WWE Raw Results, Highlights, and Grades: Paul Heyman’s influence was clear

WWE Raw forgot they had a women’s division this week, but still delivered quality matches and entertaining segments throughout the show.

With just over a week to go before WWE returns to Saudi Arabia for their latest blood money event Crown Jewel, we got a reluctant taste of what that night will be like. This started with the advertising about the event and segments related directly to that event’s matches but hit a shameful apex when the realization sunk in that WWE wouldn’t be having a single women’s match or segment during the entirety of WWE Raw.

That’s right, not one women’s match. There wasn’t even a hype package talking about WWE Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. On the surface, there first seemed to be a ‘reasoning’ for this as most of WWE’s women’s roster is currently on the tour of Australia.

That’s terrible planning on WWE’s part to not pre-tape some segments or keep behind a few talents to compete on Raw, but it seems even worse considering reports that Natalya and Sarah Logan taped a match before WWE Raw for WWE Main Event. WWE could have easily put that match on Raw and given us a hype package about Becky Lynch, but instead, the women were completely missing in action just a week and change before their Saudi Arabia event, which women aren’t allowed to compete at.

Despite that glaring and unforgivable flaw, much of WWE Raw was actually pretty enjoyable. Paul Heyman seems to have fully settled into his role as creative director for the brand, as his fingerprints could be felt all over the show.

Things got started with some rambling and barely coherent words from Ric Flair to reveal the final member of Team Flair at Crown Jewel, the returning Drew McIntyre. After hyping his presence in that match, McIntyre had a great match against Ricochet that set the tone for good matches throughout the night.

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We heard briefly from Aleister Black backstage, who went on to demolish local talent Jason Reynolds with a Black Mass. The intensity from Aleister Black’s promo was a trend we saw from all of the night’s interview segments, a definite sign of Paul Heyman’s influence. Backstage segments with Aleister Black, Humberto Carrillo, The Street Profits, and The Authors of Pain were all entertaining and interesting moments that helped build up those characters.

Unfortunately, we also saw the furtherance of the horrendous storyline between Rusev, Bobby Lashley, and Lana. It began with Rusev being invited onto King’s Court by host Jerry Lawler. Their awkward back and forth included an interruption via live feed by Lana and Bobby Lashley, who were eating at a local restaurant.

In a fury, Rusev seemed to recognize the restaurant and bolted out of the ring. Later in the night, he finally appeared at that restaurant and attacked Bobby Lashley. While these moments weren’t nearly as problematic or terrible as last week’s massage incident, they were still bad and not enjoyable.

We actually did hear from Paul Heyman himself, speaking as the advocate for WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. He traded words from the entrance screen with a still-injured Rey Mysterio, which was an awkward and uninspiring interaction despite the microphone skill both men possess.

Moments later, Shelton Benjamin came out and talked about being Brock Lesnar’s friend. He began intimidating and threatening Rey Mysterio, which cued Cain Velasquez to make the save and beat down Benjamin. It was a decent scuffle, though we still haven’t even seen a fraction of what Velasquez is capable of.

One of the best parts of the night, and another place Heyman’s influence could be felt, came from a focus on lucha libre stars. Andrade took on Sin Cara in a really fun contest that was a bit of a low key dream match considering the lucha libre skills of each competitor.

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Humberto Carrillo was seen watching the match backstage and talked about the recent actions of WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins in an interview after the match. It was enough to spark a match between the two later in the show, which was a fantastic showcase for Humberto Carrillo against the reigning champion.

Easily the most entertaining thing all night involved the WWE 24/7 Championship. With his backup Carmella drafted to SmackDown, R-Truth was all alone backstage as he tried to hold onto his championship. An ambush by The Singh Brothers led to Sunil Singh capturing the title, and the duo once called The Bollywood Boyz hopped off with their new title in hand.

Later in the show, R-Truth managed to find Samir Singh backstage. He snuck up behind Samir and rolled him up, but the referee didn’t count the pin because it was the wrong Singh Brother. WWE 24/7 Champion Sunil Singh escaped with his brother Samir Singh as R-Truth was left realizing only in that moment that there were indeed two Singh Brothers.