The final segment on the RAW before a pay-per-view has traditionally been an important one. It's supposed to give you the biggest feeling about the upcoming show, and convince you to buy it (when you had to buy it). On Monday night, that important position went to the women.
The final segment of RAW was a contract signing between Charlotte and Natalya. While it went down like a traditional signing, there were a few wrinkles thrown in.
First, Charlotte and Ric actually read the contract before signing, which might be a first in wrestling history. They noticed there was a stipulation that if Ric came down to ringside, Charlotte would be disqualified and the title would go to Natalya. This led Ric to lose his mind, and challenge Shane to a fight. Shane had too much respect to touch Ric, so instead Stephanie stood in and slapped him. Then, as security took Ric away, Charlotte went after Stephanie, but Natalya stopped her and put Charlotte in the Sharpshooter.
The show went off the air with Natalya's music hitting as she held the title up.
This is undoubtedly an important moment, that they felt a go-home segment could be given to the women. No matter how you feel about it, it's a moment that could not have happened a year ago. The cynical side of me says the women were only a small part of it. RAW was in Greensboro, N.C., so they knew Ric coming out would be an extremely important moment to the crowd. Also, it involved Shane and Stephanie heavily, so I wonder how much of a role that played in the placement of the segment.
Regardless of that, though, the show ended with an image of Natalya, and that's important.
Will this just be another step to making the women feel as important as the men in WWE? It's possible. For all we know, we could be getting a women's money in the bank match next month as well as one for the men. They just have to do things right.
The Rest of RAW:
>> Gallows and Anderson faced The Usos in what felt like the typical main event. AJ Styles was with the Goodbrothers, and Roman Reigns was with the Usos. Surprisingly, the Usos won, but the match was a bit irrelevant. The six all ended up brawling, and it ended with Styles hitting a Styles Clash on Reigns on a chair. It's been a somewhat weird build here. It seemed like they were pushing The Club as the faces in the post-Mania main event build. However, this week really gave them a heel feel. The storytelling has been well done to this point, and I think we're going to see it all boil over at Extreme Rules.
>> The Intercontinental title picture continues to be one of the highlights of the show every week. This week it was supposed to be Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn. However, Kevin Owens and The Miz, who were both on commentary, started brawling, and that rolled into the ring. Shane McMahon came out, pulled a Teddy Long and made it a tag match, though Stephanie came out and changed it somewhat, making the rivals team with each other. The match was good, and all four of these men have great chemistry with one another. Sami ended up getting the pin after Cesaro attacked Miz, hitting Miz with the Skull Crushing Finale (after Miz went for the Cesaro Swing).
>> Alberto Del Rio beat Kalisto in a match to hype up Kalisto's title defense against Rusev. Midway through the match, the camera cut backstage, where Rusev was destroying Sin Cara. He ended up dragging Sin Cara down the ramp, which distracted Kalisto and allowed Del Rio to get the win. Rusev attacked Kalisto after the match, hitting him with a vicious superkick and locking in the Accolade. I think Rusev is probably going to win the title at Extreme Rules, and booking him like a monster again is the right move.
>> The Shining Stars made their debut (redebut? Re-re-re-debut?) against some local jobbers. I legitimately don't know what the WWE is thinking here. They came out to near silence, and even them running down Greensboro didn't really help things. But we'll see if it actually goes anywhere (I doubt it). They're using a variation of The Ascension's Fall of Man as a finisher, which can't bode well for The Ascension.
>> Dana Brooke made her RAW match debut, beating Becky Lynch. I feel bad for Dana. Emma was injured over the weekend, so you have to wonder how this will affect her.
>> The New Day had a fantastic segment, where they used a "time machine" to figure out why the Vaudevillains liked the past so much. They made a stop in 2009, where Kofi was reverted to his old gimmick, and was then pulled back while shouting, "Leave me here, 2009 was my best year!" It was great to see the New Day get creative with their segments again. And The New Day with a Time Machine is something you can come back to for endless segments.
>> Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose was made official for Extreme Rules. However, Ambrose said there was a catch involved. It would be the first ever "Asylum" match, which is a cage match with weapons hanging down. We've seen similar matches in TNA before, so we'll see how it translates to WWE.
>> After a phenomenal video package, Goldust and R-Truth finally teamed up, against the villanous Tyler Breeze and Fandango. In a surprise twist, The Golden Truth actually lost, as Truth accidentally hit Goldust. They agreed to keep teaming up after the match though.
>> Big Cass beat Devon in a match, and destroyed both Dudley Boys.
Thoughts? Questions? Leave them in the comment section, email me or find me on Twitter: @TheAOster. You can also find my podcast, Jobbing Out, at https://soundcloud.com/jobbingout