This week’s Raw featured the tease of a major change happening for the Battleground main event with Roman Reigns on the sideline due to suspension. But in the end, there were no changes at all.

Seth Rollins started the show by bringing up the issue with Reigns, which is the 30-day Wellness Policy suspension that was announced last Tuesday. While we still don’t know what led to Roman’s suspension, the fact is he’s gone for the next 30 days and still a part of the July 24 Battleground main event against WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and Rollins in the first-ever Shield triple threat match.

It was great to see Rollins mention what happened with Reigns because going into the show, there were questions about whether it would happen. It’s not like WWE could ignore Roman’s absence for the next 30 days, so when Rollins was out there calling him a loser for his mistake and letting people down, it made me happy. It didn’t make me happy because I’m a Reigns hater. It made me happy because they acknowledged a real-life story that really couldn’t be ignored going into the Battleground main event.

The Rollins speech led to Ambrose, AJ Styles, John Cena and Stephanie McMahon all joining in the proceedings. Rollins wanted a singles match with Ambrose instead, Styles thought he should take Roman’s place and Cena thought he should be a part of it too. Ambrose didn’t care because he’s a fighting champion that will take on anybody. In the end, Stephanie booked Cena vs. Rollins and Styles vs. Ambrose with the stipulation that if Cena and Styles won, then they would be added to the WWE Title match at Battleground.

While it was pretty obvious from the moment the matches were announced that there wouldn’t be any change to the Battleground match, it’s nice to have a show where wrestlers are fighting for something. Throwing matches out there without a stipulation or for no reason makes it less appealing. In this case, there was something on the line.

The Cena match ended when Styles showed up with The Club to cause a distraction, which led to Rollins winning with the Pedigree.

Ambrose won his match over Styles when Cena showed up to cause the distraction.

The show ended with The Club beating up Cena on the ramp with Gallows & Anderson hitting the Magic Killer on him while Styles taunted Cena some more. Meanwhile, Rollins dropped Ambrose with two Pedigrees and held up the WWE Title.

It was a strong ending to put over the heels on Raw. Look for the faces to get their revenge next week on the July 4 episode, which will probably have a smaller audience than usual because it’s a holiday in the United States.

 

This Week’s Raw Matches

Sasha Banks & Paige defeated Charlotte & Dana Brooke

This was a standard tag match. The heel duo worked on Paige, Banks got the hot tag, cleaned house and made Brooke tap out. It was done to keep Charlotte strong because they didn’t have her lose for her team. The long-term plan is Banks beating Charlotte for the Women’s Title, likely at SummerSlam in August.

Titus O’Neil defeated Rusev by countout

The US Title held by Rusev was not on the line. O’Neil was aggressive from the beginning. They brawled on the floor, did a double clothesline spot and both guys were down. Rusev charged in, O’Neil moved and Rusev crashed over the barricade, so O’Neil won by countout. A countout protects Rusev by not having him get pinned. This will probably set up another US Title match for them.

Seth Rollins defeated John Cena

This was a really good match, which was no surprise since these two had so many matches against each other in the last couple of years. Last summer, they wrestled a lot. Now they are back from injuries, so WWE decided to do it again. It felt like a big match with both guys getting a lot of offense in, the crowd was really into it and Rollins even got his foot on the ropes after Cena hit the Attitude Adjustment. Then Styles, Gallows & Anderson showed up, which distracted Cena and Rollins won with a Pedigree. It wasn’t a clean loss, but it was the second loss Cena has had in the last eight days going back to Money in the Bank.

Enzo Amore & Big Cass defeated Carlos Hershey & Mitch Walden

They got about 30 seconds to do this match with Enzo & Cass winning easily over two guys better known as jobbers. Post-match, they were confronted by the Social Outcasts as a way to start a new feud that Enzo and Cass should win.

Kane defeated The Miz by countout

One of the worst TV matches of the year with no crowd response. Kane was the surprise opponent for The Miz, who defended the Intercontinental Title. The Miz’s wife, Maryse, faked a fall off the apron, Miz was fooled by it apparently and carried her to the back. The Miz was the second midcard champion to lose by countout on the show. So creative, huh? After the loss, Maryse admitted to Miz that she faked it and he thought she did a great job. This was painfully bad.

Cesaro & Apollo Crews defeated Alberto Del Rio & Sheamus

You may recall that Del Rio and Sheamus were allies in the League of Nations group that ended a few months ago. The good thing is that they didn’t get along and Del Rio turned on Sheamus leading to Crews getting the pin. It may lead to Del Rio turning face, but that’s not a sure thing at this point. The bad news is that there was very little crowd reaction to this match. I’m not sure if it’s because of the bad match before it, or if the fans were just tired.

Dean Ambrose defeated AJ Styles

The WWE Title held by Ambrose wasn’t on the line. It was pretty obvious from the get-go how this was going to play out, just because of the Cena match earlier in the show. They had a competitive match as expected, but Cena showed up, Styles was distracted by it and Ambrose won with Dirty Deeds. It’s nice to see Ambrose getting a meaningful victory like that, even though it wasn’t as clean as could be. It played into the story, at least.

 

Three Other Key Items From Raw

1. There was a really good Highlight Reel segment hosted by Chris Jericho with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens as the guests. Jericho served well in the role as a mediator trying to stir the pot. He pointed out that Zayn was the best man at Kevin’s wedding several years earlier, which was true. Zayn did an excellent job in pointing out how Owens was jealous of him because Zayn got to WWE first, while Owens claimed that Zayn was a bad friend who wasn’t really happy for Owens when Owens got there after him.

It just felt like a real promo where guys were saying things they actually believed, instead of the usual thing we see in WWE where they are reciting poorly written lines. All of it led to Zayn challenging Owens for a match at Battleground, which Owens accepted and the idea is it might be their last match for a while because they might be on separate shows once we get to the July 19 draft.

To end the segment, Jericho turned up the heel act to where he was really annoying, so he was met by a Helluva Kick by Zayn and a superkick by Owens at the same time. It was pretty funny.

2. For the second week in a row, The New Day and The Wyatt Family got into a verbal spat again. This time, the New Day trio dressed up like The Wyatt Family in something of a parody segment, although it wasn’t as funny as they probably intended.

The big story here was that Xavier Woods barely spoke. It appears as though he’s either scared of the Wyatt Family or playing some sort of mind games with them. Wyatt called him out for his quiet behavior, while Woods never really said anything to make people understand what he’s thinking or feeling about the Wyatt Family.

It’s nice to tease something for the future. My guess is that Woods is just acting this way to fool Wyatt and outsmart him, but I could be off on that. Just don’t break up the New Day anytime soon. Although with the draft looming next month, it’s very possible.

3. Regarding the upcoming WWE brand extension, there were a few small things that WWE did that suggest where things are headed for the future.

** Since going back to one major World Title in December 2013, WWE referred to their main title as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. On this show, they started calling it the WWE Championship, which is what it was called from 2002 to 2013. That’s likely because when they do the brand extension on July 19, they’re going to bring back the World Heavyweight Title, so they want to have two different names.

** It was mentioned by Michael Cole that the people drafting the Raw and Smackdown rosters will be the Chief Operating Officers (COO) of the Raw and Smackdown brands, rather than the General Manager name that they have used in the past. I like the GM title better, but this is WWE and they always change their mind on this stuff.

 

Looking Ahead To Battleground

kevin owens sami zayn battleground

The next WWE pay-per-view event is Battleground and it takes place in Washington, DC on July 24.

** WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins

** Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

** It wasn’t announced on Raw, but they are heading towards Cena vs. Styles II, based off their interaction from this show.

Other possibilities are Rusev vs. Titus O’Neil for the US Title, New Day vs. The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag (or a tag title match) and Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks for the Women’s Title. Could they do Kane vs. Miz again? I sure hope not.

 

In Closing

If you only looked at the results, you might say that this episode of Raw didn’t accomplish much because the Battleground main event remained the same. However, the execution of the storyline to start the show and the two main matches were good. There were parts in the third hour that were really bad, but it was still a slightly above average episode of Raw. Will things improve following the brand extension next month? I hope so.

I’ll be on a baseball road trip out of town next week, so this column will return following the July 11 edition of Raw.

About John Canton

John has been writing about WWE online since the late 1990s. He joined The Comeback/Awful Announcing team in 2015. Follow John Canton on Twitter @johnreport or email him at mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any comments or questions. For more of his wrestling opinions, visit his website at TJRWrestling.net. Cheap pop!

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