A belated Merry Christmas everyone. So, I ended up skipping the live airing of Raw this week as family and friends took more attention in my life than wrestling. BUT... this is UnWrest, right? So, I HAVE to do some sort of review for this episode. So, I'm firing up my DVR and watching the Christmas Eve edition of Raw.
Raw Thoughts (Written as Viewed)
- A creepy voiceover entrance for Raw happens going over all the matches.
- Elias comes out and cuts his usual promo and singing. It's Bobby Lashley vs. Elias in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight. It's your usual throwaway hardcore Christmas-themed match with Christmas trees and Candy Cane Kendo Sticks used as weapons. Elias gets slammed on a few presents at one point. Then, the sick part happens: Lashley introduces LEGOS into the match! Any one who has ever stepped on a LEGO before (parents, I'm looking at you specifically) knows how much stepping on one sucks. So, yeah: You know Lashley was taking that bump. And he did, back first off the corner. And some of the LEGO pieces were still stuck to him. Lashley then gets fire extinguisher to the face. Lio Rush gets put through the table at ringside. Elias does a 7-10 Split using a Bowling Ball to Lashley's "general and soldiers," if you know what I mean. Elias finishes off Lashley with a CELLO to the back! A fun street fight to start off the show, and it is actually worth a watch. It's definitely a goofy hardcore match, but it may be the best Christmas-themed match I've ever seen.
After the match, Lio Rush gets his milk and cookies, as in cookies from the remnants of the broken table and Egg Nog poured over his head.
- The next match is The Revival facing Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the Raw Tag Team Championships. And now, Gable is wearing the robe while doing the entrance along with Roode. He's even wearing matching tights now. Lol. The Revival have perhaps their best performance since moving up to the main roster with a lot of the old school tag team fundamentals that have been missing for much of their run (cutting the ring in half along with logical moves that a team would do in a match). A very good match here ending with Gable reversing a suplex into a rollup for the win. BUT... he technically pinned the wrong man. So, this feud will continue.
(I have to say up to this point that this has been the best Raw I've seen in a while. It's not a masterpiece at this point or anything, but it has been a LOT more entertaining than it has been for a while.)
- The B-Team give a Christmas Carol offering their T-Shirt to Apollo Crews. And we get more promos backstage from wrestlers saying what they really want for Christmas. I can't hate on this as this brings back memories of Survivor Series 1989 when the WWF wrestlers mentioned what they were thankful for that year.
- The next actual match is Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Finn Balor. A good TV quality triple threat match here. The finish protected McIntyre somewhat with Ziggler taking the pin after a Coup de Grace. After the match, McIntyre gets in Ziggler's face and tells him that he is trying to save the company and Ziggler simply has no place in WWE. Ziggler responds by Zig Zagging McIntyre.
- Jolly Old St. Vince is shown backstage (in Santa gear, no less) to make three big announcements
1) John Cena will be on both Raw and SmackDown in 2019. (He was a free agent last time he was on TV. So, this makes sense.)
2) There will be a Tag Team Championship in the WWE next year. (Please make these cross-branded. It would make the titles unique and not weaken the already established championships.)
3) Next week, it will be Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler in a Steel Cage.
- The next match is a 6 Woman Tag Match between Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Ember Moon against Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, and Mickie James. Another decent enough match here that ended with the faces each hitting their big moves to end the match. Afterwards, the faces were all beat up and laid out by The Riott Squad. The Riott Squad apparently were trying to get their heat back after the last couple weeks of losing to Natalya.
- Speaking of Natalya, Natalya challenged Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship next. A unique match for Ronda here as Nattie and her have a very good technical wrestling-based start with headlocks and grappling. I enjoyed this match as it was a completely different match than we are used to seeing from Rousey in a good way. It showed range in Rousey's wrestling style. She can brawl with the best of them, but she can also utilize technical chain wrestling as well in order to put on a good match. As for Natalya, this has to be considered one of her better performances of the last few years, if not ever. I bought Natalya as a credible opponent for Rousey, even though I knew the final result. Natalya does succumb to the armbar of Rousey, but this was a great match that made both women look great. This is worth the time to watch!
- Heath Slater gets a Christmas gift: a returning Rhyno who helps him fight off Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers after a short match ends in DQ. Good for Rhyano who will return to a Main Event taping near you!
- The B-Team has over celebrated Christmas and collapsed on the floor.
At least they are on TV this week.
- The main event sees Seth Rollins take on Baron Corbin in the main event. Baron Corbin is still wrestling in the vest/shirt, despite no longer being in any position of authority. (It's also very possible that Corbin didn't pack any other gear for tonight's show.) Can I just point out that despite bringing "CHANGE" to WWE, Raw has continually given Baron Corbin 20+ minutes of TV two weeks in a row? This is the basic match structure you would imagine: Corbin getting beat up to start the match. He then beats down on Rollins until Rollins gets his momentum back. And Rollins wins the match. Rollins pulled Corbin into an ok match which admittedly still had me looking to the 10 second fast forward button on Hulu. Corbin has been so overexposed, so shoved-down-our-collective-throats that I can't enjoy anything he does.
Overall, this was a Raw that was missable in some parts. But the Raw Tag Team Championship, Miracle on 34th Street Fight, and the Rousey-Natalya matches are all worth going out of your way to see from this week. Plus, Santa Vince gave some quick announcements to put over some big developments over the next few weeks. So, this was probably one of the more noteworthy editions of Raw that I can remember seeing during the Holiday season. It may not have been real "change," but it was
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