WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, and Grades for July 30, 2018

Photo Source: WWE.com via Twitter

Well, That Was a Terrible Weekend…

Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw kicked off with a pair of in memoriam graphics for Brian Christopher and Nikolai Volkoff, who both passed away this weekend. It was a pretty awful string of events for the wrestling industry, as Brickhouse Brown also passed.

Volkoff, a Hall of Famer, and Christopher, a big part of the Attitude Era, both made their biggest impacts in wrestling with WWE. Our thoughts go out to the families of all three performers.

Oh, So THAT’s What the Universal Championship Looks Like…

Before Roman Reigns makes his way to the ring, the image at the top of this page reminded the WWE Universe just how the main title on Raw appears. If you only watch Raw, well, first of all, try branching out a bit. But if Mondays are your only viewing time for WWE, you haven’t seen that belt “in person” since around WrestleMania.

Once this segment gets under way, there’s absolutely nothing new about it. We get the same old Reigns talking points — Brock doesn’t come to work! He’s a punk! He doesn’t want any part of me! — and the same old Paul Heyman bits — You don’t have a chance against my Beast! This isn’t a prediction, it’s a spoiler! Brock will take the title back to UFC!

What we didn’t get? An appearance by Lesnar himself, because WWE has taken this angle into almost self-parody. Don’t like that Lesnar never shows up? Well, we’re gonna have him show up, but not actually come out for the crowd. How do you like them apples?

So long run, nothing happens — though Roman did get a decent pop for calling Brock a naughty word. And even though nothing really happened, Roman is sort of getting cheered, and Heyman is getting boos for Brock. It’s like the George W. Bush version of “Mission Accomplished,” and it took less than 15 minutes to do it. That leaves more room for rasslin’ tonight, so I’ll accept it.