By Mark Rodriguez
Stephanie McMahon will discuss Shane snatching up the win at the World Cup Tournament. Also Brock Lesnar will actually make an appearance. What awaits RAW as we head into the Survivor Series? Let's check it out.
So RAW opens with a Tag Team Battle Royale featuring such teams as The Revival, The B-Team and Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, the winner being part of the RAW Survival Tag Team group. Braun Strauman busts in and breaks it up, leaving no clear winner. He takes a seat and grabs a mic, saying he's not leaving until Baron Corbin comes out. Stepanie arrived and Braun says he's not interested in being part of RAW's Survivor Series Team until he gets what he wants. Steph says if he fights for her, she will work out whatever he wants. He wants another Universal Title Match against Brock Lesnar, but also a shot at Corbin. Stephanie agrees to this, however, Braun cannot lay a hand on Corbin until after Survivor Series.
Rhonda Rousey comes out and Steph tries to give her a pep talk, but she ignores it. Baron Corbin comes in and also tries to talk to Rousey, but she tosses him over her shoulder. Corbin and Strauman face off, with Corbin knowing Strauman can't touch him. Steph has Corbin leave but not without Strauman promising to 'neuter' him after Survivor Series.
First Match- Ember Moon VS Tamina (with Nia Jax)
Alexa Bliss would watch this match as Ember would try her best to fight Tamina while keeping an eye on Nia Jax to avoid any cheap shots. However, Nia would distract her at time, allowing Tamina to clothesline her from behind.
After the break, Tamina had Ember in a headlock. Ember would get out of it and take a chance to land a Suicide Dive against Nia, but she wouldn't even budge. Ember would take Tamina down and climb the post for the Eclipse. Nia would distract her long enough for Tamina to land a Super Kick to the face. With Ember down on the mat, Tamina would hit her with a Splash off the turnpost and win the match. Nia would land a Legdrop on Ember to add more punishment after the match.
Seth Rollins segment-
Corey Graves asks Seth if he's ready for Nakamura with everything that is going on with Ambrose. Rollins says right now all he cares about is why Ambrose attacked him. Ambrose appears on a monitor says he hasn't changed, but Rollins was too arrogant to see it. He says the SHIELD has made him weak with the burden of always watching over Rollins and Reigns, but he has a chance to be reborn. As he speaks, he douses his SHIELD SWAT gear in gasoline and tosses it in a burning barrel. Seth is furious.
Drew McIntyre-
Dolph Ziggler would troll the fans by coming out to Kurt Angle's theme before it turned into his own. McIntyre would cut a promo, bragging on how he tore up the SHIELD and also defeated Kurt Angle. He says he made Kurt cry and put him down with his own Ankle Lock. Fin Balor is sick of his trash talk and challenges him to a match. McIntyre says if he can beat Dolph, then he might consider a match with him. McIntyre catches Fin off guard with a headbutt as we cut to a break.
Second Match- Drew McIntyre VS Fin Balor-
Corbin approves the match and we see Ziggler trapping Fin in several holds, taking advantage of the headbutt he got earlier. Fin got out of the holds and kicked Ziggler down, setting him up for the Coup Le Grace. Ziggler managed to kick him off the ropes before he could do it.
Dolph is still in control with him stopping every short burst of offense Fin can muster. Fin hits him with an overhead kick to the side of the face and both men are down. Balor hits Dolph with a Swingblade, and then tries to run in for a dropkick, but is stopped by a knee to the face. Dolph hit him with a DDT but doesn't get the win. Dolph would also land the Famouser but Fin kicked out of the pin. Balor would do a Suicide Dive on both Dolph and McIntyre. He'd get Dolph back into the ring for the Coup de Grace, but Dolph would get out of the way. As Fin lands, Dolph tries to go for a roll up pin, but Balor would reverse it into another pin and score the win.
Stephanie and Corbin want Fin on their RAW team. McIntyre rushes in to attack Balor and Steph tells them that they can't fight since they're all on the same team. Steph also wants Corbin to treat Shane the same way he did to Kurt.
Ruby Riott addresses breaking Jim Neidhart's glasses.
Ruby comes out and acts remorseful over breaking Jim The Anvil Neidhart's sunglasses during their last match. She turns around and says she enjoyed every moment of it, and it wasn't that she went too far, but she didn't go far enough. Ruby says Jim wore those glasses because she was embarrassed to see her own daughter.
Natalya would come in and attack Ruby from behind and try to get her in the Sharpshooter. Liv and Sarah quickly attacked Natalya and take her down. Ruby has her teammates pick her up and the Riott Squad Leader would bounce off the ropes and take Natalya down with the Hart Attack, a move used by her father and the Hart Foundation.
Third Match- Tag Team Battle Royale- Winner will be Team Captains
Heath Slater would be the first one eliminated (though I'm not sure who was his partner). The B-Team would get rid of The Revival. Lucha House Party would do their cheers to distract the B-Team and the Ascension will take them out. Konnor would get rid of the Lucha House Party by himself, leaving the only teams to be Ascension and Roode and Gable. Konnor would sit Gable on the ropes and prepare to knock him off, but Gable grabs his arm and gets him in an Armbar. Roode would dash in to help eliminate Konnor. Bobby Roode and Chad Gable won the Battle Royale!
Brock Lesnar segment
Paul Heyman comes in to cut his usual promo, building up Brock Lesnar to be the unstoppable BEAST that he is. He also hypes up how Brock will be facing AJ Styles for a Champion VS Champion match at Survivor Series.
Suddenly Jinder Mahal shows up and tells Lesnar not to underestimate AJ Styles. He was set to fight AJ Styles last year to earn a match against Lesnar but lost to him. Jinder offers to teach him his Mantra to focus. Lesnar humored Mahal and his men long enough to lash out and send them to Suplex City.
Fourth Match- Bobby Lashley VS Elias- Winner is the last person of the RAW Survivor Series Team
Bobby would pose (and bend over) for the crowd until Elias would come in and talk trash on Lio Rush. Bobby tells Elias to come to the ring and say that to his face. Elias heads on down and the match is about to start.
After the break, Lashley has Elias in a headlock until the drifter can break way. Elias would smack Lio outside of the ring and Lashley would try to go for a pin. Elias would kick out and clothesline Lashley out of the ring. Elias would throw Lashley against the ringpost, but Lashley would throw him across the steel steps. Lashley would get into the ring first and Lio would be hidden under the ring apron and grab onto Elias' legs, making him lose to count out. Elias takes out his anger on Lio Rush, throwing him into the ring, and then throwing him out so he can crash into Lashley.
Alexa Bliss names her Team
Alexa Bliss names Mickie James, Nia Jax and Tamina as her teammates. She says the next match will determine who will be the final member, even if it's between friends. The next match will be between Sasha Banks and Bayley.
Fifth Match- Sasha Banks VS Bayley- Winner is part of the RAW Survivor Series Team
Sasha would start off with hitting Bayley with a knee to the face, which Bayley would soon return the favor. Sasha would hit Bayley with running knees to the face When The Boss tried a second time, Bayley would dodge and she'd end up running her knees into the ringpost. Bayley would grab Sasha on a Bayley to Belly toss onto the ring apron.
After the break, Bayley jumps off the rope and hits Sasha with an Elbow Drop. Sasha got her in the Bank Statement but suddenly, Nia, Tamina and Mickie would attack both women. Alexa Bliss says that both women lose, so she will call out the real final member of the team- Ruby Riot.
Suddenly we cut to the lockers as we see Becky Lynch putting Rhonda Rousey in the Dis-Arm-Her. The Lass Kicker walks out leaving Rousey on the floor in pain and enraged.
Alexa and the rest would wonder what was going on and Becky's theme would play as The Man would head towards the ring. At this time the ring has Alexa, Tamina, Nia Jax, Mickie James and all three members of the Riott Squad, but that didn't stop Becky from heading towards the ring.
Suddenly the Smackdown Women roster appears and attack everyone. Asuka, Charlotte, Naomi, Lana, the IIconics and some others all attack Alexa's team. Rhonda Rousey would make her way to the ring, her arm still in pain, but still able to push back anyone in her way. Becky would bash Rousey's bad arm with a steel chair before hitting her everywhere with more chair shots.
Becky and the rest would leave triumphant. Stephanie would chew our Corbin over this. Rousey is full of boiling rage.
The Highs of RAW-
Becky Lynch- I don't care that she's Smackdown, she is awesome. Putting Rousey in the Dis-Arm-Her, hurting her badly. Headed towards the ring 7 women already in there looking like a bad-ass. Leading the Smackdown Team against them and bashing Rousey up with a steel chair. We've seen similar attacks before, but having Becky lead the charge and take down RAW's top girl was awesome. Somehow Becky got her nose busted up, but she didn't stop her angle, and in the end she looked even more bad-ass with her face and hands covered in blood. This is The Man.
Dean Ambrose- It was kinda cool seeing Ambrose dump the SHIELD gear into the burning barrel. He is building more anticipation to the feud and literally adding more fuel to the fire. It's going to be spectacular to finally see him face Rollins.
Ruby Riot- It's good to see a more personal feud sparking up within the Women's division that isn't just for the title.
The Lows of RAW-
All Qualifying matches suck- It's been a while since I've seen qualifying matches before the World Cup Tournament, but man do these suck. They're barely taken seriously, they're incredibly short, and usually we only see them midway after the commercial break. It was bad enough for the qualifiers for the World Cup Tournament, but now also to determine who will be on the RAW Team. C'mon guys, make us feel that they care about winning.
The Tag Team Battle Royale- Ugh... again the show practically started with this about to go down with no build up or former introduction, and then it's randomly interrupted by Braun Strauman and everyone else. Then they tried to do the Battle Royale proper. Very short, very rushed, and it started after the commercial break. Stop doing this thing where random matches are already starting after the commercials.
Feeding Jinder to Lesnar- I guess they wanted Brock to do something instead of just have Paul Heyman cut the promo. Jinder was so random and honestly, this could have been a match if Brock didn't have the 'only wrestle for PPV' mentality. At least if Strauman came out it woulda made more sense than Jinder Mahal.
Bobby Lashley- This whole... bending over towards the crowd thing is gonna be a thing.. ins't it? I'm not even sure the ladies want to see that.
My overall opinions-
So-so episode except for the explosive ending. It was just fun seeing Becky to be on top as she broke Rousey down. This episode was full of replays from the last episode and some PPV fights, and building up some story, like the fact that Braun isn't allowed to hurt Corbin until after Survivor Series and all that, but there weren't any actual good matches. As I said, the qualifiers are jokes. The best match was probably the Fin Balor VS Dolph Ziggler one. I don't recall those two every going head to head before.
Not much to say. Just an average episode except for building the story and again, Becky Lynch comin down to wreck stuff and let everybody know that she is The Man.
We'll see if RAW has any retribution lined up for tomorrow....
Stephanie McMahon will discuss Shane snatching up the win at the World Cup Tournament. Also Brock Lesnar will actually make an appearance. What awaits RAW as we head into the Survivor Series? Let's check it out.
Opening Segment- Braun Strauman, Stephanie McMahon, Rhonda Rousey, & Baron Corbin
So RAW opens with a Tag Team Battle Royale featuring such teams as The Revival, The B-Team and Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, the winner being part of the RAW Survival Tag Team group. Braun Strauman busts in and breaks it up, leaving no clear winner. He takes a seat and grabs a mic, saying he's not leaving until Baron Corbin comes out. Stepanie arrived and Braun says he's not interested in being part of RAW's Survivor Series Team until he gets what he wants. Steph says if he fights for her, she will work out whatever he wants. He wants another Universal Title Match against Brock Lesnar, but also a shot at Corbin. Stephanie agrees to this, however, Braun cannot lay a hand on Corbin until after Survivor Series.
Rhonda Rousey comes out and Steph tries to give her a pep talk, but she ignores it. Baron Corbin comes in and also tries to talk to Rousey, but she tosses him over her shoulder. Corbin and Strauman face off, with Corbin knowing Strauman can't touch him. Steph has Corbin leave but not without Strauman promising to 'neuter' him after Survivor Series.
First Match- Ember Moon VS Tamina (with Nia Jax)
Alexa Bliss would watch this match as Ember would try her best to fight Tamina while keeping an eye on Nia Jax to avoid any cheap shots. However, Nia would distract her at time, allowing Tamina to clothesline her from behind.
After the break, Tamina had Ember in a headlock. Ember would get out of it and take a chance to land a Suicide Dive against Nia, but she wouldn't even budge. Ember would take Tamina down and climb the post for the Eclipse. Nia would distract her long enough for Tamina to land a Super Kick to the face. With Ember down on the mat, Tamina would hit her with a Splash off the turnpost and win the match. Nia would land a Legdrop on Ember to add more punishment after the match.
Seth Rollins segment-
Corey Graves asks Seth if he's ready for Nakamura with everything that is going on with Ambrose. Rollins says right now all he cares about is why Ambrose attacked him. Ambrose appears on a monitor says he hasn't changed, but Rollins was too arrogant to see it. He says the SHIELD has made him weak with the burden of always watching over Rollins and Reigns, but he has a chance to be reborn. As he speaks, he douses his SHIELD SWAT gear in gasoline and tosses it in a burning barrel. Seth is furious.
Drew McIntyre-
Dolph Ziggler would troll the fans by coming out to Kurt Angle's theme before it turned into his own. McIntyre would cut a promo, bragging on how he tore up the SHIELD and also defeated Kurt Angle. He says he made Kurt cry and put him down with his own Ankle Lock. Fin Balor is sick of his trash talk and challenges him to a match. McIntyre says if he can beat Dolph, then he might consider a match with him. McIntyre catches Fin off guard with a headbutt as we cut to a break.
Second Match- Drew McIntyre VS Fin Balor-
Corbin approves the match and we see Ziggler trapping Fin in several holds, taking advantage of the headbutt he got earlier. Fin got out of the holds and kicked Ziggler down, setting him up for the Coup Le Grace. Ziggler managed to kick him off the ropes before he could do it.
Dolph is still in control with him stopping every short burst of offense Fin can muster. Fin hits him with an overhead kick to the side of the face and both men are down. Balor hits Dolph with a Swingblade, and then tries to run in for a dropkick, but is stopped by a knee to the face. Dolph hit him with a DDT but doesn't get the win. Dolph would also land the Famouser but Fin kicked out of the pin. Balor would do a Suicide Dive on both Dolph and McIntyre. He'd get Dolph back into the ring for the Coup de Grace, but Dolph would get out of the way. As Fin lands, Dolph tries to go for a roll up pin, but Balor would reverse it into another pin and score the win.
Stephanie and Corbin want Fin on their RAW team. McIntyre rushes in to attack Balor and Steph tells them that they can't fight since they're all on the same team. Steph also wants Corbin to treat Shane the same way he did to Kurt.
Ruby Riott addresses breaking Jim Neidhart's glasses.
Ruby comes out and acts remorseful over breaking Jim The Anvil Neidhart's sunglasses during their last match. She turns around and says she enjoyed every moment of it, and it wasn't that she went too far, but she didn't go far enough. Ruby says Jim wore those glasses because she was embarrassed to see her own daughter.
Natalya would come in and attack Ruby from behind and try to get her in the Sharpshooter. Liv and Sarah quickly attacked Natalya and take her down. Ruby has her teammates pick her up and the Riott Squad Leader would bounce off the ropes and take Natalya down with the Hart Attack, a move used by her father and the Hart Foundation.
Third Match- Tag Team Battle Royale- Winner will be Team Captains
Heath Slater would be the first one eliminated (though I'm not sure who was his partner). The B-Team would get rid of The Revival. Lucha House Party would do their cheers to distract the B-Team and the Ascension will take them out. Konnor would get rid of the Lucha House Party by himself, leaving the only teams to be Ascension and Roode and Gable. Konnor would sit Gable on the ropes and prepare to knock him off, but Gable grabs his arm and gets him in an Armbar. Roode would dash in to help eliminate Konnor. Bobby Roode and Chad Gable won the Battle Royale!
Brock Lesnar segment
Paul Heyman comes in to cut his usual promo, building up Brock Lesnar to be the unstoppable BEAST that he is. He also hypes up how Brock will be facing AJ Styles for a Champion VS Champion match at Survivor Series.
Suddenly Jinder Mahal shows up and tells Lesnar not to underestimate AJ Styles. He was set to fight AJ Styles last year to earn a match against Lesnar but lost to him. Jinder offers to teach him his Mantra to focus. Lesnar humored Mahal and his men long enough to lash out and send them to Suplex City.
Fourth Match- Bobby Lashley VS Elias- Winner is the last person of the RAW Survivor Series Team
Bobby would pose (and bend over) for the crowd until Elias would come in and talk trash on Lio Rush. Bobby tells Elias to come to the ring and say that to his face. Elias heads on down and the match is about to start.
After the break, Lashley has Elias in a headlock until the drifter can break way. Elias would smack Lio outside of the ring and Lashley would try to go for a pin. Elias would kick out and clothesline Lashley out of the ring. Elias would throw Lashley against the ringpost, but Lashley would throw him across the steel steps. Lashley would get into the ring first and Lio would be hidden under the ring apron and grab onto Elias' legs, making him lose to count out. Elias takes out his anger on Lio Rush, throwing him into the ring, and then throwing him out so he can crash into Lashley.
Alexa Bliss names her Team
Alexa Bliss names Mickie James, Nia Jax and Tamina as her teammates. She says the next match will determine who will be the final member, even if it's between friends. The next match will be between Sasha Banks and Bayley.
Fifth Match- Sasha Banks VS Bayley- Winner is part of the RAW Survivor Series Team
Sasha would start off with hitting Bayley with a knee to the face, which Bayley would soon return the favor. Sasha would hit Bayley with running knees to the face When The Boss tried a second time, Bayley would dodge and she'd end up running her knees into the ringpost. Bayley would grab Sasha on a Bayley to Belly toss onto the ring apron.
After the break, Bayley jumps off the rope and hits Sasha with an Elbow Drop. Sasha got her in the Bank Statement but suddenly, Nia, Tamina and Mickie would attack both women. Alexa Bliss says that both women lose, so she will call out the real final member of the team- Ruby Riot.
Suddenly we cut to the lockers as we see Becky Lynch putting Rhonda Rousey in the Dis-Arm-Her. The Lass Kicker walks out leaving Rousey on the floor in pain and enraged.
Alexa and the rest would wonder what was going on and Becky's theme would play as The Man would head towards the ring. At this time the ring has Alexa, Tamina, Nia Jax, Mickie James and all three members of the Riott Squad, but that didn't stop Becky from heading towards the ring.
Suddenly the Smackdown Women roster appears and attack everyone. Asuka, Charlotte, Naomi, Lana, the IIconics and some others all attack Alexa's team. Rhonda Rousey would make her way to the ring, her arm still in pain, but still able to push back anyone in her way. Becky would bash Rousey's bad arm with a steel chair before hitting her everywhere with more chair shots.
Becky and the rest would leave triumphant. Stephanie would chew our Corbin over this. Rousey is full of boiling rage.
The Highs of RAW-
Becky Lynch- I don't care that she's Smackdown, she is awesome. Putting Rousey in the Dis-Arm-Her, hurting her badly. Headed towards the ring 7 women already in there looking like a bad-ass. Leading the Smackdown Team against them and bashing Rousey up with a steel chair. We've seen similar attacks before, but having Becky lead the charge and take down RAW's top girl was awesome. Somehow Becky got her nose busted up, but she didn't stop her angle, and in the end she looked even more bad-ass with her face and hands covered in blood. This is The Man.
Dean Ambrose- It was kinda cool seeing Ambrose dump the SHIELD gear into the burning barrel. He is building more anticipation to the feud and literally adding more fuel to the fire. It's going to be spectacular to finally see him face Rollins.
Ruby Riot- It's good to see a more personal feud sparking up within the Women's division that isn't just for the title.
The Lows of RAW-
All Qualifying matches suck- It's been a while since I've seen qualifying matches before the World Cup Tournament, but man do these suck. They're barely taken seriously, they're incredibly short, and usually we only see them midway after the commercial break. It was bad enough for the qualifiers for the World Cup Tournament, but now also to determine who will be on the RAW Team. C'mon guys, make us feel that they care about winning.
The Tag Team Battle Royale- Ugh... again the show practically started with this about to go down with no build up or former introduction, and then it's randomly interrupted by Braun Strauman and everyone else. Then they tried to do the Battle Royale proper. Very short, very rushed, and it started after the commercial break. Stop doing this thing where random matches are already starting after the commercials.
Feeding Jinder to Lesnar- I guess they wanted Brock to do something instead of just have Paul Heyman cut the promo. Jinder was so random and honestly, this could have been a match if Brock didn't have the 'only wrestle for PPV' mentality. At least if Strauman came out it woulda made more sense than Jinder Mahal.
Bobby Lashley- This whole... bending over towards the crowd thing is gonna be a thing.. ins't it? I'm not even sure the ladies want to see that.
My overall opinions-
So-so episode except for the explosive ending. It was just fun seeing Becky to be on top as she broke Rousey down. This episode was full of replays from the last episode and some PPV fights, and building up some story, like the fact that Braun isn't allowed to hurt Corbin until after Survivor Series and all that, but there weren't any actual good matches. As I said, the qualifiers are jokes. The best match was probably the Fin Balor VS Dolph Ziggler one. I don't recall those two every going head to head before.
Not much to say. Just an average episode except for building the story and again, Becky Lynch comin down to wreck stuff and let everybody know that she is The Man.
We'll see if RAW has any retribution lined up for tomorrow....
Thanks! It's a challenge writing as it happens live.
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