We begin with a vignette of last week’s events.
Followed shortly by Bobby Lashley and MVP making their way down to the ring.
They both say that the other people (Seth, Kevin and Big E) are scared of Bobby, and he still feels disrespected by not being mentioned in the title picture, that’s why he had to make a statement to them and Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville.
KO is out next, he says he hasn’t paid any attention in Bobby Lashley in like 2 years, he goes on to say himself and Seth have earned their way into the title match, Bobby has not, he wants to be the WWE champion people can be proud of.
BURN IT DOWN
He says you can’t start the show without the star of the show, says he admires Bobby’s suit game tonight, and says he agrees with Kevin’s point.
Bobby says if they don’t want him in the title match, to come and do something about it.
They agree they that can take Bobby together and then have some funny back and forth about who’s going to go first.
YALL WANNA GO BIG
Big E says they’re all idiots and they’re scared of going in the ring with Bobby, but he’s done it a couple of times and isn’t opposed to do it again.
Adam and Sonya come out and say that no one is to touch anyone else or there could be fines and suspensions.
They say that Bobby will be added to the match at Day 1….
IF
He can beat Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and Big E in singles matches tonight.
A great opening segment. Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins have great chemistry in the ring and on the mic, this feud could be incredible between them alone, never mind the rest!
Really enjoy their segments.
Riddle is backstage admiring his suit from last week, Randy still wants Riddle to focus on their performances and the titles need to be his priority.
Randy says if he can focus on Otis tonight then one day, he’ll let Riddle wear the Jacket again.
I never in a million years thought that Riddle and Randy would work as a tag team or have any chemistry, boy was I wrong.
Before their match, we go backstage and KO, Seth and Big E are speaking to Adam and Sonya, Kevin says he’s going to beat Bobby, and he’s going to be up first, Big E says he is going to retain his title no matter whether it’s 3-way or 4 way.
Matt Riddle vs Otis
Otis hits an early power slam, riddle jumps up and gets a number of kicks in the corner, he goes to bounce of the ropes, but Otis stays solid, He then throws Riddle out the ring, he hits him on the back and throws him in the ring, Riddle kicks him and jumps over the ropes, goes for another kick on the apron, but Otis grabs riddle, picks him up and slams him into the barrier.
When we come back from break they are both back in the ring and Otis is dominating, he goes for a big shoulder in the corner, Riddle moves, Otis hits his shoulder on the corner, riddle kicks him from the apron before going up top for a cross body, Otis catches him in mid-air, Riddle wriggles out, starts hitting punches before hitting a springboard knee to the face, riddle hits the floating Bro, he “coils” for a RKO Otis pushes him onto the ropes and hits him with a powerslam on the return for the 3 count.
Randy comes in the ring to RKO Otis, he pushes him onto Chad Gable who gets the RKO instead, Otis then flattens Randy before Alpha Academy make their way up the ramp.
Winner: Otis
A decent match, like I often say, nothing spectacular but a nice solid match. It works well to continue this extremely strong booking of Otis. He really looks like a powerhouse nowadays.
It furthers the RKBro storyline also,
A nice Midcard match, typical of the booking for tag teams on WWE at the moment!
Up next
Bianca Belair vs Piper Niven (Doudrop)
Again…
We have a video package from each of them while they were doing their entrances, Bianca talked about Piper getting counted out last week. Piper said nothing about it, strange to not mention it…
The match starts with a lock up and Piper throwing Bianca away, another locks up, piper pushes Bianca to the corner she walks up the corner and does an arm drag, Bianca gets some taunting in and
dodges all Pipers attempts at attacks before hitting a drop kick, Bianca goes for a powerslam which Piper Reverses into her own powerslam. She runs into Bianca in the corner and hits her with a few forearms, she Irish whips her into another corner and goes for a running move, Bianca hits her with a kick before hitting a very poor Hurricanrana,
Bianca goes for her flip onto the ropes, Piper grabs her legs and wrenches them over the ropes before throwing her back in the ring and hitting an elbow drop.
We come back from break and Bianca is beating on Piper in the corner and goes for a cross body, piper catches her, a couple of reversals before Piper hits a michinoku driver for a 2 count,
Piper grabs Biancas braid and shouts at Bianca while taunting and slapping Bianca, Bianca goes for a reversal but gets hit with a Belly to back suplex for a 2 count.
Piper drags Bianca towards the corner and climbs to the top rope, B reverses and hits a powerbomb, goes to the top rope herself and hits a very very nice 450 splash
1…2…3!
Winner: Bianca Belair
After the match Piper attacks Bianca and taunts her with her own taunt again.
Bianca was great as usual and held an incredible pace. Piper looked a bit slow and off the pace, some of the match looked a little bit over-scripted and didn’t flow very well. But still not a bad match, and a clean pin, which I always want to see!
They need to go somewhere with this feud now, I don’t want another feud where we just see the same match over and over week after week with no storyline or payoff.
Kevin Owens is backstage and Kevin Patrick comes and asks him for a word about Bobby Lashley, he replies Trash, says the whole situation is trash, says he does like that he can end it right now, and he’s going to win at Day 1,
And that is no lie…
Is this a new catchphrase for KO?
Seemed to be what they’re alluding to; he’s said it a couple of times now.
Kevin Owens vs Bobby Lashley
Before Bobby has even come out KO is sulking because of the situation…
They show future superstar Gable Stevenson in the crowd and Both Bobby and MVP go and Fist bump him and shake his hand... maybe Gable is going to come in as part of the hurt business?
The match begins KO tries to start strong, but Bobby gets him in the corner and hits a hang time suplex, KO manages to get Bobby outside the ring and goes for a cannonball but nobody home.
Bobby does a Braun Strowman esc run at KO barging him, KO gets in the ring and as Bobby is getting in the ring, he gets hit with a superkick, KO follows up with a cannonball, and then a tornado DDT for a 2 count.
Bobby power Irish whips KO into the corner before hitting a spear in the corner and a neck breaker, he stands over KO and goes to hit a slam on KO, KO goes to wriggle out and kind of just falls off, Bobby goes for the hurt lock, Kevin reverses into a roll up, goes for a stunner which gets reverses into a spine buster, goes for the Hurt lock again, before he even gets it locked in KO taps.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
by
Submission
Another decent match, some nice spots in this one and other than the bit where KO sort of just fell off Bobby’s shoulder, it flowed quite nicely.
And it continues KOs selfish, self-preservation gimmick, sort of a shenanigans finish but a tolerable one.
Seth is backstage and is not happy with the finish!
Sonya let’s him know he’s up next.
But first,
WOoOoOOAAHHHH
Big Time Becks is out, starts off with some typical heel stuff, says last week was a big night for Liv Morgan. Says the crowd doesn’t know what they want and how would they know because they’ve never done it. Becky puts up the Angry Liv Morgan girl on the screen!
Livs Music hits
Says everyone is getting sick and tired of Becky’s “broken record” says Becky only won because she cheated and puts a picture of Becky cheating on the screen, says she’s only the best at cheating to win.
Goes on to do some typical Babyface stuff, says she’ll never give up on making the title mean something again.
Proposes a rematch for the Raw women’s championship at Day 1,
Becky says Liv isn’t ready and doesn’t have enough of a killer instinct.
Liv runs in the ring and beats on Becky, chases her out the ring, Becky gets a reversal and puts Liv’s arm in the steel steps and the corner post, and assaults her stamping and kicking the steel steps and gets the microphone again and accepts the match at day 1.
Great work from Becky, she works a crowd so well, Liv hasn’t quite got that natural charisma yet, but she’s getting better every week in my opinion. Good story point with Liv having an arm injury for the match at day 1 as well! Great segment.
We go backstage with AJ Styles, he says he’s not giving up on Him and Omos he wants to carry on working with Omos and he wants to see him succeed, Omos is standing just off-camera and says he’s not giving up either they walk off together!
When we come back from the ad break, Reggie and Dana Brooke are walking through a very picturesque snowy park, Reggie says he can pass over his knowledge of how to keep the 24/7 over hot chocolate. Truth and Akira are hiding in plain sight and mess it up, Tamina attacks Dana but she gets away.
Ugh, I thought we’d got away from this,
I just find it all exhausting.
Next up
Finn Balor and Damien Priest vs The Dirty Dawgz
Priest and Roode begin, and they start with a bit of back and forth, Roode hits Finn off the apron then Damien Priest dominates both the DD eventually throwing them out the ring, it culminates in him jumping off the steel steps taking them both out.
We come back from advent break and Priest and Roode are still in the ring and Priest gets a hot tag, Roode also gets a tag, Finn takes control of the match hitting the double stomp and the reverse neck breaker signature thing for a 2 count that Roode breaks up, priest pulls him out the ring and goes for a choke slam that gets reversed into a spine buster, Finn throws Ziggler out the ring and hits a suicide dive on both of the DD, he gets Ziggler back in the ring and hits a shotgun dropkick and goes for the Coupe de Gras, but Austin theory is on the apron and trying to get a Selfie with Finn, he climbs off the top rope and Ziggler uses the distraction to hit a zig zag for a 3 count.
Theory then takes selfies with a downed Balor and celebrates the selfie.
Winners: Dirty Dawgs
This is a weird tag team match, seemed to be made to shoehorn Damien Priest into the show, seemed slightly unnecessary to be a tag team. however, was a good match to watch, Finn is always exciting to watch, and it builds further on the feud with Austin Theory, which I think is going to be a great feud once it gets going!
Nikki and Rhea are backstage, and Nikki is talking like she’s lost all her motivation and belief in herself. Rhea tries to cheer her up and talk her up.
They both come to the ring to Rhea’s music.
Carmella comes out to announce Queen Zelina and Zelina is out with a microphone as well,
Zelina speaks in her dodgy British accent to start with, then starts shouting at the crowd in a very very New York accent then goes back to dodgy British. Typical heel content.
I can see what they’re trying to do, just didn’t really work.
Rhea Ripley vs Queen Zelina
Rhea dominates but gets distracted by Carmella giving Nikki A.S.H a superkick to get pinned by Queen Zelina via a roll up in a typical 60 second special…
Winner: Queen Zelina
Another pointless time filler that ended in a roll up. Skidmark worthy match, id prefer to see a 5 minute match and Zelina wins because of a distraction rather than this. Really bothers me that Rhea is getting booked so badly nowadays.
Kevin Owens and Seth are backstage in a very funny little segment where KO says he should come out with Seth because Bobby has MVP, Seth says no thanks to Kevin as he couldn’t even help himself!
He also explains that he tapped out early, so he didn’t get hurt before the Hurt Lock got locked in, this makes the finish of the first match fine in my opinion.
Seth Rollins vs Bobby Lashley
Bobby And Seth have a decent hard hitting match. Owens attacked Rollins during the match, leading to Rollins winning via disqualification. Pearce and Deville came out to announce that the match would be restarted and any remaining Lashley matches on the night would be under no disqualification rules. Lashley immediately hit Rollins with a spear to score the win.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
This match was very short and it’s a bit disappointing that after the restart we didn’t see more of a match because as we all know, Seth is fantastic BUT the storytelling of this was fantastic and showed Kevin Owens as a really smart self-preservation character!
This is a DQ that makes complete sense and I thought was brilliant, the restart was inevitable but fantastic storytelling and great acting by Seth and KO.
Another strange Vince McMahon Austin theory segment, I Personally am really not sold on this so far, but at least it at least seems like they have a plan for him.
MizTV
Miz and Maryse were badmouthing Edge before Edge came to the ring. Miz eventually attacked Edge, but Edge took over before trying to hit a spear. Miz saved himself by pulling Maryse in front of the attack, causing Edge to stop and allowing Miz to hit a Skull-Crushing Finale. Maryse was furious at Miz for putting her at risk, slapping her husband before storming off.
Another fantastic segment and brilliant acting by Maryse, she genuinely looked terrified at the prospect of being speared. Fantastic work.
THE
MAIN EVENT
Bobby Lashley vs Big E
During a match featuring plenty of chairs and tables, Rollins and Owens ran in to attack Lashley, trying to use the lack of disqualifications to help keep Lashley from securing a spot at Day 1. Big E attacked both men, not wanting their help and leading them to attack him in return. Lashley eventually put Rollins through a table while Big E did the same to Owens. Big E told Lashley they needed to finish it one-on-one before MVP slid into the ring and hit Big E in the knee with a cane, allowing Lashley to hit a spear and get the victory.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
This was a great match, storytelling worked to perfection and the match in itself before anyone became involved was brilliant, the end was relevant to everything happening, I'd almost forgotten about MVP so him becoming the “difference maker” was a great way to end the match. KO and Seth being involved worked fantastically, this match was spot on from start to finish.
My Raw Rating.
8/10
The only letdowns to this show were the 24/7 championship and the Rhea vs Zelina match. I feel like they could have taken the 24/7 stuff out and given Zelina and Rhea an extra 5 minutes to have a proper match.
However,
The WWE championship feud was told to perfection with every bit of it being explained and making sense.
The matches were very good with payoffs to it all.
KO really solidified his gimmick, and all involved made that feud really interesting
Seth and Kevin would make a good unlikely tag team, maybe similar to Rated Rko way back when, their chemistry is unreal, and I hope they have a feud whether it’s including the WWE championship or not.
The Becky and Liv feud has been furthered and has intrigue to it. Really building a great underdog story and Liv is getting better every week, I hope it has a satisfying payoff to this feud.
I’m looking forward to what happens next, and it's great to feel like that!
Long may it continue!
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