The Hounds of Justice Return – A WWE Recap for 10/9/2017

Tonight’s Raw came to us from Indianapolis, Indiana.  It’s the same spot where The Shield originally appeared and the same spot where Rollins betrayed them.

The Hounds of Justice – Now with merch!

The Return

The Miz was in a congratulatory mood this week.  Along with The Bar, he destroyed Roman Reigns on the last episode of Raw.  And what does Miz do when he’s in a congratulatory mood?  The Mizzies, of course!  Curtis Axel won for Most Perserverance, probably because Bo Dallas is off Raw this week with a real or kayfabe injury.  The Bar took home the trophies for Best Supporting Actor.  And Miz capped it off with a trophy for himself.  He dedicated his trophy to the man he owed it all to: Roman Reigns.  “After all,” says Miz and The Bar, “this is our yard.”

You can imagine that didn’t sit well with Roman, so he comes out to confront Miz.  Then we hear a second entrance song, Dean Ambrose.  And finally…Seth Rollins.

The Shield is back!

And what does every good nostalgia act do?  They play from their extensive catalog of greatest hits.  After dispatching Axel and The Bar, The Shield surround The Miz for a Triple Powerbomb.

One Fist.  Two Fist.  Three Fist.  Blue Fist.

Kurt Angle is excited.  He informs The Miz that he will be joining The Bar to face the Shield at TLC in the eponymous match.

You Can’t Delete the Hounds

After destroying Seth and Dean for two consecutive weeks, Braun Strowman would try to delete Matt Hardy in singles competition.  With a flurry of blows, Matt was seemingly unable to even stun The Monster.  Braun just threw the veteran around like it was nothing.  Matt was able to hit a Twist of Fate but he was only able to get a 1 count before being thrown across the ring.

Matt Hardy eventually fell to a Running Powerslam for the pinfall.  Braun wasn’t finished with him yet.  He returned to the ring for even more Running Powerslams.

But that seemed to upset the Hounds of Justice as they confronted him on the top of the ramp.  He would have to pay for poor sportsmanship, and possibly for going too far the previous weeks.  It was curious that they already are wearing Shield branded merch.  Anyway, we got our second Triple Powerbomb of the night, this time through the announcer’s table.

The Miz meets with Angle once again.  Instead of complaining about the turn of events, Miz mentions that Dean raved that they could take on 4, 5, or even 6 competitors.

It seems like The Miz and The Bar have a new teammate.

Do we get a Hardy as the 4th unofficial member of The Shield?

The Lumberjack Song

I do wish that Cedric Alexander was important in this match.  I could have titled this section the Lumbar Check Song.  Anyway, instead of waiting until TLC, Kurt Angle sets Kalisto’s title defense to tonight.  And to keep Enzo from weaseling out by getting a count-out or DQ, Kurt makes it a lumberjack match.  The entire devision is waiting for him on the outside.

I’m no fan of Kalisto.  He’s bland and he “does lucha things”.  With all the other luchadors under perpetual contract with Lucha Underground, Kalisto, and to a lesser extent Sin Cara, is what we got.

This, however, was actually a good match.  Neville had a hard time pulling a compelling match out of Enzo, but Kalisto had an easier time.  The Lumberjack stipulation added a perfect element to the match.  The Cruiserweights were eager to get their hands on Enzo for disrespecting the division.  Tozawa still likes Enzo though.

The alliance of the entire division was tenuous.  It’s made up of heels and faces, after all.  Kalisto took advantage of this burgeoning brawl to superplex Enzo into the crowd.

Enzo was able to hit his finisher on Kalisto but Mustafa Ali was able to break the count.  After a few parting shots, Ali sent Enzo back in the ring.  Kalisto capitalized and hit a Super Salida del Sol to become your new Cruiserweight Champion.

I guess this gets around the problem where no one could touch Enzo…

Everything Else

• Jason Jordan defeated Karl Anderson because…reasons.  Karl and Jason are great workers, but this match seemed to exist just to fill time.
• Elias trolled Apollo by comparing his career to NASCAR, just going in circles with seemingly no end.  Titus answered with a terrible song on the banjo that made him look kind of dumb.  I’m not sure what the point of it was.  Actually, the only point was for Titus to ask, “Who wants to walk with Titus…WORLDWIDE?”
  • Apollo came out and lost via a Drift Away to Elias.  So yes, pointless.
• Alexa Bliss kept hammering home that Mickie James is old.  They played a black-and-white career retrospective complete with an old radio voice announcer.  We only have to deal with this for another week and a half.
• The Brian Kendrick & Jack Gallagher defeat Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali.  Kendrick sealed the deal with a Sliced Bread #2 to Ali.  It’s good to see more than one Cruiserweight segment on Raw again.  It seems like it’s been awhile.
• Emma, Alicia Fox, Dana Brooke, Bayley, and Sasha Banks battled for the honor of being squashed by Asuka first.  They battled in a Fatal Five Way Elimination for the privilege.  Dana Brooke got put out first.  In a surprising turn of events, Alicia Fox eliminated Bayley.  That surprise wouldn’t last for long as Banks put out Fox.  Capitalizing on the situation, Emma rolls up Sasha for the win.
  • It makes sense that they chose Emma.  They’ll be able to put on a good match.  There’s no surprise in the outcome, but that’s not what we’re interested in yet.
• Sister Abigail might literally be Bray Wyatt in a creepy dress.  It looks frightening in the promo video but I’m worried it’s going to be as stupid as House of Horrors.