RAW In A Nutshell: Red Brand Cruising Toward Crown Jewel

cruising toward crown jewel
source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Happy Monday folks, it’s time for another RAW In A Nutshell. This time around, the red brand is cruising toward Crown Jewel.

The polarizing event is just under two weeks away-next time we see the red brand it will be the go-home show.

So, for now, all the effort is going into prep for Crown Jewel.

As in, setting up the Queen’s Crown. Cruising toward the King of the Ring finals.

All of those, and more, happen at Crown Jewel.

In the meantime, while the red brand is indeed cruising toward Crown Jewel, you can’t help but notice something.

Specifically, while things play out between the draft ending and Crown Jewel wrapping up…

We are enjoying (or is it enduring?) what amount to a bunch of brand-blurring super shows.

The major Superstars from each brand are popping up on the other show, and vice versa.

This week, we have the top four women, two from each brand, having fun in a really questionable tag match.

If that wasn’t enough, Big E and Drew McIntyre battle SmackDown’s Tag Team Champions, Jimmy and Jey Uso.

All of that and much more, happening tonight, in our…

cruising toward crown jewel

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

RAW In A Nutshell: Red Brand Cruising Toward Crown Jewel

So without any more delay, let’s crack open this Nutshell and see what happens.

Best Match of the night:

I honestly can’t pick one.

Worst match of the night:

Baszler beating Dana Brooke, perhaps?

Or, the reunited Hurt Business making quick work of Mansoor and Mustafa Ali.

Star of the Night

Really hard to come up with one.

I mean, Jimmy and Jey looked strong as guest Superstars back in their own backyards…so why not throw them some love.

red brand cruising crown jewel

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Spot of the Night:

Not a spot, per se, but who didn’t see the long-drawn-out attack coming?

Ali finally had enough of do-gooder Mansoor, and attacked him backstage.

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source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

That will no doubt end up being a match we see at Crown Jewel, if I were a betting man.

Jobber of the Night:

Dana Brooke gets my vote. Probably could give some love to Mansoor, too.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

A minor one,  but Drew got busted open during the main event, and had a nasty looking bump on his forehead.

nutshell

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Quite the souvenir, and one has to wonder if someone will be getting a receipt  soon enough.

Botch of the night:

The booking.

Maybe it is the lazy answer…but I don’t think so.

Like, the women’s tag match? It was just an excuse to have them beat each other up for 20 minutes.

Same with the main event.

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Heck, even something that should have been reasonably decent-Jeff Hardy and Austin Theory-got infected with the 24/7 comedy side show.

LOL Moment of the night:

I’d have to go with the interaction between Nikki A.S.H and Rhea Ripley, talking to John Morrison.

Morrison said what he was doing, and Nikki smiled, nodded and encouraged.

raw in a nutshell

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Then Rhea asked her if she had any idea what he was doing…and Nikki smiled and said…”Nope”.

Noteworthy Moment:

I will get into this more again very shortly…but this is effectively a brandless super show.

That is what we have until the draft results kick in, and that isn’t until following Crown Jewel.

Makes me wonder…if we didn’t have the brands on competing networks, could WWE be that close to say, unifying the rosters?

I don’t think that is the answer to what ails WWE…but I feel like the last few shows have been a form of experiment, see what happens with ratings…

Overall lowlights:

Maybe some liked it…but I would bet quite a few did not.

We got it from the special women’s tag, as well as our main event. Odd pairings imploding, quite predictably.

That we saw it happen in two matches, within about an hour, on the same show? Just not worth it.

Fine, yes, I get it, all things are aimed at the red brand cruising toward Crown Jewel. The payoff for this will be there.

Just felt like tremendously lazy booking. To do basically the same things, same night…pass.

Overall highlights:

Folks, it is hard to come up with a lot here.

I liked that Doudrop got the win over Natalya. Love Nattie, but sometimes you have to put the young talent over.

cruising toward crown jewel

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

That is what we are seeing between Jeff Hardy and Austin Theory too. Curious that they even had Theory go for a selfie with Big E, too.

red brand in a nutshell

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Guess they really do have some big plans for Mr. Theory.

After the final bell:

I feel like all that we’ve seen has almost neutered the impact of the draft.

Or at least, makes you wonder…if we have to wait for the draft results to kick in, why not just hold the draft after Crown Jewel?

So, like it or not, the red brand is cruising toward Crown Jewel. It wasn’t the most enjoyable RAW In A Nutshell…but it was A RAW In A Nutshell.

So, there’s that.

On the upside…a couple weeks from now, the predictable Crown Jewel will be in the books, and then the draft-shaped rosters will finally kick in.

I cannot wait…

red brand cruising

source: custom, wwe twitter screenshot

Introduced to professional wrestling in the 1980’s thanks to Superstars and Saturday Night’s Main Event, John’s passion for the... More about John Deegan

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