The fallout from Hell In A cell moves us forward towards Super Show-down and “Crown Jewel”, a WWE network event that will take place in early November.
The American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas hosts tonights Monday Night Raw which takes place live on 9/17/18.
“Crown Jewel” will see Roman Reigns defending the Universal Title in a triple threat match against Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_OEhs2qRJ4&w=560&h=315]
Reigns and Strowman have words after a failed call-out of Lesnar from Reigns. Acting Raw General Manager, Baron Corbin, informs us of the triple threat booking and he says that we’ll only visit that if he successfully escapes with the Universal Title he’ll defend tonight against him! That’s our main event.
“The Advocate” Paul Heyman made his presence felt as well, bringing out the cell door that Brock Lesnar plowed through at last night’s extravaganza. Strowman isn’t having it and he gives chase as Heyman takes flight.
We see Dean Ambrose focused backstage as we find out that he’ll do battle next against Drew McIntyre.
Drew McIntyre defeats Dean Ambrose via pin fall with the Claymore Kick.
This was fantastic considering what they both went through last night. As expected, this was hard hitting and very physical. Ambrose has come back to great fan fare, but you could strap a rocket to McIntyre yesterday, he is headed to the top, sooner, rather than later.
Ambrose made the comeback, but McIntyre was able to thwart that and he ended it with a Claymore.
Backstage congratulations from Baron Corbin and an arriving Dolph Ziggler would follow. Corbin says there’s a chance to see two title changes tonight as he’ll compete against Reigns as noted earlier and he implores Ziggler to invoke his rematch clause against Seth Rollins.
Ziggler calls that crazy because of how banged up both men are following their cell bump. Corbin says if Rollins doesn’t arrive at the arena, he’ll strip him of the title. Ziggler likes it.
Ronda Rousey, the Raw women’s champion, walks into a shot where the Bellas are chatting up Natalya. Rousey was very pleased with her win last night and she’s going to issue an open challenge in the ring tonight. We got to witness some “award winning” acting from the Bellas and it was cringe-worthy at best. Either way, Rousey will compete later tonight.
Chad Gable defeats Viktor via pin fall with a rolling german suplex.
The “Glorious” fanfare continues as Bobby Roode and Chad Gable’s tag team continues to develop. Tonight saw Gable seeing his way to a singles victory over Viktor of the Ascension. He dominated the former NXT tag champ and put the match away with a rolling german suplex.
As Roode and Gable celebrated, Konnor would attack Gable from behind, so I assume this story continues next week.
Seth Rollins arrives at the arena and is informed about his title defense tonight. He says that Baron Corbin may be running the show, but this is still “Monday Night Rollins”.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT1sm8zUYG8&w=560&h=315]
The legendary Undertaker arrives at the arena to a massive pop. He talks at length about his forthcoming match-up with Triple H at Super Show-down. He runs down Shawn Michaels some more and he informs the live crowd that if Triple H is going to have HBK in his corner, he’ll have his own backup, his brother, “The Demon” Kane!
It looks like the rumors of the forthcoming tag team matchup are indeed going to be a thing and we’ll have the in-ring return of Shawn Michaels shortly. Incredible!
Connor’s Cure is promoted as we see local children with WWE stars. “The Boss’ Sasha Banks and Bayley appear on the stage with several of the local children as Bayley prepares for singles action against Dana Brooke.
Bayley defeats Dana Brooke via pin fall with the Bayley-To-Belly suplex.
Seperating from Titus Worldwide has worked wonders for Dana Brooke, said no one ever. This was over quicker than a hiccup. Brooke had a cup of coffee with an offensive assault and Bayley worked her over and then ended things after mounting the comeback with elbow strikes and a knee strike. The suplex followed and that was all she wrote.
Drake Maverick is backstage with the Authors Of Pain. They accost a local yokel and head to the ring for tag team action.
The Authors Of Pain w/Drake Maverick defeat Local Talent via pin fall with the Super Collider.
Another fire extinguished very quickly this evening as the AoP dominate the local talent, disposing of them without much effort. The Super Collider puts this away as AoP awaits true competition.
Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin have words about Rollins arriving at the arena. Ziggler tries to get Rollins to back out of the title match as Rollins appears in the segment, but the champ is eager to compete. It’s next.
Seth Rollins defeats Dolph Ziggler via pin fall with the Blackout to retain the Intercontinental Title.
I’m convinced that these two don’t know how to have a bad match. Spot or not, they tumbled off the side of a cell last night and fell about fifteen feet. This was after a tag team match that arguably stole the show.
They did it again tonight in front of the local crowd and they saw all their spots employed. Ziggler nearly had the match put away on several occasions with some very close nearfalls. Rollins had it nearly put away several times as well. A Falcon Arrow spot saw a very close two count.
Rollins eventually hit the Blackout to retain the IC Title and move towards his next challenger, whomever that might be.
Ronda Rousey comes out after the break for her open challenge. We hear Natalya’s music, but the “Queen Of Hearts” never makes it to the ring as she’s been assaulted by the Riott Squad. It seems as if Ruby Riott is going to accept the challenge, but they instead use the opportunity to take their liberties with the champ.
Rousey fends for herself at first, but ultimately, the numbers game gets her. She is saved by Nikki and Brie, The Bella Twins, who come to her aide. They are hyping their six women tag match at Super Show-down and that’s the segment.
We “Walk With Elias” for a few moments after the next break, but Elias is interrupted by high flying sensation, Lio Rush, who is out there to hype his new client, Bobby Lashley. Elias tells the bad parents to come get their kid, but Lashley is out and we have a match.
Elias defeats Bobby Lashley via DQ after interference from Lio Rush.
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Kevin Owens made his way down to the ring to get involved in the match and to continue his program with Lashley. Elias tried to pull Rush into the ring, but the young star hit a kick to Elias that signaled for the DQ. Lashley then press slammed Rush over his head onto the heels, who went into retreat mode.
Rush and Lashley celebrate in the ring and we have the makings of pretty cool pairing here. I like both guys a lot and it’s great to see Lashley with a talented young star as his mouthpiece. This could work.
We see Alexa Bliss in a cellphone video segment with Alicia Fox and Mickie James. She informs us that after the break, James and Fox will take on Ember Moon and a partner of choice. We know who this is going to be.
Ember Moon/Nia Jax defeat Mickie James/Alicia Fox via pin fall with a Samoan Drop from Jax on Fox.
This was actually a quality bout for the alloted time. Moon was seperated from her corner for the majority of the match, and she finally made the hot tag to Jax, who bulldozed the heels on her way to victory.
Moon is from the Dallas area and she got a great pop. Jax is back as a face and this is a way to get her involved in a fresh program with the Bliss trio. Jax dominated Fox and put things away with the Samoan Drop. The main event is up next.
Roman Reigns defeats Baron Corbin via pin fall with a spear to retain the Universal Title.
If there’s a way to not only abuse your power, but to fumble the opportunity, give Corbin all the awards. First of all, the match ended early after Corbin threw a chair at the champ, which got him DQ’d, but they restarted the bout as a No DQ match.
Cue Braun Strowman, who came out to demolish Reigns, but the Shield was down to even the odds. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre made their presence felt, but the two teams took each other out of the contest.
Reigns was set to hit a suicide dive on Strowman, but Corbin attacked him on the way out with a right hand. A deep six nearly put the match away, but Reigns was able to counter another right hand with the spear and the show ended with the faces standing tall.
This was an interesting show as there were many upcoming events promoted, but it was sort of a mess to be honest. No Finn Balor this week, and there are too many stories interwoven at the moment, especially coming off a really good PPV. They need to pull back the reins and get back to basics moving forward as Survivor Series is truly the next big stop.
WWE has a great many opportunities coming up to elevate new stars and to sign many independent talents with expiring contracts. Let’s hope they capitalize on this heading towards the new year.
