WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from The Spectrum Center Charlotte, NC on 11/28/16!
We start off RAW with the Highlight Reel for us Mutton-heads who appreciate it. Jericho is still rockin’ the Boat Anchor scarf and he quickly introduces his guest, his best friend and the Universal Champion, Kevin Owens! The champ heads to the ring to converse with the Ayatollah. KO mocks the Black Friday shoppers and I approve. He says he and Jericho are a superior breed of human, there are Canadians. They reference their early Thanksgiving and then KO says they should ignore the silly “USA” chants. They say what they are thankful for. KO is thankful for being the Universal Champion, he is thankful for being the face of RAW, aka “The Kevin Owens Show”, and he is thankful for his best friend, Chris Jericho. Jericho is thankful for his friendship with KO. He’s thankful for his wicked rad scarf, with the anchors, because they are the anchors of RAW. he is thankful for Seth Rollins, and the fact that his ego and pride took over his life. Rollins is a “stupid idiot”. KO says he “Rollins” himself, meaning he loses so frequently. Jericho says it wasn’t him wearing a Sin Cara mask, it was Sin Cara wearing a Jericho mask. He took the “mask of Jericho” and he “put it on maaaan”. Awesome. My night is over. Thank you Scrum fans, goodnight! Kidding. KO says Rollins isn’t medically cleared to be there tonight, but here comes the US Champ, Roman Reigns. Reigns gets a mixed reaction. Reigns and KO have words and then Jericho says enough, and you know what happens when you make fun of Jericho’s best friend? KO tells Jericho to shut up! KO says Reigns can’t talk to him like that, and Reigns says he wants “Fight Owens Fight” and not “Joke Owens Joke”. Reigns says they should fight tonight and if Reigns wins, he gets a shot at the Universal Title at Roadblock. Reigns plans to play spoiler to the “Kevin Owens Show” and that ends the opening segment.
Backstage after the break and Jericho is still upset about being told to Shut up. He says the friendship is over as Mick Foley shows up. The GM books the match with Reigns and Jericho says there is no need to punish him, he’s leaving the building. Braun Strowman will compete against R-Truth next and they show clips of what Braun did to Sami Zayn last week.
Braun Strowman defeats R-Truth via pinfall with a running powerslam. This one lasted about as long as a cup of coffee, heck, even an espresso. Goldust is decimated by Strowman as well as Sami Zayn rushes the ring. Zayn gets the upper-hand early with his quickness, but he is disposed of by Strowman. Strowman seems to appreciate the guts and courage of Zayn, but he is about to make an example of him before a herd of officials and Mick Foley cease the effort. They head to another commercial.
Back from the break and Mick Foley and Sami Zayn are really going at it. Zayn calls Foley a bad GM and he questions Mick’s integrity and his worth as somebody who takes his orders from above. Foley says Steph wanted him fired for not bringing back the IC Title. Zayn says Mick is a hypocrite and he storms out of the ring. Foley says to “let it go”. Hopefully he lets it go all the way over to the Smackdown roster where they’ll stop booking him like an enhancement talent. That could be the route this is going. Cesaro needs to make that call to the blue brand as well in my opinion. Dana Brooke interrupts the women’s champion, Charlotte, backstage. They are talking about Charlotte’s hometown celebration and it being better then a Bruno Mars birthday party. Charlotte says she’ll give the people hope and she’ll end the rivalry with her and Sasha.
Tony Nese defeats Cedric Alexander via pinfall with a pumphandle driver. Cedric was over big time in his hometown, but in the traditional WWE fashion, they disappoint the hometown crowd with a heel victory, after interference from Drew Gulak. This was a great match between two very capable hands and it was worth watching. Cedric’s high paced style combined with the raw power of Nese made this one to enjoy for fans of the red brand. After the match, we were treated to a holiday promotion featuring Enzo and Big Cass shilling some merchandise for a Cyber Monday sale. They hyped 205 live heavily during the Cruiserweight match. I cannot wait to enjoy that weekly.
Chris Jericho is shown backstage with the “List Of Jericho” and his travel bag. He is interviewed and details that his friendship with KO is over and that it isn’t a joke. Jericho’s driver opens the door and knocks the List out of his hand. You hear “Did I Make The List?” and it’s not the driver, it’s Seth Rollins. Seth beats the holy heck out of Y2J, including a spot where he slings a guard rail out of him, but he barely misses. Jericho takes a righteous beating ending with a Pedigree on the roof of a car. That was unexpected. Up next, it’s time for the rematch for the women’s championship after the break. Charlotte defends against “The Boss” Sasha Banks.
Charlotte and Sasha Banks ends in a Double Countout. That’s not all she wrote though. Mick Foley comes out after some back and forth action and he says the match will restart later tonight after the two women have a rest and it will be a NO DQ, No Countout, Falls Count Anywhere match. Charlotte seems less than pleased with that announcement.
Enzo Amore defeats Rusev by DQ after a blatant low blow. Enzo started things out before this rematch by talking trash about Rusev not measuring up as a man. He and Big Cass made references to everything you would eat for dinner and dessert at a Thanksgiving table and then he talked about getting intimate with Lana. He entered the ring and immediately got destroyed with a low blow as Cass made the save and that was that. Backstage, Rich Swann is shown headed to the ring and hopefully, we’ll enjoy some actual in-ring competition, and knowing how exciting Swann is, I’m sure that’ll be a thing that happens after the break.
Back from the break and we see Sillsby’s own, Mark Henry. He is given kudos for his role in the new WWE studios film along with Aaron Eckhart. He is interrupted by Titus O’Neil who says that flick was supposed to be his “Spacejam”. Mark Henry drops Titus O’Neil like that flick will drop straight to Blu-Ray. I’m sure that’ll lead to something between them. THE Brian Kendrick, the Cruiserweight Champion, is on commentary for the forthcoming match as Rich Swann will compete for the title tomorrow on the debut of 205 Live. Noam Dar will be Swann’s opponent tonight. This could be a good one!
Rich Swann defeats Noam Dar via pinfall with a spinning hook kick. Great action with a very passionate Kendrick on commentary which added to the build for the contest tomorrow. Dar was resilient and fought hard, but you could hear that kick throughout the entire building and the crowd loved it. Corey Graves interviews Swann after the match and Swann takes the mic and looks right at Kendrick. Swann says he spies Kendrick and asks if Kendrick is trying to get in his head and he says that instead Kendrick is doubting himself because Swann has beat him twice. Swann says the third time will bring him the Cruiserweight Title and why, because Kendrick can’t handle this!
There is an amazingly goofy segment with Cesaro and Sheamus sharing drinks at a bar when a couple of disrespectful local yokels try them after they say teaming together was their best chance of winning the tag titles. One guy burps in Cesaro’s face between the two trusted fans own the joint and they whoop that candy rear end. Sheamus hops over the bar and says “Open bar”. He asks Cesaro what he’ll have and Cesaro says a pint of Guinness. The two drink up and seem to finally be together. I still think they’ll take the straps off the New Day and then lose them to Gallows and Anderson or visa versa. Either way, a fun segment.
Roman Reigns defeats Kevin Owens via pinfall with the spear in a non-title match for the opportunity to face Owens for the Universal Title at Roadblock. Nothing shocking about the ending whatsoever, but it was a great contest. For all the hatred of Reigns and some of it justified, the guy puts on watchable matches and he and Owens worked a hard hitting contest tonight. Owens fought back at times and it adds to the story that KO cannot win without Jericho at his side. We’ve got the US Champ against the Universal Champ and to be frank, I would hope they’d have Reigns drop the belt before then. Other folks can benefit from it and the belt deserves the prestige that accompanied it’s rise during the old WCW days. If Reigns defended it more, that would be something special, but he’s “the guy” vying for the Universal Title instead and that doesn’t bode well for the title. Paul Heyman sat down with Michael Cole to address the loss to Goldberg at Survivor Series and that interview will be shown after the break.
Kevin Owens is caught backstage after his match and asked about the loss. He says he was so worried about his best friend Chris Jericho being attacked, despite their fight, it took his mind off things. He says Foley should have cancelled the match, but he didn’t and as a result, KO lost. He tells the interviewer to move on since she didn’t even bring him a water bottle and he coughs, still selling the spear.
What happened? Michael Cole asks this of Paul Heyman. Heyman says they screwed up, they took him lightly and they take accountability for it. Heyman has tears running down his face. Goldberg’s spear cracked Brock’s ribs. Cole asks how Brock is dealing with all of it. Heyman says the loss has put Brock in the mindset of a man who now has something to prove himself. He has never beaten Goldberg. Heyman says it could drive him to greater heights than ever before. Heyman says they’ve never seen this side of Brock before. Heyman says that if Goldberg is in the Royal Rumble match, then so is Lesnar. There is only room for one conqueror, one winner and when it comes down to the final two, there will be one victim and that man’s name is Goldberg. Wow, they are really building this one up and there’s still rumors of AJ Styles defending the title against The Undertaker to get to Taker/Cena at ‘Mania. AWWWWW, CHARLOTTE! The world tag team champions are headed to the ring to defend the titles against Gallows and Anderson on the road to Demolition’s record.
The New Day defeats Gallows and Anderson via pinfall after Xavier Woods rolled up Karl Anderson with a handful of tights. I don’t even know what to say. They are going to beat the record, they put on a heck of a match. Big E. and Xavier were the legal men for The New Day and Anderson and Gallows looked awesome with a top rope hangman’s neckbreaker off a powerbomb spot at one point. Big E. ate the Gallows pole and Woods looked strong. I wish they would have used the false finish because all it does is continue to hurt the credibility of teams like The Bullet Club and Sheamus and Cesaro. We get it. They are going to beat the record and quite frankly, they deserve it for all their hard work and quality matches. I am a huge Kofi Kingston fan, always have been, always will be, but they eventually need to drop the straps to the heels or at least have Cesaro and Sheamus win them and drop them to the heels. There is money in an Enzo/Big Cass vs. Gallows/Anderson feud and until this record is history in a little over two weeks, folks just aren’t going to care. Sasha and Charlotte will close the show. Bayley and Sasha exchanged pleasantries before a commercial break.
Sasha Banks defeated Charlotte via submission with the Banks Statement to win the WWE Women’s Championship. Oh, these two. I’m just gonna say it, match of the year on RAW in my opinion. If the rest of the show before this was forgettable, this was anything but. Sasha beat the heck out of Charlotte with a kendo stick, came off the barricade with a double knee press and used the Banks Statement in the railing coming down the stairs to tap Charlotte out. Charlotte hit a moonsault off the announce table, hit a yakuza kick on the apron of the ring that nearly killed Sasha and sold like an absolute machine. These two have continued to raise the bar for not just women’s wrestling, but WRESTLING in general. What an absolute privilege this was to watch as a fan and I want to thank both women on behalf of the Scrum Sports for their passion and dedication to the craft. After this sensational contest ended and “The Boss” once again held the gold up high, who else but Charlotte’s own “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, would come out to congratulate the new champ and add fuel to a well-stoked competitive fire. He would show respect to the woman who defeated his daughter. Tremendous. What a finale to the show!
