5 Takeaways from this week's WWE Raw (2 July 2018)
Seven matches took place as WWE Raw emanated from Sioux Falls, South Dakota this week.
The episode began with a confrontation between Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins, leading to a tag match later in the night, while the first one-on-one encounter of the show saw Curtis Axel record another surprise win over Matt Hardy.
Next up, following the first of two segments showing Sasha Banks and Bayley in counselling with the returning Dr. Shelby, The Authors of Pain defeated Titus Worldwide to continue their undefeated start to life on the main roster.
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Much of the show revolved around Reigns and his multiple storylines at the moment. Teaming with Rollins in his first match of the night, “The Big Dog” and his Shield partner defeated Ziggler & McIntyre via disqualification due to interference from The Revival, who later got themselves disqualified in a tag match against Reigns and Bobby Lashley.
In the women’s division, Ember Moon picked up her first singles victory in six weeks against Liv Morgan, while Nia Jax warmed up for her Raw Women’s Championship rematch against Alexa Bliss by defeating Mickie James.
In the main event, Kevin Owens ran away from Braun Strowman at the start of their match, meaning Strowman won via countout, but the night didn’t end there for KO, as he was locked inside a portable toilet by "The Monster Among Men" and thrown off the stage.
Let’s take a look at five things we learned from this week’s episode.
#5 Will yet another Roman Reigns PPV match be hijacked?
When Roman Reigns’ WrestleMania 34 main event against Brock Lesnar was hijacked from start to finish by the New Orleans crowd, it was a clear sign that fans didn’t want to see “The Big Dog” compete in the headline match at “The Show of Shows” for the fourth year in a row.
Unlike in 2016, when fans gave the same treatment to the Reigns vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania 32 but then audience reactions reverted back to normal, the WWE Universe has continued to let their voices be heard recently when it comes to the Shield member.
Each of his last two PPV matches – against Samoa Joe at Backlash and against Jinder Mahal at Money In The Bank – have been hijacked with chants of "Rusev Day", "CM Punk", "Boring", "NXT", "Delete", and whatever else fans can think of.
With another underwhelming Reigns rivalry expected to be settled at Extreme Rules, this time against Bobby Lashley, it’s safe to assume that the Pittsburgh crowd will probably give a less-than-favourable reaction to two of WWE’s most unpopular ‘babyfaces’.