Welcome to the WWE Raw Review for October 15, 2018. For both this and Smackdown, I will go over what the big talking points were, pick the match of the night, and look ahead to the next show.
Cracks
Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre had a match to qualify for the WWE World Cup. These two can not have a bad match, and it was nice for Rollins to fight someone other then Dolph Ziggler. Rollins won the match after Dean Ambrose stopped Ziggler from interfering. Ambrose was not fully back on the team, as he had words with Rollins after the match. Ambrose would have a match with Ziggler, but would lose after he chose to save Rollins from McIntyre. This led to a shoving match that had to be broken up by Roman Reigns. Ambrose is being pushed a little too hard to to turn heel, making me think someone else will turn.
Hard Truths
Rhonda Rousey came to the ring and called out the Bella Twins for their attack last week. Nikki did most of the talking, making some valid points that they made Diva a term to be respected. They also said that their reality show and business empire has put more women in the seats. Rousey then pointed out that these two mooch off their men, John Cena and Daniel Bryan. Rousey started off shakey, but by the end she was much better. Bringing up Bryan and Cena might have been out of line, but not out of story line.
Return
Raw had a quite a few returns, and they were all on the women’s side. First Tamina made her return and she and Nia Jax picked up right where they left off. It seems that at Evolution, there will be a battle royal with the winner getting a shot at their respect championship. Sasha Banks also returned, helping Bayley and Natalya fight off the Riott Squad. Its good to see the women coming back from injury in time for the all women’s pay-per-view as no one wants to miss this.
Match of the Night
Braun Strowman & Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs. The Shield (The Shield wins by pinfall)
These six men could wrestle each other and their matches would still not be boring. They seem to put a little something different in each one. This match was focused on Ambrose and would he get along with his brothers. While WWE had you focused on that, you didn’t notice that the other team was starting to implode. After some friendly fire, The Shield was victorious. This did not see well with Braun Strowman as he attacked Ziggler and then was put down by McIntyre. It’s worth noting that McIntyre did not come to Ziggler’s aid.
Conclusion
The Authors of Pain beat up “Kurt Angle”, but Corbin got attacked after the match by the Olympic athlete. Apollo Crews attacked Elias. Bobby Lashley destroyed Tyler Breeze. Finn Balor beat Jinder Mahl.
