Where Is Brock Lesnar!? Matt Hardy Near Breaking Point

Matt Hardy made his clearest Broken gimmick reference yet, The Miz, Finn Balor and Seth
Rollins had a terrific main event, and Dana Brooke actually had some good-looking offence.
I’m Oli Davis, and this is the 1st May 2017 edition of Monday Night Raw...in -Whoah whoah
whoah, wait a second - what about Brock Lesnar’s Universal Title?
God dammit, timer.
This isn’t the end of this.
Alexa Bliss’ Coronation The show opened with Raw’s women’s division
standing in a horribly staged formation for Alexa Bliss’ coronation as their new champion.
Bliss then embarked on a Miz level promo, seamlessly going through her scripted lines
and occasionally improvising to the crowd’s reactions.
When the audience chanted for Bayley, she snapped back - I know her name.
A scuffle ensued, which turned into all the faces vs all the heels, as these things tend
to do.
Bliss is so good, she set up multiple feuds, making you want to see her get beaten up by
Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James and even Nia Jax down the line.
Bliss won for the heels after raking Bayley in the eyes.
Luke Gallows beat Enzo Amore I’m so thankful we had the Superstar Shake
Up.
It means we get fresh match-ups like Luke Gallows and Enzo Amore.
What Next For Seth Rollins?
After a flukey win against Samoa Joe at Payback, Seth Rollins came out to answer Michael Cole’s
most repeated question that night: what next for Seth Rollins?
Turns out the answer is one of those segments where people keep interrupting each other
to say ‘no, I deserve the next Universal championship opportunity’.
Finn Balor laid his rightful claim - he never lost the belt, after all.
Dean Ambrose came out to say he’s the Intercontinental Champion.
And The Miz said he should be the Intercontinental champion.
Kurt Angle made a Triple Threat match for the show’s main event to decide the No.
1 contender for Dean Ambrose’s Intercon-WAIT, AGAIN, NO.
You’ve done it again.
We were talking about the Universal Championship.
Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa & Jack Gallagher vs Tony Nese, The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar
No time - we’ve got to make all the ropes purple.
Jack Gallagher, Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa beat Tony Nese, The Brian Kendrick and Noam
Dar in a throwaway Cruiserweight six man tag.
Sheamaro Explain Heelmaro cut an in-ring promo explaining why
they viciously turned on Matt & Jeff Hardy the previous night at Payback, wearing some
trendy matching black bomber jackets and kilts - a neat touch to get across they’re bad
guys now, and you should boo both of them, not just Sheamus.
They accused the Hardys of stealing their spotlight and being nothing more than a nostalgia
act.
Right on cue, Matt showed he’s slowly moving on from Team Xtreme, cutting his most Broken
gimmick promo yet and threatening to DELETE them with his trademark-pending hand gesture.
Later on, Angle announced a tag team turmoil match to decide the number 1 contenders next
week.
Apollo Crews beat Heath Slater Apollo Crews beat Heath Slater.
Titus O’Neil took a selfie.
This was fine.
Kurt Angle Update On Strowman and Reigns Both Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns were
off TV selling their Payback injuries from the previous night, which Kurt Angle rather
ridiculously claimed was the most physical match he’d ever seen.
Bray Wyatt interrupted Kurt’s injury update, saying Angle might be in control of Raw, but
Bray’s got the whole world in his hands.
Wyatt is such a good talker, and he effectively established tension with the Raw GM here.
It’s a shame we’ve been conditioned to see him as just talk, where he loses the majority
of his feuds.
Austin Aries beat TJ Perkins Austin Aries beat TJ Perkins in a cracking
match, where TJ worked over the left knee, but tapped in the end to the Last Chancery.
Perkins continued to attack Austin after the match, furthering his weirdly sycophantic
relationship with Neville.
The Miz beat Seth Rollins & Finn Balor As is the WWE way, after being made to look
like an absolute chump in every segment he’s appeared in since the Superstar Shake-Up,
The Miz won a championship opportunity from outta nowhere.
But it’s hard to complain when the match was so good, easily one of WWE’s best television
matches of the year so far.
In a lovely piece of frantic booking, Samoa Joe attacked Rollins and Wyatt took out Balor,
leaving The Miz to steal a victory he didn’t deserve.
Unfortunately, it does mean WWE are rehashing a Smackdown feud from just a few months ago
with Dean Ambrose vs The Miz, but at least the Intercontinental championship is being
prominently featured on Raw.
Oh goddammit, I forgot about the Universal Championship again.
So that was this week’s Raw in about four minutes.
Here’s the usual ratings recap, from top to bottom - In Awe, Cor, AVRAWGE, Poor and
Bore.
I’ll reveal my rating very shortly, but first, vote in the poll above my head to give
yours.
I’ll announce the results in tomorrow’s WrestleTalk News.
The episode finished very strongly with two great matches, but aside from that, it felt
like not much else happened.
There wasn’t anything actively awful, it was just there.
So this week’s Raw is AvRAWge.
Watch my review of the surprisingly good Payback, and Alexa Bliss has responded to reports of
her being the latest victim of private image hacking.
Click the videos to the left to find out more, and press subscribe.
I’ve been Oli Davis and that was wrestling.

Where Is Brock Lesnar!? Matt Hardy Near Breaking Point | WWE Raw, May 1, 2017 Review

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