This is it. The last Monday Night Raw before Survivor Series. This show hailed from Buffalo, New York, and featured a showdown between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar. Also on the show, Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon from Smackdown Live! were in the house. So how was the show? Was it as good as last week? Find out below!
Monday Night Raw Review: Goldberg vs. Lesnar
Survivor Series
The show opened with Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley in the ring, and everyone on the Survivor Series team on the stage. They tried to hype things up, detailing every subplot for each member of the team. It didn’t work. McMahon flipped from pandering to being a dastardly heel so often that I got motion sickness. Fortunately, the segment only lasted about ten minutes.
Segment/Match Quality- 3/10 Woo’s
Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns vs. Sheasaro (Still Trying)
Were you curious if Roman Reigns was starting to get over the fans? Because if the raucous reaction from the Buffalo crowd is any indication, the answer is a stiff no. The United States and Universal Champions made their way to the ring to wrestling Sheamus and Cesaro.
Early in the match, Reigns tried to tag Kevin Owens in, but the Universal Champion refused. Meanwhile, Cesaro and Sheamus began tagging themselves in, forcing tags to beat up Reigns.
There as a great moment when Kevin Wens ran over, tagged Reigns in, and proceeded to leave the ring. The way Owens stays in character at all times is refreshing. Even the way he wrestles reflects his character.
Reigns was gearing up for the spear when Owens tagged himself in. The two bickered for a moment before Sheamus hit Owens with the Brogue Kick. Reigns responded by spearing Sheamus and draping Owens over the Celtic Warrior for the win.
Segment/Match Quality- 7/10 Woo’s
Bo Dallas vs. Sami Zayn
Ready for a fun fact you might not know? Both of these guys were NXT Champion. If you watch NXT, you probably already knew that, but if not, boy, oh boy, have things changed. Though, Bo Dallas has probably gotten more screen time than Sami Zayn in recent memory, unfortunately.
Weirdly enough, Dallas dominated for most of the match. Dallas beat Zayn up and around the ring, but the Underground from the Underdog hit the Helluva Kick for the win. Byron Saxton interviewed Zayn after the match, and he said he was going to do whatever it took to bring the Intercontinental Championship back to Raw.
Segment/Match Quality- 5/10 Woo’s
The New Day vs. Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman, and Chris Jericho
The New Day came to the ring with a shopping cart full of merchandise and began throwing it into the crowd. Eventually the Survivor Series’ men’s team came out, and for the most part, they worked together.
Chris Jericho and Seth Rollins actually coexisted, so if history is any indication, that means they’ll feud soon. Eventually Braun Strowman got in, and he did what he does best. He destroyed everyone. He pinned Xavier Woods and surprisingly, Woods wrestled for more of the match.
A year ago, there was talk of a Strowman vs. Undertaker WrestleMania match, and everyone cringed. However, since then, he’s improved dramatically. Splitting from the Wyatt Family was great for him, and he’s been booked brilliantly. On his own, he’s become what the Big Show should’ve been.
During the match, Rollins went to Pedigree Woods and Jericho tagged himself in. After the match, the two were bickering, with Jericho insisting “He was the captain”, and Rollins hit him the pedigree.
Segment/Match Quality- 9/10 Woo’s
Brian Kendrick vs. Sin Cara
Believe it or not, Sin Cara is capable of having fights in the ring as opposed to just backstage. Before the match even officially started, the CruiserWeight Champion, Brian Kendrick attacked him. The match was pretty even-Steven, and well booked.
It was nice to have a match between characters that had reason. Sin Cara and Kendrick had an altercation backstage (haha), and they were taking it to the ring. It was an added bonus that Cara used to be part of a tag team with Kalisto, Kendrick’s opponent on Sunday.
Eventually Kendrick twisted Cara’s mask around and locked in the Captain’s Hook for the win. It was a solid bout, and it’ll be interesting to see if the CruiserWeights are still on Raw this time next week.
Segment/Match Quality- 7/10 Woo’s
Goldberg and Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar made his way to the ring first, and then Goldberg made his way to the ring… from the back. Paul Heyman kept trolling the crowd by starting his rant over every time the crowd started chanting “Goooooldberg”. The first time Goldberg told Heyman to shut up, it was entertaining. The third time? Not so much.
The whole segment never really took off. It felt like they never got started. There’s a time and place for talking before the inevitable brawl, but this one just dragged on and on and on. Goldberg eventually took on the security guards one at a time until they all decided t run away.
Lesnar ripped off his shirt and stared menacingly at Goldberg from behind the ropes before stepping down and walking away. This segment was fine, but it didn’t really do anything to build for the big match.
Segment/Match Quality- 5/10 Woo’s
Nia Jax and Alicia Fox vs. Charlotte and Sasha Banks
Ya know what, the tension between Charlotte and Sasha Banks was the best of all the rivals tonight. Charlotte tried to pin Banks in when Nia Jax was in the ring and Banks refused. All the other rivals were capable of working together and making a pretty formidable team, but these two did not want to work together.
Everyone played their roles. Sasha and Charlotte had a healthy respect but a fierce hatred and Nia Jax was an absolute monster. And Alicia Fox tapped out to the Bank Statement. Everyone did what they do best.
Segment/Match Quality- 8/10 Woo’s
The Certified G’s and The Club vs. The Shining Stars and The Golden Truth
Enzo Amore and Big Cass came to the ring and cut a witty promo about their partners being their opponents and their opponents being their partners and so on and so forth. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson interrupted them and the rest of the teams made their way to the ring.
And then insanity ensued. The first part of the match was mostly Enzo and Cass vs. Goldust and R-Truth. After R-Truth tried to interfere and double team Cass, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows tried to help but were thrown from the ring. The Enzo and Cass threw the Shining Stars from the ring.
Gallows and Anderson hit the Magic Killer, and then pretended they wanted to help Enzo hit the Badaboom Shakalaka, only to steal the pin anyway.
It was a fine match, but eventually, the whole “strange bedfellows” angle was so, so tired by this point that it didn’t matter.
Segment/Match Quality- 6/10 Woo’s
Survivor Series Summit
Foley and McMahon were in the ring again when Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon made their way out. Shane and Daniel made a joke about shamelessly promoting SmackDown which… felt all too real. It was obvious that Bryan and Shane were supposed to be the good guys, but they just came off as obnoxiously condescending.
Stephanie and Foley left Bryan and Shane in the ring, surrounded by Team Raw when the entirety of Team SmackDown Live! came out of the crowd… complete with James Ellsworth. Kevin Owens welcomed them to “The Kevin Owens Show!”.
Owens and AJ Styles engaged in a war of words, a war that Owens won easily. Styles almost called his title the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and then said Owens was on Jericho’s sugartit. Yup. Sugartit.
The best part of the entire segment was Jericho putting Styles and his “stupid soccer mom hairstyle” on the List of Jericho. Jericho proceeded to put Ellsworth on the list after calling him a lost child and “Chince McMahon”. Brilliant.
Everything eventually broke down into a brawl. Strowman dominated, but eventually the entire SmackDown team worked together to throw him out of the ring. Randy Orton RKO’d Chris Jericho, and Roman Reigns hit a Superman punch on just about everybody. AJ Styles was about to hit the Styles Clash on Reigns when Rollins pulled him out and hit him with a Pedigree.
The coolest part of this segment happened when Reigns and Rollins did the Shield Powerbomb (kinda) on SmackDown onto Team Smackdown. Wow. Wow.
Segment/Match Quality- 9/10 Woo’s
Best Segment/Match of the Night- Survivor Series Brawl
Honestly, this segment gets the nod because it was actually cool to see the teams working together. Plus, we saw some cross-promotion stuff we haven’t seen yet. For instance, Seth Rollins hitting a Pedigree on AJ Styles? I want to see that again. I want to see those two get their own match. This segment was everything good about the brand split.
Worst Segment/Match of the Night- Stephanie McMahon Ruins Everything
Seriously. Is she a face? Is she a heel? Does she have a second personality? I need to know because she certainly isn’t making it clear. She goes from “I’LL FIRE ALL OF YOU” to forced pandering like being the only person chanting “How you doin”.
It was just terrible, and you’d think after being in the business her entire life, she’d have learned to cut a promo by now. The whole segment only lasted about eight minutes, but it was still about five minutes too damn long.
Show Quality- 6/10 Woo’s
What a “meh” show. It didn’t have the spark that last week’s episode had, and it just seemed to drag on and on. Since the whole show was about building up to Survivor Series, it felt like the episode lacked variety. Strange bedfellows spent too much time on the screen, and it felt like things were just stale by the time Goldberg and Lesnar hit the ring, and then they couldn’t deliver! All in all, just an okay show.
