This show had a very low bar to go under to underperform compared to last week. Thankfully, Vince McMahon decided to put on a good show this week.
Raw Thoughts- 12/3/18
- The salute to George Bush (41) was a great way to open the show and pay tribute to the recently passed former president.
- The show starts off (surprisingly) with Natalya and Ronda Rousey taking on Nia Jax and Tamina. The match never starts as The Riott Squad comes out and causes a distraction. It's a 5 on 2 attack as the Riott Squad go after Natalya while Rousey is disposed off by Tamina and Nia. Natalya gets driven through a table by The Riott Squad. Later, Rousey is shown helping Natalya get checked on and shows a death stare to the camera. Much more effective way to begin Raw than last week, and it's already a better show as a result.
- Then, Alexa Bliss comes out. We're getting another dang Open Forum segment. This was another tedious segment to sit through, although Alexa did her best to spice things up with barbs back at the women. This leads to a weak setup for a tag team match between Sasha Banks and Bayley vs. Mickie James and Alicia Fox (w/Dana Brooke at ringside). Decent enough match leading to Bayley and Banks getting the win after a Backstabber into the Bayley to Belly.
- The next match has The Revival having to face off against the Lucha House Party. Once again, who the heck did these guys tick off in order to be jobbing to the Luchas? It's again Lucha House Rules as Scott Dawson is facing off against all three Luchas. Remember when The Revival put on a Five-Star Classic against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa? I sure as hell almost forget. In fact, I'm just going to say this: Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa better just freaking quit the company if WWE tries to push them to the main roster. After the obvious finish, Michael Cole says "I believe the Lucha House Party has The Revival's number." No, Michael Cole. Vince's bias against tag team wrestling has The Revival's number. I guess he echos Cody Rhodes' opinion on The Revival.
- Next we get Drew McIntyre Appreciation Night as Baron Corbin sucks up to the man who helped him get to the position he is in. He gives Drew a "Gold Medal of Excellence." Drew talks about his desire to break Finn Balor apart. (Why not? Most the roster has by this point.) Dolph Ziggler comes out and confronts Drew about not including him in his highlight video or inviting him to the Appreciation Night. Drew says Dolph was never invited. He's been the whole package the entire time while Ziggler was just latching on. He used Ziggler to get to a prominent position. He thanks Dolph for doing his job for once and tells him to leave. He made Ziggler relevant. True. Zig Zag to McIntyre by Dolph Ziggler, making his 25th or 26th face/heel turn. I've lost track. Baron Corbin puts the match on for next between Ziggler and McIntyre.
- Ziggler and McIntyre are going at it feverishly as soon as we return to break, but McIntyre disposes of Ziggler pretty easily to set up his offense. The big twist here is that Finn Balor came out and assisted Dolph Ziggler by attacking Drew McIntyre on the floor. This allowed Ziggler to get a superkick in to get the win! So, from all this, we have Finn Balor actually getting a one-up on someone, Dolph Ziggler turning face and winning a match, and Drew McIntyre having more of a reason to destroy people. Very good segment here that did a lot to set things in motion. Thumbs up here.
After the match McIntyre swears vengeance against Ziggler and Balor.
- WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH ELIAS?! Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush interrupt Elias. Elias goes out after them, and with an assist from Finn Balor AGAIN, Elias smashes the guitar over the back of Lio Rush. Interesting use of Finn Balor. Could this be the night Finn Balor gets a win without getting his face kicked in or being made to look like a total loser?
- Jinder Mahal talks to Baron Corbin about the Finn Balor problem, promising to take care of him in a match tonight. Then, Baron Corbin tells Rhyno and Heath Slater that one of them will be fired tonight. They'll have a match to determine who that will be.
- The next match is Bobby Roode who is looking for revenge for the "desecration" (as Michael Cole puts it. Sounds better than bad potty humor part 3, doesn't it folks?) of his robe against Drake Maverick. If Roode wins, he and Gable get another chance against AOP. AOP and Gable are barred from ringside. But that doesn't stop AOP from beating up Chad Gable in the back. Corbin tells AOP that he's changed his mind: it's a 3-2 handicap match now with AOP and Maverick vs. Gable and Roode. Maverick tries desperately to hold off Roode until AOP come down. But AOP get there and start the beat-down of Roode. Gable comes down the ramp eventually. But Gable and Roode are put down with the Super Collider. Drake Maverick gets the pin on Bobby Roode. This was again intended to get more heel heat on Baron Corbin who takes the blame for changing the rules in favor of the heels. In that case, it was a success. Roode and Gable lose (again), but they at least have an out. Last week, Roode just looked like an idiot for caring more about his robe than the tag titles.
- Ambrose comes out with a gas mask and team of similar mask wearing people. They have a new remix of his theme going with an air horn going off in the background. He's breathing through the mask and cuts a stereotypical heel promo. This character is dead on arrival. He takes the mask off and continues the promo, but this character ... ugh. Cheap heat seeking is not something I expect for someone like Ambrose. Yet, this promo was filled with a bunch of cheap heat at the local town. Seth comes out from the audience and attacks the team and Dean. And there's an odd moment in the attack here where Rollins backdrops Dean over the top rope. And instead of going out after Dean as you would expect for someone of his anger supposedly, he just stands in the ring and waits for the team to come back down the ramp to attack him. It is almost as if these guys missed a spot or something. And it really just weakened the segment for me. Dean gets the upperhand after a brief brawl and gives Dirty Deeds to Seth. Dean has Seth rolled into the ring to deliver Dirty Deeds one more time.
Again, this was a miss for me. Dean's entire character is really off at this moment and doesn't do much to gain much heat. The segment itself came off as goofy, cheesy, and didn't accomplish the goal of making Dean more of a heel. And that moment with Rollins just waiting for the attack from Dean's stooges, while small, did enough to get me out of whatever moment they were trying to build up.
- The next match has Heath Slater defeating Rhyno in a quick 1 minute match. Therefore, Rhyno is fired from Raw. And after the break, we find out Heath Slater's career is over too. He's just now on Raw as a referee. Ok. That's better than eating catering and not doing anything most weeks... or those godawful backstage or in-ring skits WWE likes to do from time to time with their C-level talent.
- Next, we get Jinder Mahal taking on Finn Balor. It's a Jinder Mahal match. The attention level only goes so much. Apollo Crews gets involved, and Finn Balor gets the win. Hard to believe that this time last year, Jinder Mahal was a main-event talent on SmackDown Live having just come off the WWE Championship run. Now, he's jobbing to the guy who jobs to others. Still, perhaps, just perhaps, Finn Balor will end this show without being laid out.
- And as soon as I write that, Finn Balor gets jumped in the back by Drew McIntyre and laid out. Well, it wouldn't be an episode of Monday Night Raw without Finn Balor being beaten down. And thus ends Finn Balor's "good" night.
- The main event is Ronda Rousey and Ember Moon (replacing Natalya) taking on Tamina and Nia Jax. Nia and Tamina jump Ronda early, but Ember helps her take the fight to them as we go to our commercial break. The heels start dominating Ember Moon going into the last few moments of Raw. (The main event already has my attention a LOT more than last week's Baron Corbin match.) Tag to Rousey by Ember leads to a bunch of knees and strikes to Tamina. Tamina gets tagged in and out of the match by Nia, who refuses to face off with Rousey. An Eclipse by Moon and an armbar by Rousey causes Tamina to tap out to end the match. Good main event match here to continue to build towards the match at TLC between Rousey and Jax.
Overall, this was a MUCH better Raw than last week's show. Granted, it would have to have sucked pretty bad in order to stoop to the levels of last week. There were a few moments on the show I didn't care for which I shared above: Ambrose and Rollins, the Roode/Maverick segment, and the Open Forum segments standing out in my mind after the 3 hours. But there were some good moments on this show which automatically elevates it compared to last week. I'd give this a HULU recommendation if you want a condensed 90 minute version of the show.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
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