The WWE Raw Reaction for 9/20/21

Welcome to the Raw Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show from Raleigh, NC. You can check out John’s in-depth review here.

We kick off with Promo Time with The New Day. Big E thanked the fans and referenced Luke Harper. The Bloodline is out next and we are ready for our six man tag main event now.

The six man tag was terrific and a great way to start off the show. I thought this would end the show, but it started to counter Monday Night Football. The match went back and forth as you would expect from the two teams. There was a great moment when the two champions squared off against each other. That will be a great match once it happens. How was Bobby Lashley’s interference not a DQ? Anyway, Reigns pinned Woods after a spear before getting demolished after the match by Lashley.

Eva Marie is out next for her rematch against Doudrop. This was the most highly anticipated match of the night, if you were waiting for a kidney stone to pass. Thankfully, it was kept short and Doudrop won yet again. Can these two move on to other things?

The main event gets announced as Bobby Lashley, WWE Champion Big E and Universal Champion Roman Reigns in a triple threat match. That should be amazing.

Up next is Randy Orton taking on AJ Styles. We get treated to a terrific match between the two, as you would expect. Omos got tossed from ringside early to eliminate him as an interference threat. Do check this match out if you missed it. It was that good. Orton picked up the win with an RKO on Styles.

The Three Minute Raw Specials are up next with Shayna Baszler taking on Nia Jax. Baszler finally gets to engage beast mode and wipes out Nia. After the match, Baszler finishes destroying Jax and Shayna has been freed. Let’s just hope that they continue Baszler’s push as a legitimate one and not another one into obscurity.

Our next special is of the tag team variety with the team of Mansoor and Mustafa Ali taking on the team of Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo. Carrillo and Garza are teaming because they are cousins and why not? It’s not like they were busy doing something else. I really like both teams and hope they can get legitimate shots in the tag team division because it’s certainly lacking in the teams department. Carrillo picks up the win for his team.

Our final special has Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley teaming up to take on Natalya and Tamina for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Ripley gets quite emotional talking about Connor’s Cure before the match and Nikki had to guide her along. One question, did we forget about all of those wins that Shotzi and Nox had over the tag champs to get a title match or was that a dark match on some random Smackdown episode? Nikki picked up the title win for her team with a small package on Natalya. Really? That’s it?

Alexa’s Playground is up next with Charlotte Flair as the guest. Flair and Bliss take turns running each other down over their characters over the years. They hype their title match at Extreme Rules and then they fight, because that’s what happens in talk show spots. Flair rips the head off of Charlie before bailing after a DDT. Flair rips Charly apart as she backs up the ramp.

There was a 24/7 Title strategy meeting backstage with Drake Maverick, R-Truth, Akira Tozawa, and Drew Gulak. All that was missing was Wyle E. Coyote and Elmer Fudd. Maybe we can CGI them in next week. Meh.

Jeff Hardy takes on Sheamus to earn a spot in the US Title match at Extreme Rules. The match was good like their Smackdown feud last year. Hardy picked up the win to make the United States Championship match a triple threat match. Glad to see Hardy pick up a win for a change.

Speaking of triple threats, it’s main event time and we now get our triple threat between Bobby Lashley, Big E, and Roman Reigns. The match was as excellent as the opening match. Everyone got their moment and spots. All three had opportunities to pick up the win at various points in the match. In the end, Lashley beat Big E down with a steel chair before eating a spear from Reigns. A simple story of Lashley taking his eyes off the prize and it cost him.

Let take a look at tonight’s highs and lows:

The Highs

We had some great action tonight. Orton/Styles, New Day/Bloodline, and the triple threat all delivered in the action department this week. See what can happen when you actually put a little effort into it?

I really like the Garza/Carrillo team and hope there are bigger things in their future besides hawking Cancun timeshares.

The Lows

Was it really necessary for Roman to pick up the win in both matches tonight? Big E is the brand new WWE Champion and he technically lost both matches. Would it have hurt to build up your new champion with a win in one of the matches?

Why are we back to the Women’s matches being three minutes or less again? Didn’t they learn anything from the #GiveTheDivasAChance movement?

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