The main focus on this week’s edition of Raw centered around the WWE Champion Roman Reigns and his opponent at Sunday’s Payback pay-per-view event, AJ Styles.

In addition to Reigns and Styles, the presence of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson was felt during the entire show as well. There were matches featuring all of them, plus several backstage segments and the final segment of the night saw them all in the ring trying to set the stage for Payback.

Styles got the win over Sheamus in the opener. After that win, Gallows and Anderson appeared on the stage to applaud their friend. Styles didn’t seem that interested in them showing up at that point. He’s pushing the idea that he wants to do things alone and doesn’t need their help.

Following the Styles win, Reigns was shown watching what happened as his cousins The Usos said they had his back. Reigns told them that he had their back too, while also saying his “one versus all” line.

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Prior to their debut match on Raw, Gallows and Anderson were shown leaving Styles’ locker room, which again pushed the idea they are working together. It was an impressive debut for Gallows and Anderson as they picked up a win over The Usos. They attacked The Usos after the win, which led to Reigns making the save.

Later in the show, Styles had an interview that was interrupted by Gallows and Anderson with the trio saying that they would be friends forever.

In the main event, Reigns beat Alberto Del Rio clean. There were Gallows and Anderson again and this time, they beat up Reigns. Styles came out to tell them to back off. That allowed Reigns to nail a Superman Punch on Styles. It led to Gallows and Anderson going after Reigns again. Then Styles nailed a Phenomenal Forearm shot on Reigns as Raw ended moments after.

It was a lot of action to take in for one angle on one episode of Raw, but I thought they did a great job of planting seeds of doubt in the minds of the fans.

While a WWE Title change at Payback seems unlikely because Reigns is probably a long-term champion, they are certainly teasing the possibility that it may happen. As of now, my feeling is that Styles will come close to winning the gold and that Anderson/Gallows may try to help him, but Styles will call him off. Then Reigns can win after that.

What all of this could be leading to is the main roster debut of former NXT Champion Finn Balor. He lost the NXT Title to Samoa Joe last Thursday at a live event in Lowell, Massachusetts. He’s teased going to the main roster many times. Balor was the one who originally formed the Bullet Club group that featured Anderson and Gallows. When Balor left for WWE, that’s when Styles became the leader. Balor could debut on Sunday or next Monday as a way to have a huge impact as a main event player right off the bat.

The most important thing is that this storyline has been really well done. It gets people talking about a WWE Title match in a way that involves more than who might win or lose. There’s interest in “how” it happens in this match too. It doesn’t always happen like that, so give WWE credit for building it up the right way.

 

This Week’s Raw Matches

Here’s a rundown of this week’s matches on Raw with quick notes on each.

AJ Styles d. Sheamus – This was the best match of the night, which is no surprise when Styles is involved. There were a lot of believable near-falls in the match and it was a hard-hitting battle too. Sheamus doesn’t have much momentum at this point. Styles winning clean with the Phenomenal Forearm was a good finish.

Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows d. The Usos – It was the debut match of the Anderson/Gallows team. Of course, they got the win. I was actually surprised they got nearly 15 minutes. It would have been better if they won more decisively in less time, especially since the crowd has lost interest in The Usos.

Sami Zayn d. Rusev – A clean win by Zayn, although winning with a rollup isn’t as impressive as hitting a finishing move. They got a decent amount of time. It just wasn’t as good as most of Zayn’s matches. Once again, the obvious choice for the winner since Zayn is in a match at Payback, while Rusev is not.

Apollo Crews d. Stardust – Just a quick win for Crews. That’s been the norm for him since being called up to the main roster three weeks ago. He’ll need a feud soon. As for Stardust, it will be a good day when Cody Rhodes dumps the gimmick because he could be doing so much more.

Natalya d. Emma – They got about two minutes with Natalya quickly winning clean with a Sharpshooter. It’s a shame that they were so rushed, but that’s what WWE does with the women on the roster sometimes.

Roman Reigns d. Alberto Del Rio – The crowd didn’t seem to care about this match, as Reigns was booed while Del Rio barely gets a reaction at this point in his career. Nobody believed that Del Rio had a shot to win, even when Anderson and Gallows showed up to distract Reigns. It ended with a Reigns spear for the win.

The best way to summarize the matches this week is that they were all obvious outcomes with people featured at Payback getting wins, while all the losers are not in a match at Payback.

 

Three Other Key Items From Raw

1. The opening promo segment featured the television return of Stephanie McMahon after being off for three weeks. She was there to confront her brother Shane. She also announced that at Payback, their father Vince McMahon will announce who has control of Raw for the future: Shane or Stephanie with Triple H.

If fans are looking for some finality for this “Who controls Raw?” storyline, it may happen at Payback. Then again, these are the McMahons were talking about. It’s not like they are going to just go away quietly and leave our TV screens all at once. This feels like the start of a big story that will play out through the summer. I’m not sure if it’s another brand extension or what it might be, but I doubt that Payback is the end of it.

2. There were a lot of in-ring promo segments on the show as a way to build up several matches at Payback. The Miz and Cesaro had this bizarre promo exchange which involved reciting movie lines that came off as really lame. We want Cesaro to be this cool guy, yet he sounded very fake delivering these lines. The segment ended with Cesaro dropping Miz with a huge uppercut.

The Jericho/Ambrose promo battle was a bit better. Ambrose does a really good job of being a comedic face, while also having credibility as a crazy guy willing to do anything to win. Jericho got the upper hand here with the Walls of Jericho on the announce table. Ambrose is likely to get his win at Payback.

Enzo and Cass also were in the ring doing a promo against The Vaudevillains, who they face at Payback for a future title shot at The New Day. They had The New Day in the ring to bring the teams out. It was a decent segment, although it probably could have used some physicality from the two young teams as a way to get the crowd more interested.

3. The match I’m most looking forward to at Payback is Kevin Owens vs. Zayn, which I wrote about last week. Their only physical involvement on Raw was when Owens attacked Zayn after Zayn won his match. There was no Owens match on the show.

What Raw also did was give us a closer look at the Owens vs. Zayn rivalry with an excellent video package. It showed their history from before they were in WWE, then it showed their battles in NXT with Owens taking the NXT Title from Zayn and their competitive nature in getting to the main roster. Video packages are an effective tool in setting up big matches. It worked really well in this instance.

(Note that the video above is not the one that aired on Raw. WWE has yet to put the Raw video on their YouTube channel.)

 

Remembering Chyna

It was nice of WWE to pay tribute to Chyna, who passed away last Wednesday night. They showed a graphic at the start of the show and then in the third hour, they aired a two minute video. That video featured clips from key moments in her career, tweets from various WWE personnel after her passing and also some photos. While the gesture was good, it would have been better if they had those same people talking about her, instead of just showing their Twitter posts. Then again, what they did was better than nothing.

Her death is a sad one because it always felt like she was lost in her life after being released by WWE in 2001. She was gone at that point because she found out then-boyfriend Triple H was cheating on her with Stephanie McMahon. From there, she made mistakes such as battling alcohol and drug addiction, making a sex tape with fellow wrestler X-Pac and then doing porn movies in the last few years. It seemed like she was trying to mend fences with WWE in the last two years of her life, yet they weren’t interested.

Part of it is her fault. However, one has to wonder where he life might be right now if she was brought back into the WWE family because, as her friends pointed out after her death, all she wanted was to be loved. It seems like her biggest love of all was wrestling and it’s a business that just didn’t love her back enough. May she rest in peace.

 

Looking Ahead To WWE Payback

The next WWE PPV is called Payback, which takes place this Sunday, May 1, in the Chicago area at the Allstate Arena. Here’s the full lineup.

WWE World Heavyweight Title: Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles

WWE Intercontinental Title: The Miz vs. Cesaro

Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose

WWE Women’s Title: Charlotte vs. Natalya

Tag Team Tournament Finals: Enzo & Cass vs. The Vaudevillains

Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin

WWE United States Title: Kalisto vs. Ryback (Kickoff Show)

Also, Vince McMahon will announce who gets to control Raw: Shane McMahon or Stephanie McMahon with Triple H.

If they add anything, it might be a quick match for Apollo Crews beating somebody, but other than that it looks like a full show.

 

Final Thoughts

It was an average edition of Raw this week. Often times, when there are shows before a pay-per-view, they push really hard to get people excited about some of the midcard matches. In this case, they promoted nearly all of the midcard matches, although some were pushed more than others. It was the main event that was the main focus, so give WWE credit for getting their priorities right.

As for what’s ahead, look for my full Payback preview later in the week right here at The Comeback.

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!