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

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Finally, Something New

That was possibly the best backstage/locker room segment WWE has produced in a long time. Mojo Rawley got to talk — and he spit straight fire — Bobby Roode looked like he mattered, and the rest of the locker room reacted to the situation logically.

Whoever put this together should be promoted.

Apollo Crews (w/ Titus O’Neil & Dana Brooke) vs. Akam (w/ Rezar)

Result: Apollo Crews defeated Akam via pinfall

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars

Ah, the ol’ “let’s build to a tag team match by having a bunch of singles matches first!” plan of attack. Already looking forward to next week, when Titus gets smoked by Rezar.

For what it was, the match was pretty good. It just wasn’t anything, though. Two minutes out of a three hour show? How can you put anything meaningful together in that short a time frame?

But credit to Crews, who quite literally got in all his stuff and looked like the can’t-miss superstar he was upon his NXT debut. The crowd was pretty quiet, but there was a murmur as he started his finish sequence.

Something that shouldn’t be overlooked: the Authors of Pain are a dominant tag team, but are pretty much untested as singles superstars. Crews (and Titus) have much more singles experience, even though they’ve been more of a tag team lately. So in a singles match, that experience factor played a big role in the outcome. Akam couldn’t hang without his partner.

That’s fine, especially if you’re building up a dominant tag team. Akam was out of his element here, and it showed. That kind of finish doesn’t hurt the Authors at all, and it makes Apollo look like a contender. Great finish.