WWE RAW Recap, May 29: Rollins vs. Reigns and a Triple Threat Match

Find out what went down with less than a week remaining until Extreme Rules.

This week’s RAW kicked off with a star-studded MizTV featuring an interview with Sheamus & Cesaro, the No. 1 contenders for the RAW Tag Team Championships. The show’s host, The Miz, will also be fighting for a championship on Sunday at Extreme Rules when he faces Dean Ambrose for the Intercontinental Championship. This interview needed a little injection of insanity, so Ambrose decided to come out and look for a fight. In an alliance I’d never thought I’d live to see, the Hardy Boyz came out to back up Ambrose and even the numbers a little bit.

This led to an impromptu Six-Man Tag Team Match with the winners getting some momentum as we head into Extreme Rules weekend. Each guy got in a spot or two during this match, but in the end it was The Miz taking on the brunt of the Hardy Boyz with an ill-fated Twist of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo that left Miz on his back for Jeff’s three-count over him.

This segment didn’t do much to get me more excited for Sunday, but it really didn’t need to. We know what all six of these guys can do, but when you add weapons to one match and a steel cage to the other, anything can happen.

This is Your Life

You can’t expect 100 percent of WWE television to be perfect, right? Sometimes you get a Festival of Friendship, and sometimes you get The Old Day. Sometimes you get a badass redneck in jorts dousing his bosses in beer, and sometimes you get a House of Horrors Match. Tonight, Bayley got her own episode of This is Your Life, and I’d have to say that this may have been the worst segment of 2017. On one hand, this puts Bayley in a small category with the likes of Mick Foley, John Cena and The Rock. On the other hand, this segment had none of those guys, and the crowd was audibly bored and upset.

Bliss brought out various trophies Bayley earned throughout the years and brought out her Bayley’s old best friend, her teacher, and even an ex-boyfriend, who decided this was the right time to let his feelings known about Bayley’s aforementioned best friend, as they made out in the middle of the ring. Confused? Yes, we all are. Let’s just never talk about this again. As far as Sunday’s match is concerned, not even the crappiest segment of 2017 could derail my excitement to watch these two lady gladiators beat the hell out of each other with kendo sticks.

Double main event

Just before the credits rolled last week, RAW GM Kurt Angle made not one but two huge matches for this week, and they both lived up to expectations. In the first match, Bray Wyatt battled Finn Balor and Samoa Joe in a Triple Threat Match. All three guys dismantled each other, which would be good news for Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins if they weren’t set to do the same to each other in the night’s main event. Samoa Joe, ever the opportunist, waited until Bray Wyatt was at his most vulnerable (immediately after Balor landed a Coup de Grace) to pick up the pinfall victory.

In the evening’s final bout, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins showed why they are, in fact, the two best workers on Monday Nights. These guys have great in-ring chemistry, and even though Reigns picked up the pinfall victory after a deadly Spear, I can’t help but think Rollins put himself over in a much needed way. The field is wide open for whoever wants to win the Fatal Five Match the most, and though my heart wants Wyatt to challenge Brock Lesnar, my fear is that we will be seeing Reigns’ arm raised to close the show for the second time in a week. The remaining four players that won’t be moving on to face The Beast will most likely remain feuding between each other. If somehow Reigns doesn’t win Sunday, I hope he and Rollins can keep a blood feud going throughout the summer, or at least until Braun Strowman comes back.

Highlight reel

• Throughout the night, we got subtle clues on who may have been the one to jump Enzo last week and again this week. In the first hour of the broadcast, Corey Graves walked away from the announcer’s table to bring something to the attention of Kurt Angle. It wasn’t made clear what was shown to Angle on Graves’ phone, but it obviously shook the RAW GM to his core, saying it could be enough to ruin him. Later in the show, Cass came out to confront Graves, as we learned that whatever information Graves relayed to Angle had to do with whoever knocked out Enzo last week. Even The Revival was questioned about Enzo getting jumped twice now, but they didn’t claim responsibility for the attacks. You have to think it’s a little fishy that Cass seems so concerned that Graves watched a video of the attack and nobody has taken credit for it. It’d be a shame if Enzo and Cass split up before they ever got a chance to win the RAW Tag Team Championships, but we can’t rule it out just yet.
• You know the New Era is the place to be when Elias Samson is whoopin’ on jobbers.
• It seems Sasha Banks is now a full-time 205 Live superstar, and is even scheduled to be on this week’s episode. We learned that at Extreme Rules, Sasha will team up with Rich Swann in a Mixed Tag Team Match against Noam Dar & Alicia Fo(ooooooooo)x. On RAW ,Swann picked up a quick victory over Dar, which led to a dance number by Swann and Banks that I’m hoping I forget as soon as I finish writing this sentence.
• Titus O’Neil’s stock had an outlier week, as it went up a couple points with a win over Kalisto. Apollo Crews was watching on the sideline with a face that read, “Where am I? What the hell am I doing here?”
• Austin Aries and Jack Gallagher are my favorite pair that doesn’t have the last name Hardy, and I’m still not bored of seeing these two tag against Neville and TJP, even if it may be the 75^th time we’ve seen it since April. On Sunday, Aries will fight Neville in a Submission Match, and if tonight is any preview, Neville is in a lot more trouble than he anticipated, as Aries made Neville tap out to the Last Chancery.
• Goldust doesn’t need to be in a match in order to leave a lasting impact, as he has been doing with his recent promos. Goldust felt he had been diminished to a supporting role while teaming with R-Truth and had enough of it. R-Truth, who we haven’t heard speak since being attacked by Goldust, had a production of his own, and interrupted Goldy’s monologue with a promo. While it hasn’t been officially announced at this time, it’s not a stretch to guess that these two will fight at the Extreme Rules Kickoff Show. The true question is whether there will be any humor in this match, as there normally would be when either of these guys are involved, or if both will be as serious in the ring as they appear to be right now.