Opener
Brooklyn, New York is on fire for the Raw after Summerslam! We began the evening with the NEW reigning, defending, Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns and geez did he come out to a loud reaction! He came out to basically gloat about beating Lesnar, much to the crowd’s displeasure. He was just smiling at any negative chant and it just oozed cocky Heel. He then went to the other side of the Babyface/Heel spectrum and says he wants to hold an open challenge against anyone who wants to step up to the challenge, but tonight he already has someone in mind, he said this man won the title in there Brooklyn but then got hurt and never got to defend it. So he challenges Finn Balor for the title and, naturally, Balor came out to accept. But Constable Corbin interrupts to tell them it won’t happen and that Balor was out of order bringing the Demon to Summerslam (which was amazing) then says he’s facing Balor tonight with no Demon. Kurt Angle then came out to address this issue. He said to Corbin that he can’t stop the match, because he doesn’t get to make those calls, Angle does, so he made it official for the main event, Balor vs Roman for the Universal Championship. He said that Corbin will have a match tonight too, it’s right now!
Baron Corbin vs Bobby Lashley
The match was a little slow to begin with, but then it picked up a little, some decent shots, some relatively decent spots, but all in all a little lacklustre as an opener in my opinion. The fans felt it too as a ‘boooring’ chant rang out at one point.
Lashley won with a Rolling Shoulder Cutter, new finisher I guess, that was about it.
Backstage
Paul Heyman shows up in Angle’s office and says Lesnar wants to know when his rematch is. To which Angle explains that it’ll be a long time because it didn’t say anything in the contract about WHEN the rematch took place and he now has a fighting Champion on his brand and doesn’t want that to change ever again, to which Paulie responds with a Hell in a Cell PPV suggestion, however Angle has a much better idea. He said it’ll be a cold day in Hell before Lesnar ever sees his rematch happening, and then he said “forget about it” apparently in a Brooklyn accent.
Backstage
Corbin confronts Angle and says he’s tired of Angle not giving him what he wants. He says he’s gonna go tell on Angle because Stephanie McMahon is in the building. Big tough Constable Corbin, looks like a snitch telling the teacher on another kid because he didn’t get his way.. Yep. Snitches get stitches, Corbin. Snitches get stitches.
The “Boss and Hug Connection” (genuinely threw up in my mouth a little) & Ember Moon vs The Riott Squad
First thing I noticed was that the incredibly irritating “RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT RIOT, etc” has been removed from the Squad’s entrance theme! Finally!
The match was pretty good minus the botches, but I don’t like to focus too much on those as were all human and we all make mistakes, even if Ember Moon hitting a Suicide Dive to Sarah Logan’s toes is pretty hard not to mention. Also, on the subject of not talking about stuff, have they ever disclosed why Liv Morgan always looks like she’s been sucking on a biro a bit too hard? What is with that?
Riott Squad picked up another clean win! Despite the biro face, I do love these girls. They’re rapidly becoming a legitimate threat to the Women’s Division. It’s been a while since that’s been a thing.
Promo
BWAAAOOOOWWW “Time to play the game!”… BWAOW BWAOW… ” TIME TO PLAY THE GAAAAMMEE! Hoouahaha!”, that’s right, folks, it was GANGREL making his way to the ring!! No. Obviously it was Triple H. Which is still awesome*.
A huge “NXT” chant broke out! He said NXT tore the roof off of the place this weekend, he’s a fan just like us, he said he will work until the day he dies to ensure that “this is here for everybody”. He talked about his upcoming match with Taker at the Super Showdown in Australia and said he didn’t want to face him because the last time at Mania was so special because the relationship between he, HBK and Taker changed forever. But for that same verg reason, he changed his mind and agreed to the match at the Superslam Showdown (which just sounds like Hulk Hogan trying to announce a Summerslam match). Which is exciting! Billed as the ‘Last time ever’, this build could be really, really good. I’m excited and when it comes to Pro Wrestling, being excited is an amazing thing.
*but Gangrel would have been much more awesome.
Dean Ambrose w/ Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler w/ Drew McIntyre
It was great to see Rollins with the IC Gold again! But even better to see our boy, Dean Ambrose, back in the ring 1 on 1! Ambrose is absolutely a different animal. He’s gotten so precise with his execution which was a major bugbear of mine with him for years. He’s gotten much more dominant too it seems. I loved this match purely for the display Ambrose put on. Ambrose has an almost totally new moveset given his immense change in strength and it was all said and done after Ambrose caught Ziggler mid Jumping DDT and reversed it into Dirty Deeds. That was really frickin’ cool!
Backstage
Balor was getting ready for his match when an ominous looming shadow is cast upon him, he looked up to see Braun Strowman who warned him that he should be wary of how he proceeds tonight, because he doesn’t care if it’s him or Reigns holding the title at the end of the night, he is still cashing in and wished Balor luck. Fair play to Braun there. He got stitched up at Summerslam by Brock Lesno-show and he really wants to cash in. Which would be concerning for anyone holding the belt to be fair.
Elias Performance
Elias was out with a new guitar, same make, cut and colour Fender, only not completely broken. Curt Hawkins interupted him and told Elias that he thinks he’s the one to lose to Curt Hawkins! Elias told him to leave, but he doesn’t. Instead he serves to rile Elias up to get him to agree to a match. Which he does.
Elias vs Curt Hawkins
Elias won in about 2 minutes. Drift Away was hit and that was it. Seemed a bit of a waste of a segment to me. No idea what they’re doing with Elias. He was in a high quality Intercontinental Championship match at a PPV just a few months ago, now he’s snapping guitar necks and beating Jobbers. It’s almost like Vince doesn’t know what WWE stands for or something. Then again, he fans love him and want to see him do well, so of course that’s not going to happen.
AOP vs Titus Worldwiiiide
Nothing at all spectacular, but it’s more of a seed planter than anything, Apollo took the pin and Dana looked a little too comforting, if you know what I mean? There was a moment earlier in the show that I didn’t write about because I figured it was 20 seconds of chit-chat despite coming off a little cold, but backstage Dana and Apollo were talking privately and Titus comes up and said “there you are! I haven’t seen you guys tonight, what are you talking about?” (Paraphrasing a little there but you get the gist.) and they blatently just made something up and lied to him. At first I thought ‘oh no. Another romance angle.’ But.. what if what is predicted weeks and weeks ago is actually going to come to fruition? An Apollo Heel turn with Dana in tow! Apollo has gotten loads better on the Mic and has always been extraordinary in the ring, I said the first time I saw him debut at Takeover he looked like a future world champion! I can see the cogs beginning to turn on that theory now.. interesting.
Promo
The ladies of RAW surrounded the ring, Steph made her way out to address Ronda Rousey, she said that without her business acumen and her amazing mind, Ronda Rousey would never have come to WWE, before she can get another word out, Rousey comes out to a huge pop, she then gets in the ring and says she isn’t there because of Steph, she says she is here because of the Women who made it possible for her to be there and made it possible for it to matter. She gives props to Nattie for being a cornerstone of the division since the beginning of the revolution and Nattie gets a huge reaction, Bayley and Sasha too for their match at TakeOver Brooklyn 3 years ago, Ronda said she’s “not Brock Lesnar” she is a fighting champion and she wants to face everyone the division has to offer. Steph said all she wants to do is break their arms and then Ronda said “only those who deserve it”.. She then grabs Steph, Judo throws her and locks in an arm bar!!! This whole thing radiates that of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon! I love it. Cannot wait to see what happens next, Steph vs Rousey @Evolution? Or will The Authority recruit one Shayna Baszler for their Ronda Rousey problem? Oh! The possibilities!
Promo
B Team made their way out to their awful, awful theme song and have some words for us all. They basically said that the B Team is still undefeated and that they are dedicating their two singles matches, yes TWO singles matches, to everyone in the audience and to each other.. Snore. The problem here is the fun factor of The B Team and their “fluke wins” has run it’s course for me now. It’s no longer funny. It’s annoying. Seeing my boys, The Revival lose the way they did at Summerslam just had me annoyed at the booking of the B Team. I feel the fans are beginning to turn on them a tad now too. It’s gonna happen sooner or later. It’s just ridiculous to restrict The Revival, an all round fantastic team who have always put on memorable matches when given the chance, so much so that they have won match of the year TWICE in a TAG match, are being dropped in favour of a comedy act that’s no longer funny. That’s just insane to me.
Scott Dawson vs Bo Dallas
Dawson won quite easily with a RamPaige DDT. Good. Axel gets in and calls Dash in for their match.
Dash Wilder vs Curtis Axel
Curtis fought a bit harder than Bo but still lost clean to Dash. Good, again. Wilder won with a blimmin’ Gory Bomb too none the less! Awesome to see that move make a comeback! Also was cool to see that Dawson and Wilder do actually have their own finishers, not just the Shatter Machine.
Reigns interview
He says Balor deserves this match, but he will lose it and finally get to the back of the line. He also said he’s not concerned by Strowman saying he will cash in tonight. I was thinking “Meh, you probably should be. You’re talking about a man who nearly killed you every week for nearly 2 months a couple years ago!” But, that’s just Roman’s thing.
Backstage
Steph is with Bliss and Corbin getting her arm iced whilst in in a sling (her arm is in a sling, not Steph herself.). Kurt then shows up and apologises to Steph but Corbin chirps that first Angle puts him in a match with no preperation and now this happened to his boss on his watch! Steph agrees in her transparently false empathetic tone and effectively gives Kurt an undetermined length of vacation time because he’s creating chaos on RAW and it seems he’s not focussing due to the strss. So Steph gives Constable Corbin the role of acting GM until Angle returns.. Heel GM Corbin is gonna be such an arse. Which only makes what happened in the main event more exciting. We are gonna get to that now!
Finn Balor vs Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship
I actually got a little emotional for this match. Being such a fan of Balor’s incredible resilience and mine along with millions of hearts broke for him when he had to vacate the title the next night after Summerslam 3 years ago. After the thunderous push he got coming out of NXT, arguably the biggest anyone has ever gotten, the way it ended was devastating for everyone. So this match made w huge impact on our hearts. The match itself was utterly incredible. The back and forth was epic and the fans only amplified that feeling of “this is awesome!” when they rallied behind Balor in the loudest way! They had many false finishes but Roman Reigns ended up hitting a huge Superman Punch, setting up for the spear and then.. BRAAAAAAUUUUOOOAR! Braun Strowman comes out to cash in, Roman distracted nearly got hit with a Coupe De Grace but reversed it and hit his spear for the 3 count. Although disappointing, Balor fought hard and he looked like he belonged in the main event, aaand Strowman. He hands his briefcase over to the ref and says he’s cashing in! Just as he’s about to attack.. SIERRA HOTEL INDIA ECHO LIMA DELTA.. Shield! DA NA! DA NA! DA NA! DOW DOW DA NA! Ambrose and Rollins come to the stage kitted out in full Shield gear! I can already hear my Fiancee, Abi, freaking the F out when she watches this later! (Possibly the Sheild’s biggest fan) They surround the ring as only the Shield does, then Strowman just goes after Reigns anyway, but is halted by the rest of the Shield brethren and they end up tustling for a bit, but 3 on 1 gets to be too much, especially against 3 decorated competitors such as Ambrose, IC champ Seth Rollins and current Universal Champion, Roman Reigns and the Triple Powerbomb sent Braun through the announce table! Raw went off the air with the Shield boys doing that triple fist bump thing they do.
Conclusion
7.5/10 🌟
The show itself was alright, lots of seeds being planted and whatnot. Failed cash ins, reunions, debugging the top card in favour of more deserving challengers and the momentum of the Women’s Division is hotter than ever! The let downs came from pointless segments and the atmosphere being sucked out of the show at the very start by Boring Lashley (😪) and Baron Corbin (who I actually like!), also, I’m a little miffed that they didn’t use the atmosphere and momentum in the same place they had NXT Takeover Brooklyn IV in (I reviewed that too, check it out if you fancy it! I’ve been told it was a good read!) they didn’t call anyone up from NXT. Seemed the perfect time to do so too! However the good stuff with Ambrose and Dolph, the ladies, Steph and Ronda, Taker and Trips, Shield, Balor, Braun, etc, and the seeds planted with Apollo and Dana have me feeling genuinely psyched for next week!
Match of the Night: Roman Reigns vs Finn Balor for the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship. The match was exciting and had lots going for it, then everything that followed was gold and now I’m left feeling really annoyed that I have to wait a whole week to see what happens next!
Performance of the Night: Dean Ambrose. Not just because it’s nice to see him back, but he genuinely looks like he’s been working on his in ring prowess because he’s a lot smoother with his techniques and his new moves are wonderful. That Fallaway Slam was something special too. APA Bradshaw would be proud.
So that’s that. Summerslam weekend draws to a close tonight on the Blue Brand and it’s been an immense few days! I’m excited about what’s to come from both shows and the next few months are going to be awe inspiring what with Evolution, Superslam Showdown, Hell in a Cell, Takeover and Survivor Series!
Have a lovely week everyone. Thank you for reading. I appreciate every single one of your eyes!
Peace and love ✌🏻💚
– CB
