WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, and Grades for July 16, 2018

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Elias vs. Seth Rollins vs. Bobby Lashley

Result: Bobby Lashley pinned Elias to win the match

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

In the most predictable of outcomes, Bobby Lashley fulfilled the prophecy foretold a mere three hours ago. Again, the obvious result of the two triple threat matches had to be Lashley facing Reigns in an Extreme Rules rematch, because it’s lazy storytelling. Knowing that the likely plan has always been Reigns vs. Lesnar, the loss at ER is the perfect obstacle for The Big Dog.

Now, because Lashley won his qualifier, Reigns can overcome said loss and prove that he’s got the mettle necessary to go toe to toe with Brock. It works much better than “Reigns wins everything so the crowd constantly turns on him because he’s never dealt with adversity and always gets his way.”

Not that it’s going to work — the crowd will still be awful at SummerSlam. But maybe there’s enough anti-Brock sentiment to work in Reigns’s favor.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1019053566533644288

As far as the main event this week, I don’t think it was quite as good as the first triple threat match. The outcomes of both matches were too predictable, but this one was more so because of the first match. And as much as I love Elias and Rollins, Lashley just doesn;t do anything for me. He’s blown up 30 seconds into a match, and his moveset is the same as a default character in WWE 2K games. Nothing appealing for me.

That’s not to say the match was bad. Rollins himself earned probably 2.75 out of the 3 stars I handed out for this one. He’s slumping a bit (in terms of wins and losses, at least) at the moment, but he’s still killing it in the ring.

And Elias is steadily becoming one of the most reliable performers in the entire company. He’s not at the point where he should be carrying a match himself, but he can definitely keep up with almost anyone he’s in the ring with.

So next week’s main event is set, and we all know how it’s going to end, right? Right. See you next week.

Next: Brock Lesnar Announced for Raw After SummerSlam

What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw?