Talking Smack Is Miz TV – A Raw Recap for 8/21/17

We are back for night 3 of 4 at the Barclays Center after a mostly forgettable (at least to me) SummerSlam.

Braun has No Mercy

Brock is out first. He seems way happier than I’ve seen him in TV.  Perhaps he really enjoyed everyone thinking he was going away?  Or maybe he was told to act like a babyface and that’s his idea of acting like that.

Heyman wants to complain about the “felonious assault” Brock Lesnar Brock Lesnar endured at the hand of Braun Strowman.  In fact, Sunday was the first time he’s been put on a stretcher in his life.  I highly doubt that.  Whatever.

They celebrate his win because that’s the theme of the night, champions.

Right on cue, Braun shows up and delivers not one, but two power slams to Lesnar.  Just like on Sunday, Brock’s attempts at offense were ineffective.

Angle takes it upon himself to book Braun Vs Brock as the main event for No Mercy.  As a Braun fan, I’m a little worried that they are painting Brock as too much of the underdog here.  I just hope Vince heard how crazy they were going for Braun last night.

Talking Smack is Back!  Kind of…

Angle teased a big returning superstar.  Looks like all the rumors are true…

AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA!

He’s back on Raw for the foreseeable future.  This Brooklyn crowd is a little more heavy on the “Cena sucks” side.  Too many smarks and not enough kids.  The tickets are probably insane.

He’s out here to challenge the best of Raw after burying the upper mid-card in an unremarkable match at SummerSlam.  And who might be the best?

Yes, that’s right.  Roman Reigns.  Brooklyn erupts into a “You Both Suck!” chant.  Cena doesn’t really care anymore.  He’s just being himself.  Cena suggests a match but it’s time for the real star to arrive.  Enter…

“So this is what a sold out Barclays looks like.  I wouldn’t know”

Why did I say that Talking Smack is back?  It lives on in The Miz.  Just watch this segment:

Roman and Cena team up for a tag match against the Miz and Curtis Axel Samoa Joe!?!?  It almost seems like a Teddy Long special but it was actually Joe’s idea.  He wants another shot at Reigns after they met at SummerSlam last night.

The Match?   Cena finishes off The Miz with a single AA.  Just like old times…

Everything Else

• Nia Jax defeats Emma quickly with a Samoan Drop.  As much as I love Emma, I’m starting to resign myself to the fact that she’ll always be an undercard woman.
• Gran Metalik, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, and Mustafa Ali defeat Ariya Daivari, Drew Gulak, Noam Dar, and Tony Neese with a lumbar check from Alexander. The crowd chanted “This Match Sucks!” but seemed to come back around for the finish.  This is just the start of the antics.
• Elias defeated R-Truth with a Drift Away. Nothing much to this one.  Elias serenaded the audience with another one of his classic hits prior.
• Enzo won by no contest after Cass took a fall outside the ring. He tried to continue the match, but his leg buckled, which led to the ref’s decision.  Cass was visibly angry that he was hurt.  When he comes back, we hope that he can tap into that anger to make his promos better.  Here at The Dark Match, we wish him a speedy recovery.
• Sasha Banks celebrated her Raw Women’s Championship win.  Alexa is invoking her rematch clause next week and is rubbing in the fact that she always seems to lose title defenses.
• Dean and Seth also celebrated their Tag Title win. Ambrose loves his new title belt so much, he revealed he slept with it under his pillow.  Also, Ambrose is the 16th Grand Slam Champion.  They issued an open challenge to anyone but Sheamus and Cesaro.  The Hardy Men answered the call.  They sounded fractured, if not full on broken.  The match was decent. It seemed a bit of a waste to me though.  I feel like you should have saved that one.  Dean put them away with a Kingslayer and Dirty Deeds combination for the win.
• Jason Jordan asks his dad if he can get a match on TV tonight, specifically with Finn Balor. Despite warning him that he’s in over his head, Angle books the match.  Angle was right and falls to Finn via a Coup de Grace.  The bigger story here is that the audience’s antics were getting out of control.  Between doing the wave and playing with beach balls, I found it really upsetting.
• Despite all that, Cena did a post match promo after Raw was off the air defending the fans and the use of the beach ball.  C’mon Cena.  Why are you defending them?