WWE Monday Night Raw recap: Hurry up and wait

As we await the start of the WWE draft, Monday Night Raw mostly treaded water. Tyson Fury also showed up to confront Braun Strowman.

WWE has yet again found itself in a holding pattern on the heels of Sunday’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view and ahead of the upcoming draft, which starts on Friday Night SmackDown on FOX this week and concludes on Monday Night Raw on the USA Network next Monday.

Thus, this week’s edition of Raw served as a “showcase” for some of the draft’s prospects and provided few hints about what’s ahead aside from Tyson Fury likely fighting Braun Strowman in Saudi Arabia.

Because of this, it was a flat, unimportant-feeling show that also had to carry the weight of the disappointing Hell in a Cell main event between The Fiend and Seth Rollins (a match that was only mentioned briefly, in a heavily-edited highlight package in Raw‘s third hour).

Rollins was not part of the show at all, probably a good move as the Sacramento crowd the night before was dedicated to booing the babyface because of the compelling character Bray Wyatt has created. That’s fine — time could prove to provide the damage control WWE needs and it’s clear there’s no new feud for the Universal Champion until the Raw and SmackDown rosters are set next week. Meanwhile, The Fiend did show up — in a dark match segment involving Cesaro post-show.

As far as what did go down on Raw this week, the show opened with more of the Lana-Bobby Lashley cuckolding storyline, with the two forcing Rusev (who is in the ring) to watch TitanTron footage of the two getting ready to get it on.

This enrages Rusev, naturally, and because the Lana-Lashley make out last week also featured Baron Corbin and Randy Orton looking on and laughing, Corbin and Orton are accessories here. That’s not the only reason — they also end up battered by Rusev, leading to …? Well, we don’t quite know; apparently, Rusev will have to deal with those two before getting his hands on Lashley? The less of all of this, the better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HZbNe7lv1Y

In other “we didn’t really need more of this” news, Natalya and Lacey Evans faced off yet again, this time in a Last Woman Standing match that went nearly 20 minutes, wasn’t exciting and featured numerous instances of Natalya lying motionless for approximately eight seconds only to stand up at the referee’s nine count. This was not a believable employment of the Last [Person] Standing conceit.

Ultimately, Natalya wins by powerbombing Evans off of the stage and through a table in what should be the last of this feud. However, every time we write or think such a thing, another match between these two pops up. So, we’ll get back to this next week, probably.

In other women’s division news, Raw also featured a “champions showcase,” pitting Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and her partner, SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair against The Kabuki Warriors, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.

The most notable moments of this match include Asuka and Kairi Sane interrupting MizTV, on which Flair and Lynch were the guests, to snarkily rant at the two singles champions in Japanese and Asuka hitting Lynch with Green Mist, with Kairi Sane then pinning Lynch, cementing the tag champs as heels and potentially opening the door to Lynch versus Asuka, a dream match.

Post-match, the former tag champions, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, hit the ring to make the save, which means their business with The Kabuki Warriors is also unfinished. Perhaps the women’s tag team division will continue to thrive; we’ll know if we can get The IIconics back on television on the regular.

Also, Tamina returned and won the 24/7 Championship from Carmella before R-Truth won it back, with an assist from Carmella.

In tag-team action, The Viking Raiders took on the Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode in a non-title match. It was a competitive bout that both showcased why Ziggler and Roode are the champions as well as why The Viking Raiders are a truly dominant team against top-level talent even if they spent months only winning squash matches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhjNMHccLvE

The Viking Raiders pick up the win via Viking Experience on Ziggler, which now affords them another match against Ziggler and Roode, which will take place next Monday and will actually be for the tag titles. It’s a common WWE trope — pin a champion in a non-title setting in order to get a subsequent, actual title match — and it’s a bit tired, but it’s hardly the biggest thing to complain about. The Viking Raiders do deserve time with the gold, though, so we’ll see what WWE makes happen next week.

Raw also featured a six-man tag match pitting The O.C. against Lucha House Party, with The O.C. getting the win and then beating down LHP afterwards as a way for the trio to get their heat back after losing a six-man match at Hell in a Cell. Both of these trios are in limbo thanks to the looming draft, which is also why AJ Styles currently doesn’t have a challenger for his United States Championship. As such, this particular match served as filler and little else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaIPr3TpmbA

Also filler: Aleister Black again realized that in order to pick a fight he might as well come to the ring, and that’s where he gets a chance to destroy the Singh Brothers in what amounted to a “remember Aleister Black?” moment. And Ricochet took on and defeated Apollo Crews via Recoil, a match that literally took place because Ricochet wanted to fight his friend while they are still on the same show. Okay then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUjEOR25D9U

Our “main event” was boxer Tyson Fury confronting Braun Strowman and demanding an apology for Strowman wanting to give those hands to Fury at last week’s Friday Night SmackDown.

A discussion between the two about who would really be the hands getter and the hands receiver thus broke down into a brawl that required approximately 20 members of “security” and the overlooked members of the locker room to break up. As mentioned, this should likely come to actual blows in Saudi Arabia at the end of the month.

And that’s Monday Night Raw for this week. These holding pattern episodes of WWE programming have been happening far too often lately and the treading of water makes the show feel both low-stakes and almost unnecessary. At least once the draft is over and we begin the brand-battle-build to Survivor Series business should pick up.

Let us know your thoughts on this week’s show in the comments below.