The show goes from having a Moment of Bliss with Drew McIntyre to opening with Miz TV with New Day – so plans change and all. Raw itself starts off with a recap of all the Orton-Drew-Bray stuff from last week and then Drew beating up Miz and Morrison. Tom welcomes us to THE AWARD-WINNING AND IMMERSIVE VIEWING EXPERIENCE THE WWE THUNDERDOME! Don’t you feel immersed!? Miz and Morrison coming out with Miz dancing to Morrison’s theme is amusing. Byron hypes Nia Jax vs. Asuka as a MATCH THAT COULD BE A MAIN EVENT OF WRESTLEMANIA. I don’t think that puts the match over in the way they intended it to. They ramble on endlessly and it’s only 8:06 before Orton comes out here and insults them for saying Miz’s reality show is more important than ANYTHING he’s involved in.
Orton cuts an honest to God babyface promo about Miz abusing his power to get the tag match tonight and then knocks Miz for only being able to beat him with the case and Morrison left and only got to succeed in the minor leagues and now he’s had enough of Miz. Well, I have too. New Day’s out to complete the annoying chain of promos. Orton RKOs Kofi before he and Drew brawl for a bit before Miz clocks Drew with the case and Orton RKOs him. Riddle faces Jeff Hardy and Elias in a triple threat for a spot on the Raw Survivor Series team. Taker’s final farewell is hyped up. Joe hypes the announcement up, but they’re all drowned out by the new Raw theme song.
Elias is mid-ring and strums his guitar horribly before saying that Jeff Hardy’s newest addiction is smashing him with guitars. He strums horribly again and then Jeff comes out and gets a big pyro display. Jeff really does feel like a bigger star now than he has in a long time and he’s having better matches than I would have ever thought given his injuries. Recap of Jeff beating Elias last week. Hardy and Riddle brawl on the floor before Elias posts Jeff. Jeff hits an inverted atomic, dropkick, legdrop and splash on Elias for 2 backdropping Riddle mid-move. Poetry in Motion jumping off Riddle to Elias. The visual of JEFF HARDY going toe to toe in a fistfight with Matt Riddle is hilarious. Jeff goes for a Twist, but Elias knees him in the head. Bro Derek ends it and Riddle goes to the PPV.
Backstage, AJ and Jordan chat with Adam Pearce before Sheamus tells him that Riddle is nothing but a punk. AJ wants a rounded-up chat. Great, another talking segment! Ricochet faces Mustafa Ali, who says Ricochet is brave – but he’s still a fool. The Revolution flag looks so terribly and we get Mia Yim cutting a horrible promo. Lashley is shown mangling Truth quickly last week before Gulak won the title after getting beaten up himself. Drew asks to join the Hurt Business and MVP tells him to work on the pocket square, so he does and MVP tells him they aren’t accepting applications now. They expose that he’s got a clip-on tie and they beat him up for it. Truth comes in and gets his belt back.
Lana comes out in long gear – because that’s what will make her a babyface, covering her up more. We then get a Veterans Day video. I guess Lana’s theme just kept playing for 10 minutes before she faces Shayna. Shayna stomps the arm, but misses a corner knee charge but the Kirafuda clutch ends it anyway. Nia prepares the battlefield for Lana and Dana and Mandy put a stop to it. Hey, actual babyfaces! We get some horrendous acting from Lana, Mandy, and Dana backstage. AJ and Jordan are mid-ring before bringing Keith out and Riddle is out in his baseball getup. Shteamus and Braun are out too. Everyone argues except for Riddle, who wants everyone to chill. Riddle wants everyone to have sick codenames and Sheamus is fireface. AJ, IT’S ALL ABOUT BRANDING. EMBRACE THE CODENAMES, SKIPPER! AJ tells them to be mindful of the SD team’s finishes and slips out CURB STOMP for Seth.
AJ says he’s talked to Adam Pearce to make Riddle and Lee against Braun and Sheamus with AJ as referee. AJ’s team-building sucks. Braun bullies Riddle a bit before AJ points at his captain’s lettering on his ref shirt. Riddle tosses around Sheamus for a bit and then AJ moves behind Sheamus for no good reason and eats a jumping knee. Then AJ gets in the middle of Lee and Braun and gets squashed. What a bunch of morons. After the break, we come back to Sheamus putting a neck hold on Riddle. Braun misses a senton badly for 2. Keith tags in and runs wild with corner avalanches on Braun and Sheamus. Keith hits the BBC into a broton onto Sheamus. Big lariat hits Braun for 2. Sheamus hits a v trigger before eating a German by Riddle for 2. Riddle runs wild on Sheamus with corner forearms before Braun bullies him on the apron. Sheamus brogue kicks Braun, but eats a schoolboy from Riddle and loses.
Alexa meets with Nikki and Lexi doesn’t remember seeing her last week – but she can make a playdate. Nikki wants Lexi to pick between her or the Fiend and she chooses the Fiend. The Hurt Business is out and Charly says that next week, Shelton and Cedric get a Raw tag title match. Lashley’s out with MVP and he says it’s time for a PPV preview – it’ll be short because his team will face the Street Profits and Lashley will turn Sami into a ragdoll and show how superior the US Champ is to the IC Champ. Lashley cuts a promo on Sami and Titus comes out and talks about wanting to join Raw’s most dominant group. MVP says he respects Titus for what he does with charity, so he’ll let him walk away – and Titus says he won’t walk away. Lashley walks with pride, but why have the belt if he doesn’t defend it!? Lashley says he’ll give him a shot now.
Titus strongarms him in the corner and slugs away, but the spear and Hurt Lock ends it quickly. For what this was, it couldn’t have been better. Backstage, Drew is with Sheamus, who is beaten red and Drew tells him to not kick his partners off the apron. Sheamus insults New Day and Drew does the New Day clap. Sheamus and Drew chat about all drinking kegs and kicking heads when they were younger – which is a story they need to tell more for it to mean much. Sheamus vs. Drew is being set up quite nicely as a legit main event program. Asuka’s out and dances to her theme for the ad break.
Titus strongarms him in the corner and slugs away, but the spear and Hurt Lock ends it quickly. For what this was, it couldn’t have been better. Backstage, Drew is with Sheamus, who is beaten red and Drew tells him to not kick his partners off the apron. Sheamus insults New Day and Drew does the New Day clap. Sheamus and Drew chat about all drinking kegs and kicking heads when they were younger – which is a story they need to tell more for it to mean much. Sheamus vs. Drew is being set up quite nicely as a legit main event program. Asuka’s out and dances to her theme for the ad break. Nia is asked why she’s facing Asuka two weeks before the PPV and Shayna says she runs things, and Nia takes offense to that. Shayna rolls her eyes to all of this.
Asuka gets bullied around before getting a flying armbar. Nia his a swinging powerbomb on the barricade for an ad break. Triangle into a Rampage bomb gets 2, but Asuka gets the armbar. Lana distracts and Asuka almost loses to a distraction Samoan drop, but the Asuka lock is on and Shayna saves with hammer fists. “It just keeps getting worse!” ‘It’s like a repeat from last week!” Thanks Byron, you’re saving me a lot of time this week. Lana fights back with Nia and does nothing before TAKING ANOTHER SAMOAN DROP THROUGH THE TBALE. Tremendous. Nia tells her to quit because she’ll drag them down…how is Nia wrong exactly?
Sarah Shreiber chats with Truth about winning the 24/7 Title and he has to defend it in a 7-way match. Truth has stolen Drew’s clip-on tie and says you can’t hit a man wearing a clip-on tie, or is it glasses, and he wants some glasses from Sarah. Truth faces the Lucha House Party, Tucker, Tozawa, Drew Gulak, and Erik. Tozawa pins Truth before Erik schoolboys him to win and then Drew schoolboys him and wins it. Tucker small packages him to lose it, but Drew hangs on to win it, and then Tucker regains it. Drew avoids an AA and Drew hits him and Erik knees him. Metalik hits a flying elbow to win the 24/7 Title. Lince schoolboys him to win it. TRUTH HITS AN AA TO WIN IT.
Ali’s out and Ricochet comes down and does his whole goofy intro with Retribution…just standing there. Sure. Nice quick action here followed by some forearm exchanges. Ali locks on the then, now, forever chinlock before Ricochet escapes and backdrops him. They fight for a suplex on the apron and Ricochet flying headscissors him off of the apron to the floor. Ricochet fights out of a front choke and gets a brainbuster for 2. Ali hits a super backstabber for 2.9! Ricochet recovers and lands a desperation poison rana! Ricochet dives on the goons on the floor with a tornillo and Ali locks on a Koji clutch for the win! I dig the Koji clutch being a finish in 2020 – it’s always looked too good to be a transitional move for Daniels.
Adam Pearce meets with Orton and says next week, Orton defends the title against Drew McIntyre and he shoves Pearce into the wall and nearly brings the set down. Main event time and it starts off hot with Kofi hitting a froggy crossbody to Miz for 2. He flash cradles Morrison for 2. Double jump…I’ll be nice and say rana by Kofi to Morrison gets 2. Kofi and Woods hit dives onto Miz and Mirrosn. Well, Kofi hits a dive and Woods gets a sorta-baseball slide. Morrison works over Woods for a bit before tagging Miz in. Miz gets the yes kicks in the corner, but Woods lariats him off a dropkick attempt. Drew tags in and throws dudes around with suplexes. Drew lays out Morrison with Future Shock and tosses him in the corner for Orton to tag in – I love Drew begging Randy to have the guts to come in. Orton leaves and Morrison cradles him with the rope for 2 before flipping onto Kingston. Miz eats a spinebuster and Morrison eats a headbutt and the claymore ends it. They have done a masterful job of getting the claymore over as a killer move.
