WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from the Air Canada Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 11/21/16!
Goldberg comes out and starts off the show with an emotional response to his decimation of the “Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar in record time at last night’s Survivor Series. The crowd appreciates his efforts and he says he had a good run and that after the show, Stephanie McMahon came up to him and said that he delivered on his promise. She said that he conquered the Beast with one more spear and one more Jackhammer. But, does he have one more title run left in him? The crowd pops for that and hits him with a “yes” chant. Goldberg says that she stated that the road goes through the Royal Rumble in San Antonio, Texas. So when that rolls around, twenty nine other superstars will find out, they’re next! Great reaction and an ample opportunity to draw money for the special attraction. Brock will surely declare his intentions for the Rumble and perhaps the two men will end their business at ‘Mania. Up next, we’ll see, as promised, The New Day, defending their tag title belts against the sole survivors of the RAW tag team from the Elimination tag, Cesaro and Sheamus. That’s up after the break!
The New Day defeat Sheamus and Cesaro via pinfall to retain the tag team titles. It was over. After a great match, Xavier Woods distracted the referee while Cesaro had Kofi in the Sharpshooter and as soon as Kofi started to tap, the ref missed it. As he turned back around, Kofi rolled up Cesaro for the three count. The New Day are 23 days away from besting the record held by Demolition and I can expect that as soon as they beat that record, they’ll be losing the straps.
Chris Jericho is shown backstage with the “List Of Jericho” and he’s upset. He says that last night, Team Raw fell apart after the List was used as a weapon. He says that tonight, on the Highlight Reel, he’s gonna tell everyone who’s to blame for that travesty.
Enzo Amore is backstage with no clothes on. He is censored and he runs into Titus O’Neil and The Shining Stars who are mocking him and the fact that he has no clothes on. He runs into Lana and he says “How You Doin”? Rusev is frantic and he asks why Enzo is naked in front oh his wife. Big Cass shows up and backs up his buddy. Long story short, Enzo and Rusev will do business later tonight in the ring.
Sami Zayn shows up backstage where Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon are talking about last night. Mick says that despite Zayn’s best efforts against The Miz, he fell short. Therefore, he will be competing against Braun Strowman tonight on RAW. Yikes. Up next, we’re going to get to enjoy Cruiserweight action as the dynamic Cedric Alexander, who might have the world’s best theme music that doesn’t belong to Bobby Roode or Shinsuke Nakamura, will be competing against Ariya Daivari.
Cedric Alexander defeats Ariya Daivari by pinfall with the Lumbar Check. Mercy. If Ced or Swann were pushed as the next contender to “The Man With the Plan”, Brian Kendrick’s Cruiserweight Title, this division would really take off and see the renaissance that it was expected to see as the aire to the old WCW throne. Those two guys have all the tools and they are charismatic as heck. It’s easy to get behind Cedric, and for the time allotted, he and Daivari put on a very watchable match. That Lumbar Check is a brilliant finish.
Highlight Reel Time! Maybe we’ll have an opportunity to receive the gift of Jericho, and similar to some holiday eggnog, we can drink it in maaaaan! Jericho starts off by saying that last night a travesty occurred when Team Smackdown beat Team RAW. When there’s tragedy of that magnitude, someone is to blame and he’s gonna do an autopsy to figure out what happened. His best friend, the Universal Champion, Kevin Owens, comes out to join him. KO asks if he can use the Jeritron 5000 to show everyone. Jericho says it’s the Jeritron 6500. KO asks when it became that? Jericho said he was there when it was upgraded. KO shows Jericho about to get hit with a Styles Clash. KO says he used the List to save his best friend. KO says the list wasn’t as important as him sacrificing himself for Jericho. KO says instead of Jericho capitalizing on it, he ate an RKO. KO says that was a waste of their friendship! Jericho says if that’s the way he feels, then maybe the friendship is over! Jericho turns to leave and KO spins him around and he says he’ll tell him who’s at fault! ROMAN REIGNS! The crowd goes crazy and there’s a huge “Roman sucks” chant. They hug and they troll us all. They blame Roman for not saving Jericho from the Styles Clash. He just stood there with his conditioner dripping all over the place. They also blame Seth Rollins. Rollins music hits and “The Architect” heads out onto the ramp to a great reaction. Seth comes down and says the future is now and the past is the past. He demands a title match tonight. The crowd chants “yes” and KO says that the “Yes Movement” and more importantly, Daniel Bryan, are irrelevant now. Jericho says that Rollins is a liar and he’s responsible for grandiose fallacies. Rollins says that since Y2J and KO are joined at the hip, he’ll run through both of them. He attacks Jericho, but they get the better of him before Rollins is saved by the US Champion, Roman Reigns. Superman punches fly and the members of the Shield work together as the GM, Mick Foley, makes his presence known. He says in a match where Roman and Y2J are banned from ringside, KO will defend the Universal Title against Seth Rollins in a NO DQ Match tonight!
Rusev defeats Enzo Amore via submission with the Accolade. Well, if the goal was to reestablish Rusev as a major player, it worked. He took a page out of Goldberg’s book after a lot of pre-match talking and tomfoolery by the great Enzo and Big Cass. Enzo entered the ring, ate a savate kick and then he was placed in the Accolade only to tap out in record time. Rusev defends his wife and takes the sorely needed win as we head to a commercial break.
Gallows and Anderson defeated the Golden Truth via pinfall with the Magic Killer to earn a tag team title opportunity against The New Day next week on RAW. Mick Foley said he’s gonna make The New Day earn that record. This week they beat Cesaro and Sheamus, next week they’ll have to beat the Good Brothers. Goldust looked terrific in this one, even coming off the top rope with a double crossbody. The grizzled veteran is still a treasured hand and it shows. R-Truth and Gallows spilled to the outside and then Anderson nailed Goldust with a big kick and the heels hit the Magic Killer to put this one in the history books.
Braun Strowman defeated Sami Zayn via stoppage. Mick Foley came out and ordered referee Chad Patton to stop the match. This made Strowman look like even more of a monster, but at the expense of Zayn? To be fair, the decision to “punish” Zayn and not the other losers from last night’s event looks downright foolish as it relates to storyline progression, but that’s often why RAW is looked at as the more poorly written of the two shows. Smackdown seems to always have fresh storyline progression and it’s head scratchers like this that make me wonder what the hell they are doing. Don’t get me wrong, Strowman is gonna be a player. He was terrific last night and did his job tonight, but Zayn is so heavily cheered by the crowd, that he’s easy to get behind. You can bury other guys. Doing this to him just makes you look foolish. Zayn needs to use this storyline opportunity to leave RAW from Smackdown where he’d be better utilized and maybe, just maybe, that’s what is going to happen.
“The Queen” is out next to gloat about the RAW women’s team, specifically Bayley. Charlotte, the WWE Women’s Champion, accompanied by Dana Brooke, says she no longer has to team with the rest of the women. She says she’s above them all, and she’s interrupted quickly by “The Boss” Sasha Banks. Sasha says she is done with the team too and she is still owed her rematch from Hell In The Cell. Charlotte agrees and says they’ll have that match, but not tonight. They boo her and she mocks them and then calls them dumb Canadians. She is savage and brilliant! She says RAW next week is from Charlotte, North Carolina, her hometown. Next week, Charlotte will defend that title against Sasha. They are interrupted by Nia Jax. Nia says she isn’t here for Charlotte, she is here for Sasha. Nia talks her down and then Charlotte baits her into attacking Sasha after Sasha drops Dana Brooke. Nia roughs up Sasha and Charlotte chops her several times before Bayley runs down. Bayley is disposed of by Nia as well as they head to a commercial break. This leads to an impromptu tag team match that starts after the break between Bayley and Sasha and Nia and Charlotte.
Sasha Banks and Bayley defeat Charlotte and Nia Jax via submission after a Banks Statement on Charlotte. A beautiful double suplex on Nia Jax takes her out of the match, and Charlotte falls victim to a Banks Statement shortly thereafter. Smart call to have this finish as it adds intrigue to what should result in a title defense by Charlotte next week. It makes Sasha look strong, and it’s very smart to keep her relevant in the title picture as the RAW women’s division has some very talented women, and some very green women at the same time. Dana still needs work and Nia is getting there. Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha are on another level though and it’s just good booking here compared to the prior engagement with Zayn.
Seth Rollins has words with Charlie backstage about his upcoming title match against Kevin Owens in the main event. He says it’s cool that Jericho is banned from ringside and he will use any and all weapons at his disposal to win the strap. He says tonight he will redesign, rebuild and reclaim. Back to ringside. “I’m The Man With The Plan”! Brian Kendrick will be on commentary as TJ Perkins competes against Rich Swann and Noam Dar in a triple threat match next, where the winner gets a title match next week during the premiere of 205 Live. Money’s on Swann for me, but we’ll see!
Rich Swann defeats TJ Perkins and Noam Dar via pinfall after a spinning back heel kick on TJP. What a contest! All three men looked strong and it looked like TJP was going to win it after he trapped Dar in the TJP kneebar, but Swann was able to break it up with a splash and then when Perkins got to his feet, Swann nailed the spinning back heel kick, which was enough to get him the three count. Swann will face THE Brian Kendrick next week during the debut of 205 Live on the WWE Network in a title situation. That is going to be a quality match. I can’t wait for that one and the show as well! After the match, Kevin Owens is backstage and he cuts a promo about the failures of Seth Rollins. He mocks the fact that Seth didn’t do anything to get the title match outside join the team. KO says that what he doesn’t realize is that the reward will also be the punishment. He then calls Charlie “Renee” and then tells this “stranger” to leave him alone as he prepares for the match.
Kevin Owens defeats Seth Rollins by pinfall with an apron powerbomb. This was a hell of a match. Wow. These fans in Toronto really enjoyed a quality episode of Monday Night Raw tonight. These two ring generals pulled out all the stops putting each other through tables, chairs and everything in between. The wrestling was top notch and at one point, Seth Rollins came off an entrance ramp among a see of fans clamoring for the high spot. They weren’t disappointed as a high cross body found its mark. Rollins was in control, throwing a trash can at Owens at the two men headed back towards the ring. A “fan” dressed in a Japanese Wrestling mask assaulted Owens even wearing an “Ichiban” hoodie, which was priceless. It was the Ayatollah himself, as Rollins unmasked Jericho, only to issue him a pedigree. Owens took advantage with an apron powerbomb and then he rolled Rollins into the ring and he pinned him as the show went off the air. Tremendous.
