5 Takeaways from this week's WWE Raw (9 July 2018)
Six matches took place as WWE Raw emanated from Boston, Massachusetts this week.
The opening segment of the show saw Bobby Lashley confront Roman Reigns in the middle of the ring. The talking didn’t last long, though, and the two men had to be separated by 20+ members of the roster as tensions mounted ahead of their battle at Extreme Rules.
The first match centred around the Raw Women’s Championship storyline, with Nia Jax and Natalya defeating Alexa Bliss and Mickie James when Nia pinned Mickie after a leg drop. Alexa then gave a glimpse of what we can expect at Extreme Rules by striking her upcoming opponent with a kendo stick post-match.
In the night’s other matches, Mojo Rawley defeated No Way Jose and The B-Team’s momentum continued with Bo Dallas recording another win over Matt Hardy, while Ember Moon was victorious against Liv Morgan for the second week in a row.
Elsewhere on the show, a promo segment between Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre set up the final match of the night, and Baron Corbin and Elias teamed up to defeat Bobby Roode and Finn Balor.
Finally, in a brilliant main event, McIntyre picked up a surprise victory over Rollins, meaning the Scot will be allowed at ringside for Sunday’s 30-minute Intercontinental Championship Ironman match between “The Kingslayer” and Ziggler.
Let’s take a look at five things that stood out to us from this week’s episode.
#5 This is the Bobby Lashley we wanted to see!
It took three months but we're finally starting to see the Bobby Lashley we thought we were getting when he returned to WWE after WrestleMania 34 for the first time in a decade.
No more meaningless attacks on Elias that lead to absolutely nothing. No more talk about his sisters. No more awkward promo segments. Just Lashley, legitimately one of the top athletes in WWE, going toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns and showing exactly why he belongs in main-event storylines.
As things stand, it looks like Lashley vs. Reigns, which is unofficially a #1 contender match for the Universal Championship, will go on last at Extreme Rules. If that is the case, let’s just hope the crowd is a little more receptive than recent PPV audiences and they give it a chance from the start instead of hijacking it with irrelevant chants.