Opening Match/Segment
Monday Night RAW opened up with a Veterans Day montage. Live from Kansas City the show starts immediately with a battle royal with RAW tag teams in the ring. Only seconds into the match Braun Stroman’s music hits and he walks out to the ring. As you would expect, Stroman cleared out the ring then was given a microphone. Stroman says he’s not leaving the ring until Corbin “gets these hands.” He doesn’t get Corbin, but instead gets Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie only cares about the RAW versus Smackdown rivalry, and tries to get Stroman riled up about it. Stroman makes it clear that he doesn’t care. Stephanie offers a deal to Stroman that if he wins with the RAW team he can get anything he wants. Stroman asks for a match with Lesnar, and a match with Corbin and to be able to pick the stipulations for those matches. Stephanie agrees with the one condition in the deal is that Stroman can’t fight Corbin until after Survivor Series.
As Stephanie was finishing her speech to Stroman, Ronda Rousey came out to the ring. Stephanie tried to give Ronda an introduction but got the microphone snatched from her. Ronda said something about not having to wait until Sunday to fight. Baron Corbin now came out and said that he is there to motivate RAW. Corbin put his arm on Rousey’s shoulder, which made her Judo Throw him and then storm out of the ring. Corbin got up and then had a face off with Stroman. As Corbin says that after Survivor Series he is going to neuter him after he is Stephanie’s lap dog. Not a bad final line for a segment that felt all over the place.
This opening felt so cluttered. It really put into perspective how useless the RAW tag division is when they all get thrown aside in seconds. Ronda’s only real purpose in this segment was to quickly remind people that she has a match on Sunday. I feel when the intro for the show takes two huge paragraphs to explain it’s too much for people to remember or keep track of. Imagine explaining this to a friend. How long do you think it would take to explain? And how long into that explanation do you think they would lose all interest?
Ember Moon vs. Tamina w/ Nia Jax
Ember Moon fought Nia Jax in the next match. Last week the friendship between Nia Jax and Tamina formed, with this being the first week of them entering together. Tamina faced Ember Moon this week as last week Tamina assisted Nia in a beatdown after a match last week. Backstage Alexa Bliss was overseeing the match. After coming back from a commercial break Ember Moon was on a roll. She went to the top rope but got distracted by Nia Jax, allowing Tamina to give Moon a Superkick. Tamina landed a Frogsplash for the win. She sort of shelled up during the splash, almost like she wasn’t completely confident with it. After the match they beat up Moon for the second week in a row. Rough time to be Moon.
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose Segment
Seth Rollins was in the ring for an interview with Corey Graves in the next segment. During the interview Dean Ambrose is shown outside the arena sitting on top of a car beside a fire. After cutting a promo he put gas on a shield outfit then threw it in the fire. This made Seth leave the interview without any comment.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Finn Balor
After a recap of Kurt Angle’s match last week versus Drew McIntyre, Angle’s music played in the venue. Shortly after it cut to Ziggler’s music, as he was actually making his entrance with McIntyre. McIntyre flaunted his victory over Kurt Angle, which seems like not much to brag about these days. Finn Balor came to the ring to confront these two shortly after. Balor got jumped by McIntyre before we went to commercial break. Back from the break we had a match set up between Balor and Ziggler. After another break Balor was gaining momentum. It got stopped by a DDT from Ziggler which Balor kicked out of. He followed it up with a Famouser that got another near count. Later on, Balor did a dive to outside the ring onto both Ziggler and McIntyre, then put Ziggler in place for a Coup de Grace. Ziggler dodged it and went for a roll-up which Balor reversed into a roll-up of his own for the win. I thought this was a pretty good match, with the final combinations being very entertaining.
After the break Balor got offered a spot on the RAW Survivor Series team this weekend. Balor accepted the offer. McIntyre came into the frame with Ziggler and says “You think you’re funny?” Stephanie added Ziggler and McIntyre to the team as well.
Natalya Confronts Riott Squad
The Riott Squad came out to make an apology over breaking Natalya’s sunglasses last week on RAW. Ruby Riott acted guilty for her actions and then over course turned around the promo and said that she enjoyed breaking the glasses. Natalya came out angry and then got beat down by the three. Emotions overcame logic for Natalya. This was a follow up to a lame program from last week.
The tag team battle royal that was scheduled for earlier is being redone now. Chad Gable and Bobby Roode won the match in only a few short minutes. Nothing of substance came out of the match.
Brock Lesnar Returns
Next, Brock Lesnar made his first appearance after winning the WWE Universal Championship at Crown Jewel. Of course Paul Heyman was with him to talk. As usual Heyman cut a golden promo. Jinder Mahal of all people interrupted them as Heyman was wrapping up his bit. Lesnar mocked Jinder’s breathing techniques before beating him up as well as the Singh Brothers.
Bobby Lashley w/ Lio Rush vs. Elias
Before Bobby Lashley’s match, his manager Lio Rush praised Lashley’s body to the crowd. At the end of the posing session Lashley showed his behind to the crowd, which a week later still isn’t funny. Elias was on the stage to interrupt Lashley. Elias pretended to be on the phone reporting that Rush was a kid abducted by Lashley. After the break Elias was having a normal match with Lashley until he got counted out. Before entering the ring, Lio Rush held onto Elias’ leg, preventing him from getting in the ring. Because of this Elias attacked Rush and Lashley after the match. Rush got thrown out of the ring onto Lashley. I don’t really get the flexing of Lashley’s physique, but I like Rush as a manager. Has the gimmick of someone flexing their athletic physique ever worked big time as a gimmick for anyone?
Sasha Banks vs. Bayley
Alexa Bliss came out to the ring to announce the 2018 Women’s Survivor Series team. Feels so odd that this team was announced so last minute. She announced that Tamina, Nia Jax, Natalya and Mickie James are on the team. Natalya wasn’t on stage since she has had a bad night. but she is also on the team. A pretty weak team so far. Bliss says the winner of the next match will get the final spot on the team. The match was Sasha Banks versus Bayley. As the match was underway it got interrupted by the trio of heels at ringside. After this, Bliss introduced the actual 5th member of the team, Ruby Riott. I get that the idea is that Bliss only put on the match to deceive Bayley and Banks, but it’s kind of lame. Backstage we see Becky Lynch from Smackdown putting Ronda in an armbar in a locker room. As Becky Lynch came to the ring the rest of the women’s Smackdown roster arrived and started a brawl as well. Absolute mayhem broke out. Lynch left through the crowd with the rest of Smackdown with a bloody nose. It was a very cool visual to wrap up the show. This segment really put over Becky, And for the first time in a very long time RAW ended on time.
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