5 Takeaways From Monday Night Raw - 7/2/18

This is my series, simply known as "5 Takeaways", where I will share my personal main talking points coming out of Raw and SmackdownLive.

These are all my opinion, so I may miss a nugget or two. If you have something to add to my list, or a list of your own, feel free to share in the comment section below!

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One of the best pure tag teams in the industry, the Revival haven't been taken seriously since they debuted on the main roster, usually losing matches or winning irrelevant ones. Recently they've been involved in Roman Reign's feud with Bobby Lashley.

After evening the win total at one apiece last week, The Revival took out Reigns during his first of two matches, drawing a disqualification. In the second match, Roman refused to tag in Lashley at all, which The Revival took advantage of, eventually getting disqualified themselves.

Dash and Dawson have been looking formidable as of late, and may make a push at the Raw tag team titles in the near future.

Since the Superstar Shake Up, Ruby Riott has been impressing on Raw. Her in-ring skills have improved tremendously, and she arguably deserves to be considered in title contention. Unfortunately, Riott is out with an injury so she wasn't on Raw.

Liv Morgan had a good match with Ember Moon, which saw the latter get the pinfall off of a stellar Eclipse finisher. The in-ring work was very solid, but they just don't seem as threatening without Ruby Riott with them.

This is the feud we've been waiting for, for so long. Sasha Banks and Bayley have a very long history together, which is bound to make for a tremendous story... unless they have to go to counseling.

While it was a fun moment to see Dr. Shelby again, from his days with Team Hell No, this was just a waste. Sasha and Bayley spent a good bit of time yelling at, and mocking each other's shallow personality (which goes back to how poorly creative has handled their characters). If this is what we have to expect from this feud, there will be many a disappointed wrestling fan watching from week to week.

"He is THE BIG DOG!!!", I honestly don't mind Roman Reigns. He has improved tremendously in the ring, and he seems much more comfortable on the mic. What I DO mind, however, is the amount of Roman WWE wants us to take in every week. From crying about his loses to Brock Lesnar to interrupting Kurt Angle the second the words "Universal title" are uttered, Reigns' character has been getting annoying (admittedly, the latter is kind of hilarious).

Despite Raw being a three hour show, there's no need for Roman to take up the opening segment of the show, a backstage segment, and two matches - it's just too much. Similar to John Cena, Reigns is hated because he is overexposed, and whoever writes his promos needs to smarten up (Bobby Lashley went 15-2 in MMA, so I'd say that worked out pretty well).

Remember in 2015 when Kevin Owens showed up on Raw as NXT champion and laid out John Cena? Yeah, that was a long time ago, and it shows. At this point, he isn't even considered a top contender for the Universal title (a belt he never got his contractually obligated rematch for), and this is a travesty.

Now, you can find Owens running from Braun Strowman. Yup, between getting thrown off of a ladder through tables, to having his car flipped, and even knocked off of the stage, trapped in a port-a-potty. Braun Strowman is great fun to watch, but at this rate, nobody can take Kevin Owens seriously again, and that would just be a shame.