For another week, WWE remains in flux as we await the debut of the live Smackdown, the Draft, and the new Brand Extension. But hey, there’s a PPV in two weeks, and matches need to be made, especially after last week was a throwaway episode due to the Fourth of July holiday. We can only imagine the chaos that ensues in preparation for Raw these days, given that they need to both build storylines for a PPV, while recognizing that most of what’s going on right now is likely moot, due to the brand extension potentially changing the entire playing field next week. As a result, Raw was a combination of highs, lows, and some truly odd choices, all leading to an appearance by Vince McMahon, making a decision that probably surprised absolutely nobody, and yet somehow managing to twist things up ever further in the process.
10. Greatness Is Relative
The show opened this week with an actual match, though by “actual match”, we mean a battle royal to determine the #1 contender to the Intercontinental Championship, which seemed to contain 8 tag teams, a few random midcarders, and the only guy to get a televised entrance, Apollo Crews (who JBL misidentified as Titus O’Neil, for reasons we’ll not speculate about). So, of course, Darren Young, who has spent the last several months not actually wrestling and getting insane pep talks from Bob Backlund, picked up the victory when Crews and Baron Corbin tumbled out of the ring at the same time, leaving Young alone. We’re not sure how this makes Darren Young look like a legitimate contender to The Miz, in fact, we’re pretty sure it doesn’t, but we fully expect Young to now win the Intercontinental Title at Battleground, simply to justify the insane amount of time and effort that went into the whole “Make Darren Young Great Again” push. Although, frankly, watching 66-year old Bob Backlund carry Young around like a baby post-match makes us wonder if maybe ol’Bob shouldn’t be the one getting the title shot.
http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/raw-july-11-2016/gallery/battle-royal-determines-no-1-contender-for-intercontinental-title#fid-40035543 Source: WWE.com