HEYDORN’S RAW RECEIPT 7/12: Proper context gives meaning to strange Bobby Lashley loss

This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-Bobby Lashley losing to Xavier Woods instigated an initial reaction of fury within my bones. The WWE Champion losing ahead of a PPV championship match is mind numbing without context and WWE simply doesn’t put a lot of that behind their angles. To my delightful surprise, they did in this case and it made the loss make sense. We got to see a very serious Bobby Lashley in the final segment of the show. His go-home promo sold his match with Kofi Kingston on Sunday, but also sold his character too. A great night for the “Almighty” all the way around.

-Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal came across as battling three year olds in a sandbox, arguing about each other’s Tonka trucks. Unless Drew was going to cut the motorcycle in half with his family sword, none of this was worth the squeeze. This is how you present the top babyface on the show for the last 15 months, the guy who has carried Monday Night Raw through a damn pandemic? McIntyre deserves the reaction he gets at this point and WWE deserves the mess they’ll have on their hands.

-Door? Meet Zack’s head. The Eva Marie/Doudrop story is one of the worst in recent memory and that’s saying something. Remember that little word called context? This feud needs it — lots of it. Look, there isn’t any heat in Eva Marie bullying Doudrop if you don’t articulate why Doudrop is standing next to her to begin with. This thing has gone from chapter one to 20, back to five, and then nine. Is that good?

-Maybe I’ve lost my mind, but there is a good chance Nikki Cross gets a grand reaction in front of fans at Money in the Bank. She’s authentic enough to make this superhero gimmick work. She shouldn’t win the briefcase, but WWE needs to have something impactful lined up for her coming out of that show.

-Things you wouldn’t have said in 2017 – A.J. Styles lost on Monday Night Raw to a Viking Raider.

-Omos was Omos. He looked just fine out there, but still is very one note. If WWE wants to go with him, they should soon. The one note nature of his act limits his long-term potential, but if heated up the right way, he could give the right babyface a nice upper mid-card program to lean on.

-Sheamus vs. Damian Priest is the exact match to go with for both acts. You got this one right, WWE.

-Great stuff from Ricochet and John Morrison. They’ve anchored the last three weeks of Raw from an in-ring perspective. Here’s to hoping they leave Sunday’s Money in the Bank ladder match with all of their limbs attached.

-I’m not sure Rhea Ripley and Charlotte having a five-star classic on Sunday can save the perception of their feud to this point. Just a colossal miss on WWE’s part with this story that’s left Brock Lesnar level money on the table.

-This episode of Raw wrapped up WWE’s pandemic, ThunderDome, era. Nobody is going to miss it, but it serves as a wonderful snapshot in time of what the world went through for the last year and a half.

CATCH-UP: 7/12 WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RESULTS: Keller’s report on Lashley vs. Xavier, Humberto challenging Sheamus, Morrison vs. Ricochet Falls Count Anywhere, MITB hype