Yeah yeah, I know, RAW already took place, so it’s not really live, despite how many times Michael Cole assures us it is. Overall a good show, but a bit heavy on the hype for Survivor Series, and a bit repetitive in nature. Each team has dissention, those who can and can’t get along. Each team is brought out to chat about how they will win their side. It seemed like the Survivor Series script was being played over and over again. Not saying the segments were not entertaining, some were very funny, while others felt a bit dragged out.
The show began with Stephanie McMahon discussing Survivor Series and highlighting RAW teams. First is the main RAW team, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Roman Reins, Braun Strowman, and the final addition, Seth Rollins. Stephanie cuts a scathing promo, telling her five stars to fight “like their jobs depend on it.” She leaves the ring, and leaves Owens and Jericho running down Rollins and Reigns, in funny style, until a brawl breaks out. Initially Strowman backs up and surveys the stupidity, until he gets pissed and mauls Rollins and Jericho. He stares off with Reigns before leaving.
Highlight really, no matter how hard Y2J and KO tried to go heel mode, the crowd still cheered and booed the hell out of Reigns.
Promo airing for 205 Live, the Cruiserweight-only show on the WWE Network. Anyone notice the font looks strangely like something WCW used? My question is, we have this show because the Cruiserweight experiment on RAW isn’t going well or because WWE realizes they need a separate show in order to let the cruisers go wild?
Rich Swann and Sin Cara defeat Brian Kendrick and Noam Dar
Making his RAW debut, Noam Dar comes to an eruption of an ovation, because tonight’s RAW took place in his home of Glasgow, Scotland. I almost forgot how awesome Dar is. Despite an early botch by Sin Cara, the match went on well, with Rich Swann rolling up Kendrick for the win. I understand they need to push Swann with multiple non-title wins over Kendrick as he climbs to a Cruiserweight Title match, but it would have been nice to see Dar get the win. At least post-match, Kendrick verbally ran down Dar, attempting to attack, but Dar stayed on target and eliminated the Cruiserweight champion from the ring.
It was mentioned tonight that T.J. Perkins suffered a neck injury with the over the rope hurricanrana from last week.
Tonight features lots of promos. Goldberg/Brock Lesnar promo, more hype for Survivor Series, etc…
Backstage: Sami Zayn will face Rusev for the opportunity to face Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental Championship. Stephanie is not impressed and roots for Rusev.
Very long verbal segment featuring Team RAW’s tag team stable for Survivor Series. The New Day, Cesaro/Sheamus, Gallows/Anderson, Enzo/Big Cass, and The Golden Truth pretty much ridicule and bicker, mostly featuring Cesaro and Sheamus not getting along, and The New Day coming out as extras from Braveheart, with Big E. giving the big heroic speech from the same film. Pretty entertaining, with the expected buzzkill demeanor of Gallows and Anderson ruining the party.
Gallows and Anderson defeat The New Day. Sure, it is a win for the heels, but they never really get the big wins when they count most. Decent match, bit of a letdown for the live crowd, who was really hyped up for New Day dressed as kiltsmen.
In a horrific backstage segment, R-Truth tells Goldust he traded their spot on Team RAW for a time-share from The Shining Stars. You can guess what our next match of the night is.
The Shining Stars defeat The Golden Truth. Two teams which are completely useless and are in dire needs of gimmick repackaging, fight for what will likely be the opportunity to be eliminated first from Survivor Series.
Promo for the season finale of Total Bellas. Good lord. How can the announce team do this with a straight face?
Backstage, Jericho and Owens confront Strowman, while Y2J threatens to put him on the list, Owens tries to make peace with the giant before Jericho blows it. Pretty funny stuff, and Strowman sits there like he doesn’t give a dump.
Michael Cole, getting booed by the crowd, introduces the members of the Women’s Team for RAW at Survivor Series. Charlotte, Nia Jax, Alicia Fox, and… Bayley! Bayley gets an INSANE crowd reaction, singing throughout her promo, becoming so loud she has to stop because you couldn’t hear a word she was saying. Even Fox got into the singing. It was incredible. Bayley probably cried after it was all over. Charlotte attempts to sabotage the segment by antagonizing the crowd, but the singing for Bayley continues. Charlotte brings out the fifth member, Dana Brooke, but is corrected by Cole, who then brings out Sasha Banks. Charlotte is unhappy, the faces rejoice, and the crowd is STILL singing for Bayley to “be my girl.”
Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Alicia Fox defeat Nia Jax, Charlotte, and Dana Brooke
Really good match, Jax did such a good job of showing just how damn powerful she is. She barely felt a triple dropkick from the faces. Bayley gets the win via Belly-to-Bayley Suplex.
Sami Zayn defeated Rusev to earn a match with Dolph Ziggler for the IC Title. Yep, you read it right. Rusev ate a clean loss to Zayn. Nice finish too, a Helluva Kick delivered to Rusev, who was perched on the top turnbuckle.
Main event: Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens vs. Braun Srowman
This match was really fun to watch. We got the battle of the big guys early with Strowman just mauling Reigns and the crowd loving it. Rollins then tries whacking a kendo stick repeatedly to slow down Strowman, but that didn’t work, so he gets a table, but is clobbered by the really really large man. During the bout, we had a brief tease of an assisted powerbomb, Shield-style, Strowman taking two superman punches and not going down, Owens hitting cannonballs outside the ring. Nice spot, Strowman falls onto a table via superman punch, then Rollins evades a cannonball attempt, and powerbombs Jericho on top of Strowman and the both crash through the table. Rollins then turns a pop-up powerbomb attempt into a Pedigree, but Jericho pulls the ref before he strikes three.
We get a weird finish, with Jericho eating a Pedigree, and then Owens knocks away Rollins, only to eat a superman punch by Reigns, who for some reason goes rolling to the outside, as Owens falls on top of Jericho, ref counts three, match over.
Overall, a good show, just some of the promo segments felt a bit long and a bit too predictable.
