Out comes Universal Champion Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman to provide a little recap of last night’s main event. We get some taunts at Roman, Joe and Strowman, but Braun has heard enough. He comes out, and lays out Brock with a series of running powerslams, and it appears as though we have our main event for No Mercy set. Excellent way of establishing Braun as an imposing force that can go toe to toe with Lesnar.
Brooklyn Street Fight: Big Cass vs. Enzo Amore
Why are we still doing this? All it took was one big boot to lay out Enzo last night. Cass comes out to his horrible, generic, WWE 2K video game music and is followed by Enzo who sounds like an ex that can’t move on. He takes shots at his private education and New York roots, and says Enzo will end things tonight. Enzo retreats to the back, grabs a shopping cart full of weapons like this is an Attitude Era Hardcore match and throws them aimlessly at Cass. Cass runs him over and slams him into the barricade. Cass then sends Enzo into the ring and taunts him by giving him the chair. Enzo goes for it but gets big booted down. In a perfect world, Cass would cover him and we would end this, but sadly, this somehow warrants a commercial break. Back from commercial, we see Cass slugging away at him in the corner, and we saw him toss Enzo like a ragdoll during the commercial. Why can’t this be over?
Enzo responds with a desperation headbutt and looks for the chair but Cass shoves him away. Cass gets the big splash to go and plays around with him some more. Cass responds with a quick right, but Cass sends Enzo to the top rope and pounds on his back. Cass then goes for the big boot, but Enzo pulls down the rope and Cass is sent falling. Enzo over-dramatically crawls for the chair which he finally gets, but Cass comes back smashes Enzo’s hand. Cass scoops slams Enzo and goes for the Empire Elbow, but his leg is apparently hurt and he can’t continue. Cass blurts out an expletive and it looks like this injury isn’t a work. The ref awards Enzo the victory by forefit. Don’t know about you guys, but that injury looked pretty legit. Looks like he might have a torn ACL. *1/4
Backstage, we see that Emma is jealous that Sasha won, and it’s announced that she has Nia Jax. This won’t be any good.
Nia Jax vs. Emma
I had to use the bathroom, and when I came back, Nia Jax hit a Samoan Drop on Ema and that was it. Yipee. 1/2*
Elias vs. R-Truth
Out comes Elias and he’s out here to sing, but is interrupted by R-Truth. The two trade some shots before R-Truth hits a spinebuster and more shots. Corner splash hits and Truth slugs away before Elias comes back with an elbow and a headlock. Truth reverses into a jumping axe kick and slugs away, but Elias gets a shot to the gut and a shot to the back. Elias then hits his finisher for the quick pinfall victory. Cole classifies this as a “big, big” win. Yeah, whatever. *
Back from another commercial, Kurt Angle has a surprise for us, and it’s Cena on RAW for the first time in over a year. Cena says that he asked Angle to come to Monday Night RAW, not because Smackdown LIVE was bad, but because he wanted to see a certain WWE superstar. Out comes Roman Reigns, and he looks rather….pissed. Cena says that Roman is the person he’s been looking for. Isn’t he getting married soon? Roman says that the only time Cena looks on him is when he talks junk on Twitter. Roman dares Cena to talk junk to his face, but Cena says he isn’t here to talk and takes off his shirt without provocation. Then, outcomes The Miz. Miz botches the name “Barclays” Center and leave it to Cena to make a joke out of it. Miz complains about the amount of time and opportunities Cena and Reigns get weekly. Miz might as well have a sticker called “IWC” stamped on his forehead right now. He then talks junk to Cena and Roman to their faces. Jeez, who pissed in his coffee this morning.
Miz says he doesn’t know whether or not to boo or cheer Cena, and whether or not to boo Reigns. Oh no Miz, I think they do know good and damn well. Miz comes in and says that he deserves to main event each and every night. Okay, so is this like a worked shoot or something? Cena suggests that The Miz and one of his Miztourage faces Cena and Reigns in a tag match for tonight’s main event. Then, we get Joe’s music and he simply says the Miztourage won’t be Miz’s partner, but it’s gonna be Joe. Joe then tells Roman that he owns him one on one and that he’s sick of talking about how it’s his yard week after week. Joe starts slugging away on Cena and Roman takes care of the Miztourage. Cena has Joe up for an AA, but Joe reverses into the Coquina clutch, right before Reigns saves with a Superman Punch as the segment ends. That was a damn fine segment, setting up feuds for No Mercy and we got another excellent promo from The Miz.
Cole says that our dreams have come true with Roman and John teaming up against Miz and Joe. Um, my dream is that junk food would be healthy.
Gran Metalik, Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann and Mustafa Ali vs. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, Noam Dar and Davairi
Back from commercial, and we have 8 cruiserweights because they aren’t important enough to have televised entrances. I was doing something else at the time so I didn’t care for most of the action, but I did check that wicked lumbar check from Cedrick to pin Tony Nese. So that was some good stuff down the stretch right there. **
Backstage, we see Jason Jordin ask his papi for a match against Finn Balor and Kurt grants it to him. Rollins and Ambrose then come out to celebrate with the Brooklyn crowd and expect Cesaro and Sheamus to come out, but we are interrupted by the Hardy Boyz. They come out and say that they want to revolutionize the tag-team division by defeating Rollins and Ambrose. A ref is out, and it looks like we have an impromptu matchup. No way Cesaro and Sheamus come out to interfere. No way.
Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs. The Hardy Boyz
We start with a series of lockups from Dean and Matt and we get a double-team take down on Dean. Dean is able to make the tag to Seth, but the Hardy Boyz is able to get a series of double team slams on Seth. Matt lockups on Seth, but Seth fights back. Irish whip into the corner, and Seth gets the facebuster onto the turnbuckle and Dean and Seth tag team on Matt for 2. A series of sequences and we have a stand off between the two tag teams and they start brawling with each other. Jeff gets a facebuster on Seth and dives onto Seth and they send the two on the outside. We come back and Dean makes the comeback on Matt and Dean goes for the dive outside, but Hardy sends him out. He responds in kind to Seth. Jeff comes in and gets the trust fall onto both Dean and Seth outside.
Jeff gets a corner splash and a forearm to Dean before going for Whisper in the Wind, but Seth pulls Dean out of harm’s way. Dean tags Seth in and Seth gets a front facelock on Jeff. Rollins gets the suplex on Jeff and Dean tags back in. Dean gets a clothesline on Jeff and Seth gets a series of clotheslines and goes back into the headlock. Dean prevents another tag and continues to slug away on Jeff as this is kinda just dragging along so far. Jeff begins to fight back before hitting Whisper in the Wind. Matt gets the hot tag and he hits the comeback before looking for the Twist of Fate. Hardy goes for the side effect, but then Seth attacks and misses. However, Matt gets caught into the elevated slingblade before Hardy comes for the pin breakup. Crowd chanting this is awesome. Hardy and Seth send the Hardy Boyz outside the ring and they hit the double Suicide Dive.
Hardy slingshots Dean and hits the Side Effect onto Seth on the apron. Dean goes for Dirty Deeds, but Matt reverses into the Side Effect, and Ambrose kicks out at 2. Dean crotches Matt at the top turnbuckle and is looking for a pumphandle something, before just knocking Matt down to the pavement. Matt then gets the Twist of Fate, but Seth suerkicks Matt. Jeff Hardy goes up for the Swanton, but Dean gets the knees up. Dean goes for another Dirty Deeds, but Rollins gets the tag. Rollins hits the high knee, and Dean finishes things off with Dirty Deeds as Rollins makes the cover for the three count. Took a while to get there, but once they got their groove, it was great back and forth. ***1/2
We’re out and it’s Boss time as Sasha Banks is out. Sasha claims that Brooklyn has always been where she has left her heart, and references her match with Bayley at Takeover two years ago and when she and Charlotte “tore the house down” at Summerslam last year. Yeah, because AJ Styles and John Cena never happened. Bliss then comes out and claims that Sasha is a weak champion because she’s never successfully defended it, and Sasha claps back and says that whenever the two face off Bliss has either tapped out or run away. Banks dares Bliss to use her rematch clause tonight, but Bliss waits until next week. Considering that Bliss is on the advertisement for No Mercy, I’d say their match next weekends controversially and Bliss gets a rematch at the PPV. A decent segment, I suppose, but Sasha is really cringy with her promos if you ask me. She needs to tighten it up for me.
Finn Balor vs. Jason Jordan
You could probably find Jordan and Big Cass’ theme music in the list of custom music songs in WWE 2K. We start with Jordan getting the upper hand in the wrestling grappling to start off. The trade waist locks before Jordan sends Balor to the ground. He sends him to the ropes and Balor gets Jordan with a dropkick. Jordan offers a handshake, but Balor says “Screw that” and kicks him in the gut and sends him to the mat for a pinfall attempt. Jordan catches Balor in the air and slams him for a pinfall attempt/ Balor reverses a strike into a clothesline outside the ring and goes for a kick, but Jordan escapes back in the ring. Back from commercial we see Jordan hit an overhead butterfly suplex. Michael Cole says Jordan has all tools. You mean like being the son of the GM? Jordan gets knees to the midsection and Jordan goes for another suplex before Balor gets a dropkick as the crowd pops at something else in the crowd. My money says it’s another beach ball. Balor gets momentum, but not with the crowd as Balor gets a series of knife edge chops. Balor gets an enziguri to the corner and the beach ball somehow lands in the front row.
Jordan gets a suplex and a running shoulder block. Jordan goes for another suplex but Balor reverses into a cover and a high kick. The crowd is compeltely out of it and is focused on the beach ball. Wonder how they’ll hijack the main event. Jordan comes and shoulder blocks hit again, but Balor gets a kick and a slingblade. Balor gets the running dropkick and the Coup de Grace hits to finish things. It was a good back and forth, but the crowd clearly wasn’t invested in it. **3/4
John Cena and Roman Reigns vs. The Miz and Samoa Joe
We come back and Cena attacks the Miz. The crowd is hot, and I can’t imagine it’s because of the match, and the beach ball is back. Cena plays up the foolishness before Joe gets involved and attacks him from behind. Miz gets tagged in and big boots Cena a series of times. We have gone from the beach ball into the wave. Cena clotheslines Miz out of desperation and Cena joins in with the wave but Miz comes back with DDT for two. So the crowd is in full on hijack mode and checked out of this match a long time ago. Miz goes to the top rope and we get a flying axe handle for two. Miz goes for the corner clothesline but Cena dodges. Cena goes for the tag, and he gets the tag to Reigns and he’s a house of fire.
Clothesline and jumping clothesline to Joe hits, and Miz gets a right hand for his troubles. Consecutive clotheslines in the corner hits and Joe finishes the assault with a big boot. Reigns prepare for the Superman punch, but Joe catches him and he gets the Uranigi for a two count. Joe gets back on the offensive and tags in Miz Miz sends Riman outside the ring and distracts the ref, allowing Dallas to get a clothesline. Miz covers but only gets 2. Miz gets his series of YES kicks before Roman cradles and gets the powerbomb. Roman goes for the tag, but Joe thwarts him and attacks from behind. Enziguri in the corner hits for a two count. Now we got Miz slugging away at Roman and sends him out of the ring. Miz goes for the big boot, but Roman dodges the blow. Cena gets the tag and he’s on fire. He gets his comeback on Miz. However, Joe gets the Clutch on Cena. Roman comes in with asupermann punch, but it hits Cna by accident. Miz goes for Skull Crushing Finale, but Cena reverses into an AA for the win. Your typical punch, kick, punch, rest hold tag team main event you’d see on free television these days. **1/2
Conclusion:
Decent fall-out episode of RAW from Summerslam, and setting up future matches and feuds. But as it appears often these days, there wasn’t anything must see to me.
