It’s Time to Play Jason Jordan – A Raw Recap for 11/13/17

Tonight’s Raw comes to us from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.  Our very own Matt Dowd was there in attendance.

It’s a little late of a recap this week.  I’ve moved recently and haven’t fully figured out my wrestling viewing and recap schedule.  Currently I’m watching the Hulu versions and watching clips of what they cut on YouTube.  Not the most ideal situation but I just dropped a bunch of money on Mania tickets this week.

It’s Time To Play Jason Jordan

It’s weird that the entire recap is basically about Jason Jordan.

Steph is out at the top of the show.  She’s here to speak with Kurt Angle.  It looks like it’s not just in her “office” but actually in the ring. There must not be a weird Hannah Barbera WWE crossover cartoon to to display a poster of.

That does bring up a good point.  If they can have trucks bringing an elaborate stage, couldn’t they have a little space for a desk and personal trinkets to make it look like an arena someone actually works in?

As I mentioned at the top, this is all about Jason Jordan.  Steph is berating Angle for losing out on John Cena.  Her brother now has the Face That Runs the Place back on Team Blue.  Who is Angle’s 5th man?  Why, it’s Jason Jordan.  Steph (probably the wrong person to argue this) argues that he’s only there because of nepotism and he lacks the star power that Team Raw needs.  She’s definitely not wrong on that second point.

Knowing that he needs to prove that Jordan is the right pick, he throws him in with a returning Bray Wyatt.  During the match, JJ tweaked his knee a little bit.  Bray capitalized on it and worked the knee.

It was a fine match and JJ actually ended up with a win here.  This is where it got a little interesting.  Bray didn’t take the loss well.  He continued assaulting Jordan’s knee until Jordan had to be helped to the back.

Angle was distraught.  Not only is his son hurt but now he also has a teammate hurt.  A teammate that he was berated for choosing in the first place.

Backstage, Jason pleaded with Kurt not to take him off the team while nursing his knee with too bags of ice.

Plan B

Later that night, Kurt was came out to announce a new member of the Survivor Series team when Jason Jordan hobbled out from the back to plead his father from taking him off the team.

It was pathetic.  I’m not really sure what WWE was going for here.  I think we were supposed to feel bad for Jason, but he just felt really whiny.  A true good guy move would be to realize that he’s not in the best condition for the match or that it would be good for his father to drop out.  Instead, he wants to make it hard for Kurt.

But that doesn’t matter, Steph brings out someone we haven’t seen in months.

It’s time to play THE GAME!

You see, Kurt had picked a new team member.  Or he had been told to do so backstage.  Triple H told Angle to tell Jason and the audience who the 5th man was.  When Kurt wouldn’t do so, he announced it himself and gave Jason a bit of a present.

It’s really hard to tell if this whole Jason Jordan storyline is a severe miscalculation, part of a larger storyline where Jason Jordan is actually a heel and faked the whole thing where he is Kurt’s son, or just terrible storytelling.

I’m hoping this is some long story where Jason is a heel.  Kurt didn’t need this storyline to give him something interesting to do on TV.  He can do that naturally.  If anyone can turn it around though, it’s Kurt.

Everything Else

• The Shield interrupts Stephanie and Kurt to demand a match with The New Day on Sunday.  It’s granted.  They also vouch for Kurt’s character.
• Bayley defeats Mickie James and Dana Brooke to become the fifth member of the Raw Women’s Survivor Series team.  At one point in the match, Dana taunts Asuka and quickly gets smacked right across the head.  It was a little weird that the 4 women already on the team were just standing at ringside.
• Enzo and Drew Gulak defeat Kalisto and Tozawa.  Kalisto and Tozawa alternated a “Luch-AH!” chant on the way to the ring.  It was a nice touch.
  • So confession time, I watched the Hulu version as I currently don’t have cable and a DVR.  I kept seeing ads for 205 live to celebrate with Kalisto.  “What?!?!  Kalisto won the Cruiserweight Championship on Raw and it was cut from the Hulu edit?”  That was what went through my mind.  Thankfully it’s just his birthday.  They should be celebrating Rusev Day instead.  Every day is Rusev Day.
• Paul Heyman showed up to deliver one of his famous promos.  The flavor of this month?  5 reasons to be excited for the AJ Styles Vs. Brock Lesnar.  It all culminated with reason F5, a reason not to get too excited with the match at the end.
  • Paul Heyman got interrupted with a marriage proposal in the crowd with chants that “She said yes!”  Paul Heyman shut it down in the only way he can.  “She only said yes because she’s never been close to a beast like BROOOOOCCCCCKKKKK LESNAR.”
• The Shield returned to action to take on The Miz and The Bar.  It was a great match but they really were protecting Roman.  It was 90% Seth and Dean with a spear and a Triple Powerbomb from the Big Dog.  I wonder how active he’ll be on Sunday.  I hope he can go.  The Shield defeated their opponents, if you even had to ask.
• Finn Bálor & Samoa Joe proved they can work together by defeating Gallows and Anderson in pretty short fashion.  Joe makes it clear that they’re not friends though and left when it was obvious that the match was a done deal for Finn, the legal man.
• Braun Strowman defeated Kane by Powerslamming him through the ring.  I can’t say that this particular matchup is interesting to me.  Braun and Big Show = #FightForever.  Braun and Roman Reigns = #FightForever.  Kane?  Nah.  Their chemistry isn’t the best.  Hopefully this is the end of the run and Kane goes back to running for mayor.