Opening segment
- Renee Young is back on commentary. Sweet.
- Braun Strowman, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre come out and wait for a video air.
- Ah, there we go. "I don't give a damn if any of uuuuuuuuuuu peeeeeeeeeople like it or not." The go to heel line in WWE.
- McIntyre and Ziggler says they're going to be the most dominating group of all time. The Shield interrupts them.
- Corbin sends a bunch of wrestlers out and they all get beaten up by The Shield. The camera zooms and cuts are at an all-time worst here. The brawl is just fine, but the production is totally miserable.
- None of these guys had trouble neutralizing Ziggler or McIntyre in 2014......
- Why would anyone go to commercial right now?
- The whole Shield is being arrested and there's a near riot backstage. Corbin looks overwhelmed.
- We're told the Shield were arrested, appeared in front of a judge, were arraigned and charged with inciting a riot. AT TEN PM EST ON LABOR DAY.
Bella Twins defeated Riott Squad (w/ Ruby Riott)
3/10
- Nikki lands a swinging armbreaker from the second rope, then the Bellas drop Logan's shoulders across their knees.
- Brie ready to hand out those free surgeries with Knee Mode.
- Brie completely screws up a suicide dive attempt. Back from a commercial, she hits a missile dropkick.
- Brie botches ANOTHER suicide dive, and Nikki wins with a Rack Attack 2.0 on Liv Morgan.
Chad Gable & Bobby Roode defeated The Ascension
5/10
- Charly Caruso interviews Bobby Roode and Chad Gable. This is very fake and cheesy.
- The Ascension run Roode and Gable down, calling Roode a flash in the pan. Gable is called a sawed off duck butt.
- Gable lands a cool suplex, but after there's some pretty mediocre tag team action until he gets a hot tag again later.
- Gable finishes the hot tag with a rolling bridging German suplex. Bobby Roode is ecstatic.
Elias
- Elias comes out and cuts a promo about Ohio being total idiots. He's interrupted by Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox and Mickie James.
- Alexa Bliss gets a huge pop and puts over the crowd, and does an OH-I-O chant. Of course, she heels the audience after that and calls them zombies.
- She apologizes to Elias for Trish Stratus, and asks him to perform a song. She also calls Natalya Rousey's pet cat. WWE really has Alexa Bliss cut her lines like she wants to bang everyone.
- Ronda Rousey interrupts, and then Natalya for their scheduled matches.
Alexa Bliss (w/ Mickie James & Alicia Fox) defeated Natalya (w/ Ronda Rousey)
5.25/10
- Alexa Bliss looks leaner than in recent months.
- Natalya looks on her game. She's all over the place and hits her slingshot release atomic drop.
- Alexa Bliss has a great right hand. Alicia Fox and Mickie James help Bliss cheat and Bliss hits a DDT.
- Bliss applies a really bad armbar and Natalya taps.
- Rousey comes in to make the save and ragdolls Fox with judo arm drags.
- Bliss attacks with a chop block and runs Rousey into the stairs. Rousey fights Bliss off.
- Bellas come back and offer Rousey their help training backstage. Natalya says she isn't feeling like herself.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre defeated The B-Team (c) to win the titles
- Strowman says since The Shield are gone tonight, Corbin needs to find them some competition. They want a tag title shot and insinuate The Revival won't be able to compete.
- The Revival vs. McIntyre and Ziggler will be unbelievable when it happens.
- McIntyre and Ziggler attack the Revival backstage and take their places in the title match.
- B-Team rolls early on and get some good, still offense in.
- After getting worked over by McIntyre, Dallas connects with a nice tornado DDT. He follows with a neckbreaker, then we see a double tag.
- Axel gets a PerfectPlex on Ziggler, but his bridge leaves a lot to be desired. Ziggler ends up nailing a superkick.
- Zig Zag Claymore gets the win. New tag team champions.
- This title switch needed to happen, and the spot here was obviously to kill some time. The B-Team have had some level of protection, but this should have been shorter.
Authors of Pain (w/ Drake Maverick) defeated jobberskis
- Drake Maverick looks ridiculous with AOP.
- AOP needed a manager bad. I don't know that they needed Drake Maverick wearing the same gear as them though.
- They're facing a couple of enhancement guys and beat the shit out of them.
- A pop up assisted Death Valley Driver into the corner!
- Super Collider back. They needed a reboot. WWE wasted a half-year of AOP's careers.
- They had to get rid of the Last Chapter.
HBK-Undertaker
- Shawn Michaels comes out and says that he thinks Triple H will beat the Undertaker.
- THE UNDERTAKER returns!! He says he knows he took the most important thing from Michaels -- his career.
- Shawn Michaels says he's a man of his word about his retirement. Every time he's in a ring he hears "one more match," and the whole roster begs to face him. He stays retired out of respect to Undertaker.
- Undertaker says it's out of fear because he'd put HBK down again. In Melbourne, he'll put Triple H down, too.
- Man, I did not expect this meaningful segment to be dropped in my lap on Monday Night Raw September 3 in the year of our Hogfather 2018.
Boss N' Hug Connection defeated Dana Brooke & Ember Moon (w/ Titus Worldwide)
5/10
- Ember Moon teaming with Dana? Sure, why not? It's different.
- Dana Brooke has improved a lot in the ring and looks like she's playing to her strengths.
- Titus and Apollo are arguing ringside and Dana Brooke yells at them.
- Sasha wins with a headscissors pin.
- Dana Brooke tells Titus Worldwide she's done.
Lashley
- Bobby Lashley is giving a performance review and is ordered to attend a meditation from Jinder Mahal.
- Lashley calls Mahal and Sunil "MY MAN" a lot.
- He's actually trying to participate, but Kevin Owens shows up and attacks him. Powerbomb on the apron.
- I think their match will be pretty good.
Braun Strowman (w/ Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre) defeated Finn Balor
4.5/10
- Finn Balor challenges Baron Corbin to a match and accuses him of having a small dick.
- Corbin asks a stage hand to clean his rolex. He later tells Balor he's been so busy.
- Braun Strowman is the opponent.
- Balor gets on Strowman's back with a choke and does a double stomp to his back off the apron.
- Strowman gets posted, per usual.
- Man, that's an incredibly bad triangle set up. Balor pulled guard.
- Pulling guard from the second rope is not an extraordinary thing.
- Powerslam. Pin.
- This was the worst match I've seen from either guy in a long time.
- The Shield are back. DID THEY STEAL THE COP CAR!??!?!
- The WWE heels all attack The Shield. Strowman stairs Reigns.
- Rollins is sent into a police van window off the stage and gets cut open.
- Strowman powerslams Reigns on the floor.
- I mean to be fair, if I were on the WWE roster and the Shield came back, I'd probably organize this too based on their history.
10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor
Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a "star rating," which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive "TV match" lands at a 5.
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