Drew McIntyre, Andrade and Humberto Carrillo all shined on the Oct. 21, 2019 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw.
WWE Monday Night Raw this week was another placeholder episode as the company readies for Crown Jewel on Oct. 31. Further, it featured zero women’s matches (though Lana and Zelina Vega were in Cleveland for Monday’s show), because WWE decided to commit to keeping the entire division in Australia on tour.
As such, it was a night for the men. This wasn’t a bad thing, per se, and something particularly surprising came out of it. And a few good matches were part of the three hour show. So here are all of the things you need to know about the Oct. 21 edition of Monday Night Raw.
Is Drew McIntyre getting a push?
This is a question that has been asked literally every time Drew McIntyre is featured on WWE television. After all, it seems like a no-brainer decision for the company to make — he’s massive, muscular, scary, talented and charismatic, all the things WWE wants out of its best Superstars.
Perhaps the “push” rumors will stick this time. McIntyre was announced by a very wound up, anti-Cleveland Browns Ric Flair as the fifth member of his team to take on Team Hulk Hogan in Saudi Arabia. After that, McIntyre took on Ricochet, a member of Hogan’s team.
This was a competitive, approximately 20-minute long match that showcased Ricochet’s high-risk, speedy style in contrast with McIntyre’s power-based offense. In example of the former, Ricochet hit a beautiful Shooting Star Press, for a two-count. As for the latter, McIntyre picked up the victory with a Claymore Kick. Afterward, McIntyre beat up Ricochet further in order to a) remind us all he’s a heel and b) that he’s on Flair’s team.
Aleister Black’s open challenge
Aleister Black is still sitting in his closet, begging for a fight. But he’s since realized that coming to the ring is the best way to do this, so instead he begs for a fight and then announces he will go to the ring and wait for someone to challenge him. Essentially, Black’s character is handing out weekly “open challenges” because WWE doesn’t know what to do with him right now but also want him on television, which is a fine compromise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjosvmpvzM
What isn’t, though, is that Black’s challenge is answered for some reason by Jason Reynolds, a/k/a/ Local Talent. Black wins quickly. Let’s find him worthy opponents now, please?
AOP also cut another promo promising to bring violence to Raw, at some point.
Andrade vs. Sin Cara
It’s the first time in approximately three years that Sin Cara has competed on Raw. He took on Andrade, picking up on the feud that was scrapped when Sin Cara suffered a knee injury in August 2018.
This, like McIntyre vs. Ricochet, was a competitive, lengthy match that ended, as so many Andrade matches, with Zelina Vega hitting a hurricanrana on his opponent while the referee is distracted, allowing Andrade to hit the Hammerlock DDT and pick up a win. That’s a good conceit, a heel with a heel manager who actually gets involved and influences matches. It also sets up that he cannot win without Vega’s help, another common trope among heels with managers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyNl8DqybEk
Now, if this could become part of a storyline and give Andrade some type of context moving forward, that would be great. But, like the McIntyre mythical push mentioned above, Andrade has been the subject of that same speculation for years. So we must continue to wait and see if something comes of him or if he gets forgotten in the run to Survivor Series.
Rusev-Lana-Lashley stuff
Rusev is Jerry Lawler’s guest on the King’s Court and explains that he is still wearing his wedding ring despite everything Lana has said and done and is optimistic about reconciliation. This is interrupted on the TitanTron by Lana and Bob Lashley eating dinner at a restaurant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhfK7CB5luA
Said restaurant happens to be in Cleveland, and Rusev knows where it is, so eventually he makes his way there, where the two men brawl and Lana yells a lot about sending Rusev to jail. Just to get that stuff out of the way for this week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdPllA3WLOU
R-Truth also dropped the 24/7 title to The Bollywood Boyz’ Sunil Singh due to distraction and The Viking Raiders quickly squashed Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins via Viking Experience.
Shelton Benjamin as a proxy Brock Lesnar
Rey Mysterio hit the ring to cut a promo about Cain Velasquez versus Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel and Paul Heyman shows up on the ‘Tron to take care of his side of the story. Heyman then sends Shelton Benjamin — college wrestling teammate and friend of Lesnar — to cut a promo on Mysterio, claiming that just shoving the legendary luchador around seems to lead to title shots nowadays.
Velasquez is here, though — surprise! — and attacks Benjamin awkwardly until Benjamin taps out in a segment that’s hard to care much about.
Seth Rollins and … Humberto Carrillo?
Cruiserweight Humberto Carrillo was drafted to Raw last week and spent this week’s episode watching matches in the back, making claims to what kind of champion he’ll eventually be and then being confronted by Seth Rollins (who burnt down the FireFly Fun House because he “needed to;” so much for this being the big confession WWE had hyped, this was more of a throwaway than anything, and the Fun House will return to SmackDown this Friday).
Rollins explains that the Fun House arson is one of those things that champions often have to do, that making an unpopular decision is often a champion’s responsibility. Rollins then decides to challenge Carrillo to a match as a welcome to Raw and potentially as retribution for feeling insulted about Carrillo’s judgement of his actions? It’s all kind of unclear.
But the result was a fantastic match that started with the Cleveland crowd not caring at all Carrillo (chanting “We want Wyatt”) and ended with the fans understanding just who Carrillo is in the ring (a legitimate third-generation luchador). Yes, Rollins won via Stomp. But after that, Rollins made sure to shake Carrillo’s hand in a sign of respect, which is but one sign that WWE has something in mind for Carrillo.
It feels like it’s been forever since WWE has identified a young Superstar and chose to give them opportunities to develop in front of a crowd in order to try to build an organic base of support. It appears that this was the point of Carrillo being featured throughout the night but also receiving a competitive showcase against Rollins, of all people. It seemed more important than simply a way to introduce a cruiserweight to the Raw audience. And it also felt fresh, which is something few and far between on this show.
Street Profits versus The O.C.
Since last week’s backstage confrontation, WWE has hyped up The O.C. (Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, AJ Styles) facing The Street Profits with a mystery partner of their choosing. But as the match got underway, it was a traditional two-on-two tag match, with Anderson and Gallows against the Profits, and no clear explanation given for why.
But, as Hank Hill once famously said, “it’s not bait-and-switch, it’s bait-and-bait!” Once Styles, hanging out on the outside of the ring, inevitably got himself involved, the odds were evened by a one Kevin Owens, making his Raw debut after being drafted by the red brand last Monday.
Styles and Owens do have their history — something teased regarding who the Profits’ partner would be — but it also is a strange trio, because there’s no clear reason for why Owens and Street Profits would team up beyond a shared issue with Styles and his faction. But sometimes, that’s the only reason needed.
It is, though, admittedly strange that Owens’ role in the match only came to make the save/counter Styles’ interference rather than taking part in the originally-advertised six-man tag. But last-minute changes without explanation are one of WWE’s (most unfortunate) hallmarks, and that’s how this week’s main event played out as well.
So that’s the Oct. 21 edition of Raw, all testosterone-packed and water-treading as next Friday’s Crown Jewel will be. Fun! Let us know your thoughts on this week’s show in the comments below.