WWE Raw: MITB qualifying matches a net positive

WWE immediately pivoted to their next pay-per-view, Money in the Bank, one night after Hell in a Cell. While yes, there was another Hell in a Cell match, the bulk of WWE Raw from Jun. 21 centered on the upcoming PPV.

Having Money in the Bank match qualifiers on WWE Raw added a sense of import and urgency, overall a net positive for what has been a rote show.

Too often when watching WWE, matches rarely have stakes (and relatable ones at that) with the constant 50/50 booking and feel that matches are just there to fill three hours.

However, what WWE did last night was add legitimate interest by placing legitimate stakes on each match, even the main event Hell in a Cell match, a tactic they should employ every week.

Of course, I’ve also written that the best way for WWE to book things and reassert a sense of coherent and viable storytelling is to make every match and feud (with rare exception) about becoming a champion or working toward a championship match.

We had that last night as all five qualifying matches not only had that overtone, but also had each promo about being in the Money in the Bank match add just that little bit of believability in what the wrestlers were saying because of the stakes.

To recap, the five qualifying matches were:

• Ricochet defeating A.J. Styles with the Recoil at 9:53
• Asuka & Naomi defeating Eva Marie and Piper Niv-Doudrop with a Naomi rollup at 2:50
• John Morrison defeating Randy Orton with Starship Pain at 12:41
• Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross defeating Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler with a Cross La Magistral Cradle at 10:09
• Riddle defeating Drew McIntyre with a victory roll at 22:48

The first two men’s matches came as a surprise to many, particularly Ricochet’s victory, as he has found little success on Raw and seemed to be intertwined with Humberto Carrillo in their quest to dethrone United States Champion Sheamus.

Cross debuted a wholesale new character as well, a superheroine that looks like she was cast in the Kick-Ass movies. She said it represents her spirit, and you know what, if anyone can make this work, it’s someone like Cross with all of her spunkiness and complete buy-in of her wrestling characters.

I also hope this leads to the return of WWE producer Shane Helms as “The Hurricane” in a mentor role. He seemingly gave his approval by tweeting, “HERicane.”

To the matches, sure, you can take issue with how the wrestlers in the qualifying matches were chosen, each match showed how much gaining a spot in the Money in the Bank match meant to the wrestlers (except maybe Doudrop).

Yes, all but the last match had distractions leading to the finishes, but you could probably talk yourself into arguing, “The stakes of the matches called for distractions to ensure victories,” and although heelish, it is a sensible line of thought.

While on the women’s side thus far (after one night) only Cross has yet to win the Women’s Champion, all three men who qualified last night have yet to hold a WWE Championship or a Universal/World Heavyweight Championship. While there is a triple threat match next week pitting the losers against each other (all former WWE Champions), there are still three who could be top champions heading into the PPV.

We haven’t even hit Smackdown yet!

Another positive is that these qualifying matches give other wrestlers both a (kayfabe) reason to be upset for their exclusion while also providing them time to be on camera. This segment had Sheamus, Jeff Hardy, Cedric Alexander, and Jinder Mahal (with Veer and Shanky), all complaining about the criteria of who was chosen.

Hardy and Mahal (we can include Sheamus) all make fair points that they’re former WWE Champions…but Alexander makes a fair point that a chance like this should go to a wrestler with potential, to invest in the future. They all have legitimate gripes, and even though Adam Pearce & Sonya Deville shut them down, Mahal strongly hinting he (and his cronies) will take out a qualifier seems to indicate someone (or multiple people) will be replaced.

I also just want to give props to Sheamus for being so entertaining. He was on screen for maybe 90 seconds and stole the segment. I said he was the first quarter in-ring MVP, and he continues to show his brilliance even outside of the ring while recovering from injury.

We also saw the continuation of whatever it is between Mustafa Ali and Mansoor, with Ali telling Mansoor the question Mansoor should be asking is why neither of them was even considered for the qualifying matches.  Ali then tweeted simply about the triple threat match next week, “Oh.”

There were a few, if not negatives, then qualms I did have with the matches last night beyond how the participants were chosen.

First, aside from the McIntyre-Riddle match, the other matches seemed to further stories for the losers of the matches rather than the winners.

Ricochet won…because Styles was distracted by Omos scrapping with The Viking Raiders long enough for Ricochet to recover and hit the Recoil while Styles was midair. This was all to set a match between Styles & Omos vs. The Viking Raiders for the Tag Team Championship at the PPV, telegraphed by their interactions the past few weeks and earlier in the night.

Asuka & Naomi won…because Doudrop (rightfully) wouldn’t take any more crap from Marie and left her to dry. She gave up her chance to be in the Money in the Bank match, but she at least didn’t come off like a dumb babyface just happy to be there. The match was more about furthering whatever relationship exists between Marie and Doudrop (Marie didn’t even know her name and christened her Doudrop).

Morrison won…because The Miz sprayed Orton with the “Drip Stick,” which caused Riddle to ride down on his scooter and chase The Miz around, rolling around in his wheelchair, distracting Orton long enough for Morrison to capitalize and hit Starship Pain. This is tied to Riddle’s victory later, but the Orton-Morrison match had more to do with continuing the RK-Bro story.

Bliss & Cross won…because Bliss distracted Jax by hypnotizing Reginald to the point of him almost striking Jax, allowing Cross to take out Jax and roll up Baszler. This match had more to do with furthering the foursome story between Bliss-Baszler-Jax-Reginald than the new Cross.

While I would have liked more importance placed on the actual winners of the match, I can see the justifications for what WWE booked last night. Still, if that’s the worst critique I have, then the qualifying matches were a net positive indeed.

Let’s see if that holds up this Friday.

On a side note, bravo to Bobby Lashley, M.V.P., Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods. These men are working magic on Raw, and though not on par with what Roman Reigns and crew are doing on Smackdown (no one is, really), they’ve been absolute bright spots the past few weeks, including last night.

I wasn’t a fan of another Hell in a Cell match, but the match itself was fine. It’s what happened after that mattered.

As I tweeted and wrote in my live report for PWTorch.com about that ending image with Lashley holding Woods in The Hurt Lock and M.V.P. looking on with glee as Kingston could only watch from just outside the Cell:

“The pleading anguish in Kingston’s voice and gestures added to the triumphant aggression of Lashley and resigned agony of Woods, gave WWE one of their indelible images of 2021.”

Tremendous, tremendous work.