WWE: Monday Night RAW was LIVE from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN on 7/17/17!
Dean Ambrose and “Steely Dan”, a metal folding chair, invite the Miztourage out to continue the eighty fourth iteration of their never ending feud. It needs to die a final death so we can move on to fresh stories and thankfully, Seth Rollins must have heard our words. “The Architect” is out to direct his own words towards the IC champ and the “Lunatic Fringe”.
He asks his brother if he’ll be standing in his way or at his side as he takes the fight to the Miz. Ambrose says he isn’t his “brother”. His brothers were in the Shield and once upon a time, they had his back. He doesn’t know this guy standing before him now. Rollins says that was over three years ago and he’s apologetic, but let’s move on. Ambrose doesn’t believe him and Seth invites Ambrose to drive that steel chair into his back to end the friction.
The Miztourage interrupts after the two are working through their deep-seeded issues and tries to drive the wedge further between the two. The Miz and company grab their own steel chairs and they deliver a sound beating to former members of the Shield. The exclamation point is a skull-crushing finale delivered to Seth Rollins on a steel chair after Ambrose was disposed of.
Bayley defeats Alexa Bliss via pinfall with a Bayley-To-Belly Suplex.
Bayley gets to the pay window for the second week in a row at the expense of the champ. She takes the non-title victory after “The Boss” Sasha Banks handled Nia Jax at ringside, after Nia interrupted the affair to show support to her pal, the champ. Nia’s efforts were in vain as the distraction was enough for Bayley to capitalize on the misstep for the victory.
Highlights of the ESPY’s are shown as it was a star studded affair featuring WWE talent and Stephanie McMahon received the “Jimmy V’ award for WWE’s humanitarian efforts. Congratulations to Steph and the WWE family.
The Titus brand stands strong as Titus O’Neil motivates the troops, Akira Tozawa and Apollo Crews before a Cruiserweight tag team affair set to take place featuring division talent.
Corey Graves is also taken away from ringside once again as he gives reassurance to Raw GM Kurt Angle, who deliberates on whether or not “the big reveal” tonight will be worth it. Corey assures him it’s better that he does it then to have it released via social media.
Jack Gallagher and Mustafa Ali defeat THE Brian Kendrick and Drew Gulak via pinfall after an Inverted 450 Splash on Gulak by Ali.
This was a fun match with the time they had allocated. Gallagher and Kendrick have had business together on 205 for several weeks, and Ali and Gulak have a two out of three falls match tomorrow night, so they continued their stories tonight on Raw. Each man got to showcase their talents and Gallagher struck Kendrick with a well placed headbutt and that was enough to let Ali take flight and entertain fans to put this one away.
Enzo Amore continues to dazzle on the mic as he sets a trap for Big Cass. Enzo took a seat at ringside as Cass and Big Show had a good ole’ fashioned fight. Both men held their own and they look to be headed towards a clash at Summerslam if I were a betting man. Cass was able to hold his own, hitting Show with hard right hands and repeated kicks to the ribs. They are putting this one together right.
Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are booked against the Miztourage in a handicapped match slated for next week’s Raw, courtesy of Raw GM, Kurt Angle. The crowd is pleased.
Elias Samson “entertains” fans with a song as they clamor for “The Balor Club” and their hunger is quickly satiated as the first ever Universal Champion is out to a massive pop, and I do mean massive, as he and Samson are set for a rematch from last week after the break.
Finn Balor defeats Elias Samson via DQ after a guitar shot.
“The Drifter” pulled off his best Jeff Jarrett impression after a hard fought match as Samson left Balor laying to the disdain of the live crowd. The funny thing however is you can see that they are still protecting the talent from headshots as the blow struck him in the shoulder. It seems like they are going to continue this feud in the short term as it’s heavily rumored that Balor and Bray Wyatt are going to have a feud in the next few weeks or months. Either way, this was a cool visual.
Well, ask and ye shall receive. The jump cut has a laughing “Eater Of Worlds” taking pleasure in Balor’s pain. He is pleased with the guitar shot and he says his soul is thirsty and ravenous as he looks to feast upon the pain. He feels the need to punish Balor. He references the Irish mythology attributed to Balor’s name. He says he’s real, he’s the eye of the storm and he will rain vengeance down upon Finn. The best part? He’s going to enjoy every second of it.
Bayley and Sasha Banks are having a love fest backstage until Kurt Angle books them against one another in a match next week and the winner will take on Alexa Bliss for the women’s title at Summerslam. That will surely deliver and fire on all cylinders. They hype Battleground this Sunday immediately after that and the return of the “celebrated” Punjabi Prison match.
Dash and Dawson, The Revival, are back, and they have issues with the Hardyz. They’ve got four good fists and they’re going to use them on the Hardyz in their match later tonight. Welcome back “top guys”.
Ariya Daivari defeats Akira Tozawa via referee stoppage.
The booking of this match was a head scratcher. Tozawa was getting stomped relentlessly by Daivari and Titus was “protecting” his investment. As Tozawa looks to an eventual rematch with Neville, this booking isn’t going to do him any favors. It’s nice to see the under-utilized Daivari getting a well deserved trip to the pay window, but a very strange ending to this one and the crowd seemed to agree. Having said that, we’ll have the Kurt Angle reveal up after the break to hopefully get us back on track!
Kurt Angle has a son. He dated a young lady in college and she gave birth to a three sport athlete. I was thinking it was going to be Chad Gable, but it’s Jason Jordan! Wow! I know they were looking to do different things with American Alpha, but this is incredibly unique and Jordan is a next level talent. A tender embrace between “father and son” would make any Cat Stevens fan shed a tear at this momentous reveal.
After the embrace, we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, perhaps with a heel turn from Chad Gable, the return of “The Gold Standard” Shelton Benjamin, or something to develop new stories. Hopefully they don’t split up Alpha, as they are a needed force in the tag team division, but it seems that Gable is situated over on Smackdown, so this is a bit of a head scratcher here. We’ll see how it plays out.
It wasn’t Dixie Carter, it wasn’t Stephanie McMahon and I don’t know if they’re going to do Triple H and Angle at Summerslam now, but we have time to see how this plays out. The Revival and The Hardyz is up next.
The Revival defeat The Hardy Boyz via pinfall with a handful of tights by Dawson on Jeff.
The veteran Hardyz worked a very good match with the always up to the task Revival. This was good ole’ fashioned tag team wrestling at its finest and the crowd was very supportive of Matt and Jeff and furiously against Dash and Dawson. It’s a timeless formula that works and the crowd was into this after they went mild for the prior reveal of the months long buildup. They had a great near fall exchange at the end of the month and after Jeff was dumped off the top, we had a controversial count of three after a handful of tights and the Hardyz continue their losing streak. This could lead to their eventual “broken” split.
Samoa Joe has words backstage about stepping into the “Big Dog”‘s yard. He states that he came within inches of beating Brock Lesnar, and even though Roman has a heck of a right hand, it won’t be enough. Roman’s made a mistake of thinking that Joe is just an obstacle in his way. He is a force of nature and that force will beat him for a third time.
Akira Tozawa is irate backstage as Titus O’Neil explains why he threw in the towel for him earlier tonight. Titus says he’s looking to the future and Tozawa holding the Cruiserweight title. Tozawa wants a match with Daivari tomorrow night on 205 live and he storms off.
Finn Balor and Elias Samson will have a No DQ match next week. That’ll be a good one before Wyatt interferes.
Samoa Joe and Roman Reigns is ruled a no contest after interference from Braun Strowman.
This was a PPV quality match that was given away for free in front of live fans in Nashville. I was actually quite alright with the finish as it seems that they are headed for a fatal four way match at Summerslam where Brock Lesnar will defend the Universal Title against Reigns, Strowman and Joe.
It adds a level of mystery as to who will walk with the belt as every man involved has a fair shake and can put on a watchable match. Strowman was the star of this match he wasn’t even in, as he came down and took issue with both Joe and Reigns. The crowd is really into “The Monster Among Men” and they chanted about how awesome it was after watching a quality main event. This was a solid way to end a show that had its ups and downs. Strowman left Reigns flat on the mat and Joe met the same fate.
