WWE RAW PRIMER 7/2: Bayley & Sasha in counseling, Intercontinental Championship fallout, Bliss, B Team, Strowman-Owens situation

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
JULY 2, 2018
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. AT DENNY SANFORD PREMIER CENTER
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00PM EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Foreward: Matt Cappotelli

I want to take a moment to acknowledge another loss we experienced in the WWE/Wrestling family this past week.  Matt Cappotelli, a former Tough Enough contestant and winner, lost a long battle with brain cancer at too young of an age at 38.

I wasn’t a Tough Enough viewer, but I knew of the story.  Having lost a father and a friend to cancer and nearly losing another, my thoughts and prayers are with his family and close ones.  May Matt rest in peace and may the people close to him have the comfort they need in this difficult time.

Arena / Opening Thoughts

WWE will arrive in Sioux Falls, S.D. this evening, as the Denny Sanford Premier Center will host Monday Night Raw for the first time in the its history.  The arena, which was open for business starting in 2014, has previously hosted Smackdown and 205Live in 2017.  We continue to get ready for Extreme Rules which is now just under two weeks away.

Last week things certainly took a turn in a lot of ways.  Bayley snapped and attacked her former best friend Sasha Banks.  Braun Strowman continued his destruction of vehicles as he tipped over Kevin Owens’s car, which I hope had “co-worker tip-over insurance.”

We learned that Brock Lesnar will not defend the WWE Universal Championship as scheduled.  Bear in mind, it wasn’t confirmed on what date Lesnar would defend the title, but something was supposedly in place.  There was a “snag in the contract” as G.M. Kurt Angle pointed out in the opening segment.  There was a Facebook post by Paul Heyman that might tell us more of what’s really happening.  Angle also told us the multi-man match will not take place at Extreme Rules to determine the #1 contender for the championship.  Refer to Wade Keller’s or Zack Heydorn’s  Raw reports for details on the opening segment, but let me say a few things.

We’ve seen countless champions stripped of titles for various reasons.  In the last two years, both Finn Balor and Naomi had to relinquish their titles almost immediately upon learning about their injuries.  If there’s a supposed “snag,” why can’t Lesnar be stripped of the championship?  By my watch it’s been more than 30 days since the Greatest Royal Rumble thus, aren’t they violating the “30-day rule?”  Even if they don’t want to do that for whatever reason, why can’t a #1 contender be determined?  I would think whatever issue that may be pending would get resolved allowing WWE and Lesnar to come to an agreement and have him defend the Universal Championship in the near future.  Please understand, my issue is not with Lesnar.  My issue is with WWE, as they are responsible for their product.  They have put the Universal Championship picture in this situation and have the power to change things.  The “issue with Lesnar” could also be storyline, but I can’t imagine the explanation and potential payoff.  We shall stand by and learn.

Mandatory Counseling for Bailey and Sasha Banks

Last week, G.M. Kurt Angle forced Bayley to team with Sasha Banks and Ember Moon to face the Riott Squad.  Bayley scoffed at the idea, considering her issues over the past six months or so with Sasha. Following a loss, Bayley went on the attack against her partner Sasha Banks.  The attack went on for a while and was received in quite a positive way from the WWE fans as they chanted “Yes! Yes! Yes!” and “We Want Tables!”  It was something like we’ve never seen from Bayley, especially when she stood over Sasha saying, “You Think You’re Better Than Me?!”  Later in the evening, Angle would tell Bayley she would be taking mandatory counseling.  Sasha was told the same by Angle in a WWE.com exclusive.

Thoughts:  The plan had to be for Bayley to turn heel, especially the way she aggressively attacked Sasha and stood over her as I described earlier.  I don’t think they expected the crowd to cheer, but that tells me they’re misreading the situation.  This situation between Bayley and Sasha has dragged on, and on, and on to the point of apathy at least for me.  I would have cheered Bayley because we FINALLY got a direction, and it showed a different side of her.  That’s the most passion I’ve seen out of Bayley since her arrival on the main roster back in 2016.  The counseling bit for me is counterproductive and goes against Angle’s narrative of “we settle things in the ring.”  What’s different here?  Why does he care if Bayley and Sasha get along?  Let’s think about something else here.  What if Sasha went on the attack?  She may have gotten the same positive reaction.  All I know is if they call upon Dr. Shelby again following his success with Team Hell No in 2012, the WWE Hall of Fame may be calling somewhere in the near future.

Rollins-Ziggler Fallout

Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler (Champion) battled for nearly 30 minutes in an Intercontinental Championship match, which saw Rollins win via disqualification following interference by Drew McIntyre.  Rollins looked to have the match won after hitting Ziggler with the falcon arrow when McIntyre pulled the ref out and attacked Rollins.  That caused the DQ which gave Rollins the victory but not the title, as championships can’t change hands via DQ or count-out.  Ziggler and McIntyre would continue the double-team until Roman Reigns came out to save his former Shield “brother” Rollins.

Thoughts:  There’s nothing specifically advertised on WWE.com at the moment, but a tag match can’t be a far-fetched possibility.  It’s interesting to see Roman Reigns wedged into this situation while being involved in what appears to be a budding rivalry between himself and Bobby Lashley.  I don’t see him getting into the Intercontinental Championships picture, but he did hold the title earlier in the year and that came somewhat out of nowhere.  My money is still on the title revolving around Rollins and Ziggler with McIntyre as the wild card.  WWE could have also wanted an opportunity to get a positive reaction for Reigns saving his “buddy,” the incredibly popular Rollins. 

Next Up for Bliss

Last week WWE Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, with Mickie James in her corner, had an impromptu non-title match with Natalya who had a returning Nia Jax in her corner.  To sum up, Mickie praised Alexa for being out in the arena after what Ronda Rousey did to her to previous week.  They also laughed about Ronda’s suspension and Mickie called Alexa “the one and only goddess of WWE.”  Natalya would come out and talk about how Ronda’s suspension had only 23 days left.  Alexa questioned why Natalya was out here considering wasn’t she just on vacation, and why she posts EVERYTHING about her life on social media.  (Excuse me, but yay Alexa for saying it!  No, I am not reviewing Natalya’s Twitter feed for this report.  I don’t have all day today.)  At any rate, Nia would eventually come out as I said earlier to be in Natalya’s corner and the match went on.  Alexa would tap to the sharpshooter, giving Natalya a victory over the current champion.  WWE doesn’t show anything specific for tonight at the moment but given their ways I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a tag match tonight with Natalya/Nia vs. Alexa/Mickie.

Thoughts:  We’ve seen plenty of times even going back to the 80s where the heel champion would lose clean in non-title matches, perhaps giving hope they would drop the title in an actual championship match.  I don’t think that’s what happened here but having grown up in that time I couldn’t help but have such thoughts.  As far as the social media stuff I agree with Alexa, but if you look at her feed she doesn’t hesitate to post stuff she may be doing at the moment.  The big issue for me coming out of last week was Nia coming out smiling and happy like a white meat babyface to assist Natalya.  Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago she was acting heelish attacking a jobber in front of Ronda Rousey?  

B Team 

Last week Curtis Axel of The B-Team scored a quick victory over “Woken” Matt Hardy, one half of the WWE Raw Tag Team Champions.  Two days later, WWE announced on their Twitter account that the B-Team would have a tag team championship opportunity at Extreme Rules against Hardy and his partner, Bray Wyatt.  We can expect some follow-up tonight as WWE is pointing the situation out in their preview.

Thoughts:  Wade Keller pointed out something in his Raw review that I was thinking about at the time.  Hardy and Wyatt have been a babyface team since they came together; however, The B-Team is very popular at the moment.  For whom are we supposed to cheer?  In addition, on my end, I’m all for “quick victories” when they make sense.  I would have preferred to see a real match with Axel and Hardy as I feel Axel is an underused asset.  I’m not saying he’s world championship material, but I’m not sure WWE has maximized what he has to offer.  This is problematic across the roster.

Owens and Strowman: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

In sort of a “flip the script” way, WWE gave us a tag match last week which saw “Mr. Monster in the Bank” Braun Strowman team with Kevin Owens to face Finn Balor (Strowman’s “buddy”) and “Constable” Corbin.  Strowman interrupted a backstage segment involving Kurt Angle, Corbin, and Balor where he claimed he had been a little rough on Owens lately and wanted to be his friend and tag partner this week.  Angle asked whom Strowman had in mind for opponents, to which he said “how about these two” referring to Balor and Corbin.  The match took place later in the evening.

Strowman and Owens would come out victorious when Corbin ended up being counted out.  He and Balor could not get along and fought all the way up to the entrance while Corbin was the legal man.  Following the match, Owens offered his hand in friendship to Strowman which ended up being rejected.  The two worked well together in match and Owens showed no tendency to work against Strowman, so his rejection came off a bit odd.  He chased Owens to the back and after commercial break, we learned what Strowman had done.  Owens tried to leave and when he asked the valet for his car keys, he said “he has them,” meaning Strowman.  Strowman said “I hope you have insurance,” after which we saw Owens’s car tipped over.  Tonight, we can expect these two to cross paths in some way unless Owens hasn’t warmed up to Uber or Lyft yet.

Thoughts:  Strowman tips over a vehicle, but Bayley and Sash have to go to counseling?  I’m sorry but there’s a misconnect there for me.  With that said I can’t foresee a match between Strowman and Owens tonight as they have already fought on Raw.  With the multi-man match at Extreme Rules cancelled, I would guess we plant the seeds for Strowman-Owens at that event with some sort of stipulation.  

Other Items

• After showing his participation in the Special Olympics, Mojo Rawley berated Todd of No Way Jose’s conga line prior to what was supposed to be their scheduled rematch from two weeks ago.  Why is he berating a man with who shares the name of a respected PWTorch VIP analyst, Todd Martin?  That’s just not cool.  Joking aside it’s a lack of consistency in Mojo’s character showing him doing something great to looking like a total jerk.  WWE needs to protect their on-screen characters better up and down the card.
• The Authors of Pain returned and won a squash match.  They continued to beat the jobbers when Titus Worldwide came out for the save.  Let’s look for something between these teams to develop.
• While Jinder Mahal and Sunil Singh were having a photo shoot, The Riott Squad interrupted and destroyed the camera in bully-type fashion as they have been doing as of late.  Remember that anti-bully campaign WWE ran a few years ago?
• The Revival scored a victory over Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley in the opening match.  Logically that would tell you they could be thrust into the tag team title picture, but with the B-Team involved with champs Hardy & Wyatt at the moment I can’t be certain.  It’s not crazy to think The Revival could get some heat by somehow spoiling the “run” of the popular B-Team and wedging themselves into the mix.
• We did not see Elias last week.  If he is there this week, I look to see if he cherry picks his way back into the Intercontinental Championship picture following his loss at Money in the Bank.
• Roman Reigns called Bobby Lashley “Bob” again.  If they have a match at Extreme Rules, look for dueling chants of “Let’s Go Roman!  Let’s Go Bob!”

Dark Matches / Wrestlers Advertised

As had been the pattern, The Denny Sanford Premier Center’s website has not been updated.  Like the Valley View Casino Center last week, they are advertising a “massive” eight-man tag match featuring Roman Reigns, Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins (no longer champion), Braun Strowman, and Bobby Lashley vs. Jinder Mahal, Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin, and Elias.  They also show G.M. Kurt Angle, Raw Women’s Champion Nia Jax (she’s no longer champion), and Sasha Banks. They oddly don’t have the disclaimer of “CARD IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.”

Start time shown is 6:30 p.m. local time with doors opening at 5:00 p.m.

Follow me on Twitter @FrankPeteani or email me at fpeteani@gmail.com