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5 Best WWE Raw Moments 5/16/16: New Day-Lorean by Mitch Nickelson

By Mitch Nickelson • Published 17th May 2016
TJR Wrestling
source // wwe.com
source // wwe.com

Raw came to us from Greensboro, North Carolina on the last stop to WWE Extreme Rules. The show was the typically three hour marathon of highs and lows, with nothing going much lower than the Shining Star tag team (re) debut. The crowd was super quiet for that match.

That’s enough of the negativity from me because this is an article about the best moments of the night. There was plenty to be excited about and I didn’t even have room for Big Cass’ win. Oh well, maybe next time. Here are my 5 best moments as I see it…

5. The Total Diva Wins Again

When Dana Brooke debuted on Raw last week, I was ecstatic. Her arrogant persona is more than refined so she’d be a natural heel opposite of the likable Becky Lynch. But with the terrible news of injury for her pal Emma (and I hope she recovers fully) I was concerned that Brooke’s main roster plans might get derailed. Thankfully for her, her momentum continued on Raw.

https://twitter.com/WAManeuver/status/732356044421136384

Brooke pinned Lynch for a second time (she also defeated her on last week’s SmackDown), making me question at this point if there’s even a need for the two to square off in a match at Extreme Rules. If I had to guess though, they’ll scuffle again in some capacity on this week’s SmackDown to set up something for at least the pre-show on Sunday. Lynch can finally take the W then, but her head will have been thoroughly patted by that point.

4. That Golden Truth Highlight Video

https://twitter.com/mauroranallo/status/732383151641788416

I’m definitely a sucker for a little bit of cheese in my wrestling programming and the video package prior to the official debut of The Golden Truth was in no short supply of it. They pulled clips from seemingly every interaction the two had over the past few months and backed it all up with a Wonder Years-style soundtrack. If you needed a Kleenex to dry your eyes after riding that emotional roller coaster, you’d get no hate from me. It seemed like the two FINALLY were ready for their arrival…only they weren’t.

It was a little surprising that Goldust & R-Truth fell to BreezeDango after Truth nailed his partner directly in the face off of a mistimed kick. It’s also a little surprising that Fandango & R-Truth aren’t packaged under the name FaBreeze – that seemed like the most obvious choice for a winner of a team name. That’s not complaining, though. I’ll take BreezeDango over nothing.

Somebody tell this guy to hush…

The four interacted again post-match to set up the reason why this never-ending angle must still go on. Apparently Golden Truth are the heroic defenders of the previous era while BreezeDango are the dastardly young heels of the New Era. Wait, I thought this New Era was supposed to be a good thing? The booking’s a little wonky here, but I did genuinely get a kick out of the pre-match video.

3. “He’s The Worst One!”

Everything about the Intercontinental Championship feud is great but one of the shiniest stars (not from Puerto Rico, that is) of this division is whenever Kevin Owens opens his mouth. WWE wisely put him and The Miz BOTH on commentary during a supposed Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro match that never got going. When anarchy stopped the contest, a couple of McMahons came out to Teddy Long the action into a tag match.

The line in my heading was my favorite bit of banter from Owens on this night. When it was first announced that he’d be tagging alongside Miz, he offered up that condescending remark. Then, his partner was switched to his arch-nemesis Sami Zayn which was even better.

The match was one of the highlights of the show and I’m expecting some great things from this 4way IC Title Match on Sunday. There’s too much talent for it not to be a show stealer.

2. Styles Clash On A Chair

Roman Reigns defends his WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules against AJ Styles in a match with an eponymous stipulation. They both were at ringside for a tag bout between The Usos and Gallows & Anderson and you just knew that everyone would get involved at some point. It was a little surprising to see Styles’ buddies take the fall so cleanly, but the action after the match made it seem like not as big of a deal.

Everyone in each faction battled it out, leading to a Reigns vs. Styles sequence with a chair inside the ring. Styles was the final man to get his hands on the steel, using it to lay Roman out. Then, he nailed Roman with his signature Styles Clash on top of the metallic seat.

AJ is looking like the man on top going into Extreme Rules, which likely signals that he’s taking the loss. That’s not unexpected. Even if he loses as clean as can be on Sunday I can say that this rivalry has been exceptional. Especially for as much flak as Roman gets as the champ, it’s really turned him around in my eyes. His character seems far less forced as of late.

1. New Day-Lorean

New Day have been one of the most entertaining acts in WWE for a long time. It’s got to be tiring to keep thinking up new shticks to continue being so funny but they really outdid themselves in Greensboro. Behind a sheet in the middle of the ring was an Xavier Woods invention straight out of Gallifrey: a time machine.

Big E called Woods out and said it was nothing more than an empty refrigerator box, but Xavier would have none of that. Big E also asked why the keyboard was sticky and Xavier changed the subject. The humor was on point here.

They initially traveled through time to 2009 when Kofi still had his Jamaican accent, then went all the way back to that bygone era that The Vaudevillains keep referring to. Back then, Booty-O’s were Derriere Squares, smartphones were old-timey regular phones, and video games didn’t exist. New Day deemed that that era sucked. They were then attacked by Aiden English & Simon Gotch and the beautiful New Day-Lorean was destroyed in the brawl, which was a shame.

I could see some people being a little tired of New Day’s humor, but in my mind this was one of the best skits they’ve done. Bravo guys, you three continue to be the standard of what entertaining is.

Plugs

Follow me on Twitter @MitchNickelson. Check out my personal blog at MitchNickelson.com.

Thanks for reading.