Raw emanating from Seattle provides me the perfect chance to reference my second favorite musical group. Does the song have anything to do with what follows? The revenge part in the title, perhaps. But mostly I just love the song and wanted to get some Nirvana in your system.
So who had their revenge? Judgment Day, specifically Dirty Dom. After weeks and weeks and weeks of teasing, Finn Balor is finally excommunicated from the group he called family for many years. Judgment Day is dead, long live Judgement Day.
This harkens back to the weeks where I’d start each of these recaps with something about the Judgment Day. They were consistently the most interesting part of Raw with no shortage of drama. It felt good watching this story unfold, starting with Finn making it his mission to become the man back in January. The writing was on the wall then but only got more legible as the calendar flipped. His feud with CM Punk initially showed maybe Finn was turning over a new leaf before revealing that nah, he’s still dirty as ever.
But prior to their Elimination Chamber match, Finn started looking like a man who didn’t want or need a crew by his side. Then he shook Punk’s hand at the end of their match, which is usually the universal sign of a realignment for a bad guy. It all came to a head last week when he refused to help Dirty Dom get dirty when defending his Intercontinental Championship against Penta. Dom is now the former champ, and he puts the blame squarely on Finn’s shoulders.
Finn rightly called out Dom for being a spoiled brat. He then struck a nerve when he said that Rey Mysterio was right about his kid after all. That’s when the violence started. What looked like it might just be Dom and Finn going at it while everyone watched turned into gang warfare. JD McDonagh, possibly Finn’s closest ally, betrayed him! I’m curious why JD took it there but fully understand why Liv & Raquel joined the reindeer games. Liv is Dom’s lady and Raquel never quite took to Finn.
This was really effective because it put so much heat on Judgment Day. A four on one beating never makes the larger number in that equation look good. It also made Finn so sympathetic. He not only said Dom needs to stand up and fight his own battles, but everyone turned on him for doing so. He stood up for his beliefs only to get sat down with the quickness. No better way to make a crowd cheer for someone than having them get punished for taking a stand.
Finn vs. JD seems like the smart call before Finn vs. Dom. There’s history there and Dom is more important in the grand scheme. Neither match feels WrestleMania worthy but hey, we are where we are.
Well done, everyone. Well done.
I liked Raw a lot this week. While none of these feuds they’re seeding feel worthy of Mania, they show promise for at least not being boring. I know that’s a low bar these days but hey, sometimes competence is exciting.
What say you, Cagesiders? Do you want to see Finn vs. Dom at Mania?
