Monday Night RAW in Machester had me say, come on WWE! You’ve got a big main PPV coming up, Survivor Series and this year NXT and NXT UK will be involved. Last week’s RAW and SmackDown seemed a bit of a letdown, tonight’s the night to turn things around! You’re in the UK! Big opportunities here with NXT and the UK brands.
It’s never a good sign when they have to manipulate the audio throughout the show to make it seem like the crowd is alive, when the visual clearly shows the live audience near-death.
Last week, Natalya and Charlotte defeated the Kabuki Warriors in a non-title match, so therefore, tonight, we start with a WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship match where the champs defend against… Charlotte and… Becky Lynch? Well, that seems, strange. In any event, the match doesn’t go long as Bayley and Shayna Bazler interfere, causing Lynch to get pinned.
Yeah. That seemed a bit of a mess.
Next up on RAW in Manchester, Drew McIntrye absolutely destroys Sin Cara. Earlier today he posted online he wanted his release. Well, someone tell him the bad news, it’s highly unlikely AEW will sign him.
After some more promos hyping Survivor Series, we get to another title defense, where The Bollywood Boys face R-Truth. This doesn’t go long, where they run away, hide in the women’s locker room, and then run into Erick Rowan who promptly comes short of murdering them.
Lame.
Nice promo package highlighting NXT and their invasion of past shows. I will say, I do enjoy watching Keith Lee go to town.
Seth Rollins not looking so sad this week, rolling off of Triple H trying to recruit or rejuvenate him. Seems to be the go-to whenever Rollins loses a title, he needs a “reboot” to get his mind back into the game. He plays a bit of the heel tonight in front of the UK crowd, and out answering his challenge is IMPERIUM with WALTER accepting the challenge. The singles bout isn’t too bad, some big spots with WALTER crushing Rollins with a shotgun dropkick followed by a big powerbomb.
If it wasn’t obvious, the crowd was booing Rollins despite the audio manipulation. The announce team might not have been aware of the audio changes, as they tried to cover it up using the word “finicky.”
My mother used to call me that when I did want my dinner. Perhaps it really is time for Rollins to hit a reset button… again.
In formulaic fashion, as Rollins is about to strike with the Curb Stomp, the rest of Imperium rush in for the DQ. Cue the faces, Street Profits and Kevin Owens to make the save, and when we come back from commercial, we’ve got ourselves an eight-man match. Team RAW defeats Team NXT UK after Owens hits a stunner on Marcel Bartel while Rollins scores with the Curb Stomp on Alexander Wolff. Good match. A bit surprised they wouldn’t book Imperium to win in the UK.
Next up, Andrade defeats Cedric Alexander. Good match, solid showing. I enjoyed this singles match. Not a clean finish as a brief interference by Zelina allowed Andrade to capitalize and finish off his opponent.
Another bizarre pre-taped promo from Aleister Black. Man, if anyone would benefit from returning to NXT, it’s him. Geez.
One thing I always have to give credit to WWE for. Packages for holidays. Veterans Day is no different, they put together a truly touching package honoring those who serve.
This follows with Lana coming out to her usual crowd response but then suddenly turns to quiet. Enough silence to the point where she tries to encourage the crowd to boo her. Then we got some boos. I think someone in post-production forgot to hit the switch on the fake crowd reaction. Good lord her mic skills are horrible and she should somehow get her Russian accent back. She goes into her sex-life with Lashley, and for some ungodly reason she has to repeat the word “sex” over and over again, and the crowd seems more disgusted and I could hear the disinterest. I think the crowd started chanting “AEW” or “shut up” or we want wrestling, until she says Rusev is a sex-addict who put a “Machka baby inside of me.” At least he still gets “Rusev Day” chants. This is a horrible, horrible segment, which has gone on for almost ten minutes. This ends when Bobby Lashley attacks. Then says she lied about the whole pregnancy bit.
Does it honestly surprise anyone why AEW is getting better reviews?
Erick Rowan defeated Soner Dursen. Rowan brings something in a burlap sack to the ring, leaving it on the announce table. I’m guessing either there’s a dead animal in there, or nothing at all. A lame waste of time.
Viking Raiders defeated Eric Andrews and Flash Lloyd Webster. OK match. The former WWE UK Tag Team champions got their offense in and then we turned into squishy by the Raiders. Sigh.
It gets quite obvious the crowd cheers and boos are faked the longer the show goes.
The final match of the nigh featured Randy Orton, Ricochet, and Humberto Carillo vs. The OC (AJ Styles, Anderson, and Gallows). I’m just glad to see Carillo in a main event spot. The feud between Ricochet and Orton seemed to take over the tone of the match, however it was Carillo earning the pinfall victory, pinning the United States Champion.
Not a bad main event but over all, Monday Night RAW in Manchester really felt lacking in the Survivor Series build. The one and only to come out of this, is showing how much of a threat NXT truly will be come next Sunday. But WWE is missing something, an “IT factor” if you will, because to be perfectly honest… I fell asleep during the third hour of the show.
