The One with the Kevin Owens Show Talk Show Segment – A Raw Recap for 1/2/16

Tonight comes to us from Tampa, Florida.  It’s mostly the same old Raw from last year, with two notable segments.

Before we get there, let’s talk about Foley.  He’s looking good and trim but his new haircut looks fake.  I don’t know if the ladies in the back did anything to it but it looks kind of off.  Like seriously, it looks like some strange wig.

So…What exactly are they doing with Sami?

I’m not going to debate the match quality there.  This is a much better match than the one from Road Block: End of the Line.  Sami utilized all the tricks that you’d expect but it ultimately wasn’t successful, like most meetings with Brock Lesnar.  After a match that wandered backstage and back, it ended after two powerslams to the outside.

I get that they’re trying to build a new monster in Braun Strowman and that’s actually long overdue.  Lesnar was an expensive and part-time beast and heel Big Show doesn’t really work anymore.  Strowman is cheap, improving fast, and one of the best things creative has done on Raw since the brand split.

But that brings me back to Zayn.  If I’m trying to be positive, I realize that each meeting between the two has allowed Zayn to figure out new strategies to beat the beast.  He gets a little closer each time, but not enough to really make a difference.  Am I to believe that a month or two down the road, perhaps Royal Rumble, that he’ll figure out a winning strategy?  Will the storyline payoff with Zayn eliminating Strowman, much like Ellsworth caused Strowman’s count out elimination at Survivor Series?

Only time will tell.  The pessimistic take is that eventually move on to someone else, successfully building Strowman as a monster and marginalizing one of the main rosters best workers.

This is Raw after all, not Smackdown.

The episode with the actual Kevin Owens Show

In a beautiful mess of a main event segment to close Raw, we get the actual Kevin Owens talk show, with co-host/first guest Chris Jericho.  After trolling the crowd, Owens introduces his first guest, who dominated the attitude era, only to disappoint the crowd further by revealing his guest to be none other than his best friend Chris Jericho.

But it’s not a home run, Jericho uses his moment (after putting the city of Tampa on the list) to announce his entrance into the Royal Rumble match. Owens realizes immediately what that means: he could have to defend the Universal Championship against his best friend.  For Jericho, it doesn’t seem to matter, he’s just increasing the odds that they’ll walk out co-champions at the end of the big show.  But Owens is worried, and I think he has a good reason to be.  Jericho has always been looking for his chance and he’s smarter than everyone thinks.

Goldberg had enough of their bickering.  His music hits and he makes a full entrance to the ring.  The great thing here is that Kevin gets in his face, in one of the coolest moments since he stared down John Cena in 2015.  Goldberg claims that he’s going to win the Rumble and take the title off of Owens or Reigns, whoever has the title.

And then Paul Heyman comes out and does his thing.  No, BAAAAAROOOOOOOCCCCCCCKKKK isn’t there.  I wouldn’t travel to Florida unless I got a dumptruck of money either.*

Did I mention how this thing is kind of a beautiful mess?

Because Goldberg mentioned Reigns, he comes out too.  I honestly can’t remember if he actually says anything and am too lazy to watch it back.  And then, Strowman comes out, announces his entrance to the Royal Rumble, vowing to win.  Goldberg and Reigns, somehow knowing how ridiculous this has become, double spear Braun Strowman.

Thus ends the first episode of The Kevin Owens’ Show.  Suck it, Miz TV.

*That’s heel Jeremy talking.  I’m going to Florida for Wrestlemania in April.

Everything Else

• Cesaro had a great match with Karl Anderson.  After a beautiful Jumping Neckbreaker, Anderson picked up a much-needed win.  Sheamus tried to help but was unable to reach in time.  This is Raw so I’m going to make an assumption that we’re getting a Sheamus Vs. Luke Gallows singles match next week.
• I literally almost forgot about the marque matches because I feel like we’ve seen both of them a million times already:
  • Seth Rollins Vs. Kevin Owens – The loser is banned from ringside.  Owens gets disqualified by using the ring bell on Rollins.
  • Jericho Vs. Reigns for the US Championship Match:  Roman wins with a spear to retain.
• Titus O’Neal interrupted The New Day and presumably picked a fight with Xavier Woods.  I say presumably as I fast-forward anytime Titus is on screen.  Xavier wins with a sunset flip or something.  I predict this gets cut from the Hulu version.
  • One notable thing is that Jack Gallagher was showing the New Day some of his duel maneuvers.  I think it’s notable as they pretend that the Cruiserweights don’t exist in the same universe as the rest of the roster.  I hope it’s a continuing trend.
• Bayley has to beat Nia Jax to get a shot at Charlotte at the Rumble.  Sasha distracts Nia long enough for Bayley to hit the 2nd rope Bayley to Belly.  Bayley Vs. Charlotte set for WM.
• Cedric Alexander loses to Drew Gulak when he gets distracted by Tony Nease and his new girlfriend, Alicia Fox, start arguing at ringside.  I think this is the other segment that gets cut from the Hulu version.
• TJP and The Brian Kendrick.  They have good chemistry in the ring but the storyline between them has flatlined.  Time to get them some new challengers.  Neville looked particularly pissed that TJP won.
• There was a crazy woman man dressed as Hulk Hogan that I’m convinced production moved to hard camera side so she wouldn’t be on TV as much.  He looked nuts.
• Enzo was in an electric wheelchair and couldn’t compete in the scheduled tag match.  Cass took on both Rusev and Jinder in a handicap match and ultimately lost.
• Chris Jericho added the entire city of Tampa, FL to the List of Jericho.  A wise choice indeed…except for the fact that Chris Jericho, a resident of Tampa, actually put himself on the list by doing so.
• Shootout to the cut during The New Day “Feel the Powaaaaahhhhh” intro wearing the Ravishing Rick Rude shirt.  I know your cool dad picked it out, but I’m glad you didn’t refuse to wear the shirt.