RAW 23-5-16 *Extreme Rules Spoilers*

Lithium93_

The Man' comes around, Seth Rollins returned in epic fashion at Extreme Rules, destroying Roman Reigns and setting his sights on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship he never lost. What will The Architect's first move be when he returns to Raw?



1. Make Rusev great again
The reign of Kalisto as U.S. Champion came to a (Bulgarian) brutish end at the hands of Rusev, who begins his second stint as the star-spangled champion thanks to a backbreaking Accolade that forced The King of Flight to submit. Now, while Kalisto looks to regroup, Rusev has the opportunity to pick up where he left off in 2015, when he was riding both a title reign and an undefeated streak. Will The Bulgarian Brute reassert himself as the most fearsome Superstar in WWE?

2. New Era, New Day
The bygone era will have to wait: The New Day officially vanquished The Vaudevillains at Extreme Rules after suffering three weeks of beatings at the hands of the gentlemen brawlers. The victory reasserts The New Day’s position atop the Tag Team division with at least three tandems that can challenge them. The Vaudevillains could call in a rematch (they’d have a case given that Kofi Kingston’s interference saved the champions’ chances). The Shining Stars might look to make a statement. And then there’s Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson …

3. Good brothers, bad intentions
Gallows & Anderson beat and beat up on The Usos in Extreme Rules’ hellacious Tornado Tag Team Match. Though fellow Club-mate AJ Styles may not get another WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match (more on that in a minute), Gallows & Anderson can make a solid case for a WWE Tag Team Title opportunity. Whether they choose to go that route or simply beat up on tag teams for recreation seems to be entirely up to them. Either way, it’ll be must-see.

4. Hand of the Queen
Charlotte retained her WWE Women’s Championship against Natalya in a Submission Match without the help of Ric Flair. However, she did need help after all at Extreme Rules. Dana Brooke’s Ric Flair imitation and subsequent cheap-shot of The Queen of Harts set up Natalya to submit to the Figure-Eight. With Charlotte's reign preserved, is there anyone in the women’s locker room who can overcome her now that Dana is apparently watching her back?

5. Return of 'The Man'
Roman Reigns barely even had a second to enjoy retaining his WWE World Heavyweight Championship over AJ Styles at Extreme Rules when Seth Rollins returned from injury and completely eviscerated The Big Dog, staking his claim on the title he never lost in the ring. Whether AJ Styles is willing to step aside is another matter entirely, but it’s safe to say The Architect will have plenty to say when his rebuilding project begins in earnest. See what goes down when Raw airs live at 1 am on Sky Sports 5.

Rock Lesnar

Rusev should enjoy his reign tonight, i think he might have a challenger next week

Lithium93_

Rock Lesnar wrote: »

Rusev should enjoy his reign tonight, i think he might have a challenger next week

They should leave the US Title on Rusev for a while... If it happens next week that Cena comes back after a long period out injured, and beats him for the title, I will be :mad:, surely they can find something else for Cena to do..

Obviously just pure speculation that Cena will be challenging..

SureYWouldntYa

Lithium93_ wrote: »

They should leave the US Title on Rusev for a while... If it happens next week that Cena comes back after a long period out injured, and beats him for the title, I will be :mad:, surely they can find something else for Cena to do..

Obviously just pure speculation that Cena will be challenging..

Where else does Cena really fit in though?

And he never got his rematch so there's one reason why he might get a shot straight away

Back to the weekly us open challenges if he does win, the one good thing about being champ

PTH2009

Mitb qualifiers tonight

Sammy Zayn vs Sheamus
Cesaro vs Miz
Aj Styles vs Kevin Owens
Ambrose vs Ziggler
Apollo crews vs y2j

Zayn,cesaro,styles, Ambrose and Apollo for me I think. Would love to see Owens with the briefcase

Lithium93_

Huh the blonde streak in Rollins hair is gone.

PTH2009

Cena to be in the mitb match ??:

Rollins back is best for business

Lithium93_

PTH2009 wrote: »

Cena to be in the mitb match ??:

Rollins back is best for business

Yes, yes it is

Scavenger XIII

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Huh the blonde streak in Rollins hair is gone.

Looked like he was already letting it grow out before he was injured.

J. Marston

Good man, Seth. Stay heel.

connemara man

Awh the crowd wanted to cheer him. Ah well

A fued of booos lovely

Faugheen

Rollins is still a heel. Jesus Christ.

Lithium93_

OH FUCK OFF ROMAN

paconnors

Rollins is gold on the mic, like hayman pure genius

Mr.Nice Guy

The guy got an insane reaction and then they have him go heel which totally kills all of the reaction. No one wants to boo him ffs.

They. Are. Idiots.

mrkiscool2

JBL-"A classic by Roman Reigns" What, did he have a match with himself? Fcuking hate Vince.

PTH2009

So reigns will win this fued and go into summerslam as champ ???

Mr.Nice Guy

Nice of Reigns to just stand there politely right in front of the guy who assaulted him last night. There's your badass.

Lithium93_

PTH2009 wrote: »

So reigns will win this fued and go into summerslam as champ ???

Jesus no.

J. Marston

Reigns' contact lenses are ridiculous.

KingJamsie

Fantastic start to RAW

KO would be a great Mr.MITB but rooting for Ambrose here

paconnors

this is a long shot but i'm calling it, Ambrose to win MITB, and making the championship match a Triple Threat?

Maybe.

mrkiscool2

Balor should interfere in the Owens-Styles match, neither man can afford to lose clean, Balor will get the huge pop, everyone will think he will be interfering against Owens but takes out Styles! A man can wish!

PTH2009

KingJamsie wrote: »

Fantastic start to RAW

KO would be a great Mr.MITB but rooting for Ambrose here

Shield world title triple threat main event at summerslam ???.

KingJamsie

PTH2009 wrote: »

Shield world title triple threat main event at summerslam ???.

I bloody hope so, I'm going!!

Mr.Nice Guy

Owens should win MITB as it's better on a heel, but I don't know if they'll go that route since logic isn't the main priority.

I'm still pissed off that they are keeping Rollins heel when he should be face, and keeping Reigns face when he should be heel. I find this idiotic beyond belief.

ricero

I reckon bray wyatt wins the money in the bank

tinpib

ha ha. Who shouted that "He's a diabetic!" when New Day were going to throw the cake at JBL? One of the other new day, I guess.

Mick Murdock

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

The guy got an insane reaction and then they have him go heel which totally kills all of the reaction. No one wants to boo him ffs.

They. Are. Idiots.

Are heels faces and vice versa to Vince now?

He may be a genius in other ways but he is not a wrestling genius. WWE looks more like North Korea everyday.

martyos121

Haha the plasters on Jericho and the expression on his face, might be well past his prime in the ring but everything he does outside of it is gold.

martyos121

Thank god Enzo is back, Cass was dying on the mic without him.

mrkiscool2

Oh yes, please say it's coming, please say Balor is going to appear! The whole AJ and The Club thing is building up to it!

Lord TSC

I really hated this Raw.

I hated that, despite the crowd being so hot for him, they decided to turn Rollins heel, and continue to force the idea of Reigns as a face. The crowd did not want that dynamic. This thing of sacrificing babyfaces, that the crowd are desperate to cheer for, at the alter of Roman Reigns is ridiculous.

I hated AJ's promo. Not just that he was brown-nosing Reigns, but that I don't know what the **** his character is. He's fighting Owens, and doing high-flying moves, so thats being a face. But his "Let's split up" speech had the exact same motivation that Charlotte's did in the very last segment! To me, he came across as an ungrateful ass, giving out that his friends (who actually were always helpful and never cost him anything) needed to leave him alone. He even said about the fans "I don't care what they have to say!". And Gallows and Anderson were the babyfaces in the promo; they didn't attack him, didn't chew him out. They outlined how they were only trying to help their friend, and then walked away from the instigator of the problems!

I hated that there looked to be dissension between Big Cass and Enzo, though (admittedly) that could be down to Cass not being a great actor. I felt he was giving off a vibe of being annoyed with Enzo getting the attention while he did all the hard work, and that it looks like they'll be splitting them. Cass with Enzo as his mouthpiece offers far, far more than just another generic big guy.

I liked Charlotte's promo, somewhat; she was rattled a bit at the beginning by the what chants, and it dragged in places. But she's so unlikeable as a heel, and Ric's line about Dana being Arn to Charlotte's Ric was good.

"I could care less about what the fans think!". Really, Baron? So you DO care then? (That phrase and its misuse is a pet peeve of mine).

As usual, it looks like KO and co are set up to be the only good thing going into the next PPV. But I just really hated the Rollins/Reigns and the AJ segments and the direction they've decided to take

Moneymaker

Ugh, **** this company and the stubborn old man in charge.

All the great wrestling they put out(and they do), it means **** all doesn't it?

Haven't watched a Raw in two months now and I don't see any sign of that changing.

The bits I have seen remind me of 98-99 WCW so much it's untrue. And the commentary. Oh god.

Yup i'll stick with LU, NJPW and ROH thanks.

Pinkman

Obviously it's farcical to keep Rollins heel when he got the biggest reaction of anyone bar Shane's return this year. Hopefully he doesn't stay heel for too long or if he does that it isn't just a continuation of the chicken **** heel from last year as that had run it's course. I am sure they planned to have him return as a face as they knew he would get the huge reaction he got but given the lack of top heels right now they didn't have an option but to keep him heel. If Vince wasn't so incredibly stubborn and had have actually turned Reigns heel and align himself with the Authority, a feud with a mega over face Rollins would've been a huge draw.

Depp

we need a good heel for roman the fans love him-wwe creative

seth rollins doing his living best to create heat then roman gets ten times more just by walking out...do they have any grip on reality, might aswell have had him superman punch shane and spear seth make him look strong!

Moneymaker

Depp wrote: »

we need a good heel for roman the fans love him-wwe creative

seth rollins doing his living best to create heat then roman gets ten times more just by walking out...do they have any grip on reality, might aswell have had him superman punch shane and spear seth make him look strong!

Vince doesn't. And I don't think he ever did tbh.

Depp

Moneymaker wrote: »

Vince doesn't. And I don't think he ever did tbh.

maybe its part of vinces plan? forcing is after generating more heat than any heel turn ever could have!

Bounty Hunter

Surely this is now set up for The Club to beat down on AJ or for them to somehow end up in a match against each other at the next PPV when Devitt then appears, afterall AJ is now finished with his main event program and has been replaced by Rollins and his only storyline is that he does not want to be associated with Gallows & Anderson anymore. That would suggest to me at least that the only logical (ahh thats where the WWE falls down) next booking step would be for them to attack him for turning his back on them and their ways and point out that AJ was never their real leader anyway just a stand in for Balor as the club is then re-christened Balor Club.

If their is a handicap match for example at MITB and he debuts there it's be ideal as it'd allow them to feud up to Summerslam where they would face off (Finn & AJ).

MITB: out of who is in it so far I would say Owens as it suits a heel the most and he is the guy who could easily be a main event player in both the fans and the companies eyes. That said if he was fit in time to get entered into it I also wouldn't be shocked if Bray Wyatt was a potential winner.

Cena back next week, maybe to challenge Rusev although it would also make sense if he first faced off vs ADR who claims to have put him on the shelf then at Summerslam it could be a Wrestlemania 31 rematch vs Rusev for the title. sadly I think Rusev will be a transitional champ but him retaining till summerslam would at least be preferential to losing it next week on Raw.

Nody

Moneymaker wrote: »

Vince doesn't. And I don't think he ever did tbh.

Going through Hitman's book at the moment and if his side is to be believed then that is a very true statement; Vince fascination with Big Men goes back over 30 years...

Angron

Of the guys in it right now, I want Owens or Dean to win MitB. The thing is, if Dean cashed in on Roman then he'd be heel in WWE eyes most likely, another decision without a shred of logic behind it.

It's funny TSC, I was just thinking earlier how many people had been sacrificed on the Alter of Roman. Rollins, Dean, Bray, Trips, Seth, AJ now. It's all well and good to have good matches like he did against AJ, but I don't think anyone believed for one second that AJ was ever going to win, so what's the bloody point?

Edit: one last thing, hopefully that's the last we see of Ric for a good long time.

Lord TSC

Angron wrote: »

Edit: one last thing, hopefully that's the last we see of Ric for a good long time.

I'll be honest, I find Ric to be one of the few entertaining characters on the show. Given the Dana link, and the fact Sasha is out hurt, I wonder would they have Ric go and side with Becky to challenge Charlotte. The two have such fun chemistry together, and Flair managing Becky to a title win would do be the natural progression to the story of Charlotte dropping Ric.

CSF

To be honest, Rollins was the last hope for someone to get behind. All hope is now dead.

Angron

Lord TSC wrote: »

I'll be honest, I find Ric to be one of the few entertaining characters on the show. Given the Dana link, and the fact Sasha is out hurt, I wonder would they have Ric go and side with Becky to challenge Charlotte. The two have such fun chemistry together, and Flair managing Becky to a title win would do be the natural progression to the story of Charlotte dropping Ric.

Fair enough, I was just tired of the regular interference more than the man himself to be honest.

Furious-Red

Lord TSC wrote: »

I'll be honest, I find Ric to be one of the few entertaining characters on the show. Given the Dana link, and the fact Sasha is out hurt, I wonder would they have Ric go and side with Becky to challenge Charlotte. The two have such fun chemistry together, and Flair managing Becky to a title win would do be the natural progression to the story of Charlotte dropping Ric.

I was thinking the same have Becky and Flair together to go up against Charlotte and Dana. They would have to have Becky win the title . You could have Becky vs Charlotte where Becky needs back up , but Dana and Charlotte have taken out the likes of Nattie or Paige. Then at the PPV have Flairs music hit to be in Beckys corner

LightsStillOn

As much as I love heel Rollins, and he was brilliant last night in his promo the way he turned on the crowd, it's frustrating beyond belief that they are running with good guy Roman still. If they ever had the perfect chance to turn him, it was last night. But instead we'll get more "I'm the guy" ****e from him until he more than likely beats Seth at MITB keeping the title.

CSF

LightsStillOn wrote: »

As much as I love heel Rollins, and he was brilliant last night in his promo the way he turned on the crowd, it's frustrating beyond belief that they are running with good guy Roman still. If they ever had the perfect chance to turn him, it was last night. But instead we'll get more "I'm the guy" ****e from him until he more than likely beats Seth at MITB keeping the title.

I don't think there's even a more than likely about it. Seth will be just another pawn in the quest to get Roman over. And then when he loses he will probably be given promos to do about how impressed he was by Roman. It's getting and more offensive to the audience by the week.

Depp

CSF wrote: »

I don't think there's even a more than likely about it. Seth will be just another pawn in the quest to get Roman over. And then when he loses he will probably be given promos to do about how impressed he was by Roman. It's getting and more offensive to the audience by the week.

yeah can definitely see that happening, build it up and build it up for the next few weeks then at mitb seth and roman have a back and forth match, seth looks to be getting the upper hand then bam, spear, christ roman looks strong! hopefully im wrong!

The White Feather

Lord TSC wrote: »

I really hated this Raw.

I hated that, despite the crowd being so hot for him, they decided to turn Rollins heel, and continue to force the idea of Reigns as a face. The crowd did not want that dynamic. This thing of sacrificing babyfaces, that the crowd are desperate to cheer for, at the alter of Roman Reigns is ridiculous.

Moneymaker wrote: »

Ugh, **** this company and the stubborn old man in charge.

All the great wrestling they put out(and they do), it means **** all doesn't it?

Haven't watched a Raw in two months now and I don't see any sign of that changing.

Today I had a quick read of the spoilers before I watch Raw and after reading Rollins still heel and Reigns still face, I don't think I will bother watching Raw this week.

Couldn't agree more with all the comments above.

AJ seems to have turned into enhancement talent now.I know someone has to lose but he rarely hits the Styles Clash and if he does they kick out.

WWE seems to have forgot all the basics of why people watch wrestling.We want to cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys, not be told who to boo and cheer.

Cody Rhodes parting statement said a lot.They put you in a box and thats where you go.No matter what ideas you come up with or how much you are cheered, if you aren't anointed then you won't go far.

Remember Ryback had great momentum once? Getting cheered a lot and huge feed me more chants? Nothing happened. Same for Ziggler. I don't like either one of them but they were slowly getting me on board at the time.

Cesaro had the same momentum with the swing but obviously told stop doing it.That was the time to turn him but they wasted the moment. now he is a face but he is starting from scratch.

Sandow was given an awful role but made it work.Eventually released when surely there should be something for him.

Zack Ryder went out and did his own internet show and got over. This year he wins a title and immediately loses it.Come on!

R-Truth was getting over with little Jimmy but that was ended.

Wade Barrett had the Nexus then ended.

The list goes on and on. Daniel Bryan was the only guy to make them change their mind.

I know there are a lot of variables in all those guys and its not all WWEs fault but they should let the guys grow organically and see how far the go.

I'm sick of the current product and then it gets worse with Foley saying Reigns is great now. I liked him originally but now I cant stand him as he seems to represent all thats wrong with WWE.

Sorry for my rant but to have something that was always fun, to now just be by the numbers is very disheartening.

Mr.Nice Guy

I'm going to take a break from Raw from now on. Last night left me feeling very worn out with WWE. I had hoped that Rollins would return as a big babyface star and be a breath of fresh air, but it's just a case of same old, same old. Even Rollins' backstage interaction with Stephanie left him looking small-time and put her over more, as usual.

The matches were good but nothing feels like it makes sense. Even little things like Apollo Crews getting assaulted by Sheamus and then coming out later all happy and smiling like it never happened.

I need a break from it. I'll read up on what happens and will check out the Cena return segment, but unless Balor debuts, or Brock returns, I won't be watching the shows. It's not fun for me any more.

ricero

I dont bother much with raw. Watch the segments that sound interesting on youtube the next day and just watch the ppv's