High Spots: SmackDown got the first stab at doing things in front of a live crowd last week. Now it was Monday Night Raw’s turn. And to be quite honest, it paled in comparison to last week’s Friday night extravaganza. There were some fun highlights worth mentioning here, though. First off, John Cena delivered a pretty strong promo that was all about letting Roman Reigns know he’s gonna pull up on him on SmackDown. He and Riddle had a brief encounter, which was corny as all hell but I still smirked once it happened. The six-man tag team match that followed proved to be one of those barnburners that gave the crowd something substantial to chew on. Mansoor has finally seen the light, it seems! Now he’s going to team up with Ali next week in a match that’s sure to give Mansoor another lesson that will push him further down the dark side. Embrace the hate, Mansoor.
KEITH LEE IS BACK! Man, I was so elated to see the glorious behemoth make his way back to Monday nights. Reality soon set in when he took that disappointing L to Bobby Lashley, however. It was pretty much grand opening, grand closing for the big(ger) guy. Jeff Hardy filled my eyes with tears of nostalgic joy once he came out to his classic 2008 tune “No More Words.” Once those opening chords kicked in, I felt like I was back at that legendary SmackDown WWE Championship celebration he had with all the confetti and fireworks going off. Good times. Oh and he beat Karrion Kross. Which sucks for NXT cause he’s supposed to be their unstoppable killer that reigns supreme as the black and yellow brand’s top champion. Yet he lost in less than three minutes. I can’t stand the guy anyway, so this was a plus in my book.
Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley squared up with each other once again for the Raw Women’s Championship. But at the end of the evening, Nikki A.S.H. swopped in from her secret superhero hideout, cashed in, and ended up holding the big white and red belt once the credits hit the screen. That was a cool way to send off the show. I might hate Nikki’s new gimmick, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love the fact that she finally won her first women’s championship in all of WWE.