 Alpha Academy Interrupted Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro; Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle def. Chad Gable; Raw Tag Team Champion Randy Orton def. OtisThese three things made for one elongated segment in my eyes, hence why I figured I'd lump them in one paragraph. The initial promo exchange was enjoyable, but RK-Bro's comedy didn't connect as well as it usually does. Riddle vs. Gable was a fun sprint despite being brief. Gable continues to make the most of every opportunity he gets, which is great. Meanwhile, Orton vs. Otis was solid for as long as it lasted. The fact WWE rushed this feud instead of saving it for down the road tells me the end might be near for RK-Bro. 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke and Reggie def. Tamina and R-TruthYou know half of the roster is out with COVID when Brooke, Truth, Reggie and Tamina are getting television time for an actual match. WWE has been airing skits with these four over the last few weeks, and although some have been more creative than others, the 24/7 Championship continues to be an absolute waste. This was pure filler and felt like it belonged on Main Event. Reggie's distracting ring gear didn't help and I don't blame Corey Graves for the constant Ronald McDonald jokes. The Street Profits def. The Mysterios in the Finals of the Raw Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's RK-Bro-namentThis was easily my favorite thing on the entire show. I'm glad that, even with the COVID outbreak, all four guys were healthy and were able to have the finals of the RK-Bro-nament that was originally scheduled to take place two weeks ago. Both of these teams are super popular and the crowd would've been happy to see either team win. The action was very entertaining and the nearfalls were fantastic because this could have gone either way. Street Profits never technically lost the Raw Tag Team Championship last year (they were drafted to SmackDown), so there's a story worth telling there with them challenging RK-Bro. That should be as fun as this was. Grayson Waller Interrupted AJ Styles; Styles def. Apollo CrewsStyles was set to go one-on-one with Omos on this show, but Omos never showed up. I know a ton of talent missed Raw due to COVID, but Omos was at the Madison Square Garden house show the night prior and faced Styles, so I have no idea what happened. Waller emerging from the crowd was a pleasant surprise. If WWE/NXT wants to get him over, that's the best way to do it as opposed to just having Styles show up at NXT. Thankfully, they didn't give that away as an impromptu match and we got Styles vs. Crews in a well-wrestled affair instead. Everything with Styles and Commander Azeez was strange, though. Styles vs. Azeez was teased, but WWE didn't deliver it, and then Styles attacked him afterward, anyway. Kevin Owens def. Cedric AlexanderOwens was the only person involved in the WWE Championship match at Day 1 that was able to appear on this show. I guess the rest of the roster was limited because putting him up against Alexander, a fellow heel, was a weird choice. Even weirder, it was implied that The Hurt Business technically isn't back together despite Alexander and Shelton Benjamin wearing Hurt Business merchandise for the last three months, at least according to MVP. This was essentially an extended squash for Alexander. I expect nothing less in terms of how he's handled at this point, but it was more important for Owens to look dominant ahead of the pay-per-view. Dolph Ziggler def. United States Champion Damian Priest by DisqualificationI thought what we got from these two last week on Raw was enjoyable enough that I was actually looking forward to this championship rematch (even though the outcome was never in doubt). It was decent while it lasted, but the crowd never seemed to get into it and that lame disqualification finish killed it for me. I know this is leading to another rematch next week and I can sometimes understand it, but not in this case where it's already difficult to care because Ziggler means so little. This fell flat. Edge Soaked The Miz and Maryse with a Brood Bath During Their Vow RenewalAnything related to weddings in WWE is typically terrible (though a few exceptions come to mind, including Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis' three months ago), but this made me laugh. Yes, it was silly and stupid, but I definitely liked this more than most because Miz and Maryse played their roles so well. Even Eric Bischoff was perfect as the officiator of the whole thing. The "Brood bath" was lame because it didn't actually look like blood (similar to when Edge did it to Seth Rollins on the SmackDown before SummerSlam), but hearing The Brood's entrance music made it worthwhile. Beth Phoenix has to help out Edge and even the odds at Day 1, right? Overall ShowIf it looked like there weren't many matches or segments on this show, that's because there weren't. Seriously, if you didn't watch live and wanted to catch up on DVR, you could probably skip through nearly two hours of the show if you include commercials, replays, recaps, entrances and video packages. So many people were missing to the recent COVID outbreak that WWE had to improvise, and while that isn't their fault, it's times like this where you're reminded of how thin the roster is. Waller and Bischoff making surprise appearances was cool and they did what they could as far as hyping up Day 1, but this was a throwaway show. In fact, the Madison Square Garden house show I attended on Sunday night was much more enjoyable. I figured that would be the case going in given circumstances, but it still sucks.
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