WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA on 10/10/16!
RAW starts out with the newly crowned Women’s Champion, “The Boss” Sasha Banks, who talks about winning the belt for a second time and she wishes her hero, the late great “Latino Heat” Eddie Guerrero, a happy birthday and then she challenges Charlotte, who is due a rematch, to face her INSIDE Hell in A Cell! Wow! That’s incredible! Charlotte heads out to respond, but the two women are interrupted by Lana and Rusev. Rusev says nobody cares about their “stupid women’s revolution” and he is the main event wherever he goes. Before he can continue, Charlotte rips the mic from his hand and asks who the hell he thinks he is? Nobody takes away from her time. She accepts Sasha’s challenge and Rusev takes the mic back and calls Charlotte “Black Swan” for her outfit. Lana says both women need to learn their place and the cell is for real men. Both Sasha and Charlotte drop Lana and then they hit a double dropkick on Rusev, sending him to the outside! That was amazing! Rusev, new beard and all, reenters the ring, but before he can take liberties with the women, he is interrupted by the current US Champ, Roman Reigns. Roman is ready for a fight, but Rusev takes his exit, leaving Reigns standing tall with the two women, champion and challenger, at his side. We see a graphic advertising Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins competing against one another later tonight and we find out that Paul Heyman will address the comments made by Bill Goldberg on ESPN last week. They head to commercial.
The New Day, the world tag team champions, are out after the break, and they cut a promo on the forthcoming tag title match at Hell In The Cell against Sheamus and Cesaro. They talk about famous bay area tandems such as Curry and Thompson and Danny Tanner and Uncle Jesse of Full House fame. They put over Cesaro saying he’s debonair, handsome and “thick AF” according to Big E. They refer to Sheamus as “hot garbage” and they refuse to put him over. It leads to Cesaro coming out for singles action against Kofi Kingston on the road to the PPV.
Kofi Kingston defeated Cesaro by pinfall with a rollup. Hilarious segment where Sheamus was on Facebook LIVE at ringside and it was darn funny watching him not care about his partner in the ring. The two men had a very watchable contest as you’d expect from two great hands. Sheamus took Francesca 2 from Xavier and Woods took exception, getting shoved down. Big E. clotheslined Sheamus down, distracting Cesaro in the ring. It led to his downfall and after the match, we find out that we’ll have a mixed tag match later where Sasha Banks will team with Roman Reigns against Charlotte and Rusev. Up next we’ll have the Paul Heyman interaction where we’ll find out about Goldberg!
After the break, it’s just a quick recap of Goldberg’s comments from ESPN. Paul Heyman will address those comments later. We head to the ring for singles action and it’s Bayley!
Bayley defeated Cami Fields by pinfall with a Bayley-To-Belly suplex in a squash match. Bayley getting to work with the local enhancement talent once again as she gets to familiarize bay area fans with her immense skill set. Bayley with a great response by the crowd as she works over Fields and ends up putting her away with relative ease. Dana Brooke attacks Bayley after the match as she’s celebrating on the ramp. Seems like those two are gonna settle some unfinished business sooner rather than later.
Great backstage segment where Chris Jericho and R-Truth engage in some hilarity over a payday bar. We head to the ring for a cruiserweight tag team match where Sin Cara and Lince Dorado will be taking on Tony Nese and Drew Gulak! Sin Cara announced earlier in the week that he’ll be competing exclusively in the cruiserweight division from now on.
Lince Dorado and Sin Cara defeated Tony Nese and Drew Gulak by pinfall after a Shooting Star Press by Dorado on Gulak. Great action for the alloted time as the fans really took to Dorado, who is quite the talent, and even Sin Cara, as he turned the volume up a tick with some brilliant aerial maneuvers. Gulak looked good with his submission attack and Nese worked hard once again. I am really digging these Cruiserweight matches. We pan backstage to see Mick Foley is a boisterous suit and the GM in headed to the ring along with the Raw Commissioner, Stephanie McMahon. We’ll have that feature after a break.
Mick Foley, in that vibrant suit, is getting a great reaction from the Oakland fans. Stephanie McMahon goes for the “cheap pop” and puts over the city and they put over “No Mercy” and the show last night. They are up to the task of topping it and they book Sasha and Charlotte officially for the first ever women’s Hell in a Cell match. Tremendous, and certainly something to enjoy! They also book the rematch for the Universal Title between Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins inside the cell. Before they can continue, KO comes out to take issue with the booking. Chris Jericho, his best friend and bosom buddy, closely clutching the “List of Jericho” is surely looking to “ink it in maaaan” in reference to Foley overstepping his bounds. Foley makes “the list” twice and then Foley says he is behind the stupid list. KO tells Steph to “take care of this guy”. She takes offense and puts over Foley. She doesn’t make the list, almost daring Chris to add her to it. Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins gets interesting. She books it to where if Y2J wins, he is added to the Cell match for the title. Intriguing. She then closes things out by saying “have a nice day”!
Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel is a no contest as it never gets underway. Gallows and Anderson show up and interrupt some mic work from the two entertaining hands. Big Cass eats a Magic Killer as G and A send an emphatic message that the fun and games are over. After losing out in the New Day feud, G and A really looking to reestablish some credibility as they head back towards the tag straps and an opportunity at the New Day. After a break, Bo and Curtis demand tag team action as they were promised some earlier in the day. Sami Zayn and Neville answer the challenge and the crowd reacts accordingly. Tag team action is still underway!
Sami Zayn and Neville defeated Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel by pinfall via a Red Arrow on Axel by Neville. Decent action that went exactly as was expected. Neville and Zayn able to show off their immense talent and freshen themselves up in the eyes of the Raw fans as they both are still looking to establish themselves as major players. Charlotte is shown backstage getting ready for her mixed tag match as Lana approaches her and says that she didn’t have a right to put her hands on her. Charlotte says she is superior to Lana in every way. Lana says Rusev is her partner for life and that Charlotte better stay out of Rusev’s way too.
R-Truth defeated Titus O’Neil via pinfall after a rollup. Titus took issue earlier in the day with R-Truth securing a deal with Payday. Titus challenged him to a match to #makeitawin. He didn’t as he was distracted by Goldust. The Shining Stars were present in the segment too.
The Cruiserweight Champion, TJ Perkins, walks in on THE Brian Kendrick. Kendrick is uneasy at first, but Perkins tries to reason with him. He tells him to drop the facade and stop trying to be a “greasy Jack Sparrow” and instead be the man that he used to be. Kendrick tries to sucker punch Perkins as he extends the hand to him, but TJP drops him like a bad habit. He says he guesses he was wrong and leaves the segment as they pan to commercial.
Braun Strowman defeated The Splash Brothers in a handicapped squash match via pinfall with a double reverse chokeslam. No, they weren’t Curry and Thompson, but they collapsed much earlier then the former did in Game 7 of the finals. Curry and Thompson rained down threes and unfortunately, the only thing raining down here was clubbing blows and brute strength. Apparently Mick Foley thought these enhancement talents were “next level competition”. Strowman nailed a double dropkick at one point and both Michael Cole and the world marked out. A double reverse chokeslam ends this one. After the match, Strowman warns Mick Foley that if he doesn’t heed his words next week, what happens will be on his hands.
Backstage, Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns have an interaction and they both talk about tonight’s match and focusing on their opponents. Nothing that really stood out here.
Sasha Banks and Roman Reigns defeated Charlotte and Rusev by submission in a mixed tag match via a Banks Statement on Charlotte. Great match and one that the crowd was really invested in. The end came after Banks got Charlotte in the Banks Statement and Rusev was about to break it up, but Reigns speared the heck out of him by jumping over the submission application. That was a really cool spot. Tremendous contest and certainly a mixed tag match that Oakland fans appreciated. Good crowd tonight. They were definitely waiting for the hot tag with a huge “We Want Sasha” chant. After the match, they show the clip from earlier talking about the main event with Jericho and Rollins taking place tonight.
Backstage, we see KO questioning Jericho about scratching Steph off the list. KO cracks on Tom Phillips for showing up uninvited. Jericho says his question is just jargon. KO says no matter what happens, he is walking out with the title. Jericho says no matter what happens, they are the Universal champion, no matter who holds it. Tom asks KO why he didn’t help Jericho last week? KO says every now and then, one man has to take a bullet for the greater good. KO tells Tom to scram. Jericho backs him up. Tom doesn’t leave and he makes the list!
Paul Heyman and cuts a promo as only Paul can. He talks about WWE 2k17. He talks about the fans asking what if we could just have one more spear, one more Jackhammer. He gets the crowd chanting “Goldberg” and it is deafening. Heyman talks about all the titles that Bill had won, all the legends that he beat. He taks about the streak and how so many were victimized. Heyman says Goldberg’s career ran parallel to his client’s, Brock Lesnar. What keeps Heyman up at night is that Goldberg is still one up on Brock Lesnar. Heyman has been authorized tonight to let the entire WWE universe that Goldberg has been challenged to a fight, beast vs. myth, icon vs. icon. Heyman says it can take place any place and at anytime. Heyman cracks on the Oakland people, and he says Bill can live in the fantasy of the video game, or he can man up and answer the challenge as the one blemish on Brock’s illustrious career. He walks away and that’s that. The ball is in Goldberg’s court.
We get another promo from Emma’s transformation to Emmalina, premiering soon and then we find out that THE Brian Kendrick will be ringside on commentary for the Cruiserweight Champion’s match next. I believe Perkins is supposed to compete against a debuting Noam Dar and that could be quite the contest. We’ll find out next! It’s not Dar, but it’s a debuting Ariya Daivari! Tremendous! His brother was a trusted hand and he should have the opportunity to turn heads in the Cruiserweight division as well.
“What use does the WWE Universe have for a man that has failed twice?” -THE Brian Kendrick
Pointed comments about his career resurgence as the match gets underway. Kendrick is still the man.
TJ Perkins defeated Ariya Daivari by submission with the TJP kneebar. Daivari really having a fair amount of time to show off his skill before the main event. TJP was tremendous as always. You can tell he’s getting comfortable with the WWE style as he’s been slowing down the style employing less of the aerial and selling more. Smart in the long term so he can extend his career and the time he’ll be able to entertain fans. Kendrick was sensational on commentary and it only added to the contest. Great pacing and the Oakland crowd was into it. Chris Jericho is backstage with Stephanie who compliments his scarf. Jericho tells Steph that he removed her name from the list of Jericho and Steph says that she can’t wait for Jericho to win and upstage the Smackdown triple threat match that took place at No Mercy. Steph tells Jericho that he’ll know what to do when given the opportunity. KO shows up and asks Jericho what that was all about and he says “friendship”.
Before the main event, we find out that next week in Denver, Goldberg will be there live to answer Paul Heyman on “Who’s Next”!
Seth Rollins defeated Chris Jericho via pinfall with an inside cradle in the main event. This was quite the contest. Plenty of near falls and even interference from Kevin Owens, as he looked to help his “best friend” find his way into the Cell. KO tries for the popup powerbomb on Rollins after the match, but Rollins escapes only to get destroyed by Jericho. Jericho set to deliver the killshot, but Rollins hits the pedigree and the show ends with KO walking away from his partner once again. Great main event to send the Oakland crowd home happy!
