WWE RAW Recap, June 19: Braun Strowman returns and Big Cass betrays

A monstrous return and a heartbreaking betrayal are at the forefront of this week’s RAW as we continue the road to Great Balls of Fire (lol).

Reigns’ Announcement

In the week since we learned that Roman Reigns was going to make a special announcement regarding SummerSlam, I spent way too much time speculating on what he would say (or rather, what I wanted him to say). Would Reigns call out John Cena? Would he claim to be Samoa Joe’s brother? Would he tell The Undertaker he was on steroids during their WrestleMania match? No, no, and unfortunately, no.

Reigns used his time to say that he would be facing the winner of Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar, self-proclaiming his spot as No. 1 contender to the Universal Championship. After Reigns called Samoa Joe “Just Joe,” the live Las Vegas odds for Joe to come out and challenge Reigns to a fight spiked to -1000000. For the second week in a row, Joe initiated a brawl with a fierce headbutt, but this time, the entire locker room wasn’t there to save Reigns. As it turned out, Reigns didn’t need backup; it’s his yard after all, and home field advantage is nothing to scoff at.

The match itself was a fun competition between heavyweights, but it was the ending that really got the people going. Roman was ready to pounce on Joe, when suddenly we heard sirens coming from the backstage area. Those sirens were emitting from an ambulance that was backing into the arena. Why were they showing an ambulance? Wait a second … didn’t Roman get put in an ambulance recently, and then have that ambulance flipped on its side? Could this be…? It can’t be… IT IS! IT’S … BRAUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe was not impressed, and used this 6-foot-8 distraction to put Reigns in a Coquina Clutch, which made Reigns pass out, giving Joe the victory. After the match, Strowman actually walked to the ring, threw Roman around like a stuffed animal, and challenged Roman (more like told Roman) to an Ambulance Match at Great Balls of Fire. Nobody expected Strowman to come back from his injury so soon, but I’d say we’re all unanimously pretty damn happy about it.

A Star is Born

If there was ever a time to want to walk with Elias, it’s now. At first, it looked like this wasn’t going to be Samson’s night; his guitar needed tuning right before he was interrupted by Finn Balor, who was bored from what he was seeing, and wanted to get his match with Bo Dallas under way. Bo Dallas, looking like he’s been renting an apartment in Amityville for the last several months, was hit with a sharp Coup de Grace, putting him away for the match.

It was concerning that Balor didn’t have an opponent yet for Great Balls of Fire, but luckily for us, Elias Samson doesn’t like being upstaged. Samson took Balor out from behind during a post-match interview, setting up a rivalry with Balor, which is the why I will stand on this rooftop and shout, “I WANT TO WALK WITH ELIAS!!”

Whodunit?

These days, great stories are scarce in WWE. Sure, the action is usually good, and a major reason that so many people tune in multiple times each week, but sometimes, you can find a flower in a field of weeds. That’s how I have felt about this detective mystery that Enzo & Cass have gotten themselves involved in.

The past four weeks, we’ve seen both of these guys knocked unconscious multiple times. Finally, Kurt Angle vowed to get to the bottom of it. Angle brought out the main suspects in this case: Big Show — who Cass said was to blame after Show came to the aid of his partner not once, but twice — and the Revival, who have been seen near the scene of the backstage crime on more than one occasion. All three plead their cases, and Angle decided that their alibis were hard enough to let them go.

Corey Graves, who has been keeping some secrets from the audience the past few weeks, obviously knew something. Once Big Show and the Revival were exonerated, Graves decided to show security footage from RAW a couple weeks ago. The footage showed Big Cass suspiciously setting up a crime scene, putting some small objects on the ground before lying on top of them, waiting to be found like this. It was at this moment we all realized that Big Cass was the culprit, and the one who had knocked Enzo out twice.

Above all the other tag team breakups we’ve seen this year (Golden Truth, Jeri-KO, and even NXT’s DIY), this one hurts the most. Not only did they never win a Tag Team Championship together, but Enzo & Cass were arguably the most over tag team of this decade. We all know Vince loves his 7-footers, and I have no doubt Big Cass will eventually win some sort of championship, but it’s a shame that Enzo is going to have to be on his own. Enzo’s never been the most talented wrestler, and if he is going to fight Cass in a match, there will need to be some sort of gimmick in order to make it seem like he has a shot.

Wherever both these guys end up in the next year, I’ll always look back fondly on the memorable entrances, hilarious insults, totally unique merchandise, and of course, I’ll never look at the word “soft” the same way ever again.

Highlight Reel

• It was refreshing to see the Hardy Boyz have a match against a team that doesn’t walk to the ring wearing kilts. It was the Club who had a chance to move up the tag team rankings with a win over the Attitude Era’s finest. The Club weren’t able to get the job done, mostly thanks to the classic duo, Twist of Fate & Swanton Bomb. The Hardys have a legitimate stake in another RAW Tag Team Championship opportunity as their match against the champs last week ended in a draw, but this one-week hiatus from the rivalry was greatly appreciated by us lowly fans.
• I’ve been enjoying the old school promos between Goldust and R-Truth, and this week, we finally were promised some story advancement: Goldust invited R-Truth to the premiere of Goldust newest picture “Shattered Truth” next week on RAW. I have no idea what this means, but if it results in a serious match between two comedic gimmicks, I’m in.
• Once again: BRAUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt are feuding, and we still don’t know why. These two larger-than-life personalities should be putting together a program that we’re all excited for. Instead, it feels similar to Goldberg’s return, who was only in town to promote a video game. Let’s hope their inevitable match exceeds the poor storytelling they’re involved with.
• Last week on 205 Live, Akira Tozawa defeated TJP in the main event. This week on RAW, history repeated itself, except this time, Neville was watching Tozawa pin TJP in person. This was a great moment for the Titus Brand, but not so good for people who do the Dab.
• This week’s special doghouse episode of Miz TV featured an annoyed Maryse, a restored grandfather clock, and not one, but two bears. Don’t worry, Miz personally hired the bears and wrapped the clock, so there was no chance of any interference by Dean Amb… oh, here he comes now. Ambrose wanted another piece of the Miz, but eventually made Maryse spill apology champagne all over herself. This upset everyone, and eventually Ambrose was being beaten up by the two bears, who were later revealed to be Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas, two guys who Miz is attempting to scoop from the dumps for some protection. I’d say he succeeded this week, and if they’re going to be Miz’s personal security for a long time, they should absolutely do it in bear suits.
• Things were looking great for the Titus Brand, as its international client, Akira Tozawa, picked up a win against TJP, but things went sour quickly. The brains behind the brand, Titus O’Neil, and his partner Apollo Crews faced the RAW Tag Team Champions, Sheamus & Cesaro. The champs won, but it’s only a matter of time before they face the Hardy Boyz again.
• It took almost three hours for anyone from the Women’s Division to even be mentioned on the RAW broadcast, but eventually, Nia Jax took on Sasha Banks. This match ended in disqualification once Alexa Bliss came out to the ring, so on paper, all we will see is a win for Nia Jax. After the decision, the rest of the women in the division came out for a huge brawl, in what was another disappointing segment for what I like to call the Women’s Regression.