BRM Reviews the 5/25/2020 Raw (bad)

[Big Red Machine]

WWE now has NXT trainees surrounding the ring. And they’ve got plexiglass to explain why the babyfaces don’t run in to prevent beat-downs!

Why is Jessamyn Duke wearing a Kevin Owens shirt instead of a Shayna Baszler shirt or a Ronda Rousey shirt? Even a Roderick Strong shirt would make more sense.

THE KEVIN OWENS SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST ASUKA- dull
They’re advertising a three-way #1 contendership match between Charlotte, Nia, and, for some reason, Nattie, even though Nattie’s current gimmick is that is losing a lot and frustrated about it. They showed us a recap of last week’s angle with Nia attacking Asuka’s tag team partner, just to spoil the match for us.
Asuka comes out and rambles in her obnoxious manner. Charlotte interrupted her and cut a promo. Nattie then came out and holy crap she’s acting like an adult and apologizing for ruining the set last week. Charlotte was a jerk to her. Nia then came out and cut her promo. Asuka attacked her and brawl started. This was predictable and not very interesting.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS APOLLO CREWS- Crews cut a good promo saying he would win the US Title tonight.

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Andrade “Cien” Almas(c) (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Apollo Crews- 6/10
This was shorter than it should have been for such a big match. Even worse, they cut away from it in the middle so that Kayla could interview Angel Garza, then stayed with the interview even though Angel’s answer was a transparent excuse to start hitting on Kayla, forcing us all to watch this important match on a monitor in the background. Crew won the title.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great!
They let Crews cut a relatively long “I just won my first title in WWE, and all of my hard work is paying off” promo. They made this feel A LOT bigger than it really was with the way they presented the post-match stuff. We also saw Andrade smashing things backstage.

They’re advertising the Street Profits vs. the Viking Raiders in golf, the most boring sport there is. Yeah. That will help the ratings.

SETH ROLLINS PROMO- fine
He took a long time to say that Rey was a “sacrifice” for him. He seems to be more of the delusional type of false messiah now rather than the conniving type. Buddy Murphy and Austin Theory got to talk, which was surprising. They were both good.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS CHARLOTTE FLAIR- meh
Charlotte cut a heel prom saying that she was the best. Then Asuka danced in and insulted Charlotte.

WOMEN’S TAG TITLE SEGMENT- great!
The IIconics came out and cut a promo. They apologized to each other for their various actions last week, then said that they should still be the tag champs because they were “stripped of their opportunities.” Alexa Bliss! & Nikki Cross came out and Nikki cut a great promo responding to their points, explaining to us why her friendship with Alexa was so important, including saying that Alexa “stops me from bouncing off the walls and helps me focus.” Holy sh*t, they actually explained why she’s been acting more normal lately!
The heels threw some sucker-punches, beat the babyfaces up, and posed with their belts. This was a very good angle.

LANA & MVP BACKSTAGE- loved it!
Here is the entirety of the segment:
Lana comes up to MVP and says “we need to talk.” MVP says “no, we don’t.” Then he walks off.

THE VIP LOUNGE WITH SPECIAL GUEST DREW MCINTYRE- GREAT!
Both men made good points and the babyface saw the trap coming and escaped unscathed. I particularly enjoyed the “You can just call it the Claymore. It’s obvious that it’s a kick” line because I scream that at the announcers every week, and I loved MVP then purposely calling it the Clay more Kick just to annoy Drew just as much.

CHARLY CARUSO INTERVIEWS NATALYA- odd
Nattie immediately has to go take a call. The camera very rudely pans over to eavesdrop on Nattie’s private conversation with her husband. He was the one who told her to apologize to Kevin Owens. When Nattie hung up and went back to Charly for her interview, Charly told her they were out of time.

KEVIN OWENS vs. ANGEL GARZA (w/Zelina Vega)- 4.5/10
Jumped Owens during his entrance and took out his knee. The injured knee was the story of the match. Owens mad ea brief comeback, but Garza got the win. He attacked Owens a bit after the match as well.

THE STREET PROFITS AND VIKING RAIDERS PLAY GOLF- well… this was less offensively stupid than the previous two weeks, but it was still completely unentertaining.

LANA, LASHLEY, & MVP BACKSTAGE- fine
Lana got MVP some ice. She seemed pretty insincere about it, but MVP came off worse for snapping at her. His promo was pretty great, though.

HUMBERTO CARRILLO & ALEISTER BLACK vs. AUSTIN THEORY & BUDDY MURPHY (w/Seth Rollins)- 4.25/10
Rollins is carrying a Rey Mysterio Jr. mask around. The heels won cleanly when Theory pinned Carrillo. The match was very short, but excellent for the time it got.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Rollins ordered his guys t attack the babyfaces after the match. They got Carrillo in the same spot Rollins had Rey. He threatened to take Carrillo’s eye out of Aleister came a step closer. Rollins then cut a promo warning them that everything Rey sacrificed would be in vain if they kept trying to stop him. Seth is doing a great job of coming across as both dangerous and crazy.

EDGE PROMO- very good, although still a little too much stuff that doesn’t quite make sense in kayfabe for my liking

STREET PROFITS AND VIKING RAIDERS BACKSTAGE- they’re doing bowling next.
After the Viking Raiders left, MVP and Lashley showed up. MVP cut a promo on the Street Profits so the Street Profits made fun of him for getting Claymored by Drew earlier. MVP challenged them to face him and Lashley later tonight. I had totally forgotten that the Street Profits were the tag champs until I saw the belts sitting on an equipment case behind them.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax vs. Natalya- 7.25/10
Asuka was on commentary for this match, which was extremely annoying. Nia won a very enjoyable three-way. The only real problem was that the outcome never felt like it was in doubt.

They’ve stuck the “The Greatest Wrestling Match Ever” graphic as part of the normal graphic for Backlash, so it’s now on every match.

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS DREW MCINTYRE- meh
The Street Profits vs. MVP & Lashley is now the main event… so they went into this show without a main event booked? What would they have done if those pairings hadn’t run into each other backstage?

R-TRUTH PROMO- not as dumb as usual

GRONK INTERVIEW- This was okay until the end, when it got dumb

KAYLA BRAXTON INTERVIEWS MVP- good
Kayla asks him why he would want to still wrestle after getting hit with a Claymore. He simply pointed at Lashley at said “that’s why.”

RIC FLAIR PROMO- fine
He thinks Orton will beat Edge at Backslash.

LIV MORGAN PROMO- meh
More sob-story stuff, but at least she talked about what being a wrestler has meant to her.

STREET PROFITS IN-SET PROMO- fine

For next week they are advertising Rollins vs. Aleister and a retirement ceremony for Rey Mysterio Jr.

BOBBY LASHLEY & MVP vs. THE STREET PROFITS- 5.75/10
They had a match was that going fine until Lashley ran in the ring to break up a pin, then locked in his Full Nelson on Ford and wouldn’t leave the ring, so the referee disqualified him. Another f*cking DQ in a big WWE match. If you don’t want to beat either team, DON’T BOOK THE F*CKING MATCH!

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- meh
Drew runs out to make the save. This brawl must be stopped, but I guess there isn’t any backstage security, so the referee commands the Performance Center trainees to do it.


Another bad show from WWE, with the #1 contenderhsip match being the only thing that in any way felt like it was worth seeing, and even that was plagued by the outcome feeling so obvious because they had already shot an angle with Nia and Asuka last week. Why not just wait until after the #1 contendership match to shoot the angle?

[KILLdozer]

How was this "another bad show "...when you gave almost everything good or great or even better ratings?

[Big Red Machine]

How was this "another bad show "...when you gave almost everything good or great or even better ratings?

Because the main event was so disappointing, and so little of the wrestling felt like it was worth watching.

In three hours they had just five matches, including and 8:20 for a title change, two matches that went under five minutes, and a main event with an annoying DQ finish.