Raw’s developed this habit over the last couple of months of being action packed and hard to miss, and last night’s wasn’t an exception.
Some of the highlights included…
- Rollins got rocked. After opening as his usual cocky self, Rollins paused in his relating the Fiend’s attack on him, and rolled his eyes as he waited for the fans. When they chanted “Yowie wowie” he seemed relieved but annoyed at the same time. Assuming he had an ear piece, his eye roll and facial tick at the chant made sense. It was also telling that when he started nodding along, he seemed confused. Guess he didn’t like being outshined again? Fun fact: according to fans that were at Clash of Champions, Wyatt got a standing ovation and the loudest pop of the night. Common trend.
- Kane’s appearance as himself, Glenn Jacobs, mayor of Knoxville County, Tennessee was fun and awesome. It was cool to see him more as himself as he interacted with R-Truth and showed him around the area. It was even cooler when he added the 24/7 championship to his long list of accomplishments.
- Baron Corbin is the King of the Ring winner. This will be polarizing, especially given reports that Vince McMahon was the only one pushing Corbin. The fact remains that Corbin and Gable’s finals match was the best match of the night and possibly of the year. They put each over as the crowd chanted Gable’s name and some even cheered when Corbin won. This is the type of match he’s capable of if he has someone that’s willing to work with him and put him over, so hopefully he’ll use this as the springboard it’s meant to be.
- Flair and Lynch reuniting. Though it took Bayley and Sasha Bank’s attacks on them, it’s good to see the two form an unsteady relationship that could be interesting going forward. If they decided to put their egos aside and form a tag team (doubtful), they would be a force to be reckoned with.
- Seth Rollins and Robert Roode. This won’t be very popular, but this was a good match while it lasted. As mentioned on the show, Roode won titles across the world, so he’s seasoned and has the talent. This match gave a glimpse into what these two are capable of and it’d be cool to see them continue to compete and see where it goes.
- The Fiend taking down Kane. As if this was even a question. Having Glenn Jacobs back on Raw was awesome enough, but having him don his Kane character was even awesomer. Yes, he came out to put Rollins over (Yeah, it never stops for some.), but having him attacked by the Fiend (Kane was Bray Wyatt’s first target way back in 2013) was genius.
Final Thoughts
Once again, Raw put on an overall great show despite a few bumps along the way. The way they had the Fiend appear throughout the episode in small snippets was perfectly done and it appears the Fiend arc hasn’t come close to reaching its peak yet. Even after closing the show with Wyatt crawling menacingly toward a literally cowering (reminiscent of a child during a nightmare) Rollins in the corner there’s so much more room to grow for the WWE’s most popular wrestler.
