Randy Orton “Punts” Ric Flair Raw Review (8/10/20)

Overall

Raw last night was all over the place pacing wise, but that doesn’t mean that the stories we got were bad. The biggest story of the night was Randy Orton turning on Ric Flair after defeating Kevin Owens. Randy is doing some of the best heel work that he has done in his career and it really showed tonight. Of course due to Ric Flair’s health issues, WWE found a work around to avoid actually punting Ric Flair by having “Retribution” turn off the lights at the exact moment the punt would’ve happened. I joked on twitter that maybe Retribution was just created to make this work around believable and I for one (as well as Steve from the Going in Raw Podcast thank you for the shout out on the pod) would actually be fine with Retribution disappearing after tonight.

Other than that we got the best Seth Rollins and Mysterio family segment since before Extreme Rules, Bianca Belair is determined to make Zelina Vega admit she poisoned Montez Ford, and Mickie James returned for two seconds to announce she would announce something next week. Oh and Raw Underground happened again, and actually I’m starting to come around on it, but I need WWE to be willing to go all in on this concept for it to work.

Overall, this week was much better than last week’s mess of an episode. So let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Monday Night Raw 8/10/20.

The Good

• Joe hosting another contract signing
• Dominik’s music is good!
• This contract signing was probably the most interesting Seth Rollins segment in like a month at least.
• The beating that Seth gave Dominik was a seriously great character moment for everyone involved.
• Zelina cut a really good promo in the ring.
• Solid match between Andrade and Dawkins.
• I liked how the Andrade match lead almost immediately into the Zelina and Bianca match.
• Bianca Belair is fantastic and I love her.
• Bianca and Zelina had a really good match considering we barely get to see either of them in the ring anymore.
• Apollo Crews is getting so much better on the mic and I love the direction he is taking his character.
• Apollo throwing the couch out of the VIP lounge was fun.
• Peyton Royce’s finisher is still dope!
• Oh hey! Riddick Moss is in Raw Underground, is there where he will actually develop as a character?
• Asuka’s aggression right out the gate in her match with Bayley. I honestly would’ve been fine with it being a squash match. It would’ve been motivated at least storyline wise.
• Glad to see Asuka get a clean win.
• This Arturo Ruas debut was pretty good.
• Shayna is in Raw Underground! Let her fight Dabba-Kato!
• I love how Kevin Owens has been using the relative quiet of the “empty arenas” to yell insults during matches.
• Kevin Owens and Randy Orton had a match worthy of main eventing Raw. That’s good.
• KO doing the viper stance at the end of the match was good.
• Damn. Randy is just laying into Ric Flair!
• Flair is a goddamn treasure on the mic.
• The end of this show was awesome! WWE did a good job this week book ending this episode with the best segments.

The Bad

• Could’ve done without the video package reminding me how much Retribution sucks.
• Ok, but what is the kayfabe reason that Retribution can keep messing with the lights and sound? Like shouldn’t they have put security around the production equipment by now.
• I’m glad Mickie James is back but this segment with Lana and Natalya was super awkward.
• Viking Raiders and Cedric and Ricochet deserve better than a match with Tozawa and the ninjas that just led to another 24/7 shenanigans moment.
• Ok am I wrong, but did this seem like it was going to be a Riott Squad vs. The IIconics match, but it was actually just Peyton Royce and Liv Morgan? I did get up to get a drink before it happened so I could’ve missed something but it really seemed like it was going to be a tag match.
• This match between Liv and Peyton was super short, and honestly they deserve more time. All four of these women could be champs as tag teams or champs but they aren’t given enough time to shine.
• Either make the full 3rd hour of Raw into Raw Underground or drop the concept. I’m not a fan of the start stop nature of this segment.
• Please don’t ruin this match between Asuka and Bayley with some Retribution BS.
• Dabba-Kato’s dick grab was bad.
• God, Retribution flickering the lights during the Rick Flair and Randy Orton segment. I get why they did it but it pissed me off so much in the moment.

The Ugly

• Geez, Retribution looks and feels so dumb. They could be menacing, they could be scary, they could seem like a threat but they just don’t. All they do is petty vandalism and cheer for each other like the high school pep squad.