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WWE RAW PRIMER 7/1: Falls Count Anywhere for a Monster and an All Mighty, It’s a New Day for the Viking Raiders, Corbin Thinks He’s Lex Luther, A Dead Man’s Best Friend

By Frank Peteani, PWTorch contributor

July 1, 2019

Paul Heyman (art credit Grant Gould © PWTorch)
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
DALLAS, TX. AT THE AMERICAN AIRLINES ARENA
JULY 1, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young

LAST WEEK’S RAW RATING: 1.66 (.03 INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS WEEK)

Arena, Items Advertised by WWE, and Show Start Time

WWE returns to one of its favorite spots tonight as Raw emanates from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX. Raw appeared here twice in 2018, including the night after Hell in a Cell in September that saw one Brock Lesnar return and infamously interrupt a Hell in a Cell match between then-Universal Champion Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman. The arena opened in July of 2001 and has hosted WWE events as far back as 2002. With Dallas being a big city and home for that NFL team this Giants fan won’t mention, I’m sure WWE will tout its being there tonight.

Here’s what advertised for Raw as of this writing according to WWE.com. Look for amendments and additions later in the day as we get closer to the show:

Matches & Segments:

• Falls. Count. Anywhere
• The New Day and The Viking Raiders to throw down in tag team action

Storyline Follow-Up

• How will Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans exploit Seth Rollins’ “kryptonite”
• The Big Dog and The Deadman unite
• Is A.J. Styles in line for a U.S. Title opportunity (God I hate that word now)
• Is Samoa Joe our next WWE Champion?

We begin the Paul Heyman era, if you will, as WWE announced this past Thursday that he will be the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw while Eric Bischoff will carry the same title for Smackdown. They will report directly to Vince McMahon. Both positions were disclosed to the New York Stock Exchange so they are not storyline characters. This has been well covered here at PWTorch as, on the VIP side this past week, a VIP Bruce Mitchell Audio Show with host Wade Keller was dedicated to the story. It was also covered in a Mailbag Friday show with Wade Keller and Jason Powell (www.prowrestling.net), as well as in a Wade Keller Hotline (VIP side). If you’re not VIP, I highly suggest you sign up. When stories like this break, and everything going on with AEW and other promotions, the coverage is can’t-miss and fantastic.

I don’t have a ton to add to what has already been said. One thing I found interesting was that Triple H was not given one of these positions. If he’s truly next in line to run the company, I would think Vince would put him in a position of power. We’ll see how things progress going forward and if there’s any change in the dynamics of both shows.

The arena website shows a start time of 6:30 p.m. local time with doors opening at 5:00 p.m. They don’t show any matches, but they do hilariously advertise that people will be seeing the “new Raw roster for the first time in Dallas.” I guess they didn’t get the memo about the wild card (really the end of the roster split).

Falls Count Anywhere Match: Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman

Last week on Raw, the “Monster Among Men” Braun Strowman took on the “All Mighty” Bobby Lashley in a tug-of-war. Prior to the match, you saw Strowman getting ready by pulling the cab of a truck. Lashley attempted to pull a phone pole out of the cement, but broke the rope.

The tug-of-war was quick as Strowman pulled Lashley across the red line. Lashley would then attack Strowman, eventually leading to him being thrown into the barricade. Lashley left with his arms raised.

On Friday, WWE announced that Lashley and Strowman would face off tonight in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Here’s what Lashley had to say on Twitter:

Frank’s Analysis: I agree with Bobby as I don’t need to see any more tug-of-wars, arm wrestling matches, or anything goofy like that. Typically that is what you do in feuds like this especially between wrestlers that aren’t exactly “ring generals,” so the match tonight is fine. While they’ve gone out of their way to keep this feud going, I don’t know what the beef is between these guys unless I missed it. There should be more promos and discussion as to what’s going on between these two.

New Day vs. Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar)

The Viking Raiders have certainly had an interesting 2019. They went from being the NXT Tag Team Champions and being called the War Raiders (Hanson & Rowe), to being moved up to the main roster and becoming the Viking Experience for a week, and then being renamed again to the Viking Raiders. They hold a number of squash match victories and a win over then-Raw Tag Team Champions Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins in a non-title match (as if that meant anything, but hey I’m trying to do a report here people!).

We know the New Day’s place in tag team history, and of course your reigning W…W…E…World…Heavyweight…Champion is Kofi Kingston. Yesterday, WWE announced that New Day will appear via the Vince-Wants-Whomever-He-Wants-On-Each-Show-With-No-Rhyme-or-Reason rule and take on the Viking Raiders for the first time. WWE is not specifying whom of New Day will be in the match. Erik of the Viking Raiders is certainly geared up for this match:

Frank’s Analysis: Logically I would think it’d be Big E and Xavier Woods, but it could be Kofi and one of the other guys. It’s going to be interesting to watch New Day in the immediate future as Kofi last week said they have a bond that could never be broken. As Wade Keller pointed out in a few PWTorch podcasts, that’s usually a red herring for a break-up and I agree. The heel depth chart is shallow and it would be interesting to add Big E and/or Xavier Woods to that side of the ledger.

Baron Corbin and the Lady Look to Exploit Rollins’ “Kryptonite”

As we know at this point, Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans came up shortly multiple times recently in their championship quests. At both Money in the Bank and Stomping Grounds, Lacey failed to capture the Raw Women’s Championship from Becky Lynch. At Super Showdown and Stomping Grounds, Corbin failed to capture the WWE Universal Championship from Seth Rollins.

Corbin tried to gain an unfair advantage at Stomping Grounds when he selected Lacey to be the special guest referee, a perk he “negotiated with WWE management” as a result of what happened at Super Showdown. He was obviously playing off Lacey having an ongoing feud with Becky, with whom Seth is currently in a romantic relationship. That off course did not prove successful.

Frustrated by what happened, Corbin and Lacey challenged Seth and Becky to a mixed tag team match at Extreme Rules. Seth and Becky accepted with the stipulation that if they win, Corbin and Lacey don’t get any more title shots. Corbin and Lacey accepted and “raised” saying they want both titles on the line, winners take all. Later on, WWE announced this match as official.

With Extreme Rules less than two weeks away, we continue the build for this match tonight. This tweet from Seth has nothing to do with the upcoming match but could be an indication of things to come with Paul Heyman now in charge of Raw:

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t agree with Corbin and Lacey getting more title shots, but they’re likely not winning and I’m sure they want to keep the titles on Seth and Becky, and thus it’s fine. A mixed tag match is a perfectly acceptable way to continue this overall feud.

Roman Reigns & Undertaker Prepare for Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre

Last week via the wild card (do I have to even say that anymore), Roman Reigns appeared on Raw to take on Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon in a handicap match. That turned into a “two-on-one” match,” which allowed both McIntyre and Shane to participate in the ring at the same time. Quickly into the match, as Shane was about to deliver his Coast-to-Coast, the Undertaker appeared to save Roman. He cleared the ring of both McInytre and Shane much to the crowd’s delight. Undertaker had recently defeated Goldberg in a heavily-criticized match at Super Showdown.

Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania in 2016, and lost to Roman at the following ‘Mania where he famously laid down his hat and coat following. He has no real history with McInytre only that they had a match on Smackdown in 2010 when McIntyre was Intercontinental Champion. I included a link to that in last week’s Smackdown primer.

Later on in the show, WWE announced that at Extreme Rules, Roman would team up with the Undertaker to take on Shane & McIntyre. It will be the first time Roman & Undertaker team on TV. They build towards that match tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: I’m a sucker for the Undertaker, so in that aspect I’m not complaining. His inclusion in this storyline doesn’t exactly fit though. Sure, you can play off his history with Roman to an extent, but it’s not enough to make me want to see them tag up. I can’t see ‘Taker having a beef with Shane since he beat him already nor McInytre. Overall, it’s still fine as Undertaker brings star power and he won’t be overexposed working a tag match.

A.J. Styles’ U.S. Championship Pursuit

Last week, Ricochet was coming off winning his first title on the main roster as he defeated Samoa Joe at Stomping Grounds for the U.S. Championship. Before Raw last week, here’s how Ricochet felt about winning the title:

His celebration was short lived as he thrown from the frying pan into the fire, losing to A.J. Styles in a non-title match in the final segment of Raw last week. A.J. had previously held the U.S. Championship in 2017, trading it numerous times with Kevin Owens while being full-time members of Smackdown. In fact at one time, A.J had won the title at a house show in Madison Square Garden, harkening us back to the “old days” if you will when titles changed more regularly in what was once known as the “Mecca of Professional Wrestling” and when titles changed hands on house shows.

That was then and this is now, and Ricochet can only wonder if A.J. is his next opponent as he begins his title reign. The Good Brothers (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) lurk in the background as WWE has played up their relationship in recent weeks.

Frank’s Analysis: What do Ricochet, Bayley, Daniel Bryan & Rowan, and The Revival have in common? They are all champions that took pins last week. WWE needs to do a better job protecting their champions and make pinning them in non-title situations a less frequent occurrence and a big deal when it happens. I especially did not appreciate Ricochet taking a pin in his first match as U.S. Champion, especially after WWE made a big deal about him winning the title at Stomping Grounds.. Granted, he can do worse than losing to A.J. Styles and it was a good match.

Samoa Joe’s WWE Championship Pursuit

Samoa Joe’s U.S. Championship reign came to an end as discussed previously when he lost the title to Ricochet.

After WWE Champion Kofi Kingston paid a visit to Raw and defeated both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in consecutive matches, Joe attacked Kofi. We found out the next night on Smackdown that Kofi will defend his title against Joe at Extreme Rules.

There was no rest for the weary as Kofi had to wrestle Dolph Ziggler in a two-out-of-three falls match on Smackdown, where if Dolph won he would be added to the match at Extreme Rules making it a triple threat. Kofi won that, and is slated to take on Joe one-on-one. We have less than two weeks until Extreme Rules, and Dolph probably still thinks it should be him. For now, we build towards Kofi vs. Joe.

Frank’s Analysis: I tweeted out during Raw that I like Joe and Kofi as it is a fresh matchup. That comes with a side of capitulation on my part. I don’t like that Joe is a Raw wrestler and Kofi is on Smackdown (wild card nonsense and loose roster split rules aside) and also, Joe just lost a title. It’s crazy that all he has to do is attack a champion to earn the #1 contendership. You can’t help but think a lack of a heels on Smackdown pushed Joe into this spot.

Not Advertised for Follow Up

The Usos won an elimination tag team match which featured them and New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) taking on the “champs,” Smackdown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan and Raw Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder).

R-Truth retained, lost, regained, lost, and regained the 24/7 Championship. We learned Drake Maverick’s marriage is constipated. The championship went from Truth to Heath Slater, back to Truth, to Cedric Alexander, to EC3, and then back to Truth. I would have liked to have seen Slater hold the title for a while. He’s got kids, and they’d of been proud.

The Good Brothers, after a pep talk from their long-time friend A.J. Styles, lost to the Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) in under four minutes.

Alexa Bliss defeated Naomi and then teamed with Nikki Cross to defeat Naomi & Natalya.

Overall Thoughts on Tonight’s Show

Like everyone else, I’m particularly interested to see the flow of the show with Paul Heyman now in charge. I’m even more interested to see what his role, if any, will be on television and particularly with Brock Lesnar. My seven-year-old daughter very astutely asked “Daddy, does this mean he’s still going to be the advocate for Brock Lesnar?” My guess is that they don’t break up that relationship, and Heyman doesn’t become an on-screen heel authority figure (I’m also praying that doesn’t happen). You’ll be able to tell within the first few weeks if Heyman is really making decisions on how the show is presented. There’s a lot to think about going into tonight, and I’m sure there will be plenty of talking points given all the news this past week.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.

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