The Fiend fingers Braun Strowman’s mouth! Rey Mysterio will fight for the Universal
Championship next week! And there’s not just one... not just two... not just three…
but almost three and a half different women’s storylines happening on Raw right now! Equality.
And how did WWE botch The Fiend after Raw went off-air?!
Click the timestamps in the video description below to go straight to any of those stories
and learn more! I’m Oli Davis - press the thumbs up button,
click the ‘i’ above my head to give your rating of the show - where you can choose
from: RawSome, Cor, AVRAWGE, Poor and RawFul, and answer our question of the day in the
comments: What’s the worst thing WWE could do to the Fiend? Because I’ll be replying
to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE… being cautiously optimistic because WWE don’t have the best
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But for now, here’s my review of the 23rd September episode of Monday Night Raw!
This week opened with The Fiend infecting WWE’s opening sting, which was distorted
just like the end of last Monday’s show, implying those upside down match graphics
were intentional and not a production mistake. Because the Fiend is so scary, he can even
take over the broadcast controls from Kevin Dunn. Not even Triple H can do that.
The actual show opened with, what else, a lame in-ring babyface recap promo from Seth
Rollins, who monologued about all the stuff that’s happened recently, how he’ll prevail
at Hell in a Cell, something about his bank account, etc
Then out came Braun Strowman to set up a main event non-title match between the two. They
tried to make it about them losing the Raw tag team championships, but neither man, nor
WWE, seem to care about that storyline which hasn’t really amounted to anything apart
from ruining the tag division. The Viking DON’T MENTION THE WAR EXPERIENCE
Raiders got an actual win that meant something next, taking on The O.C.’s Luke Gallows
and Karl Anderson after months of squash matches that didn’t connect with the crowd.
AJ Styles was quickly ejected from ringside for interfering, for Cedric Alexander to suddenly
jump him that was never followed up on #threeweekpush. In a very Paul Heyman move, Michael Cole then
had a pretaped sit down interview with Becky Lynch about her upcoming Hell in a Cell match
against Sasha Banks. Becky was an excellent promo as always, saying it’s not about keeping
Bayley out, because she doesn’t care about fighting everyone, it’s about keeping Sasha
in. Rusev came out with zero mention of Maria
Kanellis, who claimed he was the father of her child in his return last week - implying
they’ve totally dropped that storyline - and then squashed EC3. Sorry EC3. This didn’t
really get over, but still… what a moustache! Sasha Banks then took on Nikki Cross, with
Bayley and Alexa Bliss in their respective corners. Wait a second, I just need to check
something… Alexa, are you a babyface or a heel this week? ALEXA: I’m a babyface.
This got a decent amount of time, but never fully got hot with the crowd. Bliss and Bayley
brawled on the outside, letting Sasha tap Cross out in the Banks Statement.
The Street Profits then ran down the show’s card, when The Miz jumped in to announce the
birth of his baby daughter over the weekend, and, far more importantly, next Friday’s
SmackDown season premiere on Fox will see Miz TV host Ric Flair (wooo!) and Hulk Hogan
(booo), who actually got a smattering of boos from the crowd.
Next up we got our second women’s singles match in a row, where Ember Moon looked great
against Lacey Evans - starting with a stiff drop kick, and hitting an innovative stunner
later on off the ring apron. But because Lacey is the more blonde of the two, she tapped
out Ember to the Sharpshooter, further building her match against Natalya.
In this week’s typically brilliant Firefly Fun House, Wyatt conducted his own version
of the Judgement of Solomon, where two women claimed to be the mother of a baby, so he
decreed they cut in two so they both get a half. One woman then gave up the baby, because
they didn’t want any harm to come to it, proving she was the real mother.
Bray missed the point of that moral message completely though, and snapped a Seth Rollins
action figure in two so both Huskus the Pig Boy and Rambling Rabbit could play with him.
WWE still doesn’t care about NXT, just having screenshots of online articles talking about
last Wednesday’s USA Network debut rather than an actual promo package with video clips.
Carmella finally turned on R-Truth to become the new 24/7 champion, which Truth was actually
totally fine about, and the two escaped through the crowd while being chased by Dana Brooke,
Billie Kay, and a returning Sarah Logan! Looks like that whole Carmella storyline with Charlotte
is also being dropped. You might think the Baron Corbin vs Chad Gable
feud, where Chad is even made to look short in the match graphic, wouldn’t have as much
heat when fighting again just a week after their King of the Ring final. Well you’d
be wrong, because these two work incredibly well together.
From Corbin’s black Game of Thrones redesign of the King of the Ring crown and cape, the
two had a very well-paced TV match that slowly sucked the crowd into Gable’s comeback.
And in the perfect finish, after Chad seemingly had Baron beat in the ankle lock, Corbin took
the DQ loss by hitting him with the scepter to stand tall. This is excellent booking of
a bully heel storyline, and both men are getting more over every week because of it.
AOP then backed up their claim from last week that nobody is tough enough to fight them,
by walking out of their interview and beating up the first two wrestlers they saw. This
was awesome. Then we got five guys having a really fun
No. 1 contender's match. The Five Guys here being Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, AJ Styles, Robert
Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura, not the popular burger restaurant chain.
This was a fast-paced match that protected each eliminated wrestler through various blindsided
finishers. The final two came down to Roode - who’s really been built up in the last
two weeks, but we all know what will make him a true main eventer - and Rey Mysterio,
who had a dramatic last sequence to get a win dedicated to his son Dominic.
Hopefully he doesn’t dedicate next week’s Universal title match to him. Because he’s
totally getting fingered by the Fiend. And the main event saw Braun Strowman vs Seth
Rollins in a grudge match, that was really a three-way with the threat of the Fiend looming
in the background throughout. And that’s exactly what happened, where
just as Braun seemingly had Seth beat, the lights cut out and Wyatt attacked Strowman
with the Mandible Claw. This was an excellent angle, made really impactful
by how Braun rarely sells moves, who needed two Claws to put him down, and also by how
Wyatt almost protected Seth, like the Fiend wants Rollins all to himself - just like the
Firefly Fun House had explained previously. The show then cut to black with Wyatt laughing
on a loop and, the best part, Michael Cole shutting the hell up and not ruining the horror.
This was a solid show, with some very good in-ring wrestling, but it was mostly a set-up
episode for next Monday’s Season Premiere/Hell in a Cell go-home double header. So this week’s
Raw is AvRAWge. But the Fiend angle didn’t stop there when
Raw went off-air - as Luke’s got what happened in the botch between Wyatt and Rollins now...
Great review Oli, that Fiend character sure is neat. But what happened after the show
wasn’t quite so neat. After Raw went off the air, rather than do
the regular dark match, WWE did another angle with Seth Rollins and The Fiend, where Seth
laid Bray Wyatt out to send the crowd home happy. Several videos of the angle have been
shared on line, which sees Seth give The Fiend the Curb Stomp only for him to no-sell it.
Seth then gives him several superkicks and three more stomps, which kept The Fiend down
- only for the lights to go out and The Fiend disappear.
However, not all of that went to plan. Dave Meltzer expanded upon this on Wrestling Observer
Radio, noting that he’d heard from people there live that the angle came across as “comical”.
He said, “I heard from many people in the building, the way the finish went down in
the building was absolutely comical… the problem is there was enough lights that everyone
saw Bray run away. So everyone sees Bray run down the aisle as fast as he can… it’s
just one of those things that didn’t work. The crowd wasn’t supposed to see it, and
everyone saw it.” And could this be an insight into what will
happen come Hell in a Cell - where The Fiend challenges Seth Rollins for the Universal
Championship inside the Cell itself. The pair actually had their first match over the weekend
at a house show in Calgary - where The Fiend lost via DQ when he pushed Seth into the ropes
with the Mandible Claw and wouldn’t let go. They repeated the same finish the following
night at a house show in Edmonton. Of course this was done to keep the title on Seth, but
is it a sign of things to come? Now that is a finish that normally would be
impossible to do inside of Hell in a Cell, but last year’s match ended in a no contest
when Brock Lesnar interfered - so who knows at this point?
Either way, the finishes of house shows are often indications of WWE testing things out
before putting them live on TV - so could we see Seth Rollins retain the Universal Championship
at Hell in a Cell? And if you tune into Main Event this week
- otherwise how else will you get to see Mojo Rawley wrestle - then you’ll get to see
WWE’s next commentator - as Mickie James took her new role in WWE behind the commentary
desk for the show. HARDCORE COMMENTARY. PWInsider are also reporting that there has been talk
of James moving from an active wrestler position to a backstage role as a producer, though
according to Fightful that is currently unconfirmed. James has been on the injured list since June
1st, when she tore her ACL at a house show against Carmella, and an-ring return is also
currently unknown at this point. But according to WrestleVotes, we can expect
a big return next week on Monday Night Raw, with the Twitter feed reporting that pyro
is set to make its triumphant return to television! This report is coupled with their previous
report that we’re getting a new set for the “season premiere” of Raw next week,
with last night’s show also debuting the red brand’s new logo for a packed show which
will see Brock Lesnar appear, and a MizTV segment with Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.
And they might not be the only former WCW or Universal Champions on the show, as PWInsider
are reporting that Bill Goldberg is set to make his return to Raw next week. Goldberg
had an altercation with Dolph Ziggler over the weekend, so there is always a chance that
will play into an angle on Raw. This also ties into Dave Meltzer’s previous
report that Paul Heyman sees Goldberg as an old sheriff type character that he can bring
back once or twice a year - similar to how Bruno Sammartino was booked in the later years
of his career in the New York territory. Disney have admitted mistakes in Star Wars?
Oli and I discuss all of that and more on ScreenStalker which you can watch by clicking
the video on screen right now. And find out more about that Goldberg/Dolph Ziggler fight
by watching the WrestleTalk News. I’ve been Luke Owen, and that was wrestling.