The Sweat Glands of America!

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RUNDOWN: MAY 15TH 2017

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves & Booker T

Venue: Prudential Center

Location: Newark, NJ

• The show starts with Raw GM Kurt Angle coming to the ring. Kurt says that Braun Strowman had surgery on his elbow and he is set to be out of action for 6 months. This is sad news for Braun and I hope he is better soon. I have read some reports that the reported 6 months might be a work and he will actually be back in a couple of months. Lets hope this is the case! Kurt says Braun had his eyes set on a Universal title match but now he needs to find a new challenger for Brock Lesnar. At Extreme Rules it will be Seth Rollins Vs Samoa Joe Vs Finn Balor Vs Bray Wyatt Vs Roman Reigns in a Fatal 5-Way Extreme Rules match with the winner facing Brock for the Universal title. Hell yes this should be good! Roman Reigns comes out to a mixed reaction. Reigns talks about his recent accomplishments and says he's the only guy who can beat Lesnar for the title. Finn Balor makes his way down and tells Reigns the line to face Brock starts behind Balor. Roman says Balor has heart but not the killer instinct to beat Brock, which prompts Balor to remind Reigns that Balor beat him his first night on Raw. CONTINUITY!! Samoa Joe comes out saying he's a man of action and results and will win at Extreme Rules. The lights go off and when they come back on Bray Wyatt is in the ring. He says some usual Wyatt stuff about trembling, cowering and running. Seth Rollins comes out to complete the full house. Rollins is in a fighting mood and he kicks off the brawl by attacking Joe. Balor hits a suicide dive onto Reigns and Rollins to finish the segment.

• After commercial Balor, Reigns and Rollins argue backstage. Angle comes in to calm things down and makes a couple of matches for tonight. Balor Vs Reigns and Wyatt Vs Rollins for FIRST TIME EVVAAAA! Surprise to see them give this away on free TV to be honest.

• Next up is Jeff Hardy with Matt Hardy Vs Sheamus with Cesaro. Was short and a bit sloppy this one. The result was a bit strange in my opinion too. Jeff hits the Swanton Bomb to pin Sheamus for the win. Would have made more sense for the newly heel Sheamus and Cesaro continue their momentum from last week by getting the win with some heel tactics. Also usually WWE don't champions win non-title matches. Weird.
   
• Sasha Banks Vs Alica Fox happened and again it was not a good match. A bit of a surprise seeing Alicia Fox get the win but it was not clean. Noam Dar got involved to help Fox get the win and they awkwardly celebrate after the match. I guess Noam Dar is getting back together with Alicia FOOOOOOOOOOOOXXXX!!
   
• Finally a good match and its a title match too! Dean Ambrose defends the Intercontinental title against The Miz who has Maryse in his corner. This wasn't anything new from these two but after the previous two matches I was happy to see something at least decent! Ambrose kept trying to go for the Dirty Deeds which Miz kept escaping from which I thought was very good story telling. The finish comes when Miz tries to low blow Ambrose but is blocked so Ambrose kicks Miz in the groin causing a DQ because hes a LUNATIC! DQ finishes are a bit played out in 2017 but is a good way to continue this feud. Special marks for Corey Graves referring to Miz's low blow attempt as a 'Strong Style Inner Thigh Grab'. Funny stuff and my second favourite line of the night!

• Alexa Bliss comes out and delivers another strong heel promo. She seems to be knocking it out the park at the moment. She comes out with the line of the night and the inspiration for this blog title. She calls Newark, NJ the 'Sweat Glands of America'. This had me in tears it was so funny! After some more insulting Bayley comes out to confront the champ. Bayley is out to invoke her rematch clause for Extreme Rules and get her title back. Bliss didn't seem bothered because she didn't think Bayley had what it takes to get Extreme. Bayley shoved Bliss out of the ring but Bliss got the advantage with the help of a Kendo Stick to stand tall over Bayley. Looks like we will get a more physical match between these two at Extreme Rules. Sign me up!
   

 

•  Kurt Angle is backstage on the phone before he is interrupted by Miz and Maryse. They are complaining about Ambrose getting himself DQ'd and want a rematch at Extreme Rules. Angle agrees but Miz wants the stipulation that if Ambrose gets DQ'd he loses the title. Angle agrees and things start to get heated with everyone shouting at each other. Things calm down when 'The Drifter' Elias Sampson shows up playing a bit of Guitar. Drifter drifts. Great stuff.

• Neville & TJP Vs Austin Aries & Jack Gallagher is up next. This feels like a match we have seen alot recently. I praised WWE a couple of weeks ago for remembering they have more than 4 cruiserweights but I guess they forgot again. The match was fine but was nothing new. TJP got the pin on Gallagher for the win after a Detonation kick. Meh.

• Bayley is being looked at by a trainer when Kurt Angle comes in. Angle says her and Bliss will have a straight up match at Extreme Rules which Bayley isn't happy with saying she wants to get Extreme. With that Angle says it will be a 'Kendo Stick on a pole' match which Bayley seems happy with. I'm not huge on the 'on a pole' matches but at least its fresh in the women's division and Bliss and Bayley could pull off a really good match.

• The Golden Truth backstage with Truth looking dejected they didn't win last week. Goldust fired up Truth saying he knows how to get them back on track with a win over Gallows & Anderson. Good to see this story progressing like I hoped. Lets see where this goes....
  
  
  
  
  

• Up next is Roman Reigns Vs Finn Balor. This is the second time these two have squared off so its still a fresh match-up which is nice. This was a very good match much like their first match. Both guys sold well throughout the match something I know doesn't happen alot these days it seems. I also like that neither man was able to hit their finisher until the end. We see too many finisher kick outs these days, finishers need to be build up more in my opinion. Reigns won the match pinning Balor after a spear. Good PPV quality match.
   
• Bray Wyatt shown in his smokey lair hyping up his match with Seth Rollins. Regular Wyatt stuff here. Its hard to take his promos seriously when he doesn't win enough big matches or feuds. Seth is being interviewed after commercial saying he doesn't think Bray is the man to stop him. Seth has a good line when talking about Brock Lesnar. He says if anyone can slay the beast, its the man who slayed a king. Nice.

• The Golden Truth comes out for their match with..OH WAIT SWERVE! HEEL TURN TIME! Goldust blindsides Truth attacking him and telling him 'That's whats up!'. I did not see that coming which I can always appreciate. Not sure where this will go but hopefully it will be interesting.
  
  
  
  
  

• Enzo & Cass come out and do their usual thing. Titus O'Neil and Apollo Crews come out and Titus does a very good impression of Enzo & Cass's entrance. Titus things Apollo is facing Enzo but its actually Cass Vs Titus. The match happens and its over in a bout a minute when Cass pins Titus who is fighting in a suit. Fair play to that. After the match Enzo tries to get a selfie with O'Neils grounded body which prompts Apollo to kick Enzo out of the ring. Probably the best thing Apollo has ever done. Good to see him FINALLY getting a character and showing some attitude.

• MAIN EVENT TIME! For the first time ever its Seth Rollins Vs Bray Wyatt. The match was good and I think the effort was there from both guys but for whatever reason the crowd didn't seem all the into it. Its a shame because this was a true first time encounter that could easily have main evented a PPV. Seth doesn't play up to the crowd as much as many babyfaces do though so I don't know if that has anything do with it. That and Wyatt isn't booked as the major monster heel that he should be. The finish was a bit predictable in the end. Samoa Joe attacked Seth to cause the DQ. Another DQ finish and another loss for Bray. Post match Joe continues to beat down Rollins which Wyatt joins in on. That is until Wyatt blindsides Joe hitting him with the 'Sister Abigail'. Wyatt picks up Rollins and he gets a 'Sister Abigail' too. Bray gets to stand tall to end the show. Thats nice!

So that was Raw. A much better show than last week but still a slog like Raw usually is. 3 decent matches with Reigns Vs Balor being my match of the night. The opening of the show was really good too but the two matches that followed really brought the show down in my opinion. Some good character development as well from Bayley, Goldust and Apollo Crews. Lets hope this continues next week!

What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments. See you soon and thanks for reading!