October 3rd is Legit Boss day! – A Raw Recap
Raw comes to us from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. In attendence is are very own Michele Fitzgerald and me, celebrating my 33rd year orbiting the sun.
Impressions from the Being There
- Finally, I end up at a Raw with a satisfying main event. This is my 5 Raw this year, and most likely my last one for awhile. Michele and I decided that we were going to probably skip the next couple (if they keep on rolling through with the frequency they did this year) and wait for a PPV or Smackdown Live. But it’s almost like the wrestlers and writers knew it was our last one. We were in a great section, which helped.
- Crowd stupidly chanting “CM Punk?” Shut them down with a “30 Seconds” chant. It works.
- In the Rich Swann Vs. Tony Nese match, my section started chanting “Nese’s Pieces”, which made completely no sense. I loved it.
- My section seemed to know all the jobbers, but it wasn’t obnoxious.
- It’s incredibly satisfying to be in attendance during big title changes. The fact that the women’s championship has only changed hands on Raw 3 times makes it a big deal. So LA might not be getting a PPV for over a year or anytime soon, but at least we had this.
The 2nd Time
It’s 2 times for 2 reasons.
- This is the 2nd time in Monday Night Raw history that a Women’s Championship match, or equivalent, is main eventing the show.
- Sasha Banks becomes a 2-time champ and feels the power!
I’ll be honest. I really didn’t expect it to change hands tonight. I thought they were going to take it to Hell In A Cell, which would have been historic in it’s own right. Can I complain that I was there to witness this moment? Absolutely not. You owe it to yourself to watch it, if you haven’t already.
Jeri-KO Vs. The New Day
You know it had to happen. The seeds of a dissolution of the best-friendship has begun. Jericho wants to pursue the tag titles but Kevin thinks its a lot of work. When Jericho suggests that he gets a shot at the Universal Championship instead, Owens changes his mind and agrees to challenge the New Day.
After Jericho adds all three of those guys to “The List”, The New Day agrees to the match later in the show.
The match itself is mostly what you’d expect. Jericho got a nosebleed early on leading to Owens dominating the early part of the match. Again, Kevin wants to fight the big guy, this time being Big E. Things eventually get out of hand and Rollins, who is still not medically cleared, shows up.
Owens eventually abandons Jericho who gets triple teamed by Xavier, E, and Rollins, who delivers a messy pedigree to Jericho.
Oh, and Danny Masterson and Ashton Kutcher were on commentary for this one, despite being on “the list.”
Spaghetti Squash Matches
There’s been some solid progression in the squash matches this week.
- Braun Strowman – Braun easily dispatched another competitor who’s dream it was to move to Hollywood and defeat Strowman. It didn’t end well. Byron went in for the post match interview and Braun voiced his displeasure in facing a never ending wave of mediocre wrestlers. He wants Foley to give him a real challenge or he’s going to burn Raw to the ground.
- Sheamus and Cesaro – Still fighting, still arguing, but a surprisingly good team. They started to work together more seamlessly this week. And Cesaro got a sweet jumping DDT off the back of Sheamus.
THIS is TEAMWORK! #RAW @WWECesaro @WWESheamus pic.twitter.com/ojX01e1GXr
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) October 4, 2016
- Sami Zayn Vs. Titus O’Neil – Yes, I’m going to call this a squash match. Sami rightfully walks away with the win here.
- Gallows and Anderson Vs. The Golden Truth – Ok. This is not technically a squash, but they’re back to getting teams over. They worked beautifully with FaBreeze. Now they are lending their magic to Gallows and Anderson. And they killed it.See what I did there?
Cruiserweights: A Homecoming
LA is the home of both TJ Perkins, and apparently Brian Kendrick. Kendrick used to pick up TJ, when he’d skip school, and drive them both to the New Japan dojo.
The TJP Vs. Kendrick match was a lot of fun. It had been downgraded from a championship match to just a exhibition, so I expected Brian to walk away with a win on this one. The crowd was a little dead for both the cruiserweight matches. I think it’s only a matter of time.
There was a lot of solid work in the first one. Brian Kendrick pulled off the win here. I should have seen it coming, as it was downgraded from a title match. Expect this feud to go to HIAC.
If you’re watching the Hulu stream today, you’re missing the Rich Swan Vs. Tony Nese match. Michele and I are both sure that Nese was engineered in a lab. No one looks that symmetrical and has perfectly defined abs like that.
It was a great match. Bonus points if you happen to see me during Rich Swann’s entrance.
Everything Else
- Enzo and Cass were out there to give championships to three cancer survivor ladies. Enzo almost dumped everything on the floor and that might have been the best part. It’s great that those ladies are survivors though. I also noticed that there were two names written on Enzo’s wrists. I’m assuming they were two women from his family that have had breast cancer too.
- Bayley attacked Dana after a “head pat of doom” from the latter.
- Roman and Rusev opened the show, brawled, and setup a Hell In a Cell Match for the US Title at the end of the month. I’m excited for the match.
Final Thoughts
A solid Raw. Michele and I decided we are skipping the next couple that roll through as it’s a pain to leave at 3 PM on a Monday to go to a wrestling show. It was a great way to go out.