A Room with a Review: Raw 06/22/20

Who’s excited for four championship matches? What if I told you they took up fewer than thirty minutes of this three-hour show?

• Street Clothes Drew McIntyre is kicking off the show. He is interrupted by Street Clothes Dolph Ziggler, who has gone full WCW Jericho with his hair. He lets everyone know that he and Robert Roode are the pieces that came to Raw to complete the AJ Styles trade to SmackDown. Ziggler asks for a WWE Title match at Extreme Rules, claiming that he was the one that helped Drew get to where he is today. Drew calls him an entitled jackass, but he does need an opponent for the pay-per-view. Drew accepts the challenge.

• Nia Jax comes to the ring and complains about how unfairly she’s been treated lately. R-Truth comes to the ring in full What’s Up glory. He says he’s supposed to fight Akira Tozawa and asks Nia if she’s secretly Tozawa in disguise. The real Tozawa and his ninjas show up and chase after Truth. Charlotte comes out and says that Nia blew her last two title opportunities. Nia says Charlotte keeps getting chances because of her dad. They throw hands and have to be separated.

• Time for the weekly recap of the Viking Raiders/Street Profits interminable saga. The Profits are backstage, and they tell the Raiders that they are friends now, but things are on once that bell rings. Erik says they better bring the smoke. They walk off together and into a commercial break.

• Time for the Raw Tag Team Championship match. It’s The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford). Ford flips over the top rope to try and hurricanrana Erik, but the Viking catches him with ease and slings Ford into Dawkins. It was a fun match with the Profits retaining after a giant frog splash by Montez Ford. While they celebrate in the ring, Andrade and Angel Garza jump Ford and Dawkins. They get their licks in until Erik and Ivar chase them off.

• Seth Rollins is in some kind of trance backstage and tells his disciples that he has a message for Rey Mysterio. 

• Charly Caruso runs into Zelina Vega’s crew backstage. Vega says they have put their differences aside and are ready to go after the gold.

• Next up is the Raw Women’s Championship match. It’s Asuka against her greatest nemesis, Charlotte Flair. Nia Jax is watching on a TV backstage. Such a great bout between these two, like always. Finally, Asuka defeats Flair via the Asuka Lock. Thank goodness.

• Charly asks Nia if her fight with Charlotte earlier may have contributed to Flair’s loss. Jax says it would be a shame if somebody were to kick the Queen while she’s down.

• After a recap of the rebirth of the Legend Killer, Edge is in a ring in a darkened room. He says Randy Orton beat him, but he doesn’t think Randy can call himself the greatest wrestler ever. Edge says Orton hit him with an “accidental” low blow. He vows to destroy Randy, bit by bit, and says Orton woke up the Rated-R Superstar.

• Charly finds Orton backstage, and Randy says snakes strike out when they feel threatened. 

• Nia jumps Charlotte backstage and slams the lid of a storage bin onto her already injured arm.

• Time for Truth vs. Tozawa, who sends his ninjas out of the ring. Before the match starts, though, Bobby Lashley comes down and takes out all of the ninjas. He and MVP get in the ring and Lashley puts him in the full nelson. Tozawa takes advantage of the unconscious R-Truth to win the 24-7 Championship.

• Natalya tells Sarah Schreiber that with Becky out and Charlotte possibly injured, the women’s division needs her leadership now more than ever.

• After the commercial break, it’s Liv Morgan vs. Natalya in a blonde-off. Lana accompanies Nattie to the ring to provide extra blonde energy. She provides a distraction, and Nattie slaps on the Sharpshooter. I guess it’s time for her quarterly heel turn.

• Speaking of frequent heel turns, Big Show gets stopped by Charly backstage. He’s all about punching ninjas and plugging his Netflix show. He’s also an angry giant who wants to stick up for his friends (aka Edge and Christian).

• WOOOOOO!! It’s Ric Flair, an old man who probably shouldn’t be in a building that featured a COVID patient last week. He calls Randy Orton out so he can name him the greatest wrestler ever. Randy says the voices in his head love being called the Legend Killer. On cue, the Big Show comes out and tells Orton that he’s going to pay. Randy says they are friends, and Show won’t hurt him. He says that some might even call Show a legend. Show drops the mic and says, “let’s go.” Flair and Orton roll out of the ring and head to the back. 

• Time for the final championship match of the evening. It’s the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Sasha Banks and Bayley Dos Straps, against the team that dethroned them the first time around, the IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce). Another good but quick title match tonight, with Sasha getting Peyton to tap to the Bank Statement. After the match, Sasha says she’s jealous of Bayley and her two championships. She wants a title match, so she is issuing a challenge…to Asuka. The Empress of Tomorrow comes down and accepts the challenge, but gets beaten up by the Women’s Tag Team Champions. 

• Sarah finds Lashley and MVP backstage to find out why they beat up R-Truth. He says he’s sending a message to the locker room. MVP says Apollo Crews should give him a call so he can make the United States Champion even greater.

• Backstage, Ruby Riott tries to talk to Liv Morgan. Liv wants nothing to do with her.

• It’s the latest edition of the VIP Lounge. MVP’s guest is Apollo Crews, who is scheduled to face Shelton Benjamin later tonight. MVP offers his services again, but Crews wants nothing to do with it. Shelton comes down, and MVP distracts Apollo long enough for Benjamin to knock him out of the ring. They have another quick match, with Crews getting the win. And as expected, he gets whooped afterward by Shelton and MVP.

• So I guess the main event this week is going to be a talking segment. Rey Mysterio has returned, with his son Dominik by his side. Rey Rey is mad at Dom for the dumb stunt he pulled last week. He says that no matter how big he gets, Dominik will always be his son. Rey says he’ll take care of things by himself, but Dominik says no dice. He calls out Seth Rollins for a fight and Rey continues to be mad at him. Seth comes out to the top of the ramp and says he doesn’t know whether he should go down there and slaughter a man and his son or not. Seth slowly walks down the ramp but stops as his disciples join him. Before they can do anything. Aleister Black and Humberto Carillo jump them. The Mysterios have Rollins under control and try to take out his eye on the ring steps, but Murphy and Plain Vanilla-ass Austin Theory are able to free the Monday Night Messiah. He tries to take out Dom’s eye, but Carillo and Black come around the corner with chairs, chasing off the bad guys.

For all of the excitement of four title matches, none of them lasted longer than 10 minutes. Which match would you like to see given more time? Let me know in the comment section below.

Please follow and like us: