Season premiere of Monday Night Raw begins with a brand new intro.
Vic Joseph, Dio Maddin, and Jerry “The King” Lawler are the new Monday Night RAW announcers. Those three have officially replaced Renee Young, Corey Graves, and Michael Cole, and quite frankly, I’ll miss the banter between Renee and Corey. Overall, I’ll just miss Corey on RAW and his colorful commentary. But the three announcers are not done being announcers, they are just doing commentary for SmackDown now.
RAW started the night off with Rey Mysterio, who talked about facing Seth Rollins for the championship belt during tonight’s match. He says he owes the match to his son and that he loves him. Brock Lesnar’s music cuts off Rey’s heartfelt interaction with his son. Paul Heyman started to talk, and Rey snatched the mic away from him, and once Rey started to talk, Brock took Rey right down to Suplex City. Brock approached Rey Mysterio’s son and pulled him out of the audience and started wailing on him. Paul Heyman even seemed shocked by Brock’s actions.
I have to say, Rey’s son can really take a bump. This may be the beginning of a new professional wrestling career. Brock circled over the writhing bodies of Rey and Dominic before leaving the ring, only to come back into the ring and suplex the both of them again. The referees ended up in the ring and Brock kicked them out. He also kicked the bodies of Rey and Dominic out of the ring as well. The announcers thought this was Brock’s way of sending a clear message to Kofi Kingston, who Brock will be wrestling this Sunday at Hell in the Cell. But I think we can all agree with the crowd that was calling Brock an “Ass-Hole.:
The next match was between Sasha Banks and Alexa Bliss, and Becky at ringside. The match between Sasha and Alexa wasn’t particularly interesting. At one-point Sasha yelled at Becky from the ring and Alexa caught her off-guard. Sasha gained control of the match pretty early on and maintained control over Alexa through most of the match. Sasha attempted to pin Alexa, but Alexa was able to kick out. Sasha played dirty and made it seem like she was going to call Bailey into the ring, so Alexa looked for Bailey, but then Sasha knocked her down and pinned her. After Sasha won, Becky made her way into the ring and beat on Sasha so badly that she had to run out of the ring to escape her. Words were exchanged regarding their match this Sunday for the belt.
Meanwhile, Firefly Funhouse is still a thing and I am STILL not a fan.
Seth Rollins mentioned that he was concerned for Rey Mysterio and Dominic. He also mentioned that Rey may not be ready to have a match tonight, but that the match will be available for whenever he is ready. For tonight, Seth will have to find someone else to fight.
Heavy Machinery had a match against Roode and Ziggler for the Tag Team Championship belts. This is the first championship match of the season! Ziggler and Tucker bounced off the ropes and Ziggler dropped like a bag of potatoes. Heavy Machinery is not the tag team that will go down easily. Heavy Machinery does a double suplex with Roode and Ziggler. Roode and Ziggler have control of the match for most of the time, but Heavy Machinery is able to take control of the match by throwing their weight around a bit. Robert Roode ended up doing a Glorious DDT to Tucker and got the pin. They were able to keep the belts.
Miz TV has two very important guests tonight. Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair are both guests for this season premiere of RAW. The first thing the Miz does is give condolences to Rey Mysterio and Dominic, then he called out Ric Flair. Hulk Hogan is the next one to make his way to the ring with Jimmy Hart. Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, and Jimmy Hart share the stage. Hulk Hogan does his classic shtick and the audience just absolutely loses it. I have to say, the most shocking thing is when Ric Flair acts as if he’s going to start wrestling Hulk Hogan. The audience goes wild, and as exciting as that would be to watch, I was so concerned for their safety.
The Miz announces that at Crown Jewel, there will be a match between Hulk Hogan’s team and Ric Flair’s team. Seth Rollins comes out and declares that he’s going to be the captain on Hulk Hogan’s team, and Randy Orton is going to be the captain on Ric Flair’s team. Seth and Randy will pick their teams over the next few weeks, but for tonight’s episode, they’re just going to have a captain’s match. Right before the match started, King Corbin made his way out, distracted Rollins, and Randy attacked him from behind. Then Randy and Corbin start wailing on Seth, then Rusev’s music started playing. Rusev made his way out from the back, into the ring, and started attacking Randy and Corbin. Then Seth and Rusev walked back up the ramp and greeted their team leader, Hulk Hogan. This little event is sure to be interesting. My only hope is that since the event will fall on Halloween, I hope they end up wearing costumes.
The Viking Raiders had a match against The O.C. It was during this match that I was reminded that Dio, one of the announcers, is a larper. He talked about how the Viking Raiders look like they could be larpers, but they are not. Gallows gave the Viking Raiders a run for their money, but The Viking Raiders got the pin on The O.C., it’s unfortunate that there was no belt on the line for this match.
The next match was between Cesaro and Ricochet. Cesaro walked out to some new entrance music, and I wasn’t exactly a fan, but that’s because I don’t like change. I know a lot of people don’t like Cesaro, but The Bar will always have a special place in my heart. After some back and forth, and a ton of flips, Ricochet won the match.
AJ Styles makes his way into the ring and he faced Cedric Alexander. Alexander is good at avoiding most of the moves from AJ Styles. Alexander does a lot of moves that are flourished with flips. Cedric almost got the pin on AJ, who broke out after a two-count. Then AJ almost immediately pinned Cedric, but Cedric broke out after a two-count. After a few times of going back and forth, AJ Styles got the pin on Cedric Alexander.
The Street Profits shot a promo to talk about NXT, and they are just a pair of funny dudes.
Lacey Evans had a fairly short match against Natalya and won the match. She then gave Natalya a Women’s Right and knocked Natalya back down, even thought she had already won the match. I feel bad for Lacey Evans because I feel like the WWE doesn’t know what to do with such a cool female character.
The final match of the night was between Rusev and Seth Rollins. Randy Orton and King Corbin were standing ringside. The match itself was fairly unexciting. The men seem evenly matched, Rusev attempted a pin on Seth but he kicked out. Seth pulled off a Falcon Arrow, which was impressive comparing the size difference between Seth and Rusev. Randomly, as the match was going on, Bobby Lashley who has been out for months, walks out to his music. He stands off to the side, and then Lana’s music starts to play. Lana walks out, stands next to Bobby Lashley, and then starts making out with him. And I’m not talking about a 90’s sitcom make-out session, I’m talking about full on tonsil-hockey. There was a part of me that was concerned that Seth would attack Rusev during this intense moment of vulnerability, but then the lights went out. It was the moment we were waiting for during this whole episode, and the season premiere episode ended with The Fiend attacking Seth Rollins in the darkness and essentially choking him out.
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