WWE Raw 6/26/17 Recap – Women’s Gauntlet Match

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Roman comes out to a chorus of boos and talks about how Braun distracted him and cost him his match with Joe. An ambulance backs in and Roman opens the doors – only to be jumped by Braun. So once again, Braun is smarter than the babyface. They brawl on the ramp and Braun tosses Roman into the side of the ambulance – which was an awesome visual and made far better because Roman is perfectly willing to ragdoll himself to make stuff look cool. Roman is tossed into the ambulance and it leaves – so we know that Roman is winning at the PPV. Finn and the Hardys face Samson and Sheamus and Cesaro “for the first time ever” – thank heavens.

Samson plays guitar with the champs, but is interrupted by the Hardyz’ theme. Josh Duhamel is doing commentary and talks about meeting “the man” Vince McMahon backstage. Sheamus hits a nasty brogue knee strike to Jeff on the apron – which looks far better than the kick. Sheamus and Cesaro hit a far smoother double team white noise with Sheamus staying grounded and then Josh says that the save wasn’t legal. Finn comes in and hits the apron PK to Elias. The Hardys do stuff on the floor that takes forever, leaving Finn to just stand up top with a prone Cesaro looking goofy before he pins him with the footstomp.

Goldust cuts another intense promo on Truth and says that he’s putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece. Goldust comes out in a new retro gold and silver bodysuit with his own golden camera-wielding director. Goldust beats him up to no reaction – well, that was a bit sad. Heyman cuts a promo before Joe sneaks up on him to scare him. MizTV with the Ball family is hyped up. We get a graphic hyping up Stephanie, who was last a heel, as one of the most powerful women in sports because of course she is. A women’s gauntlet match is hyped up for tonight. Miz and Maryse are mid-ring with BBB gear all over the place.

LaVar Ball runs in and stumbles getting in the ring before being rained with boos. LaVar and his sons chat with Miz and he says it’s time for “BBB and an M” to be launched. LaVar and Miz banter before LaVar gets all wacky and Dean comes down. Now it’s time for Dean, Rhino, and Heath against Axel, Bo, and Miz. Wow is this a drop in star power. Axel punches Rhino and Bo beats him with a schoolboy. The Enzo and Cass mystery is recapped. Enzo comes out and does his intro, and like Road Dogg without Billy Gunn, he seems to be missing something without his partner. He talks to Cass and Cass says that he’s sorry for everything he did and said and they leave. Oh poor Enzo. After pointing to fans in their gear, he eats a shortarm lariat on the stage.

Seth comes out to face Curt Hawkins, who actually gets some offense before falling to the rain trigger. Bray says scary words before Brock is shown in a Lakers-colors variant of his ticket shirt. Kurt twirls a tumbler around with Sasha to determine the order of the gauntlet. Paul Heyman cuts an intense promo about how it’s time for Joe to start fearing Brock Lesnar, because now is the time to get serious. It’s time to hit record, and Brock comes out before Joe chokes him down, but Joe gets sent into the LED boards. This was awesome.

Tozawa is out in a suit in the Titus Brand’s VIP area to see Neville face Lince Dorado. Lince hits a gorgeous second rope tope, but Neville overcomes flips with power and ends it with the Rings of Saturn. Tozawa and Neville staredown before Titus comes down and talks about the power of Tozawa and Tozawa vs. Neville is announced for the PPV. Heyman talks about Joe and says that the match will be a brutal war and it will end in Suplex City after an F5 before capping everything off with an intense rendition of Great Balls of Fire. Nia chats with Alexa, and Nia comes out to face Bayley, who loses via a Samoan drop.

Mickie faces Nia next, but can’t overcome her size and loses via a running bodyblock. Dana flips and gets legdropped to be eliminated. Emma gets some offense, but falls to the fallaway Samoan drop. Sasha is her final foe and they have a long-ish, boring match with long bearholds before Sasha gets a sloppy “modified” Bank Statement to win it. Kurt comes out to put her over and Corey talks about how in one night, Sasha’s career is back on track. Well, he’s not wrong – she went from being mired in a 205 Live angle to now being back in the main event scene. She and Alexa close the show with a brawl and it looks like they’ll be given a prominent role on the PPV – hopefully in the opener to get things started off strong.