Hello everyone! It’s the final RAW before Survivor Series, and it’s going to be a busy show. Why so busy? Because tonight we find out who makes it to Survivor Series. Specifically, we have no announced RAW women’s team. The RAW men’s team is short. And oh yea, we don’t have a clue about the RAW ten man tag team either. There’s much left to be settled ahead of Sunday’s fun and festivities. Also, will anyone from the blue brand be in the house tonight, to help shake things up ahead of the final big PPV of the year? Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!
Best Match of the night:
Not giving this to a match. Instead, the all over the map closing segment wins the day. Easily the most memorable segment of the night, and better than any match that RAW put out there for the rest of the evening. Honestly, silly me, I forgot this was how the show would go tonight, forgetting that the invasion is a go-home tradition now. It will be interesting to see how tomorrow unfolds.
Worst match of the night:
Lashley and Elias. Best action was after the match, with Elias beating up Lio Rush and Lashley. It sucked because Lashley is just not fun to watch right now, and they kept arguably one of the hottest Superstars out of the team match. Unless they have bigger plans for Elias on Sunday, please explain to me how putting Lashley in over Elias makes any sense at all.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
Get these hands
One more time
this is awesome
Star of the Night
I had my doubts, but by the end of the show it was very very clear. This night belonged to Becky Lynch and the SmackDown women’s contingent.
Spot of the Night:
Gable and Roode with a nice tag maneuver, the neckbreaker/moonsault combo.
How can you not love Elias using Lio Rush as a lawn dart?
Jobber of the Night:
Anyone object if I give this one to the Singh Brothers and Jinder Mahal? In particular, the Sing Brothers. As Graves said, some people relax by shooting clays. Brock relaxes by throwing Singh Brothers.
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
As is becoming tradition, one brand invades the other ahead of Survivor Series.
Things started off with cameras finding Becky Lynch locking in a dis-arm-her on Ronda Rousey, and then Becky came to the ring to challenge the RAW Women’s team, with the rest of the blue brand sneaking in from behind.
I missed the exact spot, but someone literally drew blood and messed up Lynch bad, as the SmackDown champ was a bloody mess.
Rousey recovered to run down, she made a brief run, and Becky put her down with a steel chair.
Botch of the night:
OK, more of a “let me vent” thing.
With the Dean segment outside by the fire barrel, please, PLEASE, do not make us think he poured gasoline on the Shield attire before he tossed it in to said fire, for a few reasons.
First, as close as he was to the fire, the fumes could have easily ignited.
Second, he doused himself with the liquid, so his clothing could have caught fire too.
Third, if the object WAS soaked in gas, once flung in, the flames would have gone higher. But, they did not.
They did not, because, well, it was probably water.
Also…considering all the misery in California right now, maybe we shouldn’t play with fire on TV? Just saying.
LOL Moment of the night:
Listening to Lio Rush talk. “This man’s genetic body of makeup…”. Uh, what the heck did Lio say?
Noteworthy Moment:
Well, we got the final members of the RAW Survivor Series teams.
Or, in the case of the women, the entire team. Alexa Bliss announced Nia Jax, Mickey James, Natalya, Tamina and one of Bayley or Sasha. I have an issue with the terrible and barely there Tamina being handed a spot on the team, even though she’s probably there for a jobber type role (I hope). You just had Evolution, you want to put out a great women’s product, and yet you had a spot to terrible Tamina and make two of the more popular women in Bayley and Sasha fight over a single spot. Did WWE really need to re-open that feud?
Nope, they just did a really…weird?…swerve. And with Tamina, Nia and Mickey, the trio attacked Sasha and Bayley and Bliss announced that the final member was…Ruby Riott.
And then we got our Survivor Series brand cross-over, with all Hell breaking loose. Nice to have the women close the show with a big angle.
Also, for the first time in I don’t even know how long (since the Monday Night Wars basically), RAW was off the air on time.
Overall lowlights:
Is it me, or is Lashley not even really getting heel heat? Adding the sun glasses? Not helping. Just makes me want to laugh. And the whole idea of giving Lashley Lio Rush is so that Lashley could not talk. So, someone needs to remind Bobby of that, because Bobby on the mic is just…segment-killing bad.
Either Renee is choosing to say some bad lines, or she’s being fed them. Last few weeks she’s had some “say what” moments.
Overall highlights:
Heyman’s promo. I can’t really stand that Lesnar has the gold on him again, but I love Heyman on the mic.
The final segment. Only downside to the blue brand showing up, is that it was only the women tonight. Guess tomorrow will be all out insanity.
After the final bell:
Some interesting stuff tonight. A loaded open, with Strowman burying the tag division, then Rousey confronted Stephanie before giving Corbin a toss.
It will be interesting to see how Team RAW answers the shots fired by Team SmackDown. The show closed with Stephanie partly berating Corbin for letting that just happen, and then partly asking him how he was going to make up for it, on Sunday but also implying tomorrow night too.
