WWE Raw
This week’s episode of WWE Raw was back in the United States following the UK/European tour, and it was also the last edition before Survivor Series.
Becky Lynch Promo
For the second straight week, Becky Lynch opened things up on the mic. Getting straight to the point, she was up for a fight, and she was interrupted by The IIconics, making their first Raw appearance for a little while (this would be a running theme of the show). Billie Kay and Peyton Royce were aghast that they weren’t selected for the women’s Raw squad for Survivors in the big 15-woman elimination match, and they themselves were interrupted by their captain Charlotte Flair, who instead discussed how Becky probably didn’t want to team with her and that the feeling was mutual, but the powers that be wanted them to do so, and therefore they would face The IIconics right now. There seems to be a slow build towards a potential Becky-Charlotte match at WrestleMania 36, in the event that Ronda Rousey does not return to WWE for the card (I think Ronda will be back for Mania, but this represents a strong yet familiar Plan B). Samoa Joe then came out and joined Jerry Lawler and Vic Joseph on commentary.
Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. The IIconics
Joe would be announcing for the whole show, and was damn good at it, so much so that I’d prefer Joe sticking around in Dio Maddin’s seat for the foreseeable future. The match itself was a bit odd because The IIconics dominated early on, and then they were suddenly trounced quite easily via Charlotte and the Figure-Eight. Post-match, we had NXT in the house as Shayna Baszler and company attacked Becky and Flair and then ran through the crowd. Lynch clocked a security guard in the face as an indirect receipt.
Backstage, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ruder were about to explain how excited they were to have earned a Raw Tag Team Title shot courtesy of a big win on the European tour, only for AOP to show up for the first time in a little while and pummel them.
Karl Anderson vs. Humberto Carrillo
AJ Styles and The OC insulted the local audience before they vowed to put Humberto in his place following weeks of minor run-ins and matches. The three-on-one odds (when you factor in AJ and Luke Gallows at ringside) seemed too much for the talented yet bland Carrillo, until The Street Profits came down to back him. And this proved crucial because a big schmozz at ringside allowed for some heel cheating and Anderson to cradle Carrillo, only for Angelo Dawkins to nudge both men the other way, thus allowing Humberto to pin Karl for the victory. It was later confirmed that Humberto would get a crack at AJ Styles’ United States Championship next week.
Seth Rollins told Charly Caruso about how he was always willing to accept a challenge, hence him putting his spot as captain of the men’s Raw squad at Survivor Series at stake against Andrade, who merely wanted to be on the team in some form. Charly also noted how there would be “big breaking news” after the, erm, break.
Bobby Lashley vs. No Way Jose
That “big breaking news” was presumably Lana revealing that she had filed for divorce from Rusev. She also explained, in a muddled fashion, that Rusev had been served with a restraining order (which was shown on the big screen) which meant he couldn’t be within “90 miles” of her. Lashley corrected her, but she still botched by saying “90 days” before finally confirming that it was “90 feet” (and why not round it up to 100?). This was Lashley’s first Raw match in four months, but it also marked Jose’s first appearance on Monday nights for a good stretch. NWJ started off with some momentum, but he was quickly crushed by Lashley, who won with a full nelson submission hold. The highlight was the banter from Jerry Lawler: after saying that “split happens”, he said that Rusev had told him about a trip he and Lana had once taken to an Italian restaurant, where Lana supposedly answered the question of “what do you want” with “the waiter”. It may not be to everybody’s tastes, but I have a soft spot for Lawler’s one-liners, especially when he has a co-announcer supplying similar cracks like Joe (when fans chanted “Rusev Day”, Joe asked “Does Lana get half of the Rusev Days in the divorce?”). Post-match, we had another big kissing session between Lana and Bobby, who are making the most of their on-screen romance, it has to be said.
Seth Rollins vs. Andrade
Here’s something to think about: when Rollins was shown backstage earlier on, he was heavily booed, yet when he made his entrance and throughout the match, he was largely cheered. In contrast, Andrade was booed strongly, as was Zelina Vega, who was ejected after she tried to attack Rollins at ringside. The two men put on quite the match; it wasn’t anything too different from what both men have done before against other opponents, but it was a strong effort with a number of close near-falls and major spots. In the end, of all people, Lucha House Party interfered on SmackDown’s behalf to attack Seth, but he battled them away. This meant that Rollins remained the captain of Team Raw, as Samoa Joe laughed about Andrade losing the bout because of LHP. Seth seemed to endorse Andrade as if he was a babyface, which suggests that the latter might be switched to a fan favourite in the near future.
We had several short segments next: Buddy Murphy knocking on Aleister Black’s door but with a reply that was too late, as Murphy had wandered off before Black could get to him (we’ve all been there when someone has knocked while we’ve been in the loo or something); a number of cars arrived with Triple H leading the way from the front vehicle; and we had a recap of CM Punk’s appearance on WWE Backstage, which was shown again later on. I’ve noticed that it appears WWE isn’t showing these videos inside the arena, because none have resulted in chants for the man, and that is probably the reason for such a move; WWE probably doesn’t want to have fans chanting his name in full force as much as possible, either to make the impact of his return to “proper” WWE programming bigger, or because an in-ring comeback isn’t slated to happen and so it does WWE no favours for Punk chants to dominate its shows.
I’ll touch upon this in another article, but I would say that if WWE is looking for something big to draw for Mania, Punk lacing up the boots (or rather attaching the kickpads) again is as good a prospect as any right now, and if they really wanted to make the most of it, have a returning Punk be the man to dethrone Brock Lesnar as WWE Champion, achieving his dream of headlining a Mania in the process. Either way, the odds of Punk wrestling for WWE again have never been higher since the day he left, and that is something fans should be happy about at a time when negativity dominates what should be a thrilling period to be a fan of wrestling, WWE or otherwise.
Buddy Murphy vs. Akira Tozawa
Also making his first Raw appearance in ages was Akira Tozawa, who battled someone who has had a few Raw appearances but is still looking for his big break-out moment on the red brand, Buddy Murphy. And they had a pretty good match with some stand-out spots, such as Murphy catching a diving Akira into a suplex on the floor at ringside; an inverted hurricanrana by Tozawa off the ropes; and a back senton off the ropes onto a bent-forward Buddy (who admittedly looked a bit silly waiting so long). In the end, a running high knee and Murphy’s Law earned the win for Buddy. After the match, Murphy went to knock on Black’s door again, but Aleister was ready and stared at Buddy with no words exchanged between either.
Rowan vs. Alex Malcom
Like last week, Rowan was shown speaking to a mysterious source beforehand, and he also again brought his large bag to the ring. As it was about to begin, The Singh Brothers ran down the aisle, chased by R-Truth and a referee, and they ran around the ring, only for Rowan to knock both Samir and Sunil over; Truth wisely ran away and wanted no part of it. During the match, Rowan dominated Alex, tossing him onto The Singhs before hitting a running crossbody at ringside on all three (at which point he was technically a “Malcom in the middle”. A face-plant slam secured an academic win for the vintner.
Backstage, Randy Orton touched upon his history at Survivor Series, before revealing that he and a partner would now face The Viking Raiders for the Raw Tag Team Titles later on. Also, a promo video revealed that all three brands would be in the house for SmackDown on Friday night in Chicago, where Survivors will be held (which is suspiciously similar to how things were in the pre-Draft days).
Kevin Owens vs. Drew McIntyre
For a match that had no major reason to happen and felt like filler beforehand, this was awesome. There were loads of big moves including KO hitting a rare flying dropkick, McIntyre absolutely launching Owens into the barricade, Drew hitting a version of an AA to KO on the ring apron where he literally bounced, and McIntyre surviving a sit-out Pop-Up Powerbomb. After multiple Stunner attempts, one such try by KO turned into a Drew Claymore, but KO got his foot on the bottom rope; eventually, Owens did hit a Stunner, but Drew made the ropes, partly because Owens was slow in making the cover. Drew revived his Future Shock DDT which Owens also survived, and KO even hit a second Stunner, but was again slow to cover Drew. So much so that before he could do that, Triple H’s music hit and The Game came out; when we returned from the break, Drew was nowhere to be seen so the match was presumably over, though KO remained, as did HHH.
HHH discussed his history in Boston (where this show was held) before bigging up Owens’ NXT history, as well as reminding him that the main brands didn’t really care for him and never really wanted him. As several NXT performers stood at ringside, HHH pitched for KO to rejoin Team NXT. Before Owens could make a decision, a number of Raw wrestlers ran out to attack the NXT boys (which contradicted H’s statement that nobody was coming to save Owens because they weren’t interested); at the same time, though, The Undisputed Era ran in and assaulted Owens, much to the chagrin of HHH. The OC came out to chase away The UE, but NXT had made enough of a statement.
Charly Caruso revealed that Humberto Carrillo would face AJ Styles next week for the United States Championship (which she described as “big breaking news”, a major exaggeration); Carrillo responded with a very generic promo. This fed into a Paul Heyman pre-tape where he ran through the back-story behind Brock Lesnar vs. Rey Mysterio at Survivors, as well as revealing it would be a No Holds Barred match and that we would either see a miracle or a massacre on Sunday; and we had comments from Rey himself, who after endorsing Humberto accepted the new rules and noted how he would bring his lead pipe with him. As a weird background noise akin to an answering machine remained audible and distracting, Rey said the stipulation favoured him, and while Brock started the war, Rey would hunt him down and make him pay, and that he would finish it not by seeking an apology, but by winning the WWE Championship.
Asuka vs. Natalya
This marked the first ever meeting of these two. Natalya smiled a lot in the early going as if Asuka was still a babyface rather than being a sneaky, mist-spewing heel. Nattie even fell for Asuka’s obviously feigned handshake attempt, though she quickly rebounded with a kick to the ribs, so she isn’t completely gullible, I guess. After a back-and-forth series of exchanges, Nattie managed to knock down Kairi Sane at ringside and also level Asuka, as she randomly told a fan on the front row to “shut up”. Her reward was a wicked roundhouse kick to the face which kept her down for three, giving Asuka the win.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match
The Viking Raiders (C) vs. Randy Orton & Ricochet
One thing about Hawkins and Ryder, who were originally meant to get this title shot: since The OC had pinned The Vikings at Crown Jewel, giving Erik and Ivar their first WWE loss in the process, shouldn’t they have gotten the opportunity instead? Anyway, this furthered the formation of a somewhat uneasy yet effective alliance between Orton and Ricochet. When Ricochet came out as Orton’s surprise partner, the announcers reacted as if it was a big shock even though it was obvious based off the previous week (though Joe did wonder whether Orton was playing Ricochet by leading him into a possible trap, or if Ricochet was playing Orton by stepping up when he could have easily said no, not that any wrestlers ever do). As the match was going on, backstage Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode and Cesaro beat up a few Raw wrestlers. As Orton signalled for the RKO, those same SD wresters, plus Heavy Machinery and LHP, ran out to beat up Orton and Ricochet, face/heel alignments be damned. The Vikings tried to help, and they actually succeeded against the odds as the four Raw guys stood alone in the ring. Members of the NXT roster then ran down to fight the SmackDown talent, with NXT overwhelming them and then turning their attention to the Raw wrestlers in the ring, plus they were joined by everyone else from NXT that had appeared earlier on. This led to a huge three-way brawl inside and outside the ring, boosted by Seth Rollins leading the rest of the Raw roster down. It was a massive fight, but NXT managed to hold the ring, all surrounding AJ Styles who took some lumps. As this was happening, backstage Triple H said that this was just the beginning, and that NXT would prove it is WWE’s A-brand; he also said NXT had an open door on Wednesday, thus inviting all Raw and SmackDown wrestlers who were interested to come along.
Overall, WWE Raw was very good, and yet it highlighted why people are not fond of the programme at present, though not entirely with WWE to blame for that. It boasted three really good matches, as well as significant storyline developments for Survivor Series, and a major slobberknocker to end the night. Plus, Samoa Joe was brilliant on commentary; hopefully, he’ll be back next week in that role. But the large negative feedback about the show told me that fans wrongly assume that any countout/disqualification finishes and/or interference brings down a match (they can do sometimes but not always), and if the wrestling itself didn’t please them, the angles surely would, yet they were also criticised. Basically what I am saying is that it is hard for Raw to please the majority of fans right now, no matter what they do, and I say that because there was a lot to like about this show. Hopefully, those fans who can appreciate what is happening on-screen will get a kick out of Survivor Series on Sunday, but for those who do not enjoy Raw right now, things are unlikely to change to suit their preferences.
