WWE Raw 9/4/17 Recap – Braun battles Big Show in a Cage

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The show starts off with a recap of Cena verbally destroying Roman last week. Cena vs. Roman has hit its peak – so here’s a few more weeks of filler to kill some time. Cole hypes up that “WE WITNESSED THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD!” Must they kill everything that strikes gold. Jordan comes down while they talk about how 15 years ago, Cena debuted against Angle. Jordan rolls him into a cradle for 2. Jason Jordan is so ice cold he’s killing a Cena match’s reaction. That should be impossible. Corey and Booker briefly talk about Cena before Cole treats Jordan like Poochie and just won’t stop taking about him and how great he is. Cena gets a long chinlock to further kill the crowd. They go back and forth on punches, Jordan avoids the AA, and escapes the STF into a sloppy crossface. Jordan gets a northern lights suplex and rolls into a second for 2.9. Cena avoids a back suplex and AAs him to win.

Roman immediately comes out and we get a break. Roman mocks him for not beating Jordan fast enough. Cena mocks him for coming out with his fly open and Roman says he broke it due to the big dog. Cena says he was just looking for his balls – but he doesn’t have any. Cena and Roman jawjack for a bit before Roman tells him he’s all talk and that’s it. We get slow mo of Braun and Big Show breaking the ring a few months back to hype up their cage match.

Dean and Seth come out to do commentary for Rhyno and Slater, who got no intro, against Cesaro and Sheamus. Sheamus demolishes Heath and Rhino hits a TKO, but eats a brogue kick to end it. The announcers talk about Mark Henry helping with Hurricane Harvey relief and Renee interviews the Hardys. Jeff actually cutting a decent promo here. Amazing. We get a touch of the Broken stuff in here along with the fans chanting Delete.

Jeff comes out and Cole talks about the gold belts for Connor’s Cure the Hardys are wearing in an effort to delete pediatric cancer. Well, that’s a bizarre and somewhat twisted way to do the Broken stuff. Jeff tackles him and gets 2 off a backslide. Matt attacks the goons and they all get ejected. Miz blocks the low ledgrop and gets 2 off a snap DDT. Hardyac arrest hits for 2. Miz gets the figure four and a “yes” chant, but Jeff escapes and hits a baseball slide out of nowhere. Poetry in motion with the steps into the barricade by Jeff. Miz counters the Twist into the Finale to win it. Well, that was a surprise. By golly, a win that actually gave a champion credibility!

Sasha vs. Bliss is recapped and we see Nia turn on Alexa. Sasha faces Alexa at the PPV, and gets the worst-looking graphic in quite some time. Nia complains to Kurt and then Emma comes in to get threatened. Kurt says fine, if they win a tag match they’ll get added to the match and it will be a 4 way. Show vs. Braun in April gets a full recap and a long Sin City-style black and muted color recap of the superplex from all angles. Nese, Dar, and Gulak are mid-ring and we get a recap of Enzo cheating to win the 205 Live match – so it’s time for a rematch. Enzo talks about how everyone works harder than him in this division – but he works smarter. Enzo buries the division some more before burying his opponents. Well, this was an incredible use of TV time.

Enzo takes a back suplex into the top turnbuckle that could’ve gone horribly wrong. Dar beats up Enzo. They recap Enzo calling Drew Captain Underpants as if that’s a thing anyone over the age of eight shoulder care about. Cedric hits the big back elbow and handspring kick before Enzo wins with Eat Defeat. Sasha and Alexa hate each other – but each support Connor’s Cure AND YOU SHOULD TOO. Sasha and Alexa say some wacky words and bicker.

Balor comes down and talks about how he was Universal Champion and the IC Title would’ve looked good on him if it wasn’t for Bray. Bray then says some words and says that he only lost to the Demon – not Finn Balor, who he wants to face at No Mercy. Great, now he wins there and this feud continues. Alexa and Sasha come out, followed by Nia and Emma. EMMA GETS ANOTHER THEME. They have to be trying to kill off any chance she has a getting a crowd reaction. Sasha jumps on Nia’s back to start, but gets slammed. This is a match with a lot of things being done that all seem meaningless. They’re talking about Nia and treating her like the babyface here, which is odd. Lots of snapmares and chinlocks.

Nia tags in and then Alexa goes face to face and slaps her, leading to them each yelling at each other and Nia just bonking her down. Okay, that was awesome. Nia squashes her with the Samoan drop and gets 2 thanks to Sasha. Nia legdrops Sasha, but Emma blind tags herself in and steals the pin. Nia is upset because she wanted the win – but the team won, so they each benefit. Nia is going to mangle her and it’s going to be great. AND IT IS! Renee interviews Braun, who thinks Kurt is crazy for locking him in a cage with the Big Show. Seth and Dean walk backstage and see Elias, so Dean strums away. They’ll face The Club in a Hardees-sponsored tag match.

Sheamus and Cesaro bicker with The Club, and we get not a whole lot for a while. Post-break chinlock by Gallows. More nothing between Dean and Karl, but things pick up with Seth comes in and runs wild with dives and blockbusters. The Bar distracts Karl, who loses to a Seth schoolboy. This took ages. Connor’s Cure video airs. Enzo talks to his partners about how they come together like Mama Amore’s cooking and he’s taking them out to get Omaha Steaks. Neville comes in and claps and Enzo says he’s getting NO STEAKS. Neville says that a fatal five way will happen tomorrow night and the winner faces him at No Mercy.

The ring is shown being reinforced and Charly interviews Jack Coan about the ring implosion match. Show says he’s faced a lot of guys, but he’s never faced a guy like Braun – and he’s had more cage matches than Braun has had period. Show is cutting a hell of a promo here. Braun dominates with some shots into the cage, but Show hits a punch for an ad break a minute in. After the break, they’re still down and Braun misses a charge into the cage.

Show sends him down and Booker hypes up Show’s finisher being a flying elbow 20 years ago, which was never the case. He hits a super-nervous flying elbow off the top for 2. Show goes to escape, but Braun stop shim – and Show slams the cage door on his head. Show goes for a chokeslam, but Braun turns it into a DDT. Big Show gets the chokeslam for 2.9. BRAUN HITS A SUPERPLEX AND THE RING IS INTACT! Running powerslam ends it for Braun. This was damn near perfect – it was perfectly-paced and never had any lulls in the action. Braun says he’s destroyed the giant and he’ll do even more to the Beast. He tells show it’s time to put him to pasture and powerslams him through the cage. Well, if that’s it for Show, his WWE career began and ended in a cage match with the cage being destroyed.