WWE Week in Review: New champs everywhere, JeriKO is history

WWE Monday Night RAW

Stephanie McMahon is out to open the show. She’s given Mick Foley the night off due to his comments about Samoa Joe last week and thinks he needs a break. Roman Reigns is out to interrupt, and it’s hard to tell who the crowd hates more. Reigns want Strowman but Braun is already booked against Mark Henry (was wondering when they’d get around to this). Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson come out for some reason to defend Stephanie (hmm … ) and a 2-on-1 handicap match is set. The match only went about three minutes, and I’m very happy that they didn’t decide to have Roman beat the tag champs all by himself. The Club was in control early and often and got themselves DQed before Roman fought them off in the end. Typical 2-on-1 stuff.

Kofi Kingston beat Bo Dallas in about two minutes after The New Day talked about ice cream and then they forced him to eat some cereal. Is this all we have right now for all of these guys? Awful.

Neville plugged his match with TJ Perkins on 205 Live and came to the ring following the Jack Gallagher vs. Noam Dar match, which Gallagher won in about three minutes (these guys still need more time) to continue his momentum towards Fastlane. Typical staredown stuff.

At long last, it’s Emmalina and Corey Graves is ecstatic. Seriously, he’s so freaking money right now and yells at Byron to shut up and not ruin this moment for him. Hilarious. She says we’ve waited so long to see her transformation from Emma to Emmalina and now we’ll see her transformation from Emmalina to Emma. What?

I’m trying so hard to be supportive of Bayley’s mic work, but she’s making it very difficult for me to do that. But at least the women get the main event again.

Triple H, who arrived a little earlier in a limo with Samoa Joe, interrupts Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, who’s eager to get the festival of friendship underway, and says he wants to talk to Owens alone. Hmm … are the McMahons trying to build a stable with all of these indy guys? Joe, Owens, Gallows, Anderson. Maybe not, but that could be really fun.

Braun Strowman and Mark Henry are up next, and this was about what I expected it to be. I actually didn’t expect Henry to get as much offense in as he did, but Strowman showed a little versatility here and will have another challenge next week in a match with Big Show. As expected, Reigns hit the ring even though Stephanie told him not to (oh Roman, you bad boy) and then proceeds to get himself powerslammed. Still curious on how a full match between these two is going to look in a couple of weeks.

And here we are again where Enzo runs his mouth and Cass is going to have to make the save. Meh.

The Samoa Joe interview with Michael Cole was amazing, and he’s now set himself up to be one of the biggest stars on Monday nights. He brought up the names of Triple H’s past partners and associates, which was a nice touch, and says he doesn’t need his hand held like those guys did. He’s got no problem with what he did to Rollins, he’s already beat Reigns and isn’t just satisfied with being on RAW like somebody such as Sami Zayn. He’s best for business, and if anyone gets in his way, people will realize why the creator let loose the destroyer. Just perfect. Great stuff here.

And speaking of Sami Zayn, he’s up next against Rusev, and these two put on a pretty good match. I still think there’s more out there for Rusev but a lot of guys go through these lulls at some point and it’s just his turn. Joe bringing up Zayn in his promo did seem like foreshadowing, and that turned out to be true. Sami was interviewed following the match and says he doesn”t need to do the work of others and doesn’t sell out, which earned him a beatdown from Joe. It looks as if this is going to replace the Joe vs. Rollins match that was likely for Fastlane.

Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari is up next, and Tozawa gets the win in just over three minutes. I don’t know how many times I need to say it, but it’s hard for the crowd to get behind these guys when they only get a short amount of time. They’re being set up to be taken off of Monday nights and that’s really unfortunate.

It’s time for the festival of friendship, and I don’t know if anything I write here will do this segment justice. It was absolutely perfect. It was so over the top with the showgirls and Jericho’s entrance but we’re in Vegas so it makes sense. Jericho starts with unveiling the sculpture he had made and follows it up with a beautiful “Sculpt it in, maaaan.” Hilarious. And Owens doesn’t know what to think. He’s barely saying anything and he’s still amazing. But it only got better when Jericho unveiled the painting. He wants Owens to hang it in his house but Jericho isn’t wearing any pants. “Chris, I have two kids.” This is glorious. But we’re not even close to being done. A magician is up next, but he fails to impress KO and you know what happens when you don’t impress KO. The crowd is eating this up. Jericho promises Goldberg won’t make it to Fastlane and calls him out. But we don’t get Goldberg. Instead, we get the return of freaking Gillberg. Are you kidding me? But Owens isn’t pleased so he runs up the ramp and knocks him out. But the real stuff of the segment is still ahead.

Owens is back in the ring and says he’s disappointed because he really thought they were going to beat up Goldberg together. Jericho says he thought it would be funny and is so great when he’s talking about how much the last year with Owens has meant to him. He calls it one of the best years of his career, and it really does seem genuine. He says he’ll always have Owens’ back and the two hug it out, at which point KO says he has a small gift for Jericho, even though it’s not much. Jericho opens it to find a new list, but there’s a problem. “How come my name’s on this?” The look on his face and the head turn and the crowd reaction said it all, and the split is finally official. Owens takes it to Jericho for a few minutes, and then in a scene reminiscent of the Shawn Michaels-Marty Jannetty split in The Barber Shop, Owens slams Jericho’s head into the glass of the monitor. I can’t say enough how perfect and beautiful this segment was. The vicious Owens has returned, and Jericho will be so over when he returns. Just great.

It’s hard to follow something like that, but Enzo and Cesaro are going to try. Cesaro can usually make anybody look good, but that wasn’t the case here. I know I’m supposed to be entertained by this guy but I’ve got nothing and haven’t from the beginning. They need to either move him to the cruiserweights or make him a manager or something. Put him in the Ellsworth role with Carmella for all I care. But just get him away from Cass. The big guy is going to suffer for it if this continues. At least Cesaro won.

Our main event is up next but not before Charlotte cut down Sasha Banks in the back. That’s how you talk, Bayley. As for the title match itself, I thought this was better than their Royal Rumble match by far. I’ve knocked Bayley a bit in the past, not just for her mic work but for some in-ring deficiencies as well, but she was on top of her game on Monday night. And Charlotte was just as good as she always is. Dana Brooke returned to help Charlotte but was countered as Sasha Banks came out to help Bayley, something that she didn’t even notice but is the real story here. Bayley wins her first title, and even though I’m not her biggest fan, it’s always a great moment when someone who’s worked so hard and climbed so high finally reaches the pinnacle.

But as I said, the real story is Sasha helping Bayley win the title. The new champion has been all about doing things on her own and overcoming obstacles and doubters, and now her first-ever reign is tainted by the fact that somebody helped her. And yes, there is the matter of Charlotte losing the title yet again on RAW and not a pay-per-view. So will the title change hands again at Fastlane, and will Sasha not like how Bayley responds to her help? I guess we’ll have to wait until next week.