WWE Raw 12/11/17 – Kane & Braun Do Battle

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We get a card recap for tonight and then Joe comes down to talk about how The Shield destroyed the Undertaker and Evolution, but he stands alone and Roman needs the Shield to do anything. Roman brawls with Joe before The Bar comes down before the other Shield guys make a save. The faces get laid out by Joe and the uranage. Joe faces Dean later and Bayley comes down with Mickie and Sasha for a tag match with Bayley and Mickie facing Paige and Mandy. Paige hits a yakuza kick to Mickie and gives Mandy the pin.

Clash of Champions is plugged and we get another wacky Woken Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt promo, with Matt working in his Broken Brilliance line. Woken Matt talks about Sister Abigail inhabiting Bray and we get a wacky/evil laugh-off. Enzo and Drew talk about how Rich Swann’s shot is gone and the winner of a second chance fatal four way tonight faces him next week. Enzo talks about Nia for a second, and Drew says it’s a test. Balor comes out to face Axel and he and Bo beat up Balor before the bell.  This doesn’t last long and Balor destroys him with his usual comeback and ends it with the double footstomp.

Seth comes out to face Sheamus and hits a big dive on him. Sheamus clubs away and grinds him on the mat, but eats a superkick on the mat for 2. Sheamus’s neck appears to be affecting him, as he’s much smaller than he was the last time he was on TV. Seth avoids the brogue kick and hits a superkick before ending it with the ripcord knee. Cedric comes out in Flash-colored gear and they bring up Swann having his chance at the title revoked – so he’s at least still being mentioned on TV. Ali, Nese, and Daivari are out for a pretty solid match here. The crowd is completely dead for it, but Drew is great on commentary. Ali lands an awesome corkscrew DDT on Cedric, which gets an RVD-esque sell. Cedric hits Ali with the springboard lariat and takes out Daivari with the lumbar check – so he’ll face Gulak next week.

Enzo admires himself in the belt and Drew says he’ll finally become cruiserweight champion. Enzo gets offended and says that Drew works for him – he’s not his friend and there’s only one word to describe them. Before he can finish, he says they’re informative and Nia comes in and Enzo sucks up to Drew to impress Nia. Roman comes out to face Cesaro and Cole puts over Roman defending the title every night. Cesaro and Roman have an awesome, fast-paced match. Cesaro dominates with a lot of matwork, but also  more striking than he’s shown in quite some time. He gets a slick crossface counter to the Superman punch, and also has his best match since his Cena US Title match years ago. This is the kind of match that feels like it’s giving him momentum because he’s getting a lot of chances to shine.

Cesaro lands a big boot and a stiff knee before the very European uppercut gets 2.5. The crossface is locked on again, but it’s turned into the schoolboy powerbomb for 2. They fight tooth and nail on their knees with punches and the uppercut train hits in the corner. Roman gets saved by the ref and hits a giant spear to win it – this match was incredible, and one of the best TV matches of the year. Asuka comes out to face Fox, but Absolution comes down and Paige gets armbarred before the goons attack. The division comes out to brawl and takes out the heel group. Jason Jordan talks to Kurt and tells him that he can’t put him against Joe for his own safety.

Joe and Dean have their first match ever, with Joe eating a nice rana to the floor after Dean counters a powerbomb attempt. Jordan comes down and Joe just beats his ass. He chokes out Dean and looks strong. Titus offers Dana into Titus Worldwide as its head of R and D. The Club calls them all NERDS before Braun walks down and they all flee. We get a Kane vs. Braun hype video showcasing their destruction and a hilarious tale of the tape. We get a big brawl with them brawling all over, Braun bodyblocking him through the barricade and losing a steel step war leading to a double countout. Kane wears him out with a chair before doing the deadman situp – BUT BRAUN DOES IT TOO! Braun powerslams him through a table- but neither man wins the match so Brock’s Rumble opponent is still unknown.