1 Trick and 9 Treats: A Raw Recap for 10/31/16
The Trick: You Knew Lesnar is almost out of dates
Goldberg started off Raw full glorious entrance and everything.
Goldberg started to speak but was quickly interrupted by Heyman who teased that Lesnar was there. He wasn’t. It’s our trick for the evening. Happy Halloween.
Rusev also showed up to question if Goldberg still had it and ended up on the receiving end of a week Jackhammer. And for his trick, Paul Heyman got sent to the hospital after being on the receiving end of a Spear.
But that’s not all. We had 9 treats to go with a stellar episode of Raw. Or at least, stellar because last week’s episode was so bad.
Treat #9: Obligatory Holiday Battle Royale
It’s a holiday. That means we get yet another Battle Royale. They’re normally bad but this one was enjoyable. This time it was for the fourth spot in the Survivor Series Men’s team. Strowman thought he deserved it and Foley agreed but felt he should prove it by winning the battle royale.
Normally, no stories really advance in one of these, but we saw two:
- Cesaro took out Sheamus, furthering the conflict in their strange alliance.
- And it came down to Sami and Strowman and it was the first time I really felt Zayn could actually be real competition for Braun.
Spoiler Alert: Strowman wins.
Treat #8: Buzz Amore and Big Woody
After all the talk about Toy Story last night, these two jokers showed up like this:
I want to think that it wasn’t planned. Enzo and Cass realized that they needed to stop by Party City today to get the costumes. That might explain why Cass’ looks slightly too small.
Treat #7: Trick or Treat Street Fight
But then Gallows and Enzo have a “Trick or Treat Street Fight”. It’s not a good match. It’s a weird one. I couldn’t look away.
I feel bad for the crew having to set this up during the commercial break. Seems like even more of a pain in the ass than taping the ropes purple.
Treat #6: The Golden Truth Visit A Haunted House
Ok. Maybe this wasn’t the best segment. But it’s Halloween, so enjoy:
Treat #5: The Three Faces of Charles Wright
The New Day are your Raw Tag Team Survivor Series Team Captains. They appeared tonight to do what they do best: trash talk other teams. Tonight’s victims: Rhyno and Slater and the Hype Bros. But it’s their group costume that made it special. Get on the Booty OOOOOOOOOOO’s train!
Treat #4: The U.S. Canadian Championship Match
In an odd team-building move, Foley agrees to put Roman Reigns on the team with JeriKO but tonight Jericho would also get to challenge for the US Championship, which he plans on making the Candadian Championship when he wins. Sure, let’s just book our Raw teams to fight each other for the next two weeks, what could go wrong?
A Roman/Jericho match feels fresh to me. It was a good match, inevitably halted by interference from KO getting Roman the DQ win.
Treat #3: Nia Jax Returns
Charlotte is the team captain of the women’s devision and showed up to talk some trash on one of the teammates that will be on the team, Bayley. The Queen thinks she’s weak. What better way to team build is to have her be destroyed by a returning Nia Jax. It’s good to see her back, even if she looked slightly off in her match with Bayley.
So Raw’s team is Charlotte, Bayley, and Nia so far. I only like Raw’s chances because of Nia, but it’s not going to be a cohesive team, that’s for sure.
Treat #2: Shield My Heart
After the US Championship match ended in DQ, Rollins returns to get his revenge on JeriKO. But the by-product of that is he essentially saved Roman Reigns. At the end of the show, Reigns makes it to his feet and looks across the ring to Rollins. They know they have a common enemy.
I think this is finally happening and it looks like it might be happening at the Royal Rumble. I think they’ve figured out a way to organically build the reunion.
Treat #1: Little Sax Jammies and Corey S. Pumpkins
First, if those skeletons at the top of the page don’t look familiar to you, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND WATCH THIS:
Now, feast your eyes on the commentary team:
We have Byron in self-proclaimed “Little Sax Jammies”, Michael Cole as a wet blanket, and Corey Graves as Mr. Pumpkins himself.
Any Questions?