For the Humanoids – A Raw Recap for 9/18/17

Raw comes to us from San Jose, California after being overseas the past week.  Just like me!  I’ve returned from a successful visit to the UK and Denmark.  Thanks to a very nice redditor, I was able to attend Progress Chapter 55 and hang out with the lads.

Maybe I’ll do a write up of it sometime…Anyway, enough of that.  Let’s get to the show!

For the Humanoids

If you’re on this wrestling site, you either are supporting Matt and myself or you already know that Bobby “The Brain” Heenan passed away this past weekend.  In addition to displaying tweets from current and past superstars, WWE put together this pretty good tribute to The Weasel.

Go Home, Come Home

While I’ve been keeping up with Matt’s recaps while I’ve been abroad, I actually haven’t had any time to actually watch the product.  Since Nia laid out Alexa after she won back the Women’s Championship, they are kinda friends again?  This company is wildly inconsistent and it’s easy to see when you step away for a couple of weeks.  I’m not sure VKM truly understands the concept of frenemies.  Why is Alexa even hanging around Nia?

And now we have a match between the two before the Fatal Four Way on Sunday?  I don’t get it.  Nia manhandles Alexa like you’d expect.  The fact that Alexa gets any believable offense is a testament to her talent.

At some point Alexa tries to retreat to the back but Sasha Banks isn’t going to let that happen and attacks her on the ramp.  Banks corners Bliss back into the ring where she quickly loses to a Samoan Drop.  Sasha doesn’t let a moment slip away and attacks Jax.  Jax swats both women off like flies.  I think we need one more to make this fight fair.

Enter Emma Bayley!  The hometown girl is back!  The WWE does a lot of things wrong but having her come back in her home town is a good choice.  She didn’t get the most amazing reaction, but it was pretty good.

Bliss, Banks, and Bayley team up to take down Jax while Emma relaxes in the back.  She’s ready for her CHAMPIONSHIP WIN THIS SUNDAY!

BRAAAAAUUUUUUUNNNNNNN…and Brock Lesnar

They had one of those dual sitdown interviews this week on Raw if you’re into that sort of thing.  I was a fan of the Samoa Joe one where he just searches the backstage for Lesnar.  That didn’t happen this time.  Strowman doesn’t seem one for sleuthing.

And later…

I’m not sure why this happened but it was nuts.

Intercontinental Championship

What to do with the IC Championship?  Angle was out at the top of the show to talk about No Mercy this weekend.  Once again, there was no plans for an IC match for the second straight PPV.  As you can imagine, Miz wasn’t too happy about it.  Kurt reveals that he does actually have a plan.  To determine the #1 contender, he’s got a fatal four way with The Hardys, Elias, and Jason Jordan.

That last name catches Miz’s ear.  Mike isn’t so happy with the nepotism going on and launches an attack on Angle, calling him a terrible father and unfairly making up for lost time.  Jordan, who’s theme music has gone from a complete garbage fire to passable, shows up to defend his father.  He’s so confident that he’ll win, that he suggests adding Dallas and Axel to make it a 6-Pack Challenge.

Side note: Dallas and Axel are looking a little too bronze this week.  Maybe scale it back a little.

The main event was fun.  Miz kept interfering at ever chance that he could.  Jeff tried a quick roll up on Matt, which was fun.  Elias wasn’t forgettable.  Jeff Hardy seemed like he was going to win but Jason Jordan picked up the pinfall to become the #1 contender for Sunday.

I don’t like it.  I think it was hubris for Jordan to add Axel and Dallas to the match.  He should have lost because he was too cocky.  Also, I want to see Jeff Hardy get another shot at the championship.  Hell, I’d rather see Elias get a shot on Sunday.  I hope there’s some sort of turn with the Jordan/Angle story.  I want to find out that it’s Jordan taking advantage of Angle.  It’s all too convenient and hokey.

Everything Else

• Cesaro and Sheamus defeat Rollins and Ambrose and Gallows and Anderson – Gallows starts the whole thing by calling everyone nerds.  It’s a fine match for what it was but I hate triple threat tag matches.  Why are there three teams but only two people in the ring at any given time?  It doesn’t make sense why it can’t just be a normal triple threat match with tag rules!
• Apollo Crews defeats Curt Hawkins – Hawkins has his own losing streak graphic.  It’s only a matter of time before someone has to embarrassingly lose to him.  My money is on Enzo.
• Bray Wyatt defeats Dustin Rhodes – After last week when Bray defeated Golddust and wiped off his facepaint, Dustin Rhodes asked to have a match with Bray Wyatt, man to man.  It’s clearly a proxy for the Balor Vs. Wyatt match to take place this Sunday at No Mercy.  It was actually really refreshing to see Rhodes and I hope this wasn’t just a one off.
• Neville Defeats Gran Metalick – A good cruiserweight match that would be better if they gave it a little more time.
• Roman Reigns lays out his final argument against Cena.  The crown jewel of this is just playing a promo from 2012 when John berated The Rock for being a part timer and chasing Hollywood.  The fans have been comparing this feud to that one so it’s inevitable that Roman brings this up.  Logic dictates that Roman should win this feud as I imagine John is going back to film something right after this.  But who knows?  Lesnar has been Universal Champion and just occasionally showing up.