Roman Reigns Officially Became A Grand Slam Champion Last Night

Welcome to the weekly RAW recap! Last night, I was at Spongebob Squarepants on Broadway (yes, seriously) during RAW, and missed out on the show for the first time in many moons. Because of this, I’ll have a more brief recap of the show than usual, but I’ll get to all the good stuff.

RAW kicked off with Kurt Angle threatening to kick Triple H’s ass, followed by his shitty little son Jason Jordan threatening to do the same. Triple H and Stephanie assured everyone that Hunter didn’t fear anyone in that locker room, and BRRRRAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN begged to differ. Because, you know, he did this to Triple H less than 24 hours prior.

I dug the Braun/HHH staredown way more than the Angle/HHH staredown, and I’m not sure if that’s a hot take, but I just have no desire to see the latter work a slow match in 2017. I want to see Triple H play the small guy role where he gets thrown around a ton by Braun Strowman.

Later in the show, Paige fiiiiiiinally returned and with her came Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville from NXT. Honestly, I thought she’d get a bigger pop upon her return, but it was still sizable, and both Mandy and Sonya are good additions to the roster. SmackDown needs the Iconic Duo, and they need them ASAP, because as we saw at Survivor Series, the talent differential is extreme.

To close RAW, Roman Reigns beat The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship in such a great match. The Miz is seriously so talented that he made this midcard title change feel huge the night after losing at a pay per view. Roman’s a perfect counterpart to him as well, a guy who can give any match that “big fight feel”. This makes Roman a Grand Slam Champion, having held every title in the company and leaving Seth Rollins as the only member of The Shield who isn’t one. As it should be. (I kid, I kid.)

I hope this title reign is taken seriously, unlike his United States Championship one, because I think it could be huge for RAW as a brand. Their champion Brock Lesnar is never around so Roman can step up into the main champion role and actually bring some prestige back to the Intercontinental Championship.