WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, and Grades for July 2, 2018

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Titus Worldwide (Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews, w/ Dana Brooke) vs. Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar)

Result: Authors of Pain defeated Titus Worldwide via pinfall

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Last week, the Authors of Pain returned from hiatus to demolish a pair of local competitors. The beatdown was so vicious it drew the attention of Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews, so take one guess as to how that ended up.

Of course, the match is an extended squash, but not by much. O’Neil and Crews are a bit more formidable than local competitors, but they’ve been stopped and started so many times I’ll bet a bunch of people forgot they were even on Raw. It’s a shame, because Crews at least seemed to have everything needed to be a top superstar prior to his ill-advised and early call-up to the main roster.

Right now, though, everything seems to be geared towards Akam and Rezar. Now that they’re back on Raw, it’s clear they’re being groomed for a future title match. But there’s a set of challengers already in place for the Raw Tag Team Championships, so it’s a holding pattern for the AoP.

All we’ll get for the next few weeks is demonstrations of their unmatched strength and power in the tag division. They’ve beaten former SmackDown Tag Team Champions Heath Slater and Rhyno, and now Titus Worldwide. Maybe The Ascension and Breezango will be up next before a title match becomes clear?