RAW Review – 05/09/2016

Welcome to my, Kareem’s (@HomeOfWWE on IG’s), RAW review on thewrestlingclassic.com for this week.

(1/10) Big Cass interrupts the Highlight Reel: 

Jericho was talking about how great he is and how the crowd has to drink it in (his gift; himself). Then out came Big Cass which made things interesting. It’s nice to see Big Cass still get utilized even though Enzo is hurt. This led to the booking for the main event of the night; Chris Jericho VS Big Cass.

Pros and Cons (3-0):

Pros:

• Segment got a lot better after Cass came out.
• Pretty good way of starting the show.
• The segment clicked with the (mostly dead) crowd.

Cons: N/A

Crowd Engagement:

Huge pop for Big Cass. They booed Jericho, which exposes their ‘casualness’ 

Rating: 8.75/10

(2/10) Dolph Ziggler VS Baron Corbin:

Decent match, Corbin wins by pinfall. The deep six is a really cool move.

Pros and Cons (2-1):

Pros:

• It was a decent match.
• Good to see that Baron picked up the win.

Cons: 

• Rivalry needs to be more interesting.

Crowd Engagement:

Not as engaged.

Rating: 7.35/10

(3/10) Fandango VS R-Truth:

R-Truth wins. Honestly this rivalry is a waste of time and isn’t putting anyone over nor positively effecting them.

Pros and Cons (0-2):

Pros: N/A

Cons:

• Meaningless

• It feels like Goldust and R-Truth will never pair up, and this was a waste of time.

Crowd Engagement: 

Below average, or even poor.

Rating: 3.75/10

(4/10) Paige VS Charlotte:

Ric was banned from ringside by Shane for this match. Ric came out later on and got escorted away by security and Shane, as that distracted the champ costing her the match as Paige won with a roll up. Nat was at commentary. 

Pros and Cons (3-0):

Pros: 

• it was quite entertaining to watch.
• Good to see Paige and Charlotte wrestle each other.
• Great in ring chemistry between the two.

Cons: N/A

Crowd Engagement:

They were pretty decent.

Rating: 9.1/10

(5/10) The Miz VS Sami Zayn:

If Zayn wins, he’ll be added to the IC title match at Extreme Rules, making it a fatal 4 way. Zayn won in what was a great match. 

P.S The Nebraska crowd were horrible. Filled with casuals.

Pros and Cons (2-0):

Pros:

• Solid match
• Did the job

Cons: N/A

Crowd Engagement:

 Pretty engaged.

Rating: 8/10

(6/10) Rusev VS Sin Cara:

Sin Cara won by roll up, with Rusev being distracted by Kalisto. Disappointing result. Rusev has just started to look like a monster again, but got him to lose to Sin Cara by a roll up pin. What the hell. 

Pros and Cons (0-1):

Pros: N/A

Cons:

• The fact that Rusev lost against Sin Cara; that made him look nothing like the monster that he should look like.

Crowd Engagement:

I would say fairly engaged.

Rating: 5.75/10

(7/10) The Family VS “The Club”:

This was an elimination match. Still don’t get why this was not the main event, it really should have been in that slot. Jey was out first, then Anderson got eliminated. Afterwards, AJ eliminated Jimmy, as the following wrestler eliminated was Gallows. Before either Styles or Roman could win, the match ended by DQ because of Gallows and Anderson attacking Reigns with a chair. Afterwards, AJ Styles and “The Guy” (that hurt to type) teased to brawl but Styles retreated. 

Pros and Cons (2-3):

Pros:

• This segment was pretty exciting.
• Good way to build up their rivalry even more. 

Cons: 

• That they had AJ Styles retreat; that basically killed everything. Everything about this rivalry was going well until we saw that.
• Luke and Karl are booked terribly, they seem so weak. Something needs to change here, they need to seem like pretty big threats.
• That this was not the main event.

Crowd Engagement:

They were the most interested in this segment out of all segments. As this crowd was filled with casuals, I was surprised seeing a lot of people cheer for AJ and boo Reigns. That made me happy. We heard a chant of “AJ STYLES”/“ROMAN REIGNS”

Of course the men were chanting for Styles and for the Roman chants, the chanting were from the voices of many 8 year olds and some women. 

Rating: 7.75/10

(8/10) Zack Ryder VS Kevin Owens:

Owens beat Ryder in what was a great match.

Pros and Cons (1-0):

Pros: 

• Fun match, good to see Ryder not as a jobber on the main roster.

Cons: N/A 

Crowd Engagement:

The fans were into it.

Rating: 9/10

(9/10) New Day VS Dudleyz:

Dudley Boyz win via pinfall, due to the New Day being distracted by the Vaudevillians. 

The Vaudevillians beat up Kofi afterwards.

Pros and Cons (2-1):

Pros:

• Fine for what it was.
• Interesting, I guess.

Cons:

• Not so exciting.

Crowd Engagement:

So so.

Rating: 7.25/10

(10/10) Colin Cassady VS Chris Jericho:

The match did not even begin as Dean Ambrose attacked Jericho when he was making his entrance. Ambrose then wore his 15,000 dollar light up jacket, which he eventually destroyed to avenge his potted plant Mitch, in a show of disrespect to Jericho.

Pros and Cons (3-1):

Pros:

• They did their job well once again.
• Made the feud slightly more interesting.
• Good way to avenge “Mitch”.

Cons: 

• Should not have been the main event. 

Crowd Engagement:

Pretty engaged.

Rating: 8.9/10

RAW Overall rating: 7.25/10.

Above average RAW, and a very lame crowd filled with casuals. Let’s hope the next RAW is better than this one, because the RAWs lately are just getting worse and worse each week (still good RAWs though). Again i’ll say it, the time slot of this main event should of swapped with the 3v3 elimination match.