Major Last-Minute Change Made To RAW
On Monday’s episode of WWE RAW, Asuka took another step toward a full heel turn, clashing with IYO SKY in a post-match confrontation.
Pwinsider is reporting that WWE had reportedly intended for Asuka’s heel turn to unfold gradually over several weeks. Those plans changed when Naomi was pulled from her scheduled Women’s Title match against IYO SKY, forcing a last-minute shift that saw Roxanne Perez step in as the challenger.
During the match, Asuka and Kairi Sane attempted to help SKY, but their interference backfired, costing SKY the victory. Tensions boiled over afterward, with SKY shouting at Asuka and Sane before Asuka shoved SKY and stormed off.
Netflix is reporting that the August 4th episode of WWE RAW drew 3 million global views and 6.1 million hours watched.
Both metrics were up from the July 28th episode, which logged 2.7 million views and 5.5 million hours watched.
For the week, WWE RAW ranked fifth worldwide on the platform.
On a recent episode of his “Kliq This” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash praised the SummerSlam (Night One) main event, which saw CM Punk defeat GUNTHER before immediately losing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship to Seth Rollins.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the match: “I think Punk and Gunther had a f**king — they had a great f**king match. GUNTHER’s fu**ing amazing.”
On CM Punk: “I watched that Unreal show, and Phil has changed so much. And I really — because he showed some real emotion. And he’s grown so much as just a human being. And I’m really a fan of his now. I enjoy — because I know it’s not about the money for him anymore. It’s about goals, and he sees the end of the road up ahead. He knows he ain’t got forever.”
On Seth Rollins’ cash-in: “Even to have the belt for four or five minutes before Rollins came down — I thought they did a really good job with Rollins. I mean, I thought he was hurt, and I’m not too sure he’s not hurt. That medial collateral ligament could still have been stretched, and he could have had that thing f**king — because all he did was, and I’m thinking myself like when he came down and Heyman gave him the f**king briefcase, I’m thinking like, ‘You gave him way too much time to kind of recover. Punk is going to be able to give you a fight.’
“And he basically just went in and beat the s*it out of him with that briefcase, which was perfect. You know? Heel as f**k. And then curb-stomped him, 1-2-3,. And I just — to me, it’s one of those things where Punk wins, and then it’s the 1-2-3, and there wasn’t even a quiver that he was going to kick. None of this, you know, kick out on three and a half s**t like you’re f**king Rookie McRookie. It was a pro job. It was done great.”
