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WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
NEW ORLEANS, LA. AT THE SMOOTHIE KING CENTER
AUGUST 26, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
Arena and Items Advertised by WWE
WWE returns to a frequent spot in the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, LA. Raw last appeared in this arena last September while Smackdown unfolded this past February. New Orleans has been the venue for two of the past six WrestleMania events (2014 and 2018) in of course the larger neighboring Superdome. Who can forget Brock Lesnar ending the Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak in 2014 and the in-ring debut of Ronda Rousey along with the incredibly polarizing Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns Universal Championship main event in 2018 which saw Lesnar surprising retain the championship after six F-5s. The Smoothie King Center hosted the “Raw after ‘Mania” in both years.
There are four matches advertised thus far and a storyline item for follow-up:
- Ricochet faces Drew McIntyre in King of the ring clash
- The Miz squares off against Baron Corbin in first round King of the Ring bout
- Bayley takes on Nikki Cross following “A Moment of Bliss” interruption
- Sasha Banks faces Natalya in The Boss’ first match since WrestleMania
- Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman bring the Raw Tag Team Titles to New Orleans
Matches & Segments:
King of the Ring Tournament First Round Matches: Ricochet vs. Drew McIntyre and The Miz vs. Baron Corbin
The King of the Ring tournament is underway. Last week Samoa Joe defeated Cesaro and Cedric Alexander defeated Sami Zayn in their first-round Raw matches. On the Smackdown side, Elias defeated Kevin Owens as a result of a Shane McMahon fast count while Andrade defeated Apollo Crews. (How’s your brackets so far?)
Tonight, we get more first-round action as Ricochet takes on Drew McIntyre while the Miz goes up against Baron Corbin. Last week, Ricochet and Miz defeated Drew and Corbin in a mash-up of these matches. It wasn’t the first time Drew and Corbin teamed as they frequently did so last year along with Bobby Lashley (didn’t really have a name but I called them The Three That Bore Me). Miz and Corbin faced each other before in the 2017 Survivor Series when Miz was the Intercontinental Champion and Corbin was the U.S. Champion in the annual secondary champion vs. champion match. Ricochet and Drew have faced each other outside of WWE when Drew was going by his real last name of Galloway. Here’s that match and a WWE.com exclusive with Ricochet following the tag match last week:
The winner of Ricochet vs. Drew takes on Samoa Joe next while the winner of Miz vs. Corbin takes on Cedric Alexander. Those matches should take place next week on Raw. The first-round rolls on tonight.
Frank’s Analysis: I still say this tournament has Baron Corbin written all over it. I see him beating Miz and sadly Cedric next week. They could go with Ricochet over Drew to set up a Joe vs. Ricochet rematch from their recent U.S. Championship feud or go the other way and start something between Drew and Joe. I still see Joe somewhat going babyface. If you go to Joe vs. Drew, they could do some kind of screwy double count-out and give Corbin a bye into the finals (while we all roll our eyes). They’ve done that sort of thing with heels in the past in these tournaments and it’s likely they’ll follow suit here. The King of the Ring is for a gimmick rather than having high stakes. Andrade is also a strong (AND BETTER) possibility to win this tournament.
Non-Title Match: Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Women’s Tag Team Championship Co-Holder Nikki Cross
Last week on Smackdown, Charlotte Flair was the guest of Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross on A Moment of Bliss. Bayley interrupted their conversation, and Charlotte challenged her to a Smackdown Women’s Championship match at Clash of Champions to take place on September 15th in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C. Following the acceptance of the challenge, Bayley shoved Charlotte off her chair and onto a table before walking away. Here’s Bayley in a WWE.com exclusive following the proceedings as well as a tweet from Charlotte:
https://twitter.com/MsCharlotteWWE/status/1164005147992834049?s=20
I guess Nikki Cross didn’t take too kindly to this attack. Nikki currently holds the Women’s Tag Team Championship with Alexa Bliss. Alexa recently unsuccessfully challenged Bayley for her title. Nikki defeated Bayley in a non-title match several months ago. They go again tonight.
Frank’s Analysis: There’s not much to this as it’s just revisiting a recent feud and tying it into Bayley and Charlotte’s feud. In the bigger picture I’m more interested to see what unfolds there. Bayley twice has defeated Charlotte for a women’s championship, but one could say both wins were “cheap.” In 2017 Sasha Banks interfered when Bayley beat her for the Raw title. This year, Bayley cashed in Money in the Bank following Charlotte defeating Becky Lynch for the Smackdown title. The Bayley character continues to be unlikable and it’ll be interesting to see if she eventually turns heel as she has exhibited those tendencies.
Sasha Banks vs. Natalya in Sasha’s Return
Sasha Banks made her second appearance since returning to WWE TV and attacking Natalya the night after SummerSlam. She was to talk to Jerry “The King” Lawler on a special King’s Court, but Lawler was attacked by “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt as he continues to go after WWE Hall of Famers. Sasha later talked to Michael Cole. She didn’t have much to say other than “you’re welcome” when questioned about her attack on Natalya when she was grieving her father’s death. Sasha later attacked Natalya again, and told her to go to hell and say hello to your father.
Before all of this Becky Lynch cut a promo on Sasha. In short, she took credit for unleashing the “real Sasha” and she’s the greatest woman to never be great. Words don’t do the promo much justice, so here’s the clip in case you missed it:
We’ll likely get to something with Becky and Sasha at some point, but tonight we see Sasha return to WWE ring action as she takes on Natalya. They last faced off before WrestleMania when Sasha co-held the Women’s Tag Team Championship with Bayley. Natalya & Beth Phoenix challenged for those titles in a multi-team match at ‘Mania that would eventually go to the IIconics. According to WWE.com, Sasha will open the show with a promo.
Frank’s Analysis: There’s nothing to the match tonight. The development of Sasha’s heel character is what’s intriguing. Do us a favor though and leave the stuff with Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart out of the dialogue. It’s classless, unnecessary, and adds nothing. That said, we’ll eventually get to Becky vs. Sasha. With Bayley tied up with Charlotte on Smackdown, that pits the Four Horsewomen against each other.
Storyline Follow-Up:
Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman Begin Raw Tag Team Championship Reign
Last week on Raw, Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman became the Raw Tag Team Champions when they defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson of the O.C. in the main event last week. Initially, Braun took on the O.C.’s A.J. Styles for the U.S. Championship. That match ended in a DQ when Gallows & Anderson got involved. Rollins made the save, and he and Strowman shook hands. Later on, Rollins was able to get the tag team title match. Following the win, Rollins and Strowman celebrated their win, but you could see Strowman staring at the Universal Championship. In their conversations throughout the night, Rollins acknowledged Strowman’s desire to challenge for the title and even said he would be the right challenger. Here’s the YouTube clip from the segment last week. Look for the stare by Strowman at the end:
Congratulations are in order by the way for Rollins (Colby Lopez) and Becky Lynch (Rebecca Quin) on their recent engagement.
Other Match Results and Notable Segments from Last Week
- Roman Reigns defeated Dolph Ziggler.
- Vic Joseph stood in for Jerry “The King” Lawler on commentary who had been filling in for Corey Graves.
- Booker T talked to Michael Cole via Skype and predicted Drew McIntyre would win King of the Ring
- R-Truth failed to take the 24/7 Championship from Elias. Elias said his performance would be his farewell.
- Rey Mysterio teased retiring before his son Dominic talked him out of it. He said he wanted his first match to be with his father and how he wanted to tell his future children about teaming with their grandfather Rey.
- Smackdown Tag Team Champions New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) defeated the Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) via DQ when Randy Orton interfered.
- Women’s Tag Team champions Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeated Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville) in a non-title match.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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