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WWE RAW 4/5/20 | A Coherent Review.

Holy crap, Money In The Bank is only 6 days away!? Damn! April had gone so quickly, Wally West told the month to slow down. 

Anywho, how was Monday Night RAW? It was a fine 3 hours of TV and speaking of 3 hours, am I the only one that felt like it was an hour and a half? 

The VIP Lounge. Species Guests, Asuka, Nia Jax And Shayna Baszler. 

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For The second week in a row, Montel Vontavious Porter kicked off this show with his own Lounge and instead of inviting the men's Money In The Bank competitors (now excluding Apollo Crews), the host invited the women's Money In The Bank participants. 

All of those women stated their reasons as to why they'll capture the Money In The Bank briefcase. After a staredown between Asuka and Shayna, they decided to kick Nia out of the ring. 

First off, MVP speaking Japanese to Asuka was impressive yet not shocking given that he spent his time in NJPW, even becoming the inaugural NJPW Intercontinental champion.  

By the way, Asuka's promos are always a charm to listen to so stay to your truths, Asuka. The segment itself was okay though. 

A Last's Chance Gauntlet Match With The Winner Entering The Money In The Bank Ladder match. 

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I'm gonna say this again. A gauntlet match? How 2019 of you, WWE. Bobby Lashley first squares off with Titus O'Neil and he had eliminated him as well as the next set of challengers in Akira Tosawa and Shelton Benjamin. 

But he was out of his match with Humberto Carrillo via disqualification after he broke the count of 10 when he repeatedly stomped on Humberto. 

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Unfortunately for Carrillo, the next opponent is his own cousin, Angel Garza and they had a decent back and forth. 

Garza tried to nail the wind clipper but Carrillo countered that with a sunset pin to eliminate Garza and then, another Vega's associate, Austin Theory is the upcoming opponent. 

Somehow, Carrillo prevailed once again with a roll-up and now, he has a phenomenal opponent to deal with. I am of course referring to, A. J. Styles (No f'ing sh*t, Omar).  

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Styles locked in the calf crusher leading to a tap out from Carrillo and that's how Styles qualified for the Money In The Bank ladder match. Well, that went by my Jinder Mahal prediction win out of the window. 

AJ Styles is now the clear winner and I do not see anybody else winning this year's unique ladder match. 

The Monday Night Messiah's Exclusive Interview With Charly Caruso. 

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Charly asked him a number of questions including the possibilities of Seth Rollins becoming the 3 time WWE champion. 

Rollins said that he needed this win to solidly himself as a true leader, unlike the current WWE champion, Drew McIntyre because in his words, that is his destiny. 

While I wasn't the biggest fan of the WWE championship match build overall, this promo is the seasoning that the feud desperately needed for that kick. Seth Rollins' motivation made sense considering the psycho cult leader he's currently portraying. 

Backstage, MVP gave Shane Throne and Brendan Vink some words of encouragement before they square up to face Ricochet and Cedric Alexander. Meanwhile, in an interview with Charly Caruso, Murphy tells her that he can take Drew McIntyre down. 

Ricochet And Cedric Alexander vs Shane Throne And Brendan Vink. 

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Who's surprised that Vink and Throne won? Everybody? Okay. Having a team like Shane and Brendan win had no endgame to it and served no purpose. It was also another case study of a momentum killer to its potential stars from WWE. 

The Street Profits vs The Viking Raiders. 

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I'm not a fan of shaky cams as a whole but there are instances where it actually works. Street Profits' entrance is one of them. The Street Profits want the smoke and they got one as they took a beating from the Viking Raiders throughout most of the match. 

At the end of the match, Ford hit the frog splash to Ivar but Erik broke the pinfall which led to the Viking Experience to Angelo Dawkins and won the bout. Again, what a match. 

This match was too big to air it on a random episode of RAW but in any case, the encounter was actually fantastic. WWE gave those guys the amount of time given to deliver a kick-ass of a tag team match. 

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McIntyre tells in an interview with Charly Caruso that he'll beat the disciple. Caruso had also interviewed The Viking Raiders and they said that Erik and Ivar had extinguished the smoke. 

Aleister Black responded to what Styles said telling the phenomenal one that he should pray that Black doesn't get back up from Styles throwing him off of the ladder otherwise Styles will wish to be buried deeper than just 6 feet. 

Meanwhile, Rey Mysterio when talking about the Money In The Bank ladder match from the roof of the headquarters, feels that this is something Rey Mysterio hasn't been in before but Mysterio does promise that he will climb the top and grab the contract. All decent promos. 

Charlotte Flair's In-Ring Promo Before Her Title Defense Against Io Shirai. 

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Charlotte Flair wasn't surprised that Io Shirai's dream opponent is the queen herself and Flair said something that she tells everybody and that is, "bow down to the queen".  

Liv Morgan interrupts and she pretty much challenged Charlotte to a match and just like that, the match was on. 

This was a good match and Liv's improvement in the ring is clearly shown. The match unsurprisingly, ended with the figure 8 to win this match. 

Drew McIntyre vs Murphy. 

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A decent final match of the episode. Drew won the match to which Seth Rollins stared at him for an attack however, McIntyre celebrated his victory and Rollins attacked him "from behind", as Micheal Cole would say. Not an offensive ending, to say the least. 

So, to recap for all of you slow mofos. 

Like: Viking Raiders vs Street Profits, Charlotte Flair vs Liv Morgan, Seth Rollins' in-ring promo. 

Didn't like: Brendan Vink And Shane Throne's win against Cedric Alexander and Ricochet is yet another example of momentum killer from WWE. 


What do you guys think about this episode of RAW? Sound off in the comments below. Follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy and follow this very blog for honest pro wrestling opinions. Anyway, stay safe smarks.

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