Welcome to week 17 of “RAW is WAR: 2009 vs. 2019.” This is a 52-week project to determine which year of Monday Night Raw was better: 2009 or 2019. Each week, we’ll have the three biggest takeaways from the shows, extra analysis and thoughts on the rest of the show, and then a final score for each show. Whichever score is higher wins, and whichever year wins the most week wins bragging rights for life … kind of.
2009 is coming off the Backlash pay-per-view, while 2019 is still building to Money In The Bank. Which week will have a better week? Time to find out.
April 27, 2009 Raw in Bridgeport, CT.
THE CHAMPIONS:
- WWE Champion: Randy Orton (TITLE CHANGE); No. 1 contender: TBD
- United States Champion: MVP; No. 1 contender: TBD
- Divas Champion: Maryse; No. 1 contender: TBD
- Unified Tag Team Champions: Primo and Carlito; No. 1 contender: TBD
- “Miss WrestleMania”: “Santina” Marella
- The “Miss WrestleMania” crown can be defended at any time
Detailed “play by play” of the show here.
THREE BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS:
- Batista becomes No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship — The right outcome with a dumb finish. John Cena came out to the top of the ramp, distracting Big Show — Show threw Cena through a big spotlight at Backlash, causing Cena to lose the World Heavyweight Championship to Edge. This led Big Show out of the ring, causing Show to be counted out and Batista the winner of the match. So, Batista wins and gets to face Randy Orton at Judgement Day for the WWE Championship. Again, the right outcome with a dumb finish.
- Shane McMahon gets to Randy Orton — The most exciting part of the show was easily McMahon massacring Orton with a kendo stick. It came at the expense of interfering with the Orton-MVP match, but it definitely was the biggest pop from the crowd. Vickie Guerrero then announced a match next week between McMahon and Orton, keeping this feud going another week.
- The Miz “beats” John Cena — The Miz is now a solo wrestler on Raw, and he made sure to challenge John Cena to a match on his first night. Cena did not show, allowing Miz to claim a victory by “forfeit.” This was well done, but it was made moot when Cena came out during the main event between Batista and Show. So, Cena can respond to Big Show but not Miz? Hmmmm.
ANALYSIS FROM REST OF SHOW:
- There seemed to be a lot of filler on this show. Kofi Kington beat The Brian Kendrick, Santina Marella won an eight-diva tag match, Primo and Carlito beat the random pairing of Jamie Noble and Chavo Guerrero. Nothing super substantial happened outside of the two main points, really.
SCORE: 5.5/10. This show was the epitome of average. Everything felt mailed-in. The PPV scheduling is doing no favors to the roster, as feuds are either extended too long or thrown together randomly. It resulted in a very average episode of Raw this week.April 29, 2019 Raw in Lexington, KY
THE CHAMPIONS:
- Universal Champion: Seth Rollins; No. 1 contender: AJ Styles
- United States Champion: Samoa Joe; No. 1 contender: TBD
- Raw Tag Team Champions: Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins; No. 1 contender: TBD
- Raw Women’s Champion: Becky Lynch; No. 1 contender: Lacey Evans
- Becky Lynch is also the SmackDown Women’s Champion. Charlotte is the No. 1 contender for that championship
- Women’s Tag Team Champions: The IIconics; No. 1 contender: TBD
Detailed “play-by-play” of the show here.
THREE BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS:
- Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match participants announced — Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet and Braun Strowman will represent Raw in the MITB ladder match in three weeks. Of those guys, it seems McIntyre would have the best chance to win. I don’t see Corbin or Strowman winning again and Ricochet is too new to the main roster to be holding the briefcase. McIntyre seems poised to be one of the favorites in the match.
- Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match participants announced — Dana Brooke, Natalya, Naomi and Alexa Bliss will represent Raw in the women’s MITB ladder match. Honestly, none of them seem like they have a true shot to win. Brooke and Natalya are filler participants and Bliss won it last year. Naomi could win it, but I really think a SmackDown female will win it this year.
- The Miz vs. Shane McMahon in a steel cage match announced — Can you sense a theme here? The biggest things from this show were all announcements. After McMahon distracted Miz in his match against Bobby Lashley, he beat down the A-lister. Following the attack, Miz challenged McMahon to the steel cage match, which McMahon accepted. This is a good feud, so I’m willing to see one more match of it.
ANALYSIS FROM REST OF SHOW:
- AJ Styles and Seth Rollins had a decent contract signing, which ended with Styles hitting the Phenomenal Forearm on Rollins through the table. It’s an awesome face vs. face feud right now.
- The Firefly Fun House had its second episode. It was creepy and weird again and I loved it.
- Just like the 2009 Raw, this was a bunch of filler. A lot of tag team and singles matches that really don’t mean much in the long run. Also, the Uso’s and Revival have started a feud based on back shaving … like why.
SCORE: 5/10. Both Raw’s were bad this week, but at least there wasn’t multiple “shave your back” chants from the 2009 crowd. So, there’s that.
OVERALL SCORE: 2019 — 9; 2009 — 8.