On last night’s Raw, definitely not Raw General Manager Adam Pearce made a series
of matches to determine Drew McIntyre’s next challenger for the WWE Championship,
with Keith Lee beating Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles beating Randy Orton, and Matt Riddle overcoming
Sheamus.
Bro.
Those winners of Lee, AJ and Riddle will face each other in a mouth-watering No. 1 contenders
match next week, which will make Drew McIntyre defending his WWE Championship at December’s
TLC against…
Braun Strowman.
Wait, what?
Despite being on the winning men’s Survivor Series team, Strowman wasn’t included in
the qualifying matches because he headbutted Definitely not Raw General Manager Pearce.
The Wrestling Observer is reporting that angle will set him up to supersede next week’s
triple threat and become the No. 1 contender.
It’s finally the Dogs of War implosion storyline we’ve all been waiting for…
Cheap pop if you can tell me who else was in that faction in the comments.
And also tell me if you’re excited about Drew vs Braun for the title?
Where I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE SAYING IT SHOULD BE SHEAMUS, HE GAVE
HIM A SWORD!
Someone who definitely won’t be challenging Drew McIntyre though is Aleister Black, who’s
been missing on TV for a number of weeks after getting the dreaded ‘Vince McMahon high
on him backstage’ reports over the Summer.
Although Black’s real-life wife Zelina Vega being released two Fridays ago, and him reportedly
being denied a request to return to NXT, Dave Meltzer is reporting neither are the reason
he’s been missing from SmackDown.
It’s actually because he’s simply been forgotten about.
Cue panicked SmackDown producers realising they left him locked in a cupboard on Raw.
Back when Paul Heyman was Raw’s Executive Director, Black was one of the more protected
performers on his show.
It was even Black, alongside Drew McIntyre, who Heyman reportedly pitched to beat Brock
Lesnar at WrestleMania.
While Drew went on to that, Black dropped down the card following Heyman’s removal.
Black wasn’t even featured in the dual brand battle royal on the Survivor Series pre-show,
and while people such as Big E and Lars Sullivan were reportedly deliberately left out, Black
has simply been “forgotten about”, with Meltzer adding that “the people in charge
now don’t see anything in him.”
Someone else they won’t be seeing from now on is the Undertaker who officially retired
at Survivor Series.
But while there were a bunch of rather pointless legends cameos before the Deadman made his
entrance, there were even more backstage!
PWInsider is reporting Undertaker’s wife Michelle McCool was there, as well as other
members of Taker’s family - like Kane, he was in the ring.
But the most notable name was Edge, who was backstage at the show but was not brought
out during the farewell.
While it’s not known why he wasn’t used, the likely speculation is that it would mar
his eventual return to the ring.
And according to a report from WrestlingNews.co, Vince McMahon has accepted Taker’s retirement
and won’t ask him to wrestle again.
I’m sure that’ll hold up when it’s time for the next Saudi Arabia show.
Now it’s time for my review of last night’s Raw in about 5 minutes!
Definitely not Raw General Manager Adam Pearce opened the show with all the men’s Survivor
Series team standing in a row to announce results deserve rewards, and he’d pick Drew
McIntyre’s No. 1 contender from them.
Which would’ve been some really good stakes to have in place before Survivor Series happened.
Despite being incredibly clunkily staged, with people talking to each other like they’re
backstage TV monitors, Matt Riddle is realling getting over, and Braun Strowman showed some
great fire, headbutting Pearce.
Caruso alert!
Taking advantage of Pearce’s probable concussion, Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley also got themselves
in the No. 1 contender’s mix, so he booked three qualifying matches tonight, with the
winner’s entering that triple threat next week to decide Drew’s challenger.
But he’s definitely not Raw GM Following their excellent tag title match
last week, I said the New Day and the Hurt Business could be the spine of Raw’s tag
team division.
Which means WWE will now drive that match-up into the ground.
We got another tag title match between them here which was no way near as good, massively
hindered by yet another double count out false finish.
The New Day agreed to a match restart, Kofi was worked over loads, and Xavier won with
a roll-up.
The first qualifying match was Sheamus vs Matt Riddle, in a replay of their excellent
Survivor Series qualifier the month beforehand.
Showing what great hard-hitting chemistry they have, this match was just as good, if
not better, with some fantastic near falls, and one tremendous spot where Riddle collapsed
before Sheamus could hit the Brogue Kick.
Both men looked great, and Riddle advanced, reversing a Cloverleaf into a pin.
Asuka granted Lana a title match next for NOT DOING ANYTHING TO BE THE SOLE SURVIVOR
THE PREVIOUS NIGHT.
WWE has no idea who anyone’s character is here.
Lana is delusional that doing nothing to win the Survivor Series match is a good thing,
which makes her a heel, despite being presented as a babyface.
And Asuka giving her a title match, despite it being incredibly obvious she’s a joke,
makes Asuka a heel too for choosing an easy contender.
But all that is secondary quibbles, as the streak is finally broken.
Calm down, Undertaker reaction guy, it’s not that big of a deal.
Asuka vs Lana went several seconds when Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler caused the DQ.
Holla holla, we got a tag team match playas, where Lana finally dodged being put through
the announcer’s table for the first time in two and half months, letting Asuka roll
up Shayna for the win.
I really don’t care about any of this.
But I do care about big meaty guys hitting big meaty guys.
Bobby Lashley took on Keith Lee in a big meaty guy qualifying match next, which showcased
both men’s impressive strength.
As a hypercritical quibble though, I would’ve had Bobby struggle to pick up Lee for the
first half of the match, as, rather counterintuitively, it’s actually more impressive when someone
struggles to do something and then manages it, as opposed to Bobby throwaway suplexing
Keith like they did here.
The finish looked like it was going to be really good, where MVP shoved Lee into the
ring post, letting Lashley lock in the Full Nelson, but Keith came to just before he was
fully trapped and powered out.
It should’ve then been Spirit Bomb, strong win.
But WWE is so scared of anyone losing, they book these kind of screwy finishes which don’t
really let anyone win.
MVP beat down Lee for the Lashley DQ loss.
WWE really does appear to be putting more concentration and effort into these weekly
episodes of Raw since the Draft, with the Alexa Bliss vs Nikki Cross match here being
a perfect example.
It was essentially a pay-per-view level story, spanning months, which even got its own video
package.
There was a brilliant Firefly Fun House segment too, where Friendship Frog made his debut,
to be battered into smush by Bliss to practice overcoming her friendship with Cross.
The following in memoriam video package was very well done too.
The match itself was more angle that wrestling, but that’s totally fine for the story they’re
telling right now.
This was actually Fiendish Bliss’ debut match on Raw, with her awesome new Fiend entrance
music, where she wouldn’t actually fight Nikki for the most part.
Instead, she suckered her former friend in, crying for help, as though the Fiend’s spell
had been broken, to slam her head into the mat and win.
We got the same Undertaker video package from Survivor Series.
And the main event saw AJ Styles vs Randy Orton in the final qualifier, which actually
was, as the commentators hyped, WrestleMania worthy.
Because we’ve already seen it there.
Orton and AJ have such good chemistry, I didn’t realise I was watching the typically tricky
heel vs heel dynamic until after the show.
But while WWE might’ve dropped Randy as champion, The Fiend never forgets, and he
wanted to play a terrifying game of Whack-a-mole, popping up in various places around the ring.
Randy finally looked at him on the second time, distracting him enough to turn right
into a Phenomenal Forearm - meaning we’re getting AJ vs Riddle vs Keith Lee next week.
Which I’m still very excited about, even if it does end in Strowman charging them all
down.
What did you think of Raw?
Let me know in the comments down below!
And follow @WrestleTalk_TV on Twitter to cast your vote in our poll on a pole match - which
had 49.3% of you rate it as good.
Where Jorge Miguel praised “the Best part of RAW was Drew Macinfart.”
- after Adam Pearce got Drew’s name wrong.
Which actually ended up trending on Twitter.
I really enjoyed this episode!
I thought the Fiend stuff was fantastic, spinning off into feuds with both Cross and Randy.
And the night was neatly based around the qualifying matches with not just stakes, but
some really terrific in ring wrestling.
This week’s Raw is Excellent!
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and Luke’s Raw podcast livestream later today!
How bad was some of that Survivor Series booking?
Very if you ask me.
Watch my review of the pay-per-view by clicking the video on the right!
And watch the best moments of our 3 vs 3 live reactions - including the separate losers
lounge stream - by clicking the video below that.
I’ve been Mr Davis, your Jam that Jampion once again!