Who Wants To See A Bunch Of Old Guys Fight?

Happy Monday and happy first day of October everyone! By the time this posts, it will be Tuesday morning, but the sentiment is the same. It’s time once again for a RAW Nutshell, and this time, will Strowman and his buddies, or any heels, be softening them up for Super Show-Down? That’s the big question as we hit the go-home show for RAW, with the roster heading Down Under for this weekend’s big show. Let’s crack open this Nutshell and see what happens!

Best Match of the night:

There may have been good matches. I am not denying that possibility. However, this show, to me, boils down to two segments with some action, but no match.

The first one was for Elias and Kevin Owens ahead of Owens’ match with Bobby Lashley. The heel duo got themselves a tremendous amount of heel heat, and it was a very memorable segment. Easily the segment of the night most other nights, but of course, tonight was not most other nights.

The other one, of course, is the closing segment. HBK was announced, and I think everyone expected some combination of the rest of the match to show up. Hunter is easy, of course, since he’s always there anyways. The Undertaker and Kane were less easy, and WWE could have opted to mail it in and have like, the gong hit and some special effects but no ‘Taker. But that was not what happened, and it was awesome. Was like someone found a time machine and we got a RAW segment from a decade ago (OK, maybe more like 15 years ago).

RAW In A Nutshell: Softening Them Up For Super Show-Down

Worst match of the night:

The whole match to hype the MMC, with Balor and Bayley and Alicia and Jinder. Nothing that happened during it made me say “wow, I need to watch the MMC tomorrow night”

Crowd Chants of the Night:

One more time

SuperSonics

HBK

Star of the Night

Kevin Owens and Elias

The Seattle crowd

Undertaker and Kane

Spot of the Night:

One non-wrestling one…that Seattle crowd when Elias struck their basketball nerve.

Jobber of the Night:

Is it possible to win a match and be a jobber, all while having a birthday? Yes, yes it is. It is possible if you are The B-Team, with birthday boy Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. The former tag team champions won over The Revival, but as they walked back to the back, they got destroyed by newly resurgent Authors of Pain. So, for Axel’s birthday, he won a match, got attacked and jobbed out. Not too shabby.

Upset of the Night:

Nothing for me to report here

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Sure, I could go with the Authors of Pain attacking the B-Team, but while it was big, it wasn’t like, massive. It wasn’t as though the Authors took out the RAW tag team champs…

Nope, for this one, I am going with…that HOT Seattle crowd. I doubt Kevin Owens, Elias, or anyone in the back ever thought the Seattle fans would be as hot and vocal when the smack talk about the Sonics leaving started. Because the crowd let both heels have it for a good couple minutes. If the NBA (or NHL, for that matter) had any doubts about fan support, Seattle NBA or NHL ownership need only show that segment off.

And, while we probably all expected this…

 

Botch of the night:

Cole called Sunil Singh Ranjin Singh. And both of his broadcast colleagues called him out on it.

Tweets of the night:

 

LOL Moment of the night:

Nothing for you, sorry.

Noteworthy Moment:

WWE continues to tease an Ambrose turn, with a possible Ziggler turn coinciding. Tension continues to be teased between members of The Shield, and then we have Strowman telling Ziggler there’s no room for a weak link, and Ambrose would make a great addition to their group. I doubt we see such a major turn happen in Australia, but it’s one way to get people to tune in. I say I don’t expect it because with the first major international special (Greatest Royal Rumble), I had expected a title change, but the biggest thing we got was the controversial end ot the Reigns/Lesnar match-which was still a big deal, but was not on par with a change or a turn. I expect the Super Show-Down to follow suit-good matches, noteworthy action, but no huge changes.

Overall lowlights:

Is it wrong that I put Cena not being here as a low light? The entire segment, with Lashley and Lio on the wrong end of things, was a perfectly scripted scenario where the uber-babyface (whether real or imagined by Stamford executives) makes a surprise entrance and saves the day. And I was waiting for it, because that’s typical WWE. And we never got it.

Overall highlights:

Man, that Seattle crowd. Many on Twitter were saying similar things, but when was the last time you heard such a response, where a heel (or two) got that amount of heel heat?  I mean, I assume (without looking on YouTube) that some nWo segments got a similar amount or even more (like the Hogan turn), but that was some serious heel heat, the likes of which we don’t get often on RAW anymore. I think if WWE had wanted to get Reigns over in Seattle at that very moment, they would have only needed to put a Shawn Kemp Sonics jersey on him and send him out.

Closing segment was very good too.

Over all, I think it was a very strong go-home show.

After the final bell:

Just wow. Hot show from Seattle, lots of focus on the the major matches for Melbourne this weekend. I think the show did what it needed to do, and sets up a good weekend from Australia.

 

Mentioned in this article:

More About: