It’s the go-home RAW for SummerSlam weekend and the preview for the show is super-vague. Shawn Michaels will be making an appearance. Rey Mysterio might be making an appearance. And more superstars will be trying out Shane McMahon’s RAW Underground. With the biggest show of the summer on Sunday, there’s bound to be much much more going on.
I’m Amanda and this is the RAW review.
Match Results
Apollo Crews def. Shelton Benjamin
Angel Garza def. Ivar
Natalya def. Mickie James
Asuka & Shayna Baszler def. The Golden Role Models (Sasha Banks & Bayley)
Peyton Royce def. Ruby Riott
Cedric Alexander def. Akira Tozawa
Montez Ford def. Andrade

The Show
The Then, Now, Forever opening bit was messed up. Is RETRIBUTION getting the technical difficulties underway early? It would seem so as they were the first thing commentary talked about.
♦ Drew McIntyre opened the show proper to talk about Randy Orton and what he did to Ric Flair last week. He said Flair was Orton’s mentor protector and friend and Orton is pure evil. But at SummerSlam, Orton isn’t facing a 71-year-old man, he’s facing a six-foot-five Scottish fire breathing dragon who will severely hurt him.
There were increasingly bad ‘technical issues’ throughout the segment, and it was effectively ended by the cameras cutting to RETRIBUTION in the TV truck. McIntyre was still talking, but we couldn’t hear him properly, we just got to see the chaos that unfolded in the truck. Then they went for a break.
After the break, McIntyre came across a bunch of superstars arguing and said he doesn’t know if they’ll even get to SummerSlam if RETRIBUTION aren’t stopped. He was organising them, but Seth Rollins arrived and tried to take over. They argued about whether Rollins is a leader and McIntyre pointed out the locker room have no respect for him. The locker room agreed. Ricochet and Cedric Alexander said they’d heard Rey Mysterio was going to be there, but Rollins didn’t believe them. McIntyre and Murphy nearly came to blows when McIntyre threatened to drop Rollins where he stood, but Rollins and Murphy eventually left.
♦ The Hurt Business came out to call out RETRIBUTION. MVP thinks he knows what’s going on. He thinks it is all something Apollo Crews came up with to stop MVP beating him.
Crews thought it was hilarious and said MVP was just making excuses. There was arguing then Crews posed a challenge. He wanted another match against Shelton Benjamin and if he wins then Benjamin and Lashley will be banned from ringside at SummerSlam.
Apollo Crews vs Shelton Benjamin was interrupted by R-Truth taking a shortcut through the ring, closely followed by Akira Tozawa and his ninjas. When Benjamin went back over to Crews after they left, Crews pinned him. MVP and Lashley immediately started the beatdown. Cedric Alexander, Ricochet, and Mustafa Ali ran down to make the save.
R-Truth ran back to ringside after the match, got kicked in the face by Shelton Benjamin, and lost the 24/7 Championship.
MVP was still furious and challenged Crews to find two other people to face The Hurt Business in a six-man tag later.

♦ Ivar stole Demi Burnett from Angel Garza. Garza gave her a rose. Ivar gave her a turkey leg and invited her to RAW Underground. Then they went off to have a match and left her standing alone. Angelo Dawkins chatted her up while she was watching them fight from backstage.
Ivar vs Angel Garza was fun. Erik was at ringside, as were Andrade and Zelina Vega. Garza got thrown around in and out of the ring, although Vega stopped him getting squished with a suicide dive. Garza caught Ivar with a smack in the head when he was climbing back into the ring and quickly followed it with a dropkick to the head for the pin.
Demi Burnett and Angelo Dawkins appeared on the big screen. She congratulated Garza, then Dawkins started taunting him about Charlie Caruso and about the company Garza has been keeping. When Dawkins threatened to put a video on Garza ran off backstage and Samoa Joe started laughing. Zelina Vega made him explain and he said that as part of the attempts to stop RETRIBUTION WWE have been going through thousands of hours of security footage. He thinks Vega will find it very interesting because it says a lot about how far people are willing to go when they think no one is watching.
After the break, Garza, Vega, and Andrade really wanted that video. Charly Caruso arrived and asked Dawkins what was on it, so he showed it. The video was Zelina Vega putting something in a red cup so she did poison Montez Ford. Vega denied it, but the game was up. Ford is back though. He ended the segment when he and Dawkins jumped Andrade and Garza.

♦ Mickie James vs Natalya, with Lana, happened. It was nice to see Mickie James back. Seth Rollins and Murphy arrived in the middle of it to demand to know how Samoa Joe knows Rey Mysterio will be there. That was just damned disrespectful. Natalya won by count-out while Lana filmed it all for social media until Mickie James kicked her to the floor.
Rollins carried on talking and said if Rey or Dominik Mysterio shows up tonight it will be the last thing they ever do and neither of them will make it to SummerSlam. Joe looked mildly amused as Rollins stormed off in a huff.

♦ In amongst Sasha Banks and Bayley’s pre-match ramblings, they revealed that they will be defending the tag titles at Payback a week on Sunday. They also said Bayley would fight Asuka first at SummerSlam, but that’s not necessarily their decision to make.
Shayna Baszler brought them down to earth when she made her entrance by telling Banks that whoever wins the RAW Women’s Championship match will be facing her next.
Asuka arrived and told Baszler ‘You have to fight with me before you fight against me’.
The Golden Role Models vs Asuka & Shayna Baszler started well enough. A minute or so in, Nia Jax came out of the crowd, by knocking a plexiglass barricade onto and attacking Baszler and they had a brawl in the timekeeper’s area. That left Asuka alone but she was doing fine going into a break. She was doing less well when we came back and Baszler was still nowhere in sight. Baszler arrived back just in time to stop Asuka tapping out in a Bank Statement and Asuka tagged her in.
A backstabber from Banks followed by a Bayley to Belly wasn’t enough to put Baszler away and a second double team resulted in Banks being thrown from the ring. She made it back in time to break the Kirifuda Clutch but Asuka took her out of the ring and locked her in an Asuka Lock. While Banks was ineffectually tapping on the floor, Bayley tapped out to a second Kirifuda Clutch in the ring.

♦ Apollo Crews chose Ricochet and Mustafa Ali for his partners because Cedric Alexander took a Full Nelson earlier. Alexander protested and seemed frustrated, but looked to have accepted it when they all walked away together.
♦ Shawn Michaels chatted to Drew McIntyre backstage. He said he understands how upset McIntyre is, but Randy Orton will use that against him. McIntyre has to refocus and kick his head off at SummerSlam. He’s worked too hard and travelled too rough of a road to give up now.
Drew McIntyre said he wanted Michaels to know how important he’s been to him making it. He’s why he came back to NXT and they spent a lot of hours together, but he feels like he’s let him down letting Orton take all the legends down. Michaels said that’s not true and boosted him up some more. Michaels was going to face Randy Orton later and he made McIntyre promise to give him his space.
♦ The IIconics argued with Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan again backstage. Billie Kay was telling Riott she’s hurt her shoulder so Peyton Royce will be facing her instead.
As Riott and Morgan walked away, Shayna Baszler was shown talking to Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir.
Of course, the finish of Ruby Riott vs Peyton Royce was complicated. They were on the outside and Liv Morgan got between Riott and Billie Kay. Royce shoved Riott from behind and she knocked Morgan over. By the time Morgan was sat up again, Riott had been pinned.

♦ Erik won the first RAW Underground match of the night. Shane McMahon interviewed Dolph Ziggler, who only gave Erik a four out of ten. Erik invited him to take him on and Ziggler took him up on it. Ziggler won with a chokehold and a thumb in the eye then Ivar charged him into the crowd.

♦ Rey Mysterio did turn up. He said he’s felt a lot of pain since Extreme Rules. Partly from his eye, but mainly because of what Rollins has done to Dominik. There was some rage as well. He needed to be there to take the beating for him. To protect him. He’s not fully recovered and doctors say he may never be. But no doctor can stop him protecting his son so he’s going to be in Dominik’s corner at SummerSlam. Dominik Mysterio vs Seth Rollin at SummerSlam will be a street fight. Dominik said he appreciates it but he knew what he was signing up for and he’ll be ready. Rey told him he’s proud of him, he loves him, and his determination and will to defend the family name. And if Rollins does anything tonight then he will be the one who doesn’t make it to SummerSlam.
Rollins appeared on the big screen with Murphy and accused Rey of putting Dominik in harm’s way because of selfishness, then waffled on about the greater good again. He said it wouldn’t just be Rey or Dominik, it would be the Mysterio legacy that ended up being the sacrifice for the greater good. Rey told him to come to the ring and Rollins pointed out Rey has one eye and Dominik could barely stand up after last week’s beating. He agreed though and out they came with Rollins taking his jacket off and loosening his tie on the route. The Mysterios left the ring as Rollins and Murphy got in, and Rey distracted them while Dominik grabbed two kendo sticks. Neither Rollins nor Murphy took quite the beating Dominik did last week, but they took a good amount of hits before they escaped.

♦ MVP tried to take advantage of Cedric Alexander’s frustration at being left out. He sowed some seeds of doubt then left Alexander to mull it over. After he left, Alexander threw his water bottle in frustration. Just maybe he’s considering it.
♦ Arturo Ruas and Riddick Moss faced off in the next RAW Underground. They rolled out of the ring and started fighting the crowd.
♦ The Hurt Business vs Apollo Crews, Ricochet, & Mustafa Ali was an elimination match. Ali and Ricochet went out less than a minute apart, leaving Crews in a three on one situation. He made it two on one by eliminating Shelton Benjamin. Then Cedric Alexander appeared and pinned Benjamin on the outside for the 24/7 title. After the break, Crews eliminated MVP as well, but Lashley was on him in an instant. It looked like Crews might get a clean sweep, but he got caught with a spear and pinned. MVP and Benjamin came back to celebrate but Crews was already broken enough that all they did was yell at him a bit and aim a couple of half-hearted kicks in his direction.

♦ Cedric Alexander vs Akira Tozawa – 24/7 Championship match – ended with Alexander retaining despite attempted ninja interference. He got seconds to celebrate before getting pinned by Shelton Benjamin.

♦ Next week on RAW Underground, Ivar will face Dolph Ziggler. This week, Marina Shafir debuted with a submission victory then got knocked down by Nia Jax. Jax also kicked Jessamyn Duke in the face. That got Shayna Baszler’s attention and McMahon set them up to fight, but Jax left when the bell rang.
♦ Montez Ford vs Andrade was Ford’s chance to prove he’d recovered and get some measure of revenge for being poisoned. Zelina Vega tried to interfere when it became clear it wasn’t going to be Andrade’s night, but Bianca Belair appeared. Vega launched herself off the apron at Belair. Belair caught her and slammed her into the floor. Ford pinned Andrade off the distraction.

♦ Shawn Michaels closed the show and started by showing, again, Ric Flair opening up to Randy Orton before Orton took him out last week. He talked about how much Ric Flair loved wrestling and how without him there would be no Shawn Michaels, or any number of current superstars and legends, including Randy Orton. He discussed Orton’s sense of entitlement rather than appreciation of Flair’s mentorship and assured him that one way or another, at SummerSlam, whether it’s a Sweet Chin music or a Claymore, Orton will see it coming.
Michaels, however, didn’t see it coming. He took an RKO as he was leaving the ring, quickly followed by a punt kick before Drew McIntyre got to the ring. Orton escaped then snuck back and tried to blindside McIntyre. McIntyre was ready for him and threw Orton around at ringside while an official attended to Shawn Michaels. When McIntyre went back to Michaels, having thrown Orton over the announce desk, he didn’t watch his back. Orton caught him with the RKO and left him struggling to his feet to end the show.

WWE are introducing The Thunderdome for SummerSlam weekend. It’s a virtual fan experience with big TVs and all kinds of bells and whistles. It starts on Friday’s SmackDown, so be sure to check it out then.