As reported in the Inquisitr yesterday, WWE Raw rolled into Chicago for its final offering of 2016. Last week’s edition of Raw saw Braun Strowman run amok, unleashing his anger on Sin Cara, Titus O’Neil, several crewmembers and, at the end of the night, he interfered in the main event by attacking Roman reigns and Seth Rollins. All because Strowman was less than impressed with Sami Zayn. It had been whispered that a match between the Abominable Strowman and Zayn could happen at the last Monday Night Raw of 2016. Alas it was not to be.
That said, the antics between Strowman and Zayn are clearly building up to a high-profile match between the two. As reported by the Philly Inquirer , Strowman went on the rampage for the second week in a row. Seemingly annoyed because he couldn’t get his hands on Zayn, Strowman destroyed The Shining Stars, Bo Dallas and Darren Young before their scheduled tag team match.
FROM BEHIND, @iLikeSamiZayn is out for revenge against @BraunStrowman ahead of next week’s #LastManStanding Match! #RAW pic.twitter.com/ZkqHcF1Lcs
— WWE (@WWE) December 27, 2016
Strowman then tossed around Seth Rollins until Zayn showed up and got in a few underhand digs. Once Strowman recovered from the unexpected attack, Zayn took off and the larger Strowman wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up. Of course, there is a reason for Strowman’s building feud with Zayn, the two will face off in a “last man standing” match at the first Monday Night Raw event of 2017.
Sadly, instead of Monday Night Raw seeing out 2016 with a bang, the rest of the evening was something of a whimper. Strowman’s match with Rollins even ended in a “no result.”
Stephanie McMahon Burns CM Punk On Monday Night Raw
When WWE Raw rolls into Chicago there is one thing you can be sure of. The boisterous Chicago crowd will be baying for local hero CM Punk. As Stephanie McMahon was talking about the Strowman vs. Zayn match the crowd began chanting for CM Punk. McMahon had the hometown fans blood boiling when she told them if they can keep it up for two minutes and 15 seconds then they will have lasted one second longer than Punk did. Ouch!
Punk, of course, made it just two minutes and 14 seconds in his UFC debut against Mickey Gall.
One of the highlights on the final Monday Night Raw of 2016 should have been another match between Bayley and Charlotte Flair. Last week, Bayley beat Charlotte in a non-title match, but Flair claimed to have got her shoulder off the canvas before being counted out. According to Wrestle Zone , this week Charlotte had the assistance of a biased referee who quick-counted a pin down and ignored the fact that Charlotte’s feet were on the ropes.
It seems that this building rivalry is sure to end in a championship match at some point in the near future.
The main event on the final Monday Night Raw of 2016 was a rerun of the matchup between Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens. There is no disputing that Reigns and Owens put on a good show and the wrestlers certainly can’t be faulted for the lack of imagination shown by the WWE Monday Night Raw organizers.
There was some quality wrestling on the show and the evening was entertaining, it’s just that a three-hour show did little to move the Raw narrative forward. The final Monday Night Raw of 2016 was very much a re-run of the previous week. Fight fans turned up expecting a few surprises and a glimpse into what the Royal Rumble PPV event has in store for us next month. In the end, WWE Raw didn’t really give us that, it was fun but lacked real excitement.
Fight fans will be hoping that the first WWE Monday Night Raw of 2017 has much more to offer when the show rolls into Tampa next Monday.
[Featured Image by Manish Swarup/AP]