WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for May 8

Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe

Result: Seth Rollins defeated Samoa Joe via disqualification

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Clearly, tonight is like many of the other UK Raw episodes from the past – lots of treading water.

Did anything really happen this week? Take a look at the major stories that “advanced” on Raw. The number one contenders for the Tag Team Championship are the same team that just had a title match at Payback. The Women’s Champion used devious methods to earn a win – did that happen last week or tonight? (Trick question: It happened BOTH weeks.)

And here, Seth Rollins and Samoa Joe continue to fight it out, and no one can land a decisive victory. Kinda like Payback. The match is good, because both guys are excellent wrestlers who understand what they need to do for the bigger picture. But there’s no meaning behind it, and that makes it suffer overall.

I’m not asking for the big pay per view endings to be given away on free TV, that would be dumb. But why does Rollins have to face Joe tonight? Can’t the story be furthered along if one or both guys had matches against other superstars? Like if Rollins faced Bray Wyatt, and Joe took on Dean Ambrose – wouldn’t that work just as well, if not better? Then you can save Rollins/Joe for another pay per view, but get two other different quality matches out of it.

Not really sure why Joe would be so gung-ho about getting himself disqualified. I would think he’d want to prove himself by winning. But he seems totally okay with losing via DQ. Maybe his job isn’t to win, but to hurt, and Triple H covers him financially when he hurts someone without winning? It’s a little strange, but I can live with it.