/19 Baltimore, MD

Quick Results:

• Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman defeated The OC (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)

• Glorious Showoffs (Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler) defeated Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder

• Lacey Evans defeated Natalya

• King Of The Ring Tournament: Baron Corbin defeated Cedric Alexander

• Viking Raiders defeated Tyler Hastings & Brian Thomas (local talent)

• King Of The Ring Tournament: Samoa Joe & Ricochet ends in a double pin

• The Miz defeated Cesaro

• Champions Showcase: Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch & Smackdown Women's Champion Bayley defeated the Women's Tag Team Champions Bliss Cross (Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross) by DQ

Highlights:

• The OC are one of the best things going in wrestling today! The opening contract signing between Rollins and Strowman was pretty bland and seemed a bit forced...until The OC came out. AJ Styles is great on the mic and everything he said was entirely truthful. No one earns a title shot anymore, all they have to do is look at the title to get a shot! AJ followed that by telling Gallows and Anderson not to look at his title, which was awesome. The problem with this promo was the crowd was into it. You can't be an effective heel is the crowd cheers everything you do. This won't be the last time this issue comes up tonight.

• Remember a couple months back when we, the fans, wanted nothing more then to not see Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans on our TVs all the time? After this week's episode, not only did I not mind seeing them on Raw, it didn't bother me that they both won their respective matches. Corbin even advanced to the Semi-Finals of the King Of The Ring Tournament (which I'm ok with because he was my pick to win. Check out my predictions here). See what happens when you don't shove people down our throats, WWE?

• Speaking of the King Of The Ring, the Samoa Joe/Ricochet match ended with both men lying on their backs, one arm draped over the other for the double pin. I'm all for different and new endings for matches, but this one didn't make sense to me. After counting the pin, the referee goes to the time keeper area and puts on a headset. We then hear a one-sided conversation, apparently with someone backstage, in which the referee says he saw both wrestlers' shoulders down so he counted the pin. He clearly didn't know why he counted or what decision to make as to a winner. Who was the referee talking with for help in making a decision? Why did the ref count the pin when he wasn't sure who would win? With both men down, wouldn't this warrant a 10-count until one of them gets back to their feet? Later, the ref was being interviewed by Corey Graves, when Corbin came up and said Joe and Ricochet eliminated each other and Corbin should automatically move on to the Finals. That makes total sense! But no, instead a Triple Threat Match was made for next week. I don't get it...

• Another thing I don't understand is why are the Viking Raiders back in enhancement matches? I honestly thought that last week's double DQ during the Tag Team Gauntlet match was the start of a storyline with The OC. The Raiders should really start to be utilized more because, as impressive as their offense is against smaller enhancement talent, the crowd is not into it and they need to be given a real story to invest in.

• The Main Event had all of the Women's Champions face each other in a tag match. This was just a backdrop for the surprising heel turn of one Bayley. The crowd went crazy for this moment, even going so far as shouting "YES! YES! YES!" Again, as with AJ Styles, you can't have an effective heel turn when the crowd wants to see it. Bayley's run on the "main roster" has not lived up to her time in NXT, so the audience has wanted to see this for some time. Unfortunately, you run the risk of repeating what happened with Becky last year, when she turned on Charlotte. This also presents two new issues: 1) Bayley is scheduled to face Charlotte at Clash of Champions, but now who will the crowd route for? 2) WWE has major lack of strong babyface characters in the Women's Division, certainly none at or near the level of Becky. We'll see how this plays out in a couple weeks.

Overall, I give this show a 3 out of 5. As usual, the ring work was solid but inconsistencies in story and execution really bring me out of the moment. Let's see if Smackdown is any better!