RAW visited Los Angeles on Monday night. The City of Angels witnessed a whirlwind episode of WWE’s flagship show.
Lately, when WWE visits Los Angeles, the L.A. crowd gets quite a treat. No Mercy was a bang-up show, and recent episodes of RAW to emanate from Staples Center have been stellar. Monday night’s show was absolutely no different from that trend. From start to finish, RAW brought the goods and rarely skipped a beat.
Let’s take a look at some noteworthy moments from this broadcast:
- Absolution made waves yet again. The dominant trio of Paige, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville had another chance to make an impact on this episode of RAW. The superstar once dubbed “The Diva of Tomorrow” battled “The Boss” Sasha Banks in a pretty solid match that followed a raucous start to the show. Paige wound up getting the best of Ms. Banks, as she planted her with the Rampaige before getting the duke. Later on in the show, the group once again went after Asuka, only to see “The Empress of Tomorrow” walk away again. Unfortunately for Alicia Fox, she did not escape their wrath. Mandy and Sonya hit her hard, and the group stood tall again. Hopefully, soon enough, the babyfaces are able to get their revenge. And hey, um, Alexa Bliss… what’cha doing, and where do you fall in this?
- Kane and Braun Strowman’s war continued. This time, though, Elias found himself in the crosshairs. Elias was out for another one of his stirring performances. However, Braun Strowman obviously has no taste for his genre of music. Strowman came out and wreaked havoc, bringing “The Big Red Machine” out eventually. Kane got the upper-hand again, laying “The Monster Among Men” out. Fans then learned that Strowman and Kane will face each other next week in Cleveland. Hopefully, something major happens, because as cool as it is to see Strowman as a babyface, this feud desperately needs more juice.
- Finn Bálor defeated Bo Dallas. Dallas and Curtis Axel paid homage to The Miz, who’s off filming The Marine 6, by using his theme music. Unfortunately for Dallas, he couldn’t channel what “The Awesome One” has in him. Finn took care of business, and what’s next for “The Demon King?” Lord only knows. Well, besides trolling smarks on Twitter.
And now, for our primary takeaways…
The Cruiserweights put on a show? The Cruiserweights put on a show.
It took a little while longer than expected. But, the cruiserweights helped to have a hand in making RAW a better show on Monday night.
Last week, Rich Swann won a Fatal 4-Way match that assured him the chance to get a #1 Contender’s Match for the Cruiserweight Championship. The big stage was there again in L.A. on Monday night, as another man would join Swann for that clash in Cleveland. Either Tony Nese, Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander or Drew Gulak would be fighting to vie for Enzo Amore’s championship.
Well, if you’re looking at this part of the article, you can probably guess who won. It’s Drew Gulak, the pride of Philadelphia, who will be fighting Swann next week for the chance at Amore’s title. Before we get to what that means, let’s get down to other matters. This match was terrific. The finish was terrific in its own right. Cedric’s Lumbar Check remains one of the most fascinating finishing moves to watch. Mustafa Ali’s isn’t too far behind, either. The L.A. crowd was very much into the match, too. It’s about time that the cruiserweights got to strut their stuff and show what they were capable of.
Now, on to next week. Rich Swann will face Drew Gulak to see who gets a crack at Enzo Amore. It’s a throwback for EVOLVE fans, who’ve seen what Swann and Gulak can do against each other before. And CZW fans, too. Swann himself is a former Cruiserweight Champion, so he knows all about these big-time matches. Gulak is a repping the ‘Zo Train, which makes this match a little interesting. Will Enzo try to convince Gulak he can win, only to ask him to take a dive later on?
The easy choice, of course, would be to have Swann face Enzo for the face-heel dynamic. Drew, though, has been a very good character and it’s clear they’re putting effort behind him.
The good news now is that there’s some layered storytelling in the Cruiserweight Division. It took a little while, but you can see that there’s some churning going on.