WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from the University of Texas in Austin, TX on 12/5/16!
“The Architect” Seth Rollins starts the show off in Austin talking about how he wants Triple H. Wow, this is the first time they’ve referenced that since Owens was handed the title. He talks about suffering the consequences of the choices he’s made, like breaking up the Shield. He says HHH made the same mistakes by turning against him and anointing Kevin Owens. He talks about his brutal attack last week on “Y2J” Chris Jericho. The innovator of the list was driven through the roof of a parked car by the former world champion. He says he’d love to call Triple H out right now, but he’s smarter than that and he knows how to get to HHH. He says he beats Kevin Owens and takes the Universal Championship. He says he can’t beat KO while Jericho is still a part of the equation and he needs to remove that puzzle piece. KO has heard enough and he heads out onto the ramp, he talks about making up with Chris Jericho and he says that Seth doesn’t need to worry about Jericho returning texts to him. KO says he’s been busy getting Y2J gifts for the holiday season. He says he got three gifts for Chris Jericho. Rollins says he hopes it’s enough to repay all the times that Jericho has helped him keep his Universal Title. KO says he’s a fighting champion and the only reason he lost to Roman Reigns last week was because his head wasn’t right following Rollins attack. Seth challenges KO for the title tonight, but we find out that KO is booked to defend the world title against Sami Zayn later tonight. The three gifts he got for Chris Jericho start tonight with a US Title match against Roman Reigns, and then at Roadblock, it’ll be Chris Jericho against Seth Rollins. The third and final gift for Chris Jericho is a present that involves a match for Seth Rollins tonight against a now 392 pound Big Show! Wow! The veteran hand looks terrific and he’s excited to be in Austin! He’ll face Rollins after the break in singles action.
Seth Rollins defeats The Big Show by countout. Show was blown up pretty early in this one, but he’s been gone for several months. Show was working Rollins over until Seth came back with rapid knee strikes on the ropes on three occasions. KO hopped up onto the apron and Show got fed up. He chokeslammed KO and then just left, which allowed Rollins to win by countout and then pedigree him in the center of the ring. Rollins celebrates and leaves shortly thereafter.
They promote 205 LIVE and show the newly crowned champion “The Outlandish” Rich Swann, after he bested THE Brian Kendrick on the show’s debut to win the strap. We then get a video package for the “Extraordinary Gentleman” Jack Gallagher with highlights of the incredibly unique talent and his patented finish, the flying heel hook in the corner. He talks about standing out and how he’s going to succeed by being himself and performing to the best of his abilities. Jack will make his RAW debut next!
Jack Gallagher defeats Ariya Daivari via pinfall with a flying heel hook. The Austin UT fans were very pleased with Jack’s effort and he entertained them with his unique in-ring offense and counter wrestling. After a devastating headbutt, he finished the contest with the flying heel hook in the corner and he got the three count. While his music was playing, Jack looked to extend the hand of sportsmanship to Daivari after beating him twice, if you include 205 Live, but Daivari would have none of that tomfoolery and he viciously attacked the knee. He was pleased with his work and he left to a resounding chorus of boos from the Austin crowd.
Titus O’Neil is backstage promoting the Titus brand talking about “The Tussle In Texas”. I’m sure that’s going to lead to something for the big fan, just not sure what. A graphic is shown for a number one contender’s match, which takes place tonight, between Gallows and Anderson and Sheamus and Cesaro. The winner faces the New Day next week for tag titles.
Kevin Owens is backstage with Raw GM Mick Foley who says his match with Sami Zayn is still a go. He then walks away from Foley and he happens upon his best friend, Chris Jericho. He asks is Jericho saw what happened and Jericho says he just arrived. Kevin tells him about the three gifts starting with the title match tonight and then she says it’s the “match of Jericho, drink it in dude” or some form of that botch. He asks Jericho if they are good and Jericho says “no, they aren’t good”, and he walks off. Meanwhile, Enzo Amore and Big Cass are chatting and they say Rusev arguing with his wife, Lana. Enzo says he’s gotta go over there and handle his business by defending Lana. Rusev says that “worm” should stay out of his business. Rusev says that if Lana wants to defend Enzo, which she does, she should be with him. She takes off her wedding ring and throws it down. Rusev leaves and Enzo picks it up for her with Cass watching and he asks, “so, how are you doin” which the crowd loves. The segment ends with the music of Sami Zayn playing, which means that after the break, he and Kevin Owens will have their match.
Enzo and Lana are still talking about how Rusev doesn’t appreciate her and how Enzo should come to her hotel room, room 704, later tonight. Obviously, when he walks into that trap, Cass will eventually step up and handle business, leading to a match with Rusev at Roadblock. It’ll write itself. In the meantime, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn will do battle, and that’s up now! KO heads to the ring!
Kevin Owens defeats Sami Zayn via pinfall with a Popup Powerbomb. This was a quality match. Sami Zayn looked like the Zayn of old and was able to actually mount an offense instead of being buried at the expense of a rising talent. He nailed a multitude of exploder suplexes and even the Blue Thunder Bomb for a very close nearfall, but in the end, after a Steenalizer, a bruising offense and then ultimately, a Popup Powerbomb, Owens was able to walk away the victor as he eyes his forthcoming contest with the US Champ, Roman Reigns, for his own Universal Title, at Roadblock.
Chris Jericho is backstage when Roman Reigns shows up. Reigns tells him that he’s still got car paint on his forehead, he calls Reigns a “stupid idiot” and Reigns says he better watch his mouth and how he talks to him. Reigns says it could be Chris Jericho’s lucky night, or he could just be doing Kevin Owens dirty work…again. Jericho is left pondering the comment as they show Sasha Banks placing that unique Banks Statement on Charlotte to recapture the women’s title. We’ll hear from “The Boss” next!
The new women’s champion is backstage talking about her championship victory. She sounds like she’s sick. She probably needs to call up my dude Richard Sherman for some of that Campbell’s Chunky Soup since it’s cold and flu season. Sasha talks about what a pleasure it was to beat Charlotte in her hometown and see Ric Flair. Sasha then really sets the crowd on fire by challenging Charlotte to a rematch for the title at RoadBlock, in an IRONWOMAN match! Part 2! Holy cow! That is going to be tremendous. They then cut to footage of Charlotte kicker her father to the curb last Monday. Flair has just signed a new Legends deal and it looks like he’s going to be actively involved in the story once more. Tonight Charlotte publicly apologizes to him in a segment that will take place later. Up next, the new Cruiserweight Champion, “The Outlandish” Rich Swann takes on TJ Perkins in Cruiserweight Action!
After the break, just as we did with Gallagher earlier, we get a video package talking about Rich Swann’s history. These are good because the crowd has to be invested in these talents to cheer or boo them. It’s smart and they need to do this more often. Swann is a fellow Baltimore guy, so I can support the new champ being from “Charm City”. His story is incredible and let’s hope that the fans take to him. He dedicated the title victory to his mother. We find out that Kendrick is cashing in his rematch clause for tomorrow night’s 205 Live. TJ Perkins hits the ring for singles action in the meantime.
Rich Swann defeats TJ Perkins by pinfall with the spinning hook kick. This was a good match. TJP was hot for the majority of the contest, hitting some of his signature spots and really taking it to the new champ. Swann kept things honest and eventually caught the former champ as he was coming off the top rope with the kick and that was all she wrote. He’ll defend against Kendrick tomorrow night. They show Bayley backstage headed to the ring for singles action and she is carrying a holiday release called a “Bayley Bear” which will surely be loved by children, and owners of the John Cena garden gnome, everywhere.
Bayley defeats Alicia Fox via pinfall after a Bayley-To-Belly Suplex. Apparently the contest came about because Bayley handed Cedric Alexander, the sensational Cruiserweight, one of the Bayley Bears, and since Alicia has been sweet on Cedric, she flipped out. Alicia got in a fair amount of offense, but in the end, Bayley got the victory over the veteran star to put herself out there as a viable challenger for the women’s title in the not so distant future.
Enzo and Cass are backstage again and damned if Enzo didn’t stop spitting lines from R. Kelly’s “Your Body’s Callin”. He gets a text from Lana, which is an image of that lovely face and the implication that she’s naked at the hotel waiting for Enzo. Rusev shows up and questions Cass as to Lana’s whereabouts. Cass says he must have just lost his wife, but he lost his damn mind by putting hands on Big Cass. He and Rusev will do battle tonight. And we find out the “Tussle In Texas” is a match between Titus O’Neil and Sillsby’s own, Mark Henry. That’s next.
We finally found out that we get the premiere of EMMALINA next week. It’s about time. Can’t wait to see Emma back. She was starting to become a running joke as far as her re-debut being put off like when “Big Johnny” kept delaying the imminent debut of Brodus Clay. We all appreciated the Funkasaurus. But while we ponder the location of the Funkasaurus, it’s time for the “Tussle In Texas”.
Mark Henry defeats Titus O’Neil via pinfall with the World’s Strongest Slam. It was over before I finished typing the prior sentence. Saxton said it was over quicker than the Sooners bested Texas this year. That is very true indeed. It’s probably even more disappointing to be an Oklahoma State fan to be quite honest. We’ll all miss Charlie Strong though. A Tremendous leader of men, just couldn’t get the work done on the field.
Enzo Amore is on the phone backstage waiting for his Uber driver when a limo pulls out and the sixteen time champ, the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair shows up. He and Enzo trade words and put each other over and it’s brilliant. Flair gives Enzo his limo to go meet Lana and he sends Enzo to be anything but “Sawft” with the “Ravishing Russian”. Up next, despite the fact that it was the believed main event, we’ll have the US Title match between Jericho and Reigns.
Roman Reigns defeats Chris Jericho via pinfall with the spear to retain the US Title. A very good match between the veteran Jericho and the rising tide of the company man, Roman Reigns. The fans were into it. Two very distinct styles at work in this one. Reigns using his power and strength to keep Jericho down, hitting the drive-by and an array of Superman punches before putting things away with the spear. Jericho has it nearly won after a Walls of Jericho and then, as Reigns got to the ropes, he ate a superkick from Kevin Owens, who despite Jericho telling him to stay away, showed up to help his best friend. Jericho hit a Codebreaker, but Reigns still kicked out. Jericho sent Owens away and pushed him, leaving Owens disheartened. He turned and dodged the spear, only to eat another and that was it.
Big Cass and Rusev never have their match. Rusev no-shows and Big Cass tries to call Enzo who doesn’t answer. Lana answers the door for Enzo in a bath robe and he says at first that him showing up is not a good idea. She gets upset and then he follows her in. He says that he’s uncomfortable and she offers to get them some drinks. She offers him a strawberry and then she focuses in on his shirt, which says “Rock And Roll Made Me Do it”. She then tears it off. She flashes him some skin and then orders him to take off his pants as he is still uncomfortable as all hell. She says something in Bulgarian and it translates to “You’re a fool”. She calls for Rusev and he shows up and beats the holy hell out of the “Certified G”. Rusev MATCHKA indeed! Lana says “Crush” and Rusev proceeds to beat Enzo all over the place. This was a pretty good segment as it sets up for the Cass/Rusev match and it didn’t feature the late Al Wilson.
After the break, we see the world tag team champions, The New Day, ringside for the number one contender’s match up next. Sheamus and Cesaro take on Gallows and Anderson, the winner faces The New Day a day before they break Demolition’s record.
Cesaro and Sheamus and Gallows and Anderson ends in a Double DQ. This was a quality match that ended in a DQ. Both teams looked really good, but in the end, the action spilled over to a point where both tandems crashed into the world tag team champions. The New Day began to rain down rights and the brawl ended up leading to the ref throwing the match out. The announcers were asking the same question the rest of us were, who are the number one contendors? Hopefully we’ll have a triple threat at Roadblock where Gallows and Anderson finally get the straps. Cesaro and Sheamus winning them down the line would be great after a chase of the heels. After the break, we’ll have Charlotte apologizing to her father.
We find out after seeing the footage from last week of Sasha’s title win that Charlotte has accepted the challenge and we’ll have a second Iron-woman match that will take place at Roadblock! Awesome! Charlotte says six months ago she committed the biggest mistake of her life. She uses the “b” word to describe herself as a daughter. They roll the clip of Charlotte embarrassing Ric last May where he left in tears. There was no “three grand, it’s YOURS!”, there were tears. There was no “Hell, I wanna go to Baltimore and that’s what I did!”, there were tears. But I could quote Ric Flair all night, Charlotte continues with her apology. Ric comes out and they have a moment and Charlotte slaps the Space Mountain out of ‘Nat! She calls him an SOB and says how dare he, she’s his daughter, not Sasha. Sasha runs down the aisle and Charlotte cuts her off at the pass and beats the brakes off of her. Ric pleads for Charlotte to stop as Charlotte hits a hot shot spot on Sasha, using the ring post. Charlotte proclaims “she’s the woman!”, calling Sasha pathetic as she continues her savage assault. Flair continues shedding crocodile tears as Raw goes off the air with the great villain standing tall. Charlotte is amazing.
