The big hype train tonight was around the return of Mr McMahon with the announcement of who would be leading which brand. We’re one week away from a new brand extension, and so things are getting interesting. A hit and miss show of Raw with a few great segments, but a lot of it felt like a house show to me.

Hits

The Rollins Report

This was genuinely funny and well done and suited Seth’s character. I doubt it made anything happen in regards to getting the fans to feel sympathetic for Roman when he returns, but that’s a pointless venture anyway. This segment was great and Rollins has slipped back into his old character like a glove. It was then followed by an absolutely awesome promo from Dean Ambrose and the promise of a WWE Championship match next week. Hands down the best segment of the night.

#1 Contenders Battle Royal

A fun and different way to start Raw for the week. All signs seemed to point to Apollo Crews getting the win here, especially considering he was the only man to get entrance music. But it looks like WWE are genuinely trying to Make Darren Young Great Again. I can’t quite think of when Darren Young was originally “great”, but hey, it’s something different. Darren Young’s never really had a chance to shine in the singles role, and this is better than the bad pre-taped Young/Backlund segments we’ve been getting. I don’t expect an IC title change at Battleground, but it’s something different.

Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro

Some good stuff between Zayn and Owens before and after the match, and the match itself was really solid. And that’s to be expected, Cesaro and Owens are great. I would like to see them actually do something with Cesaro, but it’s not a bad thing that he lost here given that Owens has a program with Zayn going on and Cesaro currently has nothing going into Battleground.

Enzo & Cass vs. Gallows & Anderson

A really fun tag match in front of a good crowd. The post-match Cena run in was a nice moment as well. I actually like that Enzo and Cass and the rest of The Club have been added into this Cena/Styles feud. We at least know that we’re not going to get the typical John Cena feud formula now, so this protects both top guys from eating a loss at Battleground. I’m sure things will conclude at SummerSlam.

Dana Brooke vs. Sasha Banks

This started out a bit rocky, but it developed into a neat little match. Dana should still be in NXT, she’s a bit too green still and just isn’t quite there yet, but she looked better here than she has in previous weeks. The problem is, there are limited women in the ring that she can work with and learn from on the main roster right now, and she can only wrestle those same three girls so many times.

Botches

Sheamus vs. Zack Ryder

This was mind bogglingly bad. What a great way to build up Zack Ryder as a challenger for the US Championship – have him lose in a meaningless 2-minute match against Sheamus. I don’t understand the idea behind this. All I can think is that this means Ryder is going to actually win the belt and they’re trying to squash him beforehand to make him seem like even more of an underdog. But even that doesn’t make sense. I’m perfectly fine with Ryder getting a push, but would it actually have hurt for him to get a win over Sheamus?

Mr. McMahon returns

This felt like it would have been fine as an opening segment, but it fell flat as a closing segment. We learned that Shane would become the Commissioner of SmackDown and Stephanie would be the Commissioner of Raw. Pretty much what everyone expected anyway, I guess? The only news though is that they would be appointing General Managers to do their work for them. I assume that this may be a way to make it so that Shane and Stephanie don’t have to be on TV every single week. My guess is that Daniel Bryan is the GM of SmackDown, and perhaps Steph just makes Triple H the GM of Raw as a way to get him back on TV. Who knows, though. This went too long and the fans were waiting for something big to happen, and it never really did.

Breezango vs. The Lucha Dragons

I’d say that Breeze and Fandango are getting a push, but The Lucha Dragons are such a non-entity in the tag division that this just felt like a time filler. It does feel like WWE has maybe realised that the 50/50 booking and jobbing out genuinely talented stars is not going to work post-brand extension, so maybe this is them realising that they have to take guys like Breeze and Fandango and do something with them. But Kalisto is also a guy that should be pushed beyond the level he’s at.

Heath Slater vs. Titus O’Neil

This was another nothing match. Between this and the Lucha Dragons/Breezango match, I felt like I was watching an episode of Superstars. I’m not sure what they’re doing with Titus, and I don’t think they know either. This was just a time filler and it didn’t matter at all.

The New Day visit The Wyatt Family Compound

I see what they were trying to do, and I certainly see the “Final Deletion” influences here, but it just didn’t quite work. It felt a little too weird, and a bit too much like a bad horror movie. I think it lost me at around the point that Bray tried to murder Xavier with an axe. I was hoping this would continue the story in someway, like maybe Xavier would be kidnapped and the next time we see him, he’s a part of the Wyatt Family. But instead I feel like next week, they’ll be back to their normal antics. The only positive I can say is that at least they haven’t resorted to having The Wyatt Family lower themselves to comedy skits, but rather, The New Day have started treating the Wyatts like a genuine threat.

All photos via WWE.com