WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, and Analysis for August 13, 2018

Photo Source: WWE.com via Twitter

Alexa Bliss (w/ Alicia Fox) vs. Ember Moon (w/ Ronda Rousey)

Result: Ember Moon defeated Alexa Bliss via disqualification

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Before getting too far into this, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how noticeable to absence of Jonathan Coachman was — and in a good way. Renee Young, at least in the early stages of the show, didn’t knock anything out of the park, but she didn’t swing and miss. Her insight enhanced the broadcast when it needed enhancing, and she didn’t drone on with no point. Kudos to her for understanding why the WWE Universe is sick of Coach.

On to the match, we’re in pay per view build mode, so that means a bunch of matches on the night will have a lengthy commercial break, followed by an in-match ad break. And that means that those matches will have a hard time getting into a rhythm, which hurts the overall match quality.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1029162178530533376

The finish was the only possible outcome of the match — Bliss being disqualified, thanks to Fox. That certainty kind of took away from the drama, but leading up to it was pretty amazing. Seeing Ember hit the Eclipse on the Raw Women’s Champion was a bit unexpected, but it made sense in context of the match.

And hey, the women’s division opened the show, and was the center of attention for nearly a half hour, including a match that was better than it had any right to be. I’ll take that any day of the week, but especially Monday since I’m watching Raw.