5 Things We Learned From RAW Last Night

If you examine the history of WWE, the last television show before a PPV is traditionally a very big show. With WWE No Mercy coming at us this Sunday on the WWE Network, one would expect that we would have experienced a loaded RAW on Monday night.

And if you were expecting that, you would be mistaken.

The days of the go-home edition of RAW being must-see television appear to be a thing of the past. This week’s broadcast, which did feature a few memorable segments, was also full of what seemed like a lot of filler to get us through the final set of tapings before No Mercy.

There was no John Cena, no Finn Balor, and no Brock Lesnar in front of the live crowd (though two of them did appear via pre-taped segments). The San Jose crowd, accordingly, came across as pretty subdued on television. Could we really blame them?

Never the less, WWE has a major show on the horizon this Sunday featuring two matches that easily could have main event WrestleMania next year. Something of note had to have happened on Monday night, right?

We did get a big television return and a number one contender crowned, so the show wasn’t entirely void of news. Here are five things we learned on last night’s edition of RAW.

1. Jason Jordan Is Improving Each Week

Though he is a tremendous wrestler between the ropes, there have been many critics who have voiced concern over whether Jason Jordan is really ready for the kind of storyline he has been given recently with his “father” Kurt Angle. 

If you’ve watched Jordan over the last two months since the split from American Alpha, you have to acknowledge that he has appeared tentative and a bit uneasy on the microphone at times. He’s still relatively new to the business, after all. However, we’ve certainly seen Jordan grow by leaps and bounds every single week since this story came about in July.

This week’s edition of RAW saw Jordan give some of his best microphone work to date. He came out at the beginning of the show to defend Angle’s honor, was placed into a main event match to determine the number one contender to the Intercontinental title, and walked out of the show with a match this Sunday wrestling for RAW’s second biggest prize.

It was the aforementioned work on the microphone that really stood out, though. The Miz had been running down Angle for being a terrible father, and Jordan’s work defending Angle came across as believable and heart felt. Watch this promo versus his work back in July and you’ll see quite a change. 

Jason Jordan still has a bright future, and when his inevitable split comes from Angle (with a likely heel turn), this story is preparing him to excel in what will be a pivotal moment for his career. 

2. This Tag Team Division Is So Much Deeper Than SmackDown

I’ve written at length here in my SmackDown reviews on PopCulture that the SmackDown tag team ranks are severely lacking in depth. Outside of New Day and the Usos, there’s really nobody at the moment who you could take seriously in a tag team title feud (though Gable/Benjamin should soon be there).

On RAW, largely due to the pairing of Ambrose and Rollins, this doesn’t seem to be an issue. This week’s show featured a triple threat tag team match between the former Shield partners, Anderson and Gallows, and The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus). Though the match seemingly came out of nowhere, these three teams still turned in an excellent performance and easily the best match of the night. 

Anytime you have six guys who can turn what basically amounted to a throw-away match into something of this level, you’re sitting in a good place. The near 20 minute match started out slow, but by the end the crowd was into it and it was a solid contest.

Plus we got a bit of a tease for the eventual Rollins/Ambrose feud that is inevitably going to come out of this pairing. Speaking of which, please for all that is holy give us an Ambrose heel turn when that happens. 

3. Bayley Is Back

Bayley made a surprise return at the conclusion of the Nia Jax vs. Alexa Bliss non-title match on RAW. They were in San Jose, Bayley’s hometown, so perhaps it shouldn’t have been as big of a surprise as it was. That said, nobody reported that she was going to be at the show and the crowd absolutely loved seeing her back.

Upon her return, it wasn’t clear if Bayley was back for one night only or if she was completely ready to make her return. She hit her Bayley to Belly Suplex on Bliss to close the segment, so it seemed as though she must be medically cleared or WWE certainly wouldn’t have approved her getting physical in the ring.

Not long after this segment aired, WWE made it official on their Twitter page. Bayley has been added to the women’s title match this Sunday at No Mercy. The bout will now be a fatal five-way match with Alexa Bliss defending her belt against Nia Jax, Sasha Banks, Emma, and Bayley.

4. A Great Bobby Heenan Tribute

WWE has a strong history of presenting great tribute videos to their former performers. Bobby Heenan was no different, with WWE lamenting the late wrestling legend with a great montage of his storied career.

At two different points during RAW, they showed a slideshow of Tweets from people within the industry commenting on Heenan’s death. This caused many people to wonder live (via social media) if that was going to be the only tribute that WWE put forth for Heenan. However, finally, during the final hour of RAW, the moving tribute video aired. You can watch it below.

5. Two Big Matches, Two Lackluster Segments

Although Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns vs. John Cena are gigantic matches, both easily capable of headlining WrestleMania, you wouldn’t have known it Monday night watching RAW.

It’s easy to see that both of these matches peaked in their pre-match builds a couple of weeks ago on RAW and they’ve been treading water, waiting for the PPV to get here, ever since. That was never more evident than this week.

Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar (along with Paul Heyman) had a pre-taped segment that was moderated live by Michael Cole. The live crowd didn’t seem to be into it while watching, and it came across pretty flat on television. Though Strowman’s acting came across solid, Lesnar’s act just feels so tiresome at this point. He got in his tired “suplex city b*tch” line at the end, so there was that.

The best thing Strowman did during the show was come out, interrupt Enzo Amore, and proceed to absolutely destroy him in the ring. The fans loved it

Roman Reigns had an in-ring segment, all alone this week. With Cena not there, Reigns took it upon himself to point out that John was a hypocrite for talking about how he would never leave WWE during his 2012 feud with The Rock, only to do the very same thing today. That would have been a great line a couple of weeks ago when he and Cena were face to face, but the feud has felt like they were just killing time the last two weeks waiting to get to No Mercy. Without John there to react to the comment, the crowd was kind of out of it here and on television it wasn’t nearly as good as the microphone work a couple weeks ago.

Reigns also got in a shot on Cena regarding the accusations that he has buried younger talent, more specifically Alex Reilly. While very few in attendance or watching on television probably understood the reference, it was a good one for those of us who did.

All in all, a very mixed bag this week on WWE RAW. That being said, No Mercy looks to be a spectacular show this Sunday on the WWE Network, so they should recoup their momentum this weekend. Coming out of the PPV next Monday, we should get a very good episode of television as we transition to new stories for the next RAW PPV, TLC on October 22 in Minneapolis.