WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN on 8/28/17!
The IC Champ, the Miz, is flanked by members of his Miztourage to begin the broadcast. Jerry “The King” Lawler is filling in for Houston native, Booker T. and on behalf of the Scrum Sports, I’d like to send all thoughts, prayers and positive vibes towards those affected by Hurricane Harvey in South Texas and surrounding areas.
Kurt Angle, Raw GM, interrupts the Miz before he can get a word in edge-wise. “You Suck” chants envelope the arena as he tells Miz that he will defend the title at No Mercy and his opponent will be? The Miz cuts him off and defines respect for us all by suggesting that Kurt doesn’t understand what the word means.
Miz tells Kurt that he will respect the IC Title and the champion just as he would Brock Lesnar. Kurt says Miz will defend the belt next week as well against the winner of a good old fashioned Battle Royale featuring both singles stars and tag team talents. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel are involved as well as the Hardy Boyz, Big Show and Finn Balor.
Jeff Hardy wins a 15 Man Battle Royale to earn an IC Title shot next week on Raw!
We return from a commercial break with talent still entering the ring. We get a great promo for the Mae Young Classic and I can’t wait to enjoy that after the broadcasr tonight. I’m a huge fan of Kairi Hojo and she will certainly look to turn heads, to quote Jim Cornette, you gotta see her top rope elbow, it’s the damnedest thing!
The roster dumps Curt Hawkins as he faces the facts early and they turn their eyes towards the Big Show. Kalisto is eliminated by the Miztourage. Big Show is eliminated by Gallows and Anderson with help from Finn Balor. Interesting, and too sweet at that. Bo Dallas dumps out R-Truth and the wily veteran won’t be in a championship match next week. Goldust is eliminated after a crafty double team effort from Gallows and Anderson and we go to another break.
Elias eliminated Apollo Crews during the break and we return with the crowd firmly behind Balor. Gallows is eliminated after charging at Matt Hardy with a head of steam. He spills over the ropes and onto the floor. Anderson is eliminated after Matt Hardy sidesteps an apron charge. Matt Hardy is then eliminated after Gallows yanks him off the apron after he was ousted himself. Balor went on a complete tear and we then witness a jump cut and a quick elimination courtesy of a Bray Wyatt cameo. The crowd was not pleased by that at all.
Wyatt disappears as completely as he appeared. Jason Jordan dumps both Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. Jordan then dumps Elias and he’s eliminated immediately thereafter by Jeff Hardy! Brother Nero will go on to face the Miz for the IC Title next week! Wow, that’s a real surprise there. Good for Jeff!
Alexa Bliss is backstage and she says her strategy tonight is to win. She continues to tear down the new women’s champion Sasha Banks, saying she’s never successfully defended the title when she’s had it. Alexa will expose the “legit boss” for what she really is, a “legit loser”. She plans to reclaim her thrown tonight.
Enzo Amore defeats Noam Dar via pin fall with a modified DDT.
Before his first Cruiserweight match, Enzo says a seven foot bully got what he deserved last week. That show that horrific injury to Big Cass from last week that’ll keep him shelved for several months. He references Mayweather knocking out McGregor and then he introduces his opponent for tonight, Noam Dar.
Neville is watching from the backstage area, the title slung over his shoulder, and he’s got a fresh haircut and moustache trim. Enzo actually holds his own against Dar, keeping pace with some aerial entertainment and an athleticism rarely seen from Amore. Dar plays to the crowd, but is booed for his efforts. He falls victim to his own showboating and it allows Enzo to hit his finish and get the W.
Neville informs us backstage that if Enzo is the new threat for his title, he’s going to be champion for a very long time. How you doin?
Here comes the Beast! The Universal Champion is out and he gets a deafening response. He is flanked by his advocate, the great Paul Heyman as they look to address the number one contender for the title, the “Monster Among Men” Braun Strowman.
Paul informs us that both he and Brock aren’t in Memphis to sing the blues, they are there to sing the praises of Braun Strowman. Paul references historic nights having been had at Summerslam by both Lesnar and Strowman. Heyman tells all the kids at home that are questioning whether or not monsters are real, that they are, and Braun Strowman is one of them.
We recap the thunderous beating laid on the beast by Strowman just last week and we return to Heyman saying that Strowman can hold up that title when he’s “monster” enough to take it from Lesnar.
Paul Heyman says that Lesnar wants him and then Lesnar snatches the mic from Paul to a monstrous reaction and he invites Lesnar to “Suplex City” and that ends a fine segment as we’ve grown accustomed to with Heyman and Lesnar.
John Cena will compete against Roman Reigns at No Mercy in a big time match and it’ll be made official tonight!
One half of the world tag team champions, “The Architect” Seth Rollins, accompanied by Dean Ambrose, will compete against Cesaro in one on one action next.
Cesaro defeats Seth Rollins via pin fall with a pinning predicament.
These two, as expected, put on a clinic. It was worth waiting through the Cena/Reigns video package that was oddly timed between entrances. Cesaro really took it to Rollins and even though “The Architect” got his licks in, a distraction from Sheamus and Ambrose on the outside took Seth’s eyes off the prize.
Cesaro seized the advantage and after hitting an uppercut as a result of such, and he put Rollins in a pinning predicament for the win.
Immediately after the match result is made final, we head right into Dean Ambrose and Sheamus! Interesting, I’ve never seen them get into these tag team singles bouts one right after the other, very cool.
Dean Ambrose defeats Sheamus via pin fall with Dirty Deeds.
Sheamus and Ambrose engage in a slugfest early on in the match. The crowd is really enjoying themselves as this feud between both these teams continues on, providing them with solid in-ring outings.
Ambrose counters a flurry of offense from Sheamus with a DDT and he gets several near falls as he looks to come away with a victory for he and Rollins. Sheamus comes back and nails a beautiful rolling senton off the top rope, shades of Fit Finlay.
Rollins, on the outside, sidesteps a cheap-shot attempt from Cesaro and the distraction allows him to hit a springboard knee strike and then exit the ring via suicide dive onto Cesaro. That was all Dean needed. He nails the Dirty Deeds and that’s the ballgame.
Emma is telling Mickie James some random things about the VMA’s and she talks about tweeting on Twitter. Mickie mocks the #GiveEmmaCPR hashtag and then Emma talks about starting the women’s revolution and she wants to get it trending. Mickie James says that if Emma beats her tonight, she’ll tweet whatever Emma wants, but if she wins, Emma can never say she started the revolution again.
Emma defeats Mickie James via pinfall with a seated counter.
Emma has new music and I’m actually a little salty because her heel theme was one of the best things ever. Mickie and Emma have a solid back and forth despite a rough landing for Emma on a neckbreaker.
Mickie tries to execute a sunset flip into a pin fall and Emma sits down on it for a three count. Emma brags about starting the women’s revolution after the match several times and after the break, we’ve have the contract signing between Reigns and Cena.
Kurt Angle introduces John Cena to start off the contract signing and Cena runs over to hug Lawler, who says he did it for a “cheap pop”. That was really classy of John and nice to see. Memphis is a little kinder to John than we’re normally used too, but there is still a hearty smattering of boos that you can cover in Memphis BBQ sauce.
Cena says he’s gotta face Reigns because he’s the blue chip prospect that’s been “protected” and then there’s him. Wow, I’m surprised he actually said that, referencing the office. He says everyone knows where he stands and he says Roman doesn’t wanna fight him. Cue the “Big Dog” and it’s a negative reaction for the polarizing talent.
Reigns heads into his “yard” and we proceed with one of the best promos in recent memory. I don’t even think I can use words to do this justice. Reigns tried to let loose on Cena, referencing his golden shovel and burying talent, except John knows he can’t bury Reigns. He then uses a five letter word to describe John and he calls him out for being a fake part timer.
Cena then goes on to bury Reigns verbally. John says that he wouldn’t have to stick around or toy with “going heel” if Reigns was actually good at his job and didn’t have to spend five years learning how to cut a halfway decent promo. This was magic. You have to find a clip of this because it really adds intrigue to what should already be an enjoyable match.
Cue the “good brothers”. Gallows and Anderson call out these “nerds” and despite the volatile promo before this, they are made to tag up by Raw GM, Kurt Angle.
John Cena and Roman Reigns defeat Gallows and Anderson via pinfall with a Spear/AA combo.
This was decent for the time given, but I would have appreciated one man or the other costing him teammate the match due to inflated egos. Instead, we got exactly what was expected sadly, at the expense of two solid tag team wrestler and former champions. We literally watched an AA and a spear in unison to end this.
We walk with Elias as he ends up putting away “Pelvis Wesley” which was Heath Slater in an Elvis costume. This was after Jerry Lawler defended Memphis after Elias sang a song that was a play on “Hounddog” by the King. This continued to solidify Elias as a rising star and a glorified heel.
Alexa Bliss defeats Sasha Banks via pinfall with a Spiked DDT to become the women’s champion.
Sasha just can’t string a series of wins together to save her life. She’s like my beloved Mariners or Tampa’s beloved Rays at the moment. This was the main event and it was a tremendous match at that.
You can sense the real life animosity between the two, and it translated into a sensational piece of in-ring work. Sasha can carry anyone to a good match and Alexa continues to improve her in-ring work nailing a brilliant superplex after eating several sets of double knees from Sasha.
Sasha had the Banks Statement locked on, but Alexa got to the ropes, used a solid rope break counter and she hit the DDT to win the title back. After the match, Nia Jax came down to the ring to celebrate with her “pal” and she crushed Banks in the corner and then she utilized the ole’ Batista spot to hit an electric chair drop to either turn face or simply lay claim to the belt. She put down stakes in the title hunt and I actually hope she wins it.
It’s not that I have issue with her winning it, but she’s got such a long way to go still in my opinion and I think when Asuka debuts, if she beats Jax decisively for the title, that will solidify her as a legitimate threat that EVERYONE should fear. All hail the forthcoming debut of the Empress of Tomorrow.
