5/31 WWE RAW TALK REPORT: Drew McIntyre talks championship opportunity, Nikki Cross looks back on recent matches, more

RAW TALK REPORT
MAY 31, 2021
AIRED ON PEACOCK (VIA WWE NETWORK)
REVIEW BY NICK MORGAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Hosts: Kevin Patrick and R-Truth

This week’s guests: Styles & Omos, Nikki Cross, and Drew McIntyre

– Kevin Patrick welcomed us to the show touting the victory by Drew McIntyre that guaranteed him a title match versus Bobby Lashley at Hell in a Cell. After that, Patrick and R-Truth spent a few moments talking about Truth’s missing 24/7 title. After some more inane back and forth recapping of Raw, especially the Shayna Baszler loss to Reginald, Patrick sent us off to break.

(Morgan’s Analysis: I’m sorry, but the chemistry between these two is just not there and it’s really hard to watch. It makes the whole show seem like a joke and just is not a good way to present what is supposedly your flagship show.)

– After the break featuring the vaccine PSA and a promo for Smackdown featuring the Usos versus the Mysterios, we are back with A.J. Styles and Omos.

– Rather than having Omos sit down like all the other wrestlers, they kept him standing up to emphasize Omos’ height. Obviously afraid that people would see through this, Patrick even said that they tried to get Omos a chair, but he looked even bigger in a chair than standing up. After a brief discussion about the titles, A.J. called R-Truth a day walker and they went into a whole vampire and garlic thing. Patrick asked A.J. about the tag team division. Styles answered and started with the New Day. A.J. and Omos (he actually talked a lot during this segment), said they weren’t tagging right now as they have been doing singles matches. As they went through the division, A.J. and Omos pretty much said that there wasn’t a team that had a chance against them.

(Morgan’s Analysis: Despite some of the ridiculousness interjected by Truth, A.J. and Omos came across as strong champions and made it seem like the titles were important to them and that they wouldn’t be losing them anytime soon.)

– Off to break we go with the Hire Heroes PSA and a promo for Summerslam.

– And now here comes Nikki Cross. Nikki was still celebrating her “victories” over both Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair. Patrick, to his credit, asked Nikki if she could beat either one in a longer match. Of course, Nikki stayed in her relatively delusional world and based on her “victories” called herself the “super best” and that she would one day be the Raw Women’s Champion.

(Morgan’s Analysis: While she is certainly living in her own reality, Nikki totally came across as sincere and used this segment to lay out her goals and give a little of her backstory. Overall, it was enjoyable.)

– The segment ended with Nikki “teaching” Truth the Scottish national anthem.

– With Nikki’s song voice ringing in our ears off to break we went for an NXT promo and the promo for WWE returning to working in front of live audiences.

– Next up was Drew McIntyre, who came out selling that the match versus Kofi was something special and difficult for him. Patrick asked if the upcoming bout versus Lashley would be the final opportunity for Drew to take back his title. Drew got very serious and did say that yes, this was his final opportunity and that Lashley better get his mind off the girls and onto the upcoming match. With that mic drop, Drew left the set.

– Patrick and Truth spoke a bit about how Drew is dead serious and how Lashley better not “sleep” on Drew. They really pushed that this would be a match for the ages. They then said goodbye, and after about 10 seconds of an original New Day promo (including Big E), the show abruptly ended.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Okay, I will give Raw Talk it’s due this week. Despite a little too much joking around to start and at the start of the A.J. and Omos segment, the show was tight, hit its spots, and got out without digressing into irrelevancy. All the segments were good, and I liked the fact that with Drew, they got in quick, had him declare how important the match with Lashley was for him, and got him out without extraneous WWE speak. Because this show doesn’t have the great talking host like Talking Smack does with Paul Heyman, the tighter and more to the point the segments and wrestlers are, the better. A nice tight 25 minutes where the wrestlers make their points and state their goals is perfect. Tonight, the show felt like a wrestling promo show should. I hope they can keep it up.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S RAW TALK REPORT: 5/24 WWE RAW TALK REPORT: Riddle talks future with Randy Orton, Ricochet sets sights on United States Championship, more