WWE Raw recap & reactions (Aug. 23, 2021): The dam has burst

WWE Raw returned last night emanating from Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California. This is the fallout show for SummerSlam. Check out the full results at the always excellent live blog here.

Let’s get right into it:

The dam has burst

Miz and Morrison’s official breakup this week featured Logan Paul… for some reason.

Honestly, even though he was forced into this segment for no reason outside to let him promote his brother’s fight, it was fun because of how much the San Diego crowd just hated the man. And it really looks like creative did not think that was the reaction that Logan would receive. The Miz is the heel in this breakup, but they positioned him to antagonize the YouTube star, setting up big Miz cheers minutes before he’d instigate the split with John Morrison.

It doesn’t matter at all. Logan just kind of left while Miz & Morrison were bickering. It’s just interesting to see where WWE thinks their fans are going to land when it comes to someone like Paul. And maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised when the answer is “way off the mark” more often than not.

After Paul left, Xavier Woods came out for a scheduled match against Miz after he sprayed some water on Miz & Morrison in the middle of the desert two nights back. The Flood Stud mistakenly cost Miz the fight against Xavier Woods. That’s what led to the moment where Miz attacked his friend, leaving him laying with a Skull Crushing Finale.

Honestly, this breakup is at least a good six months past due. Their team was a good way to get John back in WWE, but Morrison is better than just one half a comedy tag team. He’s good enough to be an upper midcard singles wrestler delivering bangers every week. Hopefully, this will finally get us there. Plus, he has a chance to get his revenge for the time that Miz Skull Crushed him on the WWE logo on the stage a decade ago.

Refreshing the title scene (until Bill comes back)

The biggest angle coming out of SummerSlam on the Raw side, the far least intriguing side of Saturday’s PPV, was Bobby Lashley injuring Bill Goldberg’s leg to the point the referee had to call the match. It escalated when Goldberg’s son Gage (who is no Hook, mind you) attacked Lashley from behind so the champ locked the younger Goldberg in the Hurt Lock.

The champ and MVP opened Raw, with MVP once again reminding us how damn good he is by cutting a strong promo where he called Goldberg a coward and made it know that his client had no clue who was attacking him from behind.

Damian Priest interrupted, accusing the WWE champ of being a coward himself. This led to a brief impromptu match. It wasn’t long before Sheamus interrupted it, but what we saw of the quick singles bout was a good teaser for what could be a future title program.

Drew McIntyre soon entered the fray, somewhere Teddy Long made a wish, and this got the tag team treatment. The match was fine. Nothing to seek out, but it served to refresh the title scene. The top babyfaces on Mondays are the tag champions so Raw needs other potential challengers for Bob’s…