Biggest winners and losers of last night's RAW (July 27)
Last night's edition of WWE RAW saw a "title change", a new feud, and a veteran looking to become WWE Champion yet again, so enough happened to consider it a notable show. Who got the most and least out of last night's RAW, though? Let's take a look.
RAW Winner: Randy Orton
At the start of RAW, Randy Orton talked about how he was one of the most accomplished stars in WWE, but was missing something. He wanted to be champion again, he said, so he challenged Drew McIntyre to a match at SummerSlam.
There was no new for adornment or embellishment here. Randy Orton has been on a roll this year so it already feels like he's earned a shot at the title. Later on, he would hit the RKO on the Champion to close RAW out.
The story is that Randy Orton is getting a WWE title shot at SummerSlam, so that makes him a winner in any book right now.
Winners: Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler hadn't been doing much of anything on RAW throughout this summer, so setting them up in a feud works for both of them right now. The matches could be a mess, and the same could be the case with the promos, but in terms of their standing in the company, this works to their benefit.
It remains to be seen what will happen between them and who will come out on top here, but (almost) anything is better than being left off TV for extended periods of time. For Shayna Baszler in particular, with all the rumors swirling about how she's completely lost Vince McMahon's favor, it's certainly a welcome step in the right direction for her.
Let's just hope this won't be a slog.
RAW Winner: Mustafa Ali
Mustafa Ali may have lost the match, but he won the night on RAW, as he put up a decent fight against Bobby Lashley. Having been absent from TV for so long, it was a good reminder to viewers about who he is and what he's all about.
Can Mustafa Ali parley this RAW appearance into something bigger? That remains to be decided. Nevertheless, he's been on the right track for the past couple of weeks. The danger is that Vince McMahon will decide he looks like Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, two stars he's already cast off, and will thus dump him in that category. The chairman has made more arbitrary decisions than that over the course of just this year, let alone his career.
If Mustafa Ali can make this into something bigger, though, the man with the heart of gold against a high-rolling villain like MVP sounds like it has the makings of a good feud. The question now becomes if WWE will actually let us see it on RAW?
RAW Loser: Asuka
I don't know what it is, but WWE always seems to have Asuka lose big matches in the worst way possible. She's survived them all up to now and she'll survive this one. At least there was the story about Kairi Sane being attacked backstage here in what just might be her final appearance in the company, so it wasn't a random sort of humiliation like we've seen in the past.
But still, Asuka losing her title by countout, when Sasha Banks never actually "won" the title at Extreme Rules to begin with?
It's just lazy booking, there's really no other way to put it.
This feud probably isn't over, but if the company is willing to go to this convoluted length to make a title change, it probably means she isn't winning it. Perhaps she'll take revenge for Kairi Sane, but we'll have to see.
In any event, the outcome pretty much means that the brand extension, at least in the women's division, is in the water. How else would a SmackDown star hold the RAW Women's Championship?