Kurt Angle is having a superstar appreciation… Please let it be Shelton Benjamin please Shelton Benjamin. Could you imagine the feud? Angle brings back Benjamin, only for Jason Jordan to show up all jealous, turns heel, and we get a suplex-fest of a feud.
RAW kicks off with a continuation of carnage from SummerSlam. Rabbi Paul Heyman brings his client Brock Lesnar out and gloats about retaining the WWE Universal Championship. Heyman crafts a work of art until Braun Strowman confronts the Beast, and clobbers him. Boot, Powerslam, and Strowman ends the segment with the title held overhead.
This is feud we want. One on one, this is what we want to see. Brooklyn crowd initially cheered for Brock, but once Strowman hit the ring, it was all about the Monster Among Men.
Enzo Amore wins the Brooklyn Street Fight over Big Cass due to injury. Man, it sucks when things go wrong in a bad way. Cass takes a fall over the ropes and lands horribly, looks like his whole knee got twisted. You couldn’t see it too well during the match, but the replay shows it quite clear and its pretty terrible. Hope for a fast recovery.
Funny backstage bit between Emma and Dana Brooke. Emma whines about how she got screwed, yada yada, and how #GiveEmmaAChance is trending worldwide, and tonight she will easily defeat Nia Jax… Who is right behind her and says #GiveEmmaCPR will be trending.
In less than two minutes, Nia Jax defeats Emma.
I neglected to mention how Elias ruled the pre-show yesterday when he sang a song, and the live Brooklyn crowd loved it they demanded for an encore, to which Elias obliged. Yep, he’s going to stick around. Once again, Elias gets the win, over R-Truth.
Up next is one of the greatest segments featuring The Miz. It begins with Kurt Angle bringing out John Cena to a mixed Brooklyn reaction. He says he’s here to confront someone… the guy who interrupts, Roman Reigns. Cena and Reigns are about to fight when Miz and his Miztourage interrupt and cut a promo which borderlines shoot-promo. It was amazing, running down how the crowd boos both Cena and Reigns, even the crowd chants “You Both Suck” as the Miz gets huge ovations for his words to truth on Cena and Reigns constantly getting the spotlight. Cena offers a tag match with Miz and a partner against Cena and Reigns, until SAMOA JOE FREAKIN’ COMES OUT AND says HE will be Miz’s partner. Joe attacks Cena!
Please let Joe hurt Cena. Please!
Reigns did nothing last night but play with his arm. Seriously, can Reigns not hit a move without roaring or cocking his damn arm.
Segment ends with the crowd chanting “You Both Suck!”
Next segment sees Jason Jordan asking Kurt Angle for a match… against Finn Balor. Oh, this isn’t going to end well.
Gran Metalik, Rich Swann, Mustafa Ali, and Cedric Alexander defeated Drew Gulak, Noam Dar, Tony Nese, and Ariya Davari. Why was this not on the SummerSlam pre-show? Fun and fast paced match. Didn’t recognize Gulak at all, being all clean shaven now. Finish sees Cedric blasting with the Lumbar Check. He always wins his matches, why is he not being allowed to challenge for the title?
Backstage: Neville is interviewed and interrupted by Titus O’Neal and Tozawa informing of a rematch tomorrow night on 205 Live. A show with fewer ratings than WCW Worldwide.
New RAW Tag Team Champions Two-Thirds Shield put out an open challenge, which is answered by the Hardy Boyz. Rollins for some odd reason plays the child “We grew up idolizing you guys!” Geez man, just ask for an autograph. Matt Hardy slides into “Broken Matt” character for a bit. We then get a great match. Man, these post-PPV RAW shows are always good. Pace quickens as we get a flurry of moves for the finish which sees Rollins and Ambrose getting a clean win over the Hardy Boyz.
Alexa Bliss interrupts Sasha Banks who is cutting an in-ring promo to inform of next week’s rematch. Cool. She did make a good point, Banks wins title, then immediately loses it on title defense.
Sadly, a great match between Jason Jordan and Finn Balor is marred by Michael Cole calling suplexes as “throws” and an errant beach ball being thrown ringside, prompting a “let’s go beach ball” chant among other fan distractions. Really? During a Balor match you do this? Shame on you Brooklyn. Jordan had a lot of nice offense, but ultimately Balor rallies back and caps it off with the Coup de grace. Poor Jordan.
Now, if Shelton Benjamin came back and faced Jason Jordan…
Tonight’s Main Event: Brooklyn Wants a Beach Ball
I’m not sure what the hell happened in the last half hour, but suddenly the live crowd became obsessed with a beach balls as if they were fidgetspinners. Then, John Cena got all weird, trying to get in on the action and part of the around-the-arena wave. I’m not sure of Cena didn’t care or he’s trying to have fun. He tried stopping the action at a few points to do so. Decent main event match, Miz and Joe get the MVPs for it. End came after Reigns accidentally clobbers Cena with a superman punch, Joe is taken out. Miz attempts to hit the Skull Crushing Finale on Cena, who reversals, into the Attitude Adjustment, and it’s over. Reigns and Cena seems to get along.
This show was very good, really. Matches were top notch, and the backstage segments did not overpower the show. Lots of build for next week, and I am hopeful this will be an upswing trend.
