The show kicks off with a visit from ol’ John Cena. Crowd pops huge, and he acknowledges the burst of crowd cheers. After hyping up the crowd, The Usos come out to add to the party, challenging Cena to some sort of rap-battle. Cena brings up the Usos’ mugshots from their arrest some time ago. Wow. They bust out Rikishi, but before they can all start dancing, they are interrupted by The Revival and D-Von Dudley. One half of Team 3D doesn’t say a word as he stands by and watches the Revival go down to the Usos. Booker T joins the commentary table.
Backstage, Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart.Â
Backstage: Alicia Fox chatting with Dana Brooke and Kaitlyn. They are soon joined by Torrie Wilson and Santino. This odd segment is thankfully interrupted by Drew McIntyre. The saddest part, you could hear crickets as no one remembered Kaitlyn or Santino. McIntyre walks off dissing the “legends.”
If it’s worth anything, I remember. Peppridge Farm remembers.
Drew McIntyre vs. Cedric Alexander goes nowhere as McIntyre assaults Alexander and takes him out instead of having a match. Shame, I was looking forward to this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=timC22aBQtA
Backstage: Drake Maverick pins R-Truth to regain the 24/7 championship, only for Pat Patterson and later on Gerry Brisco to win the title. There will be many more title changes tonight.
Christian joins commentary as Lilian Garcia announces our next match, which is a squash where The Viking Raiders defeated Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins.
I think we left off with Kelly Kelly becoming 24/7 champion.
Samoa Joe comes to the ring, and bashes the concept of Raw Reunion and the so-called legends. He then trashes the Usos and Rikishi. This brings out Roman Reigns to defend the family. They go at it Samoan Style and this becomes an official match. Reigns wins via spear.
Miz TV segment: Guest Seth Rollins begins to bash his SummerSlam opponent, Brock Lesnar, but then Rabbi Paul Heyman arrives to antagonize. He fails, and runs away before Rollins can chase him away. It was a good segment, but nothing we haven’t already heard. Seth paints Brock to be just a man, and a man can win, but a man can lose. I suppose this is logical.
Backstage yet again, because this is where legends congregate… Kelly Kelly shows off the 24/7 title to Candice Michelle, Melina, and Naomi. Turns out Melina is a ref, and Candice manages to pin Kelly Kelly. She does that weird twirl thing. No. That outfit is horrible and she should never do that again. Suddenly, Alundra Blayze arrives and taps out Candice. She says she won’t be champ long… Is this going where I think it’s going??
Once again, no audible crowd pops, no nothing. I didn’t even recognize Blayze.
Backstage: Jillian Hall, Jimmy Hart, and some other legends are lingering around when Sami Zayn shows up and he is now the third wrestler to voice his disdain for Raw Reunion (at this point he might not be the only person…) until Rey Mysterio shows up to remind him who paved the way. This leads to Kurt Angle stepping and ordering them to take their fight to the ring.
Sorry Rey, but Jillian Hall and Santino did not pave the way for anything…
Sami Zayn vs. Rey Mysterio, this match gets wonky fast as Zayn attempts to bail, but is stopped by Rob Van Dam, Sgt. Slaughter, Kurt Angle, and The Hurricane. Their presence causes Zayn to dive back into the ring, where Rey hits a 619 and 5-Star RVD Frog Splash for the win.
Ric Flair arrives in style.
The Street Profits are simply hysterical. I love their stuff.
This is turning into “How many former wrestlers can be shoved into segments” very quickly.
Alundra Blaze is about to toss the 24/7 Championship into the trash can (an event no one in the live crowd remembers) until The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase comes out and purchases the championship. This was funny.
Jerry “The King” Lawler heads to the announce table to call tonight’s big match, Seth Rollins vs. AJ Styles, the latter accompanied by The OC, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. The match revved up quick but then sputtered out as the OC attempts interference, which prompts HHH and HBK to come out as DX to even the odds. The match winds up going to a DQ, but before a bigger fight can break out, The Road Dogg, X-Pac, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall all come out. Great line “I forgot about Billy…” Nice little segment. Shame we didn’t get a better match.
Drake Maverick reclaims the 24/7 Championship as Ted Dibiase gets into his limo, but clearly Maverick was waiting. Suddenly a rush of mid-carders chase him.
Mick Foley is in the ring and is about to talk about wanting the 24/7 championship as Maverick runs through being chased by the mid-carders. As Foley begins to talk about his favorite RAW moment, winning the WWE Championship, the footage cuts out, the lights begin to shut off. You know who this means… It’s The Fiend. Bray Wyatt in the ring, and uses his own version of the Mandible Claw to take out Foley.
The crowd popped for this. A slight grin creeped up my face.
A Moment of Bliss is funny watching Alexa and Nikki drink their coffee while Becky Lynch and Natalya beat the snot out of each other.
Backstage: Drake Maverick attempts to escape, but R-Truth arrives and with the POWER OF THE ALMIGHTY REVERSE CRADLE, wins the 24/7 title back and escapes in the limo… Which still has Drake’s wife in it. He realizes this as Carmella stands over him. Oops.
Braun Strowman defeats local Jobber. I’m not sure why, at 10:40pm, this is happening.
Boogeyman, Mark Henry, Godfather, Ron Simmons, and a few more legends were spotted during the night.Â
Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan come out for the final segment with all of tonight’s legends with them. Hogan rambles on, but the real treat is when Stone Cold Steve Austin hits the ring. HUGE pop by the live audience. Austin then goes for, what I feel, is the most heartfelt promo of the night. No, don’t call it a promo. Don’t call it a speech. This is Steve Austin opening up and talking to the crowd, to the fans like a man would talk to his best friend about something he truly cares about. Austin shows his love and appreciation for all the men and women whom he traveled with and to the company who embraced him and for the fans who cheered (or booed) him for his career. Now this, was the way to do a Raw Reunion. I wish more of that was on the show instead of the over-the-top comedy bits.
All in all, not the best show, but the final segment was worth it.
RAW Reunion will be streaming on Hulu within the next 24 hours.
