The show begins with a tribute graphic for Chavo Guerrero Sr. The pyro display goes off and we get a graphic for the Festival of Friendship and the Bayley vs. Charlotte title match. Stephanie comes down and says that she’s running Raw tonight and giving Mick the week off. Roman comes down and she says that she’s all about the fans. So is she an evil bitch boss or is she a boss of the people? She has literally played both roles within five minutes of the show starting. Roman wants to face Braun tonight, but Steph makes Braun vs. Henry tonight.
NEW BULLET CLUB-STYLE SHIRTS FOR GALLOWS AND ANDERSON…why the Hell did it take this long!? Steph says that in honor of Teddy Long, we HAVE A MATCH PLAYA – a handicap match. So not a tag match, and she can’t say holla. They fight a bit around ringside and Roman gets his ass shoved into the steps. We come back to not a chinlock, shockingly – but punches from Luke. Karl locks on a chinlock. Of course he does. Chair to the back ends it. Ugh.
We get a recap of the Owens-Jericho friendship, starting with the beginning of THE LIST. Kofi comes out to face Bo Dallas. Kofi promises ice cream while possibly pondering the fact that he spent hours in a plane and in airports so he can wrestle Bo Dallas on TV. A “we want ice cream” chant breaks out while New Day dances. Bo grabs the formula for ice cream and tears it in half. Do dominates and then loses to the SOS. New Day feeds him cereal afterwards. A brunette interview robot interviews Neville about Jack Gallagher. HIAC match recap for the Festival of Friendship.
Jack’s win on 205 Live is shown, and his great dive off the top to the floor with the umbrella makes him a star instantly. Dar works on the leg with a squatting leglock while mocking the crowd. Dar has something going for him when it comes to charisma – but he’s lacking a bit. Headbutt and the corner dropkick end it. Jack Gallagher has gotten A DROPKICK over as a finisher in 2017. It’s astounding. Neville comes out and stares, then Joe gets out of a limo with HHH.
EMMALINA IS NEXT! We get another Jericho-Owens video and EMMALINA DEBUTS. She says that the fans have waited for her for 17 weeks and now we’ll see the makeover from Emmalina to Emma. Holy shit. Bayley chats with someone about. The history. Of Vegas. And the women’s division. Jericho and Owens chat before HHH comes in and HHH wants to talk to just KO.
We come back and see HHH talk to KO, only they’re muted. Recap of Braun costing Roman the match against Joe. Strowman gets a cheapshot and a big lariat. Mark avoids an inverted chokeslam, pumphandles the arm and hits an avalanche. The world’s strongest slam is avoided as Braun falls back on him before hitting the dropkick and powerslamming him for the win. Roman and Braun brawl for a bit before Braun powerslams him down.
Bayley does some boxing training with Cesaro and Sheamus before Enzo and Cass come in. They bicker and Sheamus says they cost them the Rag Tag Team Titles. I think they’re now having a match later. Cole leaves and “goes backstage” to interview Joe in a pre-taped interview. “Seth was the crown jewel of Raw for how many years, and he couldn’t last two minutes in the ring with me!” That one line got him more over than any 20 minute monologue could have. Cole talks about how HHH has built careers, but also left them in the breeze afterwards. Joe says that he’s different – they needed HHH’s help. He doesn’t. Goddamn. They are getting Joe over with A SINGLE INTERVIEW. This is the best backstage interview they have done to get a character over since the JR ones with Foley 20 years ago.
Sami comes out to be crushed by Handsome Rusev. Sami eats offense, gets the flip dive, but succumbs to a post-break bearhug. Sami hits the helluva kick and wins!? Well, that was different. Sami talks about losing the US Title match thanks to KO. He cuts a promo on Joe for cleaning up HHH’s messes. And now Sami’s going to get killed by Joe, which all fits into this Owens/HHH stuff nicely too. Joe kicks his ass and tosses him into the tron before choking him out. This was awesome!
Teddy Long HOF video. We get a dance montage along with him speaking wacky things. Teddy Long was really a case of peaking at an older age. Tozawa comes down with Aries and Kendrick on commentary – giving us a match with as many commentators as the match will likely have minutes. Kendrick talks about being an indy darling who paved the way for Bryan, Tozawa, Joe, and Rollins. Kendrick is shockingly lucid as a commentator. I love him taking credit for indy darlings excelling in WWE. Tozawa hits a bunch of chops in a row, a slap, the suicide dive, and a snap German to win in three minutes – so the match actually did have more commentators than it did minutes.
Tyler Bate gets a Raw hype video to plug his debut on NXT as WWE UK Champion. Good for him. Jericho comes out dressed like a Fabulous One with a giant harem of showgirls. KO comes out and looks disappointed. Jericho gives him a sculpture that KO is disappointed in. KO’s turn on Jericho is going to be amazing. I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s going to be astonishing. Jericho unveils a painting. “YOU WANT ME TO HANG THIS IN MY HOME!? I HAVE TWO KIDS! I DON’T EVEN HAVE ANY PANTS ON!” “IT’S ART – YOU DON’T NEED PANTS!” This is amazing.Friendship the Magician does tricks that don’t impress KO – SO HE MAKES THE LIST! Jericho calls out Goldberg for an act break. Oh my God was that the best thing on Raw in ages. He’s gonna get…
IT! waits until after the break. Amazing. GILLBERG! DA MAN IS HERE! Love Cole having EXPLAIN WHAT GILLBERG IS and then saying it was WWE’s version of Goldberg. Owens is annoyed by Gillberg and wanted Goldberg so they could kick his ass. Jericho thanks Owens for making this past year one of the most fun of his career. I love that every single bit of this plays into the HHH bit earlier and how you can see everything coming – but in the best way possible. WWE can make a mint off of selling Jericho’s outfit as a Halloween costume post-haste. Jericho says he has KO’s back at Fastlane and Goldberg can’t beat him – and KO’s his brother, too. KO should put Jericho through the Jeritron to tie this all up into the HBK-Jericho story as well.
Kevin gives him a gift – Jericho opens it to see a new list. Jericho says it’s great – his old one was beaten up..but why is his name on the list? IT’S THE LIST OF KO! YES! YES! YES! THIS IS AMAZING! This is perfect. Jericho is a mega babyface and KO is back to being a kick-ass heel! APRON POWEBROMB! Hot damn – KO actually puts him through the Jeritron! That was absolutely perfect – there was nothing that could be done to make it better.
Recap of this is amazing too. Jericho is loaded into an ambulance before being taken to a Local Medical Facility. Enzo and Cass come out while Enzo cuts an elaborate promo mocking Cesaro for being Swiss and referencing the Hasselhoff version of Baywatch in 2017 – a show that was retro when Hasselhoff was guest Hosting Raw EIGHT YEARS AGO. Cesaro comes out looking awesome – the Sheamus team intro is great. Enzo goes for a sunset flip, but Cesaro goes for an Aloha Arn spot and slams Enzo from a pickup. Pop-up uppercut wins. Charlotte works out a bit backstage before Sasha comes in and gets insulted. Sasha’s heel turn is inevitable, but maybe tonight isn’t the best time to do it since Jericho just turned and there is no topping that turn.
Charlotte dominates for a bit before a break. Charlotte focuses on the neck by tossing Bayley into the buckle and then locking on a neckbreaker hold before a neckbreaker. Charlotte locks on Taker’s standing dragon sleeper. I hope Bayley wins tonight and then Sasha turns heel next week out of jealousy. Yakuza kick off the apron sends Bayley down to the floor. Moonsault off the top to Bayley! It gets 2 and the crowd goes a bit crazy. Bayleyplex and the corkscrew elbow hits for 2! Saito suplex by Bayley! Savage elbow hits for 2.5! Super rana by Bayley gets 2!
Dana comes down, but a cradle gets nothing and BAYLEY GETS A FIGURE FOUR! Dana rakes the eyes! Sasha hits Dana with a crutch, THEN CHARLOTTE! BELLY TO BAYLEY GETS THE WIN! This was great – Sasha has a legit claim to the title, and a reason to turn on Bayley if she doesn’t get her shot immediately. Bayley’s fan celebration gets her over huge as a legit star. This was a great…hour and a half or so of a 3 hour show.
Screenshot Gallery –
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