RAW Recap by Michelle Coraci
The show opens with Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre telling the audience what they’re thankful for. McIntyre mentions how he’s thankful for the beating they gave Strowman last week. We then see a recap of the beating last week where Braun shattered his elbow. There is then a recorded clip of Braun Strowman getting ready for his surgery on his elbow. Braun then threatens to take out Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre once he gets medically cleared after his surgery.
Corbin tells the crowd that his match with Braun for TLC is still on, but when Braun fails to show up for the match, Corbin will win by default and become the new permanent manager of Monday Night RAW. The lights then go out and we are treated to Elias who starts verbally abusing Corbin, Lashley, and McIntyre. We are then treated to a beautiful song by Elias called “Bobby Lashley sucks” which is pretty self-explanatory. The first match of the evening is Bobby Lashley vs. Elias.
The match begins with Corbin and McIntyre ringside backing up Lashley. The crowd gets in on the fun and starts some “Lashley sucks” chants. Bobby takes control of the match and attempts a pin but fails. There’s some fun conversation amongst the commentators where Renee defends that Elias is not a “beta” male. Elias gains control of the match and the crowd starts the “Ooooh, walk with Elias” chant. Bobby attempts another pin, but Elias kicks out again. Renee credits Lio rush for taking Bobby Lashley to his fullest potential. Elias ends up outside of the ring and Drew McIntyre squares up with him. The referee screams from inside the ring that Elias needs to get back in the ring.
And as soon as Elias gets back into the ring, Bobby knocks him right back out. Elias gets a knee to Lashley to know him on the ground, Elias then goes to the top rope for an elbow drop on Lashley and nearly get the pin, Lio Rush pulls out the referee before he can complete the three count. The ref disqualifies Lashley for the interference but then Corbin announces that it is a no disqualification match. Lashley starts beating down Elias but Elias is able to flip Lashley over his back. Corbin and McIntyre start beating on Elias. Elias gets his guitar to take out Lashley, but Corbin stops him and Lashley smashes the guitar. Corbin then takes a chair to Elias as he’s tripled teamed by Lashley, Corbin, and McIntyre. McIntyre gets a claymore kick on Elias as he’s helpless on the ground as he is decimated by the trio. McIntyre then picks up Elias and slingshots him face first into the steps. Lashley then spears Elias as he’s hoisted up by Corbin and McIntyre. Finally, Lashley rolls Elias into the ring and pins him for the win.
Backstage they show Baron Corbin yelling at the producer who allowed the lights to be lowered for Elias’ entrance. Baron fired him on the spot. Alexa Bliss comes in and congratulated Baron’s work, especially with firing that one guy. She offered her assistance to him and he gave her complete control of RAW’s women’s division. His reasoning to her was because “You look good, I look good, it’s that simple”.
During the next segment, they recap the feud that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose have been having for the last few weeks. They show Dean sitting in a doctor’s office. He apparently is getting his flu shot, which is an odd way to subliminally message people to get their flu shots. He makes a lot of jabs at Milwaukee, which is where they are this week, and Houston, TX, which is where they’ll be next week, about needing shots to block all the diseases that he would get from these gross locations.
LUCHA HOUSE PARTY TIME! The three men make it to the ring, and the Revival walk out to meet them. The Revival talk about how the Lucha House Party disrespected them and the art of tag-team wrestling. This match will be competing under “Lucha House Rules” which equates to a handicapped match where all three members of Lucha House Party get to compete against the two. Dash Wilder attempts a pin on Kalisto but Kalisto kicks out. The Lucha House Party are taking turns jumping in and out of the ring without making tags. These are noted as “Lucha House Rules”. And the Lucha House Party wins with Lince Dorado pinning Scott Dawson.
Nia Jax and Tamina make their way to the ring and the audience showers the two ladies in boos. Going along with the theme of being thankful, Nia talks about how RAW must be thankful for her. And how she’s thankful for breaking Becky’s face and giving her a concussion. I found that little remark shocking, since WWE doesn’t usually like talking about how concussions are possible in their line of work. I think the best thing about this promo that Nia is doing is an impersonation of Ronda Rousey. She keeps bringing up that she broke Becky’s face, and I’m pretty sure it’s because she wants that heat from the crowd. Ronda’s music starts to play, and she makes her way down to the ring.
Recently, the crowd hasn’t been favoring Ronda over Becky or Charlotte, but they definitely favor her over Nia Jax. Meanwhile, the first thing I noticed about Ronda is that she still has bruises going down the right side of her face and down her neck. Ronda challenges Nia to a match “Right here, right now” and Nia obviously declines. It seemed that Tamina and Nia planned on flanking Ronda just then, but Natalya’s music started to play. As Natalya was making her way down to the ring to assist Ronda, she was jumped by the Riott Squad. Ronda jumped out of the ring to help Natalya fend off the Riott Squad, and there was not match with any of these girls.
Flashback to all of the commotion surrounding Drake Maverick and how he peed himself during Survivor Series. Authors of Pain, accompanied by Drake Maverick, make their way to the ring. Bobby Roode and Chad Gable will be facing AOP again this week. The Authors of Pain seem to have control for most of the match. If they pin or get the AOP to tap, then they’ll win the titles. Drake Maverick steals Bobby Roode’s robe and walks back up the ramp and does the ‘Glorious’ crowd chant. On the big screen they show Drake Maverick take the robe into a bathroom, put it in the toilet, and pee on it. With this distraction, AOP pins Bobby Roode and gets the win.
Ember Moon used to be paired with Braun Strowman during the mixed match challenge, but since Braun Strowman is currently out, Curt Hawkins is taking his place. This match is Alicia Fox, who walked out with Jinder Mahal, vs. Ember Moon. Ember lands an Eclipse on Alicia and pins her. As Ember and Kurt are making their way back from the ring, No Way Jose dances his way out. His match is next against Jinder Mahal. Jinder has control through most of the match. I still think that No Way Jose uses too much of his stamina dancing out to the ring before his matches even start. Jose fights his way out of Jinder’s grasp and lands a few elbows on him. Jinder lands a solid hit on Jose, which knocks him down and allows Jinder to get the pin on him.
Time for Seth Freakin’ Rollins! He declares that he’s going to be a fighting Intercontinental Champion, and that he’s done chasing Dean around. Seth starts an open challenge for the Championship, and Dolph Ziggler walks out. They start the match with the Intercontinental championship on the line. Both seem to be evenly matched for the most part, until Seth slams down Ziggler and throws him out of the ring. Ziggler made his way back into the ring and gets control of the match. He gets Seth Rollins in a headlock and is hoping to pin him. The commentators keep mentioning that Seth seems to be a bit off. Ziggler’s strategy seems to be grabbing Seth and holding him down so that Seth quickly loses his energy.
Seth climbs to the top rope but is torn down by Dolph. Dolph grabs Seth from the top and is about to attempt a superplex, but Rollins pushes him off. Dolph almost pins Seth, but to no avail. Ziggler gets Seth in a Sleeper’s hold, but Seth breaks free. Seth kicks Dolph in the face and attempts a pin, but Dolph kicks out. Ziggler lands a DDT on Seth and climbs to the top rope. Seth meets him up on the top rope, grabs him, and executes a super plex with Dolph. After the superplex lands, Dolph is laying on the ground, and that’s how Seth landed the pin on him.
Alexa Bliss made her way to the ring. She talked about getting control over the whole RAW women’s division. She discusses the upcoming segment where the audience will be able to ask Sasha Banks and Bayley anything they want. Sasha and Bayley make their way to the ring and take seats in the center of the ring. Alexa scans over the crowd and points at a teen girl wearing a Ronda shirt. She asks if they could change the RAW women’s division, how would they. Bailey said she wouldn’t change anything, and Sasha said she’d ship Alexa back to SmackDown. Meanwhile the audience seems bored with this segment as they chant “This is awful”. Bayley mentioned that she disagreed with Sasha. She said she wouldn’t ship Alexa back to SmackDown. She’d ship her back to Hell where she came from! Suddenly, Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke come out and attack Sasha and Bayley. Sasha and Bayley fend the other women off and Alexa walks back-stage, seemingly disappointed.
The main event features Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin. Baron gets a strong lead and quickly gets Finn Balor into a submission lock. Once Finn breaks free of the submission, he lands a number of hits on Baron. This match really emphasizes the height difference between the two men. I can’t help but appreciate how effortlessly Finn is able to jump over and evade Corbin. Baron gains control of the match and attempts a pin on Balor, but Finn kicks out. Corbin gets Finn into a few more submission holds. Finn seems to start turning it around when he lands a stomp to the chest on Corbin.
Corbin grabs the mic and mentions that it’s now a two-on-one handicapped match with Finn Balor vs. him and Drew McIntyre. Finn gets a few good initial kicks on Corbin and Drew, but it seems he has nothing left in the tank going up against a fresh Drew McIntyre. After one solid hit, Drew pins Finn. After Drew and Corbin win, Bobby Lashley makes his way to the ring and they all start teaming up against him. This group of men seem to be the team to beat and I can’t wait for Braun Strowman to heal and make his way back to put them all back in their place.
