Raw starts off with Roman coming out and Jerry Lawler on commentary with Corey on vacation. We get a recap of the stupid attack angle with Roman. YES! REPLAYS OF THE TERRIBLE ACTING! Because…second takes don’t exist in the WWE Universe? This video goes on for several decades before finally ending with Roman’s theme still playing at 8:05. After this long video recap, Dolph comes down to give us an audio recap of his burial. Dolph says that it’s one thing to survive a lighting rig – BUT HE SURVIVED THREE SPEARS FROM GOLDBERG! He thought that Goldberg had to wait six months between spears and was so hurt that Maryse’s husband beat him with Ric Flair’s move.
Dolph cheapshots him and gets a great reaction for it. Dolph’s superkick misses and Roman attacks. Roman launches himself off the steps and Dolph tosses him into the barricade and Zig Zags him on the floor. Roman recovers and hits a drive by. Dolph gets 2 off a jumping DDT. Dolph avoids a buckle bomb and gets 2 off a Zig Zag. Roman goes for a spear, but a fameasser gets 2. Spear ends it for Roman – this was Dolph’s best matches in ages.
A recap airs of Sasha’s return and her beating of Nattie and Becky. Becky’s rebel character is definitely helped by WWE’s robotic scripting as she cuts his monotone promo about Sasha’s career being cold and now she’s hot thanks to her. King talks about King of the Ring and then the lights go out and Bray attacks with a mandible claw on the ramp. After a break, a recap airs of the attack. We see the KOTR throne before Ricochet’s theme hits and he comes down to team with Miz to face Corbin and Drew.
Vic Joseph replaces King tonight. Miz hits a baseball slide to set up Ricochet’s run-up moonsault on the floor. Corbin and Miz bring us back to a break with Miz slugging out of a random lock of some sort. Miz and Drew do some stuff before Miz DDTs him for 2. Corbin has taken off his shirt to reveal a…Ric Flair TNA top! Riochet dropkicks him for a quick 1. Drew biels Ricochet across the ring and he eats a superkick and a Finale. Corbin catches him in a chokeslam and lands a Deep Six after Ricochet backflips out of the chokeslam. Recoil, the former Codebreaker ends it.
Sasha shows up backstage to talk about what happened last week. Booker T joins the show via Skype to warn him about The Fiend and talk about the King of the Ring. Booker says that makes your career before Braun’s out to face AJ for the US Title. AJ bounces off Braun before Anderson avoids Braun on the floor. Goons come in for a DQ, shocking I know. The OC beats up Braun until Seth makes a save in skinny jeans. Braun and Seth stare down and Seth knows he wants his WWE Universal Title, and he wants him to get a shot. Seth wants to team with Braun tonight to get the tag titles. Sure, why not.
Joe’s out for the tourney to face Cesaro, who has added track pants to his existing tracksuit top. Cesaro flash uppercuts Joe in the corner for a quick 2 count. Going for a Moxley-Ishii start – I dig it! Joe runs wild with chops and takes his head off with a lariat. Cesaro yakuza kicks Joe’s face off for 2. They go for a suplex, but just fall forward, so Cesaro redoes it. Cesaro turns a sharpshooter into a crossface. Joe gets the choke and the win. We see video of Spud not taking the 24/7 Title from Elias over the weekend.
Elias sings, and his stagehand unmasks to reveal it’s Truth, who lands an axe kick, but Elias escapes anyway. SD tag champs New Day are just here for whatever reason to face The Revival in a MTN Dew-sponsored match. Charly in a neon yellow dress chats with Rey, who teases retirement and talks about his uncle training him. Rey says that having his mask torn off is the biggest disgrace, and now he can’t even’t save himself from it happening and now his body can’t keep up. What’s funny is that they’re doing the Old Man Rey angle now, after his great run where he showed he can still go at a high level and not five years ago when he could barely do anything because they’d never let him heal up and kept calling him back from vacations to keep working. Dominik tells him to not retire because he promised him that he would be his partner and Rey says he won’t retire. That was a solid idea of a story told in a terrible way.
Vic ties the New Day vs. Revival match into Revival destroying New Day’s ice cream bike ages ago, which Cole buries him for. Cole talks about Orton getting the Revival snake skin boots as a sign of their friendship. Legacy got him a race car and he gets these guys some boots – what a cheap skate. They do some stuff before Orton attacks for a DQ before the Revival hits a double-team 3D with Orton on Woods. They do a double-team leg snapper to Woods and Orton makes Kofi watch.
Sasha smiles for her big interview. and after Cole rattles off some crap, Sasha says that blue is her color and then Cole robotly says that no one is talking about her hair and now she attacked Nattie, who was mourning her father and Becky, who was her cohort in NXT. Sasha says that everyone’s welcome for the attack.
Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss come down to face Fire and Desire, with Bliss doing her best ’90s female comics pose with the belt. Sonya takes Nikki down and grinds away. Bodyscissors cradle gets 2 for Sonya. Nikki lands a corner charge and Bliss gets 2 off a slap. Nikki beats Sonya with a twist and shout. Seth tells Braun to follow his lead and then they can leave as champs. Braun tells him to follow his lead to win. So both guys are kinda dicks her.
Cedric’s out and gets a nice, polite reaction before Sami marks out at the throne. Sami grinds away with a long chinlock, which sure does Ceddric a ton of good. Sami falls while Cedric goes for the goofy back handspring headscissor and eats a dropkick. The lumbar check hits and ends it. Street Profits talk about the brackets and Montez is hyped up for Cedric – dude has so much charisma, it’s unreal. Dawkins wants a tag team KOTR tourney – and Ford says that they’re already kings and he’s got the crown and Dawkins wants a tag title match.
AJ talks to The OC and says that Seth and Braun aren’t a match for this band of motherlovers. Nattie says that The WWE Doctor has checked on her and at the one year anniversary of her dad’s passing, she knew it would be emotional, but didn’t expect Sasha. Sasha is her friend. Sasha was her friend. Sasha was a close friend. And she. Cannot. Wrap her head. Around what. Sasha did. Sasha probably saw this wooden acting and decided she hated it, so she attacks her again and tells her to go to Hell and say hi to Daddy.
OC defends the titles against Braun and Seth with Seth as a face in peril fighting agaisnt both guys in the ring and with AJ helping them on the floor. Braun charges over The OC guys on the floor and bowls over Karl in the ring twice after a hot tag. He lands the powerslam and scores the win as Seth curb stomps AJ to prevent interference. Not a great match – but this was the best Braun has looked as an act all year and felt like a near-perfect job of rehabbing him in one night. I like the touch of Braun holding the Universal Title aloft alongside Seth to set that up a bit further down the road.
