The RAW ‘Go Home’ Show For Survivor Series Hit The Mark

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Photo Image: WWE

With five days left in the month of November and Saturday’s Survivor Series, the ‘go-home’ episode of RAW was live in Glendale, AZ. CM Punk was introduced as the OG’s fifth member on SmackDown last Friday, and the WWE Universe© has been buzzing ever since. In fact, actor and singer Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame was in attendance tonight.

The big story heading into tonight’s episode from the web-verse was the ‘top 30 wrestlers under 30’ list from ESPN published today that included 8 WWE superstars (9 if you include Jordynn Grace—which you should).

Bayley Is The 5th Member?!?!

The main event was Bianca Belair taking on women’s champ Nia Jax in a non-title match to determine which team gets the advantage at this weekend’s War Games. Jade Cargill was taken out, and reports suggest she is dealing with an authentic injury. So, tonight was about securing the women’s own ‘fifth member mystery.’

Bayley was one of several names mentioned, and she showed up to help Belair keep the numbers game even in an attempt to prove her worth to the team captain. Belair was vocally against Bayley when Naomi mentioned her, but she helped Bianca secure the advantage match win and was mentioned on commentary as the 5thmember.

Judgement Day vs. War Raiders—Tag Team Title Match

War Raiders received their promised tag team title match following their finals win in a #1 contender’s tourney that took place over the course of the last few weeks. They challenged the champs, Judgement Day’s Balor and JD, and managed to hit their double-team finisher before Dom placed JD’s foot on the rope.

While Dom ended up paying for his interference, the move directly led to Balor and JD retaining. War Raiders were once the tag team darling of New Japan and they have a talent that has yet to be tapped into in WWE, fully. Perhaps feuding with Motor City Machine Guns is in the distant future, but first, they must establish themselves as a championship team.

LWO vs. Creed Bros—Tornado Tag Match

Rey Mysterio and ESPN’s #14 “30 Wrestlers Under 30” list, Dragon Lee, took on Brutus and Julius Creed in a tag match with the “Tornado” stipulation attached. It was a great change of pace and showed that “Trips” is not just all in on the tag division, but he is also committed to its success by breaking the monotony of the division’s week-to-week booking.

The Creed bros have received the rub in recent weeks, and CM Punk name-dropping their teacher ‘Master Gable,’ and they managed to get the win over Rey Mysterio after Gable’s assist in the matter. It was a goofy ending as Gable turned Rey’s mask around and tried to sell his lack of sight as to why he was unable to kick out.

The Future Breakers!

Bron Breakker saw himself positioned on ESPN’s top 30 under 30 wrestlers list—dropping five spots from #6 in 2023 to #11 in 2024. For all of the future talk on Breakker, his opponent, Ludwig Kaiser, is also a potential breakout star on the rise—he, too, received his own accolades after CM Punk name-dropped Kaiser as a potential opponent he’d like to work with heading into the new year.

The match was athletic and competitive, but a Sheamus ‘run-in’ would ruin any chance at a clean victory over the other. That said, this matchup looked like a glimpse into a wrestling crystal ball—both men have the ability, the look, and the work ethic to work against each other in a few years on a much bigger stage.

For now, Sheamus will be the veteran presence in a feud that is meant to separate the hype jobs from those working with glass ceilings. The three brawled to close the segment before being separated by WWE officials. It was later announced that these three men would compete in a triple threat match for the IC title at Survivor Series.

Other Notes

New Day Becomes Old News Next Week?

So, New Day will forever go down as one of the greatest tag team factions of all time, with only names like The Freebirds as debate-worthy competition, but it was announced that next week will be a celebration of their 10th anniversary—something that was hinted at a couple of months ago when the seeds of dissension were sown. Both Woods and Kofi spoke about next week’s celebration and decided to squash the lingering beef for the sake of their accomplishments and the recognition of them next week. There was a video package that included Big E (no word on RAW of whether the Big man would be part of the festivities, but rumors have swirled for weeks that the no-brainer decision will be to include him).

Yet, with just seven days before the anniversary, the faction suffered what was maybe the biggest upset in their history as a team when Tazawa pinned Woods to bring home the win for him and Otis. Woods and Kofi argued back and forth as they made their way to backstage—bickering about very basic strategy of who should be ‘closing out the match,’ which only further underscored their lack of chemistry.

To this point, neither Kofi nor Woods have physically assaulted the other intentionally, and tonight was no different. Instead, the two aired out verbal assaults directed at each other after weeks of pent-up hostilities. This was so much worse than a physical mugging. Kofi poked at Woods’ inability to capture singles gold in WWE as well as his failure to cash in on the ‘King of the Ring’ crown, consecutively. Woods took credit for Kofi’s title run as they directed pointed statements at one another. “You fumbled the title shot, and you fumbled the crown,” Kofi said. “There’s a reason [Big] E, and I never let you call the shots because you’re too reckless out there.”

Woods responded by claiming that Kofi was ‘too terrified to take any risk’ on his rise up the ranks to become champion: “I’m the reason you became champion.” Kofi said he was a ‘Hall of Famer’ before they met and that it was Woods who sought out Kofi to join New Day. Woods threw the Lesnar ‘squash match’ in Kofi’s face before the two passive-aggressively said they’d ‘see each other next week.’

This was the best of tonight’s RAW and easily the segment to look forward to coming out of Survivor Series. However, with all things pointing towards a breakup next week, it is worth noting that Woods made a point of asking Kofi if he’s ‘mad now.’ This may not be a breakup angle but instead a full New Day heel turn.

Behind the Scenes

CM Punk’s “Behind The Scenes” is streaming on YouTube ahead of this weekend’s SS PLE. It was last year that Punk made his return to WWE, and this documents that.

  • Adam Pearce announced that the women’s division of RAW will get a new title in the form of the ‘women’s intercontinental championship.’ SmackDown is currently in the midst of crowning a women’s US champ, and the tourney to crown the inaugural IC champ will begin next Monday.
  • It was announced that LA Knight will defend his US title against Nakamura at Survivor Series.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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