Match Ratings For WWE Raw 12/4 From Sean Ross Sapp

Opening Segment

• Kurt Angle comes out to preview the night's matches. Jason Jordan interrupts him and wants a shot at Reigns.
• Jordan is a HEAT MAGNET. 
• Reigns and Jordan have some good dialogue about who earned what, and Reigns says Jordan is begging his daddy for favors. This is really great. Awesome heat. Reigns wants Joe. 
• Joe comes out and cuts a promo threatening Reigns, but Jordan steps up. They both dismiss Jason Jordan, and Jordan suplexes Reigns overhead, goading him into a match.
• In my opinion, this was a 9/10 segment. Incredible. Great promo work from everyone. Jordan is starting to deliver every week.

Intercontinental Championship
Roman Reigns (c) defeated Jason Jordan
7/10

• Samoa Joe is seated ringside in a rather intimidating manner. 
• Jordan applying a different kind of armbar after some really good, basic, fundamental offense. 
• These two are going to have some great matches over the next decade.
• Jordan has a great out-of-nowhere dropkick.
• Reigns is caught in midair outside the ring and has his ASS BROKEN on the stairs. 
• It tells quite a story that Reigns had to resort to going after Jordan's injured knee. Jordan kicks with it, sells it, does the rolling Northern Lights and can't bridge on it! Incredible visual. 
• Jason Jordan is a heel who works like a babyface, and it's really cool.
• Superman punch, Spear, Over. Jason Jordan just went 20 minutes with Roman Reigns and it ruled.
• Joe attacks Reigns after the match, but Jordan saves him, only to get punched by Reigns. Reigns is in full "stay in your lane" mode and it rules. 
• Jason Jordan begs Kurt Angle for a match with Joe, and Angle yells at Jordan, who gets attacked by Joe. "Like father like son, right Kurt?" - Joe. Damn.

Paige (w/ Absolution) defeated Sasha Banks (w/ Mickie James & Bayley)
6/10

• Alexa is on commentary. 
• Paige is rusty to begin, which is to be expected. Especially with the selling.
• They're having Paige work a rather long match for not being in there in over a year.
• They take a nasty spot outside. Sasha is really bumping her ass off for Paige, who is coming off a neck injury. This includes a scary sunset flip bomb for two. 
• The match breaks down outside, causing a distraction for Paige to win. This was good stuff.

Backstage Crappenings

• My hope is that Elias and Jordan aren't stuck on the treadmill of being upper midcard guys that WWE take for granted. They had a ton of them at the end of the last brand split and marginalizing them helped contribute to them being unable to sustain said brand split. By the way Elias asks Kurt
• Enzo runs down the Zo Train backstage. Nia Jax shows up and hits on Enzo, which got a huge pop. 
• Matt Hardy is broken, and he's back. WOKEN. Bray Wyatt is the right opponent for this.

WWE Cruiserweight Contender Tournament
Drew Gulak defeated Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander and Tony Nese
7.5/10

• There's a cool double kip up spot.
• Cedric dives over the top rope with a great tope con hilo, but I'm a little more partial to his running kick.
• This is great action. The crowd is popping for it and into it. I really like Mustafa Ali's rolling facebuster.
• The only time a handspring makes sense to me is off an Irish whip. Fortunately that's when Cedric uses it.
• The strikes are really stiff in this match. We see a bit of a different Tower of Doom, too. They used Gulak as a catapult.
• Cedric has some great counters, and a greater C4. Mustafa Ali one ups him with a Spanish Fly.
• Gulak steals a victory. This was an incredible match. 

WHO WANTS TO WALK WITH EL....oh wait he dead.

• Elias comes out and sings a song about how LA sucks. He needs an iTunes album.
• Braun is Elias' competition, and eats a guitar shot. I mean he really eats it, shits it out and makes Elias eat it. 
• Kane shows up on the Titantron and says they'll have a match next week.

Asuka defeated Alicia Fox
4.25/10

• Alicia Fox cuts her typical entertaining promo. She got in a little bit of offense, but this match wasn't particularly good.
• Asuka wins with an armbar. Then leaves Fox in the ring with Absolution. They beat her up after teasing that they wouldn't.

Finn Balor defeated Bo Dallas (w/ Curtis Axel)

• Ordinary Man Who Takes An Extraordinary Amount Of Time To Beat Bo Dallas
• Seriously, this was not good and had no heat. This felt like an eternity, but it was about five minutes. I don't understand what this match did for anyone.

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship
Cesaro & Sheamus (c) defeated The Shield
6/10

• I love the press slam to European Uppercut. The paint by numbers method is broken up a little when Ambrose is taken out and Rollins is left alone. 
• Cesaro and Sheamus have became a second nature team. I really think they should get a dominant run over some lesser teams if they lose tonight to keep their heat. 
• Rollins slips on a superplex but it all ends up okay with the last second bump. He rolls through for a Falcon Arrow that almost gets it done. 
• The ref calls for a..........main event DQ because Cesaro and Sheamus wouldn't get out of the ring. Uh lame. Fortunately Kurt Angle restarts it with No DQ.
• After a solid ass kicking, Samoa Joe comes out and attacks Shield. This brings out Roman Reigns to chase Joe off, but Cesaro and Sheamus steal a win! It was all a mind game against Reigns. Hot dog.