A six man tag solidifies a rumored reunion and a monster brings down the world on his would-be competition on tonight’s show!
Monday Night Raw is LIVE from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN on 1/8/18!
The Highs:
Balor Club 4 Life!
It is too sweet indeed! Finn Balor and the “Good Brothers”, Gallows and Anderson, saddled without story lines in recent weeks, took to their storied and fabled friendship for a shot in the competitive arm.
A six man tag main event saw them beat IC Champ, Roman Reigns, and the tag champs, Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins.
Earlier in the show, the reunited Club mocked Jordan and his daddy issues and it led to the Shield 2.0 taking a huge loss.
Jordan made several mistakes and it led to a Magic Killer on Rollins followed by a basement dropkick and a Coup De Grace for the victory. This was absolutely incredible booking by RAW writers to have this group looking strong in their first match back.
Return of the Miz
Hilarity ensued as MizTV brought us some needed tomfoolery with Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas and the former IC Champ. The Miz laid out a challenge and Raw GM, Kurt Angle, booked it in two weeks time.
The Miz will challenge Roman Reigns for the IC Title on Raw’s 25th Anniversary show in two weeks time!
The GREAT War Begins!
“Woken” Matt Hardy started Curt Hawkins’ year off badly as a Twist of Fate sealed the deal and garnered a victory for the WOKEN warriors.
Bray Wyatt appeared after the match and the two chuckled and laughed maniacally, continuing to tease this feud with a slow and brilliant build. Hardy had new music tonight and the ground really got behind him at the end of the contest. When they meet at the Rumble, it’s going to be EXHILARATING!
Titus Worldwide
The shock of shockers saw the team of Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews get an upset victory over the former world tag team champions, “The Bar”.
Accompanied by their statistion, Dana Brooke, two men who have been getting the crowd behind them started off 2018 with a bang. Apollo Crews hit a moonsault onto Cesaro on the outside and it allowed Titus to rollup Sheamus for the upset victory.
Funnily enough, this was after Kurt Angle booked “The Bar” in a rematch for the world tag team titles against Jordan and Rollins at the Royal Rumble.
Toppling the Competition
After a fantastic promo from “The Advocate” Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar headed up the ramp where he was attacked by “The Demon” Kane.
The two laid hands on one another, battling into the back where “The Monster Among Men”, Braun Strowman, had his way with both of his opponents for the Universal Title.
He shotputted Lesnar across a table and into some audio equipment and then he showed Kane the same “courtesy” if you will.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNs3AQOVeVs&w=560&h=315]
He then gave us one of the best visuals in several months, as Strowman is apt to do, as he toppled a rigged structure down onto both men. it was a breathtaking visual. Kane was able to leave on his own two feet, walking gingerly as he did so. Lesnar was taken away on a stretcher, something not often seen.
Samoan Submission Machine
After barely losing an IC Title match to a red hot Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe went right back to work, choking out Rhyno for a submission victory.
After coming away with a big win after last week’s unfavorable result, he cut a promo saying he took years off of Roman Reigns life and when the time is right, he’ll strike again. Joe then declared for the Royal Rumble match, which is shaping up very nicely at the moment.
The Lows:
A Cruiserweight Sickness
So after weeks of waiting for Enzo Amore to heal from the flu, and after dealing with the fallout from the Rich Swann situation, Cedric Alexander, who has been nothing short of fantastic is rewarded for stepping up to the plate…with a countout victory?!
Amore, opened up the hard way, lost this way and we have Cedric smiling and celebrating in a scene reminiscent of Lex Luger’s All-American countout victory over the late Yokuzuna at Summerslam back in 1993. Yup, I went there. I was waiting for the Lex Express to pull in and Alexander to roll out. Give this man a title, seriously, and do it now.
Empress Thwarted
So we’ve had weeks of Nia Jax flirting with Enzo Amore and bringing him chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side. Yes, we did have a DJ Webstar reference on tonight’s Raw broadcast.
However, unlike the song, it rained and it didn’t clear up, we saw Asuka making her entrance and Jax attacked her before the bell, leading to the match being thrown out before it ever officially started. It’ll happen next week.
Asuka better crush Jax and move on to win the Rumble, Nia, as entertaining as she can be, CANNOT be the one to derail Asuka.
The “Meh”:
Needed Return
Bayley and Sasha Banks defeated Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville via submission. The match was fine, it’s just sad that Paige is still on the shelf after suffering an injury during a recent house show.
I was hoping to see the rookies protected a little more, but Banks and Bayley really did need the win. Banks tapped out Rose and that was all she wrote.
