Though next week’s episode of Raw probably won’t have the same level of intrigue going into it as last night’s did, WWE has already announced three matches for the show.
Sasha Banks will face Bayley in a match to determine who will challenge for Alexa Bliss’ Raw Women’s Championship at SummerSlam. That was set up last night in a storyline with Banks and Bayley both pleading their cases to Kurt Angle after wins over Bliss in recent weeks.
A two-on-three handicap match between Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose and The Miz, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas and Finn Balor vs. Elias Samson in a no disqualification match were the other matches announced for next week. Balor tweeted a picture of a nasty cut that he received from Samson’s guitar shot on Raw.
The show should also feature Angle addressing who will challenge for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam after Braun Strowman interrupted Monday’s number one contender’s match between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe.
The Big Takeaway: With Vic Joseph from NXT leading the announce team, TJP beat Gran Metalik in the opening bout, while Rhyno and Heath Slater picked up a win against the begrudging combination of Curtis Axel and Curt Hawkins.
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TJP defeated Gran Metalik (5:25)
TJ Perkins, now “TJP,” doesn’t seem to be a perfect fit as a heel. His gimmick is perhaps more annoying than it is heelish. He comes out here against Gran Metalik and other than a curl of his upper lip, his entrance is just as it was when he first came to the main roster last year.
After a slow start, they put on some good wrestling. They previously faced off in the finals of the Cruiserweight Classic last year, where Perkins became Cruiserweight Champion.
Rest holds and TJP’s attempts to thwart any high flying from Metalik soon give way to these two reverting to type and doing what they do best.
After TJP’s suicide dive to the outside, Metalik does a beautiful ropewalking dropkick and then hits a top rope splash for a near fall. TJP rolls out of the way of a moonsault and hoists Metalik onto his shoulders and hits his Detonation Kick for the win.
These are the kind of undercard performers it’s fun to watch before an episode of Raw. Curt Hawkins has had a string of appearances on Main Event over the last few weeks. His entrance complete with his “heaping helping of Hawkins” is the kind of stuff The Miz was attempting to get over before he was given a push. And Hawkins has the in-ring ability to match his promos.
The story of the match is that Hawkins and Axel don’t really get along but are still very effective. Slater works most of the match, with Rhyno waiting for the hot tag.
Axel and Hawkins keep blind tagging in as they tease dissension early on. But they cut the ring in half and keep Slater as the babyface in peril. The match isn’t too much to write home about as Axel and Hawkins transition from one chinlock to the next, but Hawkins is very neat and tidy and doesn’t waste too much movement.
The finish sees Slater give the hot tag to Rhyno. He nails Axel and covers him for a near fall before Hawkins makes the save.
Slater superkicks Hawkins and springboards over the top rope onto him on the outside. Inside the ring, the distraction allows Rhyno to spinebuster Axel for the win.
Titus O’ Neil scored a win over Curtis Axel, and the team of Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik came up short by losing to Tony Nese & Ariya Daivari.
Show Recap —
Titus O’Neil defeated Curtis Axel
Curtis Axel runs out fired up to face Titus O’Neil. Corey Graves talks about The sky being the limit for the Titus Brand. Axel circles O’Neil before getting tossed into the corner. O’Neil slaps his head before eating kicks and then a mudhole stomp in the corner. Axel lands a running shoulder block in the corner before kicking him down out of a corner charge for two.
Graves talks about how a good showing on Main Event might mean that you can eventually get title shots or move higher on the card — offering up two valid reasons for this show being around still despite its prime being long gone.
O’Neil slugs Axel down before tossing Axel’s shoulder into the buckle. O’Neil dominates for a bit, but Axel lands chops and kicks to regain a bit of an edge. A dropkick sends O’Neil down before a Perfect neck snap gets a nice pop. A running knee lift hits and gets two for Axel.
Axel goes up top, but gets taken down by O’Neil with the Clash of the Titus to win. The finish looked impressive, and he does the Sky High quite well.
A recap then aired of the past two Raw angles between Dean Ambrose and The Miz. The women’s fatal four-way from Raw aired as well.
Ariya Daivari & Tony Nese defeated Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado
Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado come down to face Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari — so this is 3/4 of the main event from last week’s show. With Daivari being switched in, I’ll guess that he eats the fall here.
Dorado starts off hot with a sunset flip off the shoulders of Daivari to get two. Nese comes in to face Metalik, who uses a variety of backflips to get a rana and uses that to get a springboard elbow off the ropes for two.
Nese hits a running trip near the ropes and gets pulled to the floor. Nese hits a leg drop for a near fall before Daivari tags in and clubs away. Nese comes back in to kick away at Metalik before his cover is broken up by Dorado. Metalik flips onto Nese’s shoulders to hit a big DDT.
Dorado and Daivari come in, with Dorado hitting a series of lariats before hitting a big overhand chop to the chest. A quebrada gets two for Dorado.
Nese tosses Metalik out before Dorado hits a superkick to Nese and a spinebuster from Daivari gets two. Dorado hits the handspring stunner — sending him outside, so the faces hit stereo Asai moonsaults. Dorado goes up, but gets tossed into the barricade by Daivari and eats a big lariat to win this. The heels have once again won on Main Event!
A recap of Braun Strowman’s destruction of Roman Reigns airs before the Strowman vs. Big Show match from Raw is shown in full.
The Superstars intro brings us to the ramp, where Jack Swagger comes down. Jinder Mahal makes his entrance to no reaction. They show a recap of Mahal defeating Heath Slater to gain his contract. Corey Graves says that Mahal spent his time away from WWE to better himself in every way.
Jack Swagger defeated Jinder Mahal
“We the People” chant breaks out as Swagger takes Mahal down to the mat. Mahal lands a series of forearms after a back elbow and kicks away in the corner. Mahal doesn’t appear to be in his best shape.
Mahal clips the knee and hits the Yakuza Kick for two. Mahal chokes Swagger on the ropes until a four count, and then knees away at the face. Swagger hits a big belly-to-belly suplex, then the Swagger Bomb, and gets two.
Mahal avoids the gutwrench powerbomb and lands a nice-looking running knee to the side of the head for two. Mahal misses an enzuigiri, and Swagger gets the win with the Patriot Lock. Mahal looked reasonably good here with his strikes — the running knee would make for a nice finish for him.
The Lana and Rusev wedding reception from Raw is re-aired in full. Lana took one of the best bumps ever into a cake, it was great. The Orton vs. Lesnar sitdown video package is aired. And a Cruiserweight Classic hype video leads to the main event of Sami Zayn vs. Curtis Axel. Zayn is out first, followed by Axel.
Sami Zayn defeated Curtis Axel
Zayn and Axel tie-up and Axel dominates him into the corner. Graves talks about how Zayn is no longer tied to Owens. He’s now a man without an island. Zayn lands an armdrag and sends Axel (and his growing skullet) to the floor.
Zayn teases a dive but flips back into the ring, leading to Axel pulling him to the floor. Zayn moonsaults off the apron to gain an edge. Zayn’s shoulder gets posted and they talk about his shoulder injuries. Axel stun guns the arm and we go to a break.
Zayn uses his good arm to fight back with forearms after the break. Axel sets him up on the second rope and clotheslines the back of the head for two. Axel punches away at the left shoulder and runs to the ropes, but eats a lariat and an exploder.
Zayn goes for the Blue Thunder Bomb with the left arm, but can’t lift him. Zayn avoids the Perfect Plex and hits a tornado DDT, and then the Helluva kick ends it. Both matches tonight were pretty fun — Superstars is a great way to see mid-card guys shine in ways they usually wouldn’t be given time to on Raw.
The show ends with a Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins hype video and the Sasha Banks vs. Dana Brooke match from Raw.
