Today’s Monday Night Raw took place from New Orleans, and was kickstarted with a show of respect to those deceased in the Orlando debacle. Highlights in the show include the contract signing for the Money in The Bank match for John Cena versus AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose hosting Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins in the Ambrose Asylum talkshow.
Sheamus vs Apollo Crews, another installment in the snoozefest that is Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler and a tag match for the Women’s division, Natalya and Becky Lynch vs Dana Brooke and Charlotte are all announced for the MITB PPV.
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New Day & Enzo and Cass vs Vaudevillains & The Club
The New Day kicks off the show but are soon interrupted by Enzo and Cass. They square up to have a ‘war of words’ but as usual, The Vaudevillains play spoilsport by cutting short what could have been an extremely entertaining verbal joust between Enzo and Xavier Woods.
The Club are in next and they too talk down their opponents. Basically, it was a segment with the 4 tag teams that are about to fight at Money in the Bank squaring up against one another. A tag team match between The Club and Vaudevillains against The New Day and Enzo &Cass ensues.
The Club wins it for their team by hitting the Magic Killer on Kofi Kingston.
Corporate Kane lobbies for control of Smackdown!
Next up is a backstage segment featuring the bickering Stephanie and Shane McMahon, and they are interrupted by none other than a returning Corporate Kane, who puts his name in the hat for running Smackdown when the brand split occurs.
Neither McMahon seems too sold on the idea to say the least, but Kane produces his resume and a recommendation letter from The Undertaker to aid his cause.
Borderline funny segment.
Rusev makes an emphatic statement!
Titus O’Neil’s music hits and he comes out to pander to the crowd. But Rusev has other ideas as he ambushes him from behind and puts a beating on him on the ramp. He then applies the Accolade as a score of referees arrive on scene to try and pry him away from Titus. Rusev makes a strong statement heading up to Money in The Bank.
The Shield “ Reunion”
The Shield “reunion” is up next, as the former members of the stable all gather in the ring for the Ambrose Asylum talkshow. They go back and forth on the mic, before the inevitable happens and the situation descends into chaos. Rollins eats a Superman Punch and Ambrose capitalises to his Reigns with the Dirty Deeds. No friends here.
And Reigns’ promo wasn’t half bad either.
Charlotte (w) Dana Brooke vs Paige
Paige takes on the WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte next, with Dana Brooke in the champion’s corner and Natalya and Becky Lynch on commentary. Nothing spectacular in this segment until Charlotte gets sent out, and is goaded by the two women on commentary.
Dana Brooke looks angered that Charlotte is being distracted from the match, and sends her back into the ring only to eat a Rampaige. Paige pins her for the three count and picks up the surprise win as Dana Brooke looks on in disbelief.
Apollo Crews saves the day!
Sheamus pretty much squashes Zack Ryder in this match, but the whole point of the segment is in what happens after the match. Sheamus is relentless in attack even after the match gets over, and Apollo Crews rushes for the save.
He goes after Sheamus and makes a statement for their match at the Money In The Bank pre-show.
Sami Zayn and Cesaro battle it out!
Sami Zayn and Cesaro basically put on the best match of the night, as they go back and forth in anengaging encounter. This whole lead-up to the MITB Ladder match has seen the 6 competitors go over one another quite evenly in the past few weeks, with everyone looking like a legitimate contender for the match.
And in this match, Sami Zayn picks up the clean pinfall victory over Cesaro to go into MITB looking strong, but Cesaro who beat Jericho last week also has momentum going into Sunday’s PPV.
Is he Phenomenal or Desperate?
The contract signing for the John Cena-AJ Styles match is up next, with Cena taking to the stage first to address Styles’ actions in the past week. Styles enters and they exchange barbs. This week also, their promos cut much closer to reality than what the WWE has been comfortable with in the past.
Is this is the sign post that a new era is indeed in the offing?
Cena lays out two contracts in front of AJ. One stating that it’s AJ Styles vs John Cena at MITB, and the other stating that it’s AJ Styles (w) The Club vs John Cena at MITB. Cena says it’s Styles’ choice which one he signs.
Styles signs the contract which says Styles vs Cena and leaves. It’s official for MITB!
MITB Ladder match spots on the line!
Del Rio and Owens team up next to take on the Lucha Dragons, with their respective spots in the MITB ladder match at stake. The match is all about establishing the bad blood between Del Rio and Owens.
But despite a valiant effort from the Lucha Dragons, the dysfunctional team prevails as Owens hits a pop-up powerbomb out of nowhere to get the win. Del Rio delivers a superkick to Owens’ after the match, just to highlight that all is still not well between the duo leading up to the MITB ladder.
Jericho thrives in the chaos!
We cut to a backstage segment where Shane and Stephanie are at it again, this time trying to one-up each other. Shane sanctions Sami Zayn to be at commentary for tonight’s main event between Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho, and Stephanie puts Owens there as well just to get even.
She also makes Del Rio the guest time keeper, and Shane moves to make Cesaro the guest ring announcer. All six of the MITB Ladder match participants will thus be ringside for the main event. Recepie for disaster!
The match is repetitive as it has been done to death in the recent past, with Owens’ entertaining commentary in the backdrop the only saving grace. Ambrose picks up the win here, but the combustible elements outside the ring take their toll on proceedings as all hell breaks loose.
Jericho is left recovering eating a Dirty Deeds, as the other 5 men take each other out. Jericho closes out Raw by sitting atop the ladder with the MITB briefcase in his hand.
