Randy Orton sent another message to Drew McIntyre ahead of SummerSlam
Randy Orton was always going to have a part to play in the final Raw before WWE SummerSlam.
The Viper faces Drew McIntyre for the WWE title and was at his best in the final segment of Raw.
There were some other brilliant moments too but some parts of Raw just didn’t click, and here are the hits and misses from Raw.
Misses
1) 24/7 joke
I lost count of what WWE was trying to do with the 24/7 title. There were so many switches in between that I couldn’t care less about this title.
WWE needs some humour in their shows and the 24/7 title does provide it. But having three “matches” with the belt changing a couple of times shows that this is a joke and frankly, it adds nothing to the show now.
2) Retribution still confuses
WWE seemed to hit gold with Retribution a while back. They seemed to be a threat to the established order for WWE but nothing is still known about them.
Random attacks on the crew and staff is fine, but we need to know more about these people. WWE has kept things hidden for now and seem to be wasting a lot of time on this destruction.
3) James is back?
As Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe quarrelled over something on Raw, people might have forgotten that Mickie James made a return to WWE.
The former Divas Champion had been away for a while but it seems that WWE didn’t push that much. WWE missed a beat with this as James is one of the best female talents to have featured in WWE, but that didn’t seem like it on Monday.
4) Poisoning madness
Bianca Belair finally got some video footage which seemed to show that Zelina Vega had poisoned Montez Ford.
However, it wasn’t conclusive evidence as her back blocked what she was doing to Ford’s drinking cup.
WWE could have cleared all the confusion but they let some doubt remain. This was another segment that they should have wrapped up ahead of SummerSlam, but they didn’t.
Hits
1) The Viper bites
Orton was at his best on WWE as he smacked Drew McIntyre and hit him with an RKO. Not only that, he took out a legend in Shawn Michaels and looks dangerous.
McIntyre has to be at his best if he wants to keep his crown. Orton is in Viper mode and he looks good to become a champion again.
2) Baszler is ready for gold
Shayna Baszler teamed up with Asuka to defeat Bayley and Sasha Banks. However, before the clash, she said she would defeat anyone who was the Raw Women’s Champion but was teaming up with Asuka just for this.
She also fought off an attack from the suspended Nia Jax before returning and picking up the win. This is Baszler at her best, and even though she brought up the Four Horsewomen thing again, she does look good to become a future champion.
3) Raw Underground has direction
Another evening of Raw Underground took place and this time, it actually made some sense. Matches felt like matches, Dolph Ziggler got the win and all.
Some of the women like Marina Shafir also impressed and there was more structure around this than ever before.
WWE still needs to get some things right about this, but they are moving on the right path with this.
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