{"id":63820,"date":"2018-07-30T01:10:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T06:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=63820"},"modified":"2018-07-30T12:22:40","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T17:22:40","slug":"wwe-raw-primer-7-30-remembering-volkoff-brown-christopher-saito-lesnar-and-heyman-return-to-raw-balor-vs-corbin-rousey-rollins-vs-mcintyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/30\/wwe-raw-primer-7-30-remembering-volkoff-brown-christopher-saito-lesnar-and-heyman-return-to-raw-balor-vs-corbin-rousey-rollins-vs-mcintyre\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE RAW PRIMER 7\/30: Remembering Volkoff, Brown, Christopher, Saito; Lesnar and Heyman return to Raw, Balor vs. Corbin, Rousey, Rollins vs. McIntyre"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-514822374\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3><strong>WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER<br \/>\nJULY 30, 2018<br \/>\nMIAMI, FL. AT AMERICAN AIRLINES ARENA<br \/>\nAIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00PM EDT<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR<\/strong><\/h3>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>IN MEMORIUM&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>Our hearts are quite heavy as we lost several members of the wrestling family within the last few weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NIKOLAI VOLKOFF<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Josip Nikolai Peruzovi\u0107, better known to WWE fans as Nikolai Volkoff, passed away Sunday at the age of 70.\u00a0 According to <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.com\/\">ESPN.com<\/a>, his wife claimed he had heart problems and was unresponsive to medication.\u00a0 This news hit me particularly hard as Nikolai was one of the first wrestlers I got into as a fan when I began watching in 1986.\u00a0 I used to pretend to be him and sing the Russian national anthem as a gag with friends or family that watched wrestling.\u00a0 His predominant wrestling years spanned from 1967-1995 while working for various promotions including Stampede Wrestling, AWA, WWWF (later known as WWF and now WWE), and assorted others.\u00a0 He captured multiple tag team championships including most memorably with the Iron Sheik while being managed by \u201cClassy\u201d Freddy Blassie at the first WrestleMania in 1985.\u00a0 Volkoff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 alongside Sheik.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a few heartfelt tweets honoring his long-time friend and partner:<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/the_ironsheik\/status\/1023601009573031937<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">WE HAVE THE MOST HEAT EVER. I MISS YOU FOREVER <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NIKOLAIVOLKOFF?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NIKOLAIVOLKOFF<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cU1Nb7IjNr\">pic.twitter.com\/cU1Nb7IjNr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; The Iron Sheik (@the_ironsheik) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/the_ironsheik\/status\/1023629008972394496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>WWE truly lost a foundational member of the television\/PPV years, and great heel who knew how to draw heat, and a man who did so much for so many wrestlers during his years.\u00a0 He will be sorely missed, and our hearts go out to his loved ones.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BRIAN CHRISTOPHER LAWLER<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brian Christopher Lawler, known to us as simply Brian Christopher or Grandmaster Sexay, passed away Sunday at the young age of 46.\u00a0 He was the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry \u201cThe King\u201d Lawler.\u00a0 His most prominent gimmick was the Grandmaster Sexay character he played alongside Scotty 2 Hotty in the tag team \u201cToo Cool\u201d in the later 1990s-early 2000s.\u00a0 They helped introduce the character Rikishi to us in 1999, who himself would go on to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015.\u00a0 Out of respect, especially to King, I\u2019ll refrain from speculating on the reasons of his death.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BRICKHOUSE BROWN<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2688619833\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Frederick Seawright, known as Brickhouse Brown, lost a battle with cancer on Sunday at the age of 57.\u00a0 He wrestled for numerous promotions over a span of 35 years which including a brief stint in WWF(E) in 1995 as an enhancement talent where he jobbed to Hunter Hearst Helmsley, known to us now simply as Triple H.\u00a0 He previously won the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship from WWE Hall of Famer Jerry \u201cThe King\u201d Lawler in 1987.\u00a0 Again, our hearts go out to his loved ones.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MASA SAITO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finally, I apologize as I realized last week I did not recognize the loss of Masanori Saito.\u00a0 Perhaps WWE fans remember him as Mr. Saito as he stood along the late WWE Hall of Famer Mr. Fuji capturing the then WWF Tag Team Championship on two different occasions from 1981-1982.\u00a0 He wrestled for various other well-known promotions including various arms of the NWA, AWA, AJPW, NJPW, and WCW.\u00a0 While it\u2019s been a few weeks, let us still send our condolences to his loved ones.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Arena \/ Opening Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Tonight, WWE Raw returns to the American Airlines Arena in Miami, FL. for the second time this year as the show emanated from the same arena on the evening of New Year\u2019s Day.\u00a0 We continue to get ready for SummerSlam as the pieces continue to come together for the big summer event.\u00a0 Please note, <a href=\"http:\/\/wwe.com\/\">WWE.com<\/a> incorrectly shows last week\u2019s location as the location for tonight\u2019s event.<\/p>\n<p>Before we get started I want to weigh in on Roman Reigns winning the no. 1 contender\u2019s match over Bobby Lashley last week to earn a match with Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam.\u00a0 It was expected, as I certainly did not feel WWE was behind a Lashley vs. Lesnar match, but that\u2019s not the point.\u00a0 WWE fans vociferously rejected Reigns vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think they could be na\u00efve and expect a better result especially from a Brooklyn, N.Y. crowd.\u00a0 It\u2019s disappointing to say the least, because there\u2019s one act that\u2019s been particularly over during the past few months and that\u2019s Seth Rollins.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying he should have been the one to get that match.\u00a0 I\u2019m just saying WWE ignores their fan base when for the fourth time a wrestler who has been clearly rejected, gets an opportunity to topple Lesnar.\u00a0 Perhaps there\u2019s a bigger picture we\u2019re not seeing.\u00a0 The problem with that is they\u2019ve been painting this picture since Reigns won the Royal Rumble in 2015.\u00a0 They don\u2019t care that fans have kept throwing dirt on it for almost four years now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar Returns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Brock Lesnar returns alongside his advocate, Paul Heyman to confront #1 contender Roman Reigns whom he will face at SummerSlam.\u00a0 WWE is not specific as to whether or not this will be a backstage or in-ring confrontation.\u00a0 We have not seen Universal Champion Lesnar since his last match with Reigns at the Greatest Royal Rumble at the end of April this year, three months ago.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thoughts:\u00a0 I talked about this earlier.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see how Lesnar is received.\u00a0 If you recall, when Heyman said that Lesnar will defend the title at SummerSlam two weeks ago on Raw, the crowd rejected the notion.\u00a0 They wanted the title stripped.\u00a0 As far as Reigns is concerned his reception will be something to watch as well.\u00a0 Last week he most notably said <\/em>\u201c<em>People can boo, they can hate, they talk about \u2018Roman is being crammed down our throats.\u2019 It\u2019s simple. Learn to like it or close your mouth.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 <em>That\u2019s not becoming of someone whom WWE wants to get over as its top babyface.\u00a0 It makes we wonder is that still the plan?<\/em><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-219327234\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Finn Balor vs. \u201cConstable\u201d Baron Corbin<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Finn Balor takes on \u201cConstable\u201d Baron Corbin in a rematch from Extreme Rules.\u00a0 Last week, Corbin attempted to insult Balor by moving his locker to a children\u2019s playhouse.\u00a0 Balor, with a great sense of humor, took it in stride as he got ready for his match with Drew McIntyre.\u00a0 Tonight, Balor and Corbin lock it up one more time<\/p>\n<p><em>Thoughts:\u00a0 There\u2019s not much here other than comedic filler and a way to keep these two occupied.\u00a0 Balor deserves better, and hopefully that\u2019s on the horizon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ronda Rousey Returns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ronda Rousey returns as her \u201csuspension\u201d from Raw expired this past Wednesday.\u00a0 As we know, she will challenge Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women\u2019s Championship at SummerSlam.\u00a0 It\u2019s not clear exactly what she will be doing.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thoughts:<\/em> <em>\u00a0A lot was made on both Raw and Smackdown about the upcoming all-women\u2019s PPV, Evolution to take place this coming October.\u00a0 This was the \u201cbig announcement\u201d Stephanie McMahon made last week alongside her husband HHH, and her father WWE CEO Vince McMahon.\u00a0 I\u2019ll refrain from expounding on that, but I will say it was laid on quite thick during the announcement and throughout both shows.\u00a0 I would suggest reading Wade Keller\u2019s and Zack Heydorn\u2019s Raw reports to get further analysis on this topic.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see if Ronda has anything to say tonight, especially in the run-up to her second championship opportunity this year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I said earlier, Finn Balor took on Drew McIntyre.\u00a0 This match evolved into a tag team match following Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler coming out to help McIntyre and Seth Rollins helping Balor.\u00a0 Rollins and Balor would go on to be victorious over Ziggler and McIntyre.\u00a0 We later learned Seth Rollins earned another shot at the Intercontinental Championship as he will lock up with Ziggler at SummerSlam.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thoughts:\u00a0 It\u2019s not surprising that Rollins is taking on Ziggler\u2019s friend McIntyre here.\u00a0 As I\u2018ve alluded to in past primer articles, WWE likes to give us different \u201cflavors\u201d of upcoming PPV matches.\u00a0 This is certainly a match that can have bigger implications down the line, so look for this to be one of the better segments this evening.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Items<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Elias was interrupted by wrestler entrances numerous times as he tried to play music from his debut album.\u00a0 It was suggested on Twitter (I believe by well-respected long-time PWTorch columnist Greg Parks, but I could be wrong) that he just play the entrances.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see why not as it would save Elias the aggravation!\u00a0 Jokes aside, they are going a long way to protect Elias by not exposing him to matches where they probably feel he should job.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to watch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It was reported by Bleacher Report that Mojo Rawley has been wrestling with a leg injury.\u00a0 WWE hasn\u2019t reported as to whether or not he needs to take time off.\u00a0 He did score a win in a quick match against Tyler Breeze, which included an awkward in-set promo by Bobby Roode.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a tweet from Mojo showing the injury:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Undeterred. Gonna take more than just a little bruise to hold me down. I\u2019m undefeated with this little bruise. 4 wins in a row with this little bruise. On to bigger &amp; better things with this little bruise. I\u2019m too focused to take a knee. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MojoRising?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MojoRising<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/KillerInstinct?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#KillerInstinct<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NoFilter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NoFilter<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dkeafzlJJO\">pic.twitter.com\/dkeafzlJJO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dean \u201cMojo\u201d Muhtadi (@MojoMuhtadi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MojoMuhtadi\/status\/1021585976085409798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The B-Team retained their Raw Tag Team Championship over Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt.\u00a0 Hardy and Wyatt appeared to want to congratulate their opponents, but rather went on the attack following the match.\u00a0 By definition, that was a heel turn.\u00a0 It was not presented as such by the announcers, so it\u2019s hard to say what it means.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Titus Worldwide (Titus O\u2019Neil, Apollo Crews, and Dana Brooke) tried to recruit the Authors of Pain following AOP claiming they wanted new challenges other than them.\u00a0 When rejected, Titus World wide went on the attack.\u00a0 This rivalry looks to be continuing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>We learned another piece of the SummerSlam puzzle as Braun Strowman puts his Money in the Bank contract on the line against Kevin Owens.\u00a0 We\u2019ll certainly pay attention to see if this ties into the Universal Championship picture at least in terms of SummerSlam.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Mickie James, accompanied by Alexa Bliss, defeated Natalya.\u00a0 Ronda Rousey\u2019s return could be tied into this picture if anything further develops between James, Alexa, Natalya, or Nia Jax for that matter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ember Moon got back on the winning track as she defeated Liv Morgan.\u00a0 She had previously lost to fellow Riott Squad member Sarah Logan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Start Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On the arena\u2019s website, start time shown is 7:30 p.m. with doors opening at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow me on Twitter @FrankPeteani.\u00a0 Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CATCH UP ON LAST WEEK&#8217;S RAW:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=63515&amp;action=edit\">HEYDORN\u2019S WWE RAW REPORT 7\/23: Alt Perspective coverage of the live show including Stephanie McMahon\u2019s big announcement, Reigns vs. Lashley number one contender match, and more<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2058444480\"><div id=\"pwtor-3868139894\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER JULY 30, 2018 MIAMI, FL. AT AMERICAN AIRLINES ARENA AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00PM EDT BY FRANK PETEANI, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR IN MEMORIUM&#8230; Our hearts are quite heavy as we lost <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2018\/07\/30\/wwe-raw-primer-7-30-remembering-volkoff-brown-christopher-saito-lesnar-and-heyman-return-to-raw-balor-vs-corbin-rousey-rollins-vs-mcintyre\/\" title=\"WWE RAW PRIMER 7\/30: Remembering Volkoff, Brown, Christopher, Saito; Lesnar and Heyman return to Raw, Balor vs. Corbin, Rousey, Rollins vs. McIntyre\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/LesnarBrockGG_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63820"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63822,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63820\/revisions\/63822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}