RAW on Netflix was live from Raleigh, North Carolina, at the Lenovo Center following the dramatic finish of last Monday’s show, where Auska turned on Iyo Sky following her loss to Rhea Ripley in singles action. The dramatic events were featured in the pre-show recap, but it was The Judgement Day’s Dominik Mysterio that felt the most on tonight’s hot seat as he was finally forced to defend his IC title against Rusev.
The next PLE is Crown Jewel Perth, and that show will cap off a couple of ‘champion vs champion’ storylines, but with Survivor Series coming up, there could be more ramifications on October 11 than any other one-off show has produced, and tonight should give us an inkling as to what they may be.
USO DRAMA CHECK: JEY DAY KEEPIN’ HEADS RINGIN’… ROMAN RETURNS
The drama between Jey and Jimmy Uso has been showcased on RAW for several weeks consecutively, and the crux of their dispute remains LA Knight. Knight, for his part, defeated Kofi Kingston in singles action after the former bumped heads with The New Day in a scene that played out before RAW. Pearce booked the match, and even after LA Knight won clean, you knew his night was not finished.
Jey asked Jimmy why he had been helping Knight before ‘crashing out’ on his brother, demanding they refrain from further helping Knight. The brothers were scheduled for a rematch with Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in the main event, though this would be the first time that they utilized ‘Tornado Tag’ rules.
MAIN EVENT: USOS vs. THE VISION—Tornado Tag Team Match
The rules of a ‘tornado tag match’ make the word ‘tag’ sort of obsolete, as all four men are legal from the moment the bell rings and thus eligible to pin and be pinned at all times (in the ring). Before the match, Seth was seen in the back with Heyman as both Reed and Breakker stood ready for their intro music to hit.
Seth was harping on the ‘need to beat’ Cody a week from this Saturday in Australia, and he almost seemed to be in a self-absorbed trance, locked in on this desperate need to fulfill a destiny.
The tag match was brutal as the two teams took full advantage of the ‘tornado tag’ rules. In one spot, Reed tries to Samoan Drop Jimmy, but he was able to break away to deliver a super kick that sent Reed to the concrete—that is when Breakker came flying in with a clothes line on Jimmy as they crashed through the commentary desk.
After that, The Vision focused on a solo Jey, but the sharks took too much time, and Jimmy managed to regain his composure to make a final stand. Jimmy and Jey eventually ate a spear for their trouble, and that is when Breakker started STACKING both brothers atop one another—signaling for a ‘two birds/one stone’ Tsunami Splash.’
Just as it seemed hopeless, Roman Reigns made his triumphant return to RAW, walking down to the ring stalking his foes amongst the crowd’s massive arruption. The ‘OTC’ had a chair in hand, and one by one he took out each of Seth’s eyeballs that metaphorically make up ‘his Vision.’
Roman set up his cousins for the Uso Splash pinfall victory, and Roman ran in immediately following the win to absolutely dump on Breakker with nasty steel chair shots to the throat and back as Breakker and crew ran off like beaten ‘dogs.’ It seems clear that the phone call Jey made several weeks back was to Roman, and Jimmy looked on, shaking his head, perhaps unaware as to why he was left out of the former “Bloodline’s” own ‘vision’ for how things would go down tonight.
DOMINIK MYSTERIO(c) vs. RUSEV—Intercontinental Title
Rusev dominated much of this match, and after weeks of evading the Bulgarian challenger, Dom attempted to run away with both the IC title and Triple A Mega championship in order to save face—and his title. Dom was beaten and desperate when he ended up back in the ring with both belts, and after the ref managed to rid away one of them, the ‘Dirty One’ smashed the back of Rusev’s head with the IC title.
The cheap shot did not affect Rusev at all, and as he ‘no-sold’ the belt shot, Dom threw the title into his opponent’s hands before hitting the deck—a classic “Latino Cheat” move. The ref did not buy Dom’s routine for a minute and had eyes on him through the majority of his act—shout out to great refereeing (Eddie Oreno) because it feels like the negatives are the only things ever discussed regarding the officials.
But, as they say, if at first you don’t succeed, cheat, cheat, and cheat again, and Dom utilized that ‘in-ring technique’ by “mule kicking” Rusev ‘below the belt’ before rolling him up for the pinfall victory. The pop that Dom received after successfully defending his title was massive, and if there were any serious discussions about lifting the title from Dom in favor of Rusev, then they should lose their ‘writer’s room’ pass.
ROLLINS STILL RAILING?
Seth Rollins came out dressed like Neo from “The Matrix,” and he stood silent in the center of the ring as the fans booed him and cheered on CM Punk. Rollins refused Becky’s attendance ringside as he was set to address the crowd. The promo was designed to expand on the Crown Jewel Perth match featuring Cody Rhodes in a champion vs. champion program.
Rollins admitted that he is 0-3 against Cody, but he also acknowledged that this time around is very different because they are both in different places. He claimed the winner could shape the next several decades in this industry, and Cody mocked this when he came out for his turn on the mic.
While Rollins focuses on who the metaphorical quarterback is in WWE, Cody continues to poke holes in the relationship between Seth and Paul Heyman. Cody commented on who really controls “The Bron-Brons” while asking whether it was Seth or not that decided Heyman would introduce Lesnar.
If we learned anything from this promo battle, it is that Seth is on the verge of something between a nervous breakdown and an evolutionary event, but it was the last thing he said in promotion of their match that seemed most interesting.
He said that he was going to ‘reset the timeline’ at Crown Jewel Perth—a catchy line, maybe, but if that is the direction, then what kind of booking could “reset” the history on these two guys?
As for Becky, the seeds were sown tonight for the rumored Becky Lynch-AJ Lee IC title feud after she decked Tozawa in response to Maxxine Dupri’s smack talk.
OTHER TIDBITS/IN-RING ACTION
- Bayley continued her ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ gimmick with Lyra as the victim of her sudden outbursts. Similar to the last several segments involving Bayley and Lyra, the back and forth continued similarly—Bayley lowers Lyra’s guard by being rational and friendly, but this time Lyra refused to be in Bayley’s corner against Raquel Rodriguez. Raquel picked up the win after Roxanne Perez raked Bayley’s eyes, taking advantage of a ‘backup-less Bayley.’ But it did not take long before Lyra came out to make the save. The numbers eventually got the best of Lyra, and that is when Bayley “transformed,” as commentary suggested, and cleared house of The Judgement Day. Bayley ramped right back up and had to convince Lyra she’s fine. This segment is close to losing the plot.
- AJ Styles and Dragon Lee defeated “Los Americanos” in tag action. The El Grande Americano gimmick has morphed into a full-blown faction, and their only reason for being out there tonight was to shift into action after Styles and Lee cut promos on their current singles feuds, respectively. Lee called out Dom, but Styles was given the same time and significance to promote his match with John Cena. It was a great match, but it feels like WWE is not interested in storyline development when it comes to AJ Styles’ match with Cena.
- CM Punk was announced for next Monday night.
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