RAW kicks off with the return of Stephanie McMahon. This takes places as Kurt Angle apologizes to the entire RAW roster for having to endure the SmackDown invasion last week. Stephanie wastes no time asserting her authority in naming Kurt as Captain of TEAM RAW for Survivor Series. Steph warns him, failure is not an option.
We find out The Miz will defend his Intercontinental Championship tonight. Kurt Angle is not in a good mood.
The opening segment set the tone for tonight’s episode. Steph is about business, and RAW needs to step it up if they want to keep their jobs. It’s an interesting angle. Speaking of, Kurt Angle is going to wrestle again. If he can go, let him loose in the ring.
Nia Jax defeats Bayley in our opening contest. Crazy Alicia Fox sends Jax out, much to everyone’s relief. Can’t always believe the dirt sheets folks. She comes back, and pretty much steamrolls over Bayley, who did get a few good spots in. Ultimately, Bayley falls, and Fox puts Jax on her RAW Women’s Survivor Series team.
The action isn’t over yet, as Samoa Joe interrupts the exit, storms the ring and is back with rage. He calls out anyone brave enough to fa… Apollo Crews comes out right away because why not throw him to the behemoth. It was a slaughter. For good measure, bad-attitude Joe spits his gum at Titus O’Neal during the match, and then chokes him out post-match.
This would have been better if Kurt came out and named Joe to his team. As much as Joe tried the heel “I hate the fans” bit, the crowd erupted when Joe beat up both Crews and O’Neal.
Michael Cole, Booker T, and Corey Graves talk about the 25th anniversary of RAW, featuring Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, and possibly The Undertaker.
The Miz defeats Matt Hardy in our next bout, for the IC title. I genuinely believe the crowd was disappointed it wasn’t Jeff Hardy when the familiar music hit. Great match, with a lot of near falls, teasing a Hardy win, even hitting his finisher. In the end, Miz managed to score the pinfall victory. Bo Dallas is back.
Backstage: Alexa Bliss tries to convince Kurt Angle to fire Mickie James and bring up someone from the Mae Young Classic. Instead, in tonight’s main event, she will defend the RAW Women’s Championship against James. I think more Women’s matches have main evented RAW since Summerslam.
Well, that got interesting fast.
Asuka defeats local jobber
They show Stephanie’s return and subsequent verbal admonishment of Kurt Angle over and over tonight.
Daniel Bryan shows up, apologizing to Kurt Angle for the actions of Shane McMahon. Angle isn’t happy, but tells Bryan to stay put because the RAW roster would find a way to inflict pain.
Finn Balor defeated Cesaro in an amazing match. Just awesome. The party doesn’t end there, as Kane shows up, tombstones Balor on the stage, and then has his match with Seth Rollins right away. We go from fast paced to slow and sluggish. Thanks to a brawl with Cesaro, Sheamus, and Dean Ambrose, the Big Red Machine gets the win via lame chokeslam. Kane needs to retire, and this whole bit about building him up, which will likely lead to the match no one cared to see, Kane vs. Braun Strowman.
Speaking of whom… The Miz is ready to celebrate with Curt Axel and Bo Dallas, until they see a bag of stinky garbage in his locker room, which Miz assumes to mean Strowman is back. Miz finds Kane after the match, and asks if Strowman is back. Kane laughs and says Miz is on his own.
In the strangest match of the night, dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Claus, Heath Slater and Rhyno defeated Tex Ferguson and Chad 2 Bad. That’s Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in case you weren’t sure. This was corny token to WWE’s celebrating Halloween.
Backstage: Miz hoping Cesaro and Sheamus will have his back. They laugh, and tell him, you guessed it, he’s on his own.
Elias sings us the ballad of Jason Jordan, showing a clip of Elias clobbering him with the guitar and destroying his arm. The song is interrupted by Jordan, clearly recovered, and the fight begins and ends quickly with an overhead suplex, followed by Jordan destroying the guitar.
Miz, Dallas, and Axel try to leave, but Kurt Angle orders them to stay.
In the weirdest 205Live segment to date, the Hilarious Drew Gulak plays up his clean-cut-by-the-book antics, by attempting to fill the shoes of Big Cass, even spelling the catchphrase, well, correctly, only for Enzo to cringe. Kalisto defeats Gulak in minutes.
RAW Main Event: Women’s Championship Match – Mickie James vs. Alexa Bliss
Decent match, a few semi-botched spots, but overall, a good match. The shocker of the win comes, after Bliss counters James and just straight-up punches her in the face. No joke, a KO punch. The focus immediately changes to The Miz trying to escape, however a garbage truck blocks the Limo. Out comes the garbage, and Braun Strowman comes charging out.
Bliss still celebrates in the ring, but here comes Strowman, mowing down Dallas and Axel, turning his attention to The Miz. He gets a few shots in, but Axel winds up taking the big slam for Miz, about five Powerslams in the ring, and then a huge one on the outside, obliterating the announce table.
Good lord.
