RAW kicks off with a special edition of The Highlight Reel with Chris Jericho. His guest, is his best buddy, WWE Universal Champion, Kevin Owens. They hysterical make fun of Thanksgiving and move onto Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. The latter of whom interrupts and wants a fight. Reigns pokes at Owens, saying he needs his buddy Jericho for everything. At this point, Owens gets flustered and before Jericho puts him on the list, KO tells Jericho to “shut up” which shocks everyone in attendance. Jericho looks a bit sad, as Mick Foley arrives to make the match with Reigns and Owens, and should Reigns wins, he gets a future championship match.
Backstage: Jericho and Owens appear to have an abrupt end to their friendship.
I’m calling swerve here, as Jericho will likely help Owens later tonight.
R-Truth is destroyed by Braun Strowman. Back to squash matches I guess. Goldust attempts to save and he eats the mat. Out comes Sami Zayn and the fight is on until Zayn is trapped in the corner, but Foley rushes out with officials to stop Strowman.
After the break, Zayn and Foley are yelling at each other, and Foley tells Zayn he needs to know when to quit. Zayn calls Foley a hypocrite before leaving. Interesting. I wonder what they are planning with Zayn. Foley is in no shape to wrestle, so one has to wonder what sort of push is in store for the former Generico.
In a cruiserweight contest, Tony Nese defeats Cedric Alexander with an assist from Drew Gulak. I can’t wait for 205Live tomorrow night. The cruiserweights will get more time to themselves and able to go full throttle once again.
Outside, Chris Jericho is leaving the arena, and questioned whether this is another trick. Jericho says it’s over and tries to get into the car, but the driver opens the door, knocking The List out of Jericho’s hands. We then see Seth Rollins is here, and the fight breaks out, culminating with Rollins hitting the Pedigree on Jericho, on top of the car. Ouch.
RAW Women’s Championship match: Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte
Sasha got some boos, my guess being tonight’s RAW is from Charlotte, North Carolina. We get a decent back-and-forth, until the action spills to the floor and awkwardly concludes via countout. The ref counts insanely slowly to eight, then stops, Charlotte and Banks just seem to to putz around. Ref counts seven again, then finally makes it to 10. This puts a smile on Charlotte’s face. However Mick Foley returns to announce the match will resume later tonight in a No DQ and Falls Count Anywhere match.
Nice.
Backstage: Mark Henry gets to plug his appearance in a new movie, until he is interrupts by Titus O’Neal. Henry knocks him on his ass.
The scene they show, is Henry getting his lights punched out. Uh…
Enzo Amore vs. Rusev goes to a DQ, as after Enzo and Cass ridicule and run down Lana and Rusev, the Bulgarian Brute decides to simply kick Enzo in the How You Doin’ for the DQ. Big Cass chases him away. That’s it.
Back in the ring, Noam Dar takes on Rich Swann, who will face Brian Kendrick for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship tomorrow night on 205Live. Short match which sees Swann clocking Dar with two buzzsaw-style kicks for the win. Again, short and watered down. Thank you very giving the cruiserweights their own show.
We get some sort of pre-taped segment, which has some terrible acting and production value. Cesaro and Sheamus are at a “bar” wondering what could have been. They are then antagonized by indy wres… I mean, interns… I mean drunk patrons, and the cues Cesaro and Sheamus to work together to clean house. This becomes a pivotal moment, a moment of serenity and enlightenment hits our duo, who then realize, by cleaning house at a staged bar, they could work together and become a great team.
Love it.
Roman Reigns defeats Kevin Owens
This was a good match, but it pained me to watch Owens lose clean. This means Reigns now gets a shot at the WWE Universal Championship at Roadblock. Was a good back and forth, but ultimately Reigns hulked up and took the win. Post match, Owens is distraught while being interviewed, saying he still believes Jericho is his best friend.
“We screwed up.” Rabbi Paul Heyman should get an Oscar. He is interviewed by Michael Cole, and his an emotional wreck, of how he and Brock underestimated Goldberg. Heyman is perfect here. He admits embarrassment and shame on Brock’s behalf. He says Brock is injured both physically and mentally. Heyman says he believes Brock now has to prove himself, and since Goldberg is in the Royal Rumble match… so will Brock Lesnar.
You know, WWE could swerve us all and make sure they don’t even encounter each other.
Corey Graves complains he is “assaulted with cereal” as The New Day make their way out for the title defense against Gallows and Anderson. We get an intense match with lots of near falls. Lots of hype with New Day only 15 days away from overtaking Demolition for the longest tag team championship reign. Lots of heart-stopping moments, ultimately, Anderson rolls up Woods, with tights, but Woods reverses into his own roll-up, with tights, and gets the pinfall victory.
*whew*
Backstage: Sasha Banks tells Bayley she is dedicating tonight’s match to Ric Flair. Guess the writers needed her to say that so she doesn’t get booed.
WWE RAW Women’s Championship No DQ/Falls Count Anywhere match
Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte
Wow. What a match. A lot of the action took place outside the ring, and it was nuts. Charlotte with a moonsault off the announce table to the floor. Banks ate a big boot on the apron and collapsed to the floor. This match was intense and non-stop. A kendo-stick came into play and I have to give credit to Charlotte for taking a ton of hard hits.
As the action went into the crowd, Banks trapped Charlotte in the handrail, and locked on the Banks Statement for the decisive tap-out victory to become a three-time Women’s Champion.
Things took a crazy turn, as in the ring, Ric Flair came out and raised the hand of the new champion in the middle of the ring.
