WWE Raw live results: The aftermath from SummerSlam
After a newsworthy weekend at WWE SummerSlam that included the return of Brock Lesnar, WWE returns with the fallout edition of Raw from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
New WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins will appear after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and defeating CM Punk who had just defeated Gunther to win the title. Raw GW Adam Pearce isn’t thrilled with Rollins faking his injury and will have a “stiff conversation” with the new champion.
After defeating rival Lyra Valkyria to retain the WWE Women’s Intercontinental title, Becky Lynch will be in Brooklyn to address her adoring fans.
The next chapter in the hard-hitting rivalry between Sheamus and Rusev will unfold with another match.
New WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss will be on hand after their title win this past Saturday over Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodriguez.
Our live coverage begins at 8 PM Eastern.
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Here we are, friends. After a… complicated, SummerSlam, WWE is back on the air with Monday Night Raw.
Let me address the diverticulitis-riddled elephant in the room right away. This is a recap column, so I’ll be sticking to the show. There are aspects and opinions of SummerSlam that I’m sure you’ve read a whole bunch about and ones that I feel very conflicted about. But, we’re gonna leave that to the pundits tonight and try to have some fun and focus on the show and the storylines coming out of Metlife Stadium. The rest will still be there Tuesday morning.
So with that said, it’s Monday and like my sushi dinner, it’s RAW!
-The show kicked off with a SummerSlam highlight reel, bringing everyone up to speed with the all the winners and losers of the event along with the headlines the show made. Then, the traditional Wrestlers Arriving To Work montage aired, showing Alexa Bliss, Charlotte and Naomi arriving to the venue.
-Then we were kindly asked to BURN IT DOWN as the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion, and Talking Heads-style suit enthusiast Seth Rollins his way to the ring, entourage in tow. The Oracle, Paul Heyman (at least I think that’s what he said his name was) addressed the crowd first.
Heyman bigged up Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed before slagging Roman Reigns and CM Punk as has-beens. He then introduced the reigning, defending, undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Seth “Freakin'” Rollins!
Seth took the mic and said “Shame on you, Brooklyn.” He said shame on everyone who didn’t believe in him and taunted him with chants of “OTC.” He told the crowd to never doubt him again. He told the locker room, shame on them for trying to stop his cash-in and hold him back.
Rollins reminded everyone that he always has a Plan B and the only ones who knew about this one (presumably his faked injury) were his wife and his Oracle. Rollins now has “absolute power” and this is the beginning of his Vision.
Suddenly, LA Knight appeared and made his way to the ring, mic in hand. Knight congratulated Rollins on his title win and said he wasn’t looking for a fight. He just had some questions. Knight pointed out that Rollins already had the MITB briefcase, so he didn’t need to fake an injury. Knight said that the only reason Rollins faked an injury was to get out of taking a beating by him at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
So, Knight said that since he was the last one to beat Rollins, so he should be the next one to beat him. Right here, right now. Rollins declined the challenge and went to leave the ring, but suddenly it was Adam Pierce’s turn to talk.
Pierce was pretty mad that Rollins had lied to everyone about his injury, so he made the match. Tonight, on RAW, in Brooklyn, Seth Rollins will defend his World Heavyweight Title against LA Knight. The icing on the cake was that Pierce also banned Breakker and Reed from ringside.
-Backstage, the Judgement Day was walking around and ran into the LWO. Domminck Mysterio claimed that he is the king of the Lucha Libres. Dragon Lee took exception to that and challenged him to a match. Dom accepted and the LWO left, clearing the way for AJ Styles to show up. He told Dom he didn’t appreciate the tricks at SummerSlam and he’s still coming for the Intercontinental Title.
Rusev vs Sheamus
With all that out of the way, Rusev stomped his way to the ring to take on Sheamus in the latest of their series of bangers. This was a very exciting development for the former League of Nations members and the crowd alike.
Also, the cast of the Netflix show Wednesday were shown in the crowd. SYNERGY. Joe Budden was also there.
Sheamus ran straight to the ring and into the flying fists of Rusev as the match began. The two traded punches until Sheamus laid out Rusev with a big lariat. Sheamus sent Rusev over the top rope, but when he followed Rusev got the drop on him and sent him into the barrier.
Back in the ring, Rusev hit a big suplex and drove Sheamus into the mat. The two went back to punch-based strategies and hammered on each other from the mat to the top turnbuckle. Sheamus got Rusev up on his shoulders and hit a White Noise from the top turnbuckle.
During the commercial break, Rusev fought back and took control of the match, setting a sleeper on Sheamus. He followed that up with some kicks to the chest. Sheamus asked for more, seemingly nourished by Rusev’s hatred. He leapt up and hit an Irish Curse backbreaker on Rusev.
Sheamus went for a Brogue Kick, but Rusev ducked it and Sheamus kicked the ropes. Rusev bonked his head off the ringpost, sending him to the outside. Rusev went after Sheamus, but Sheamus caught him and slammed him on the announce table. Rusev responded by sending Sheamus into the steel steps. Rusev then dragged him onto the barricade, chopping Sheamus. The crowd didn’t like it, but Sheamus reversed it, and began pounding on Rusev.
Then, the referee remembered that he was supposed to be doing something and counted both men out.
Match Result: Rusev vs Sheamus went to a no-contest double countout.
After the match, the two continued brawling at ringside. Security flooded the area but as always were woefully bad at their jobs and Sheamus and Rusev continued fighting as the scene switched to pre-taped footage of the New Day back stage in some truly ridiculous hats. I mean, who wants to watch the brawl, right? Hats!!!
Any way, Grayson Waller joined them, promising to get New Day a rematch for their lost titles. He stomped over to Adam Pierce who was chatting with Penta. Pierce, in a foul mood after Waller called him “baldy”, made a match: Penta vs Grayson Waller and since that was all taped earlier, that match happened now!
Penta vs Grayson Waller
The match kicked off with Waller reluctant to engage with Penta. When they did get things going, Waller shimmied out of a waistlock and the two traded headlocks. Penta deked out Waller by slowing things down and then bursting into a headscissor that sent Waller out of the ring.
Suddenly, the Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, The New Day, came out complete with hats. That caused enough of a distraction for Waller to take over, sending Penta onto the announce table. Corey Graves invited the New Day to join the commentary team and Kingston called out Micheal Cole for talking trash about them.
In the ring, a match was happening, and Penta got a two-count off of a rollup. Kingston said that the New Day were taking Waller under their wing. Penta took Waller under his open hand and chopped him in the corner. The New Day discussed their grieving process while Waller held Penta in a modified headlock.
Back from commercial, Waller delivered some high knees to Penta, but Penta fought back with a bulldog and backbreaker. He then stomped Waller in the corner, until Waller delivered a hard left to the face resulting in a two-count. Waller climbed the second rope to drop an elbow, but Penta dodged it and delivered a superkick. Waller came back with a high knee and the two wrapped each other up in a double lariat.
Penta hit a superkick and a big Mexican Destroyer and pinned Waller getting the victory and giving New Day one more thing to mourn.
Match Result: Penta defeated Grayson Waller
New Day climbed into the ring and Kingston got in the face of Penta. Penta sent Kingston and Woods packing, then threw Woods comically large hat at them before flying over the top rope and taking both men out.
-Next, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair were shown taking a walk in the back, but they were interrupted by Sheamus and Rusev who were apparently still fighting. The Security team chased after them as Sheamus through Rusev into a stack of clanky pipes. Again, no one really wanted to see them brawl, so a clip from Flair’s episode of Unreal on Netflix aired instead.
-Back out front, WWE Women’s World Champion Naomi came out to address the crowd. She ran down New Jersey, saying that she assumed Brooklyn would be better. But, in fact, it’s worse. Too much trash and construction in Brooklyn for Naomi. She said the crowd deserved to move to Florida, which frankly is a pretty mean thing to say.
Naomi said that next on her list was “Stephanie Velcro” but the show then came back from commercial, cutting Naomi off entirely for a recap of the aftermath of the John Cena vs Cody Rhodes match. So we can assume that Naomi was talking about Stephanie Vaquer and I guess she wants to fight her?
-As if none of that ever happened, the show came back and Micheal Cole said that he asked Triple H and Nick Khan about when they decided to bring back Brock Lesnar. They also said that John Cena would be on Smackdown to address Lesnar’s return. Then they tee’d up the Rollins vs Knight match later to come.
Is someone asleep at the switch tonight? The last 15 minutes were complete gibberish. And I’m a man who enjoys a good amount of gibberish.
-WWE Women’s World Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss came down to the ring next to address the crowd. Flair thanked the crowd for her first “you deserve it” chant and admitted that it felt good to do something as a “we.” Bliss urged her to admit they were friends, but Flair stopped short. The two debated how many times each has bean a champion until Judgement Day’s music hit.
Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez stomped down to the ring and said no one cares about friendship because the only thing that matters is bringing gold back to Judgement Day. Roxanne said “we know we don’t get a rematch but we didn’t come down here to not take those titles back.” Flair responded by saying they could have a rematch right here, right now.
Suddenly, Ol’ Baldy, Adam Pierce came out and said that the match would start right here, right now. Which was what Flair just said, but glad to have confirmation.
WWE Women’s World Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss vs Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez
Now, according to my little countdown in the corner of the Netflix screen, the introductions were done and the match started during a commercial break. The bell rang with a minute left in the countdown, with Bliss and Rodriguez facing off to get things started.
Back from commercial, Bliss was on Rodriguez’ back and was quickly thrown off. She dragged Bliss to the corner and tagged in Perez. A much more even match, Bliss and Perez fought in and out of the corners with Bliss delivering a headscissors to Perez before tagging in Flair.
Flair knocked Perez back to her corner where Rodriguez tagged in. She sent Flair to the mat with a shoulder and bounced her head off the top turnbuckle. Rodriguez isolated Flair in the corner and tagged in Perez. Flair dodged her and Rodriguez held Flair’s ankle so Perez could dive between the ropes and send her to the outside.
Back in the ring, Perez stomped a proverbial mudhole in Flair before tagging in Rodriguez. Flair fought back, tagging in Bliss. The two delivered stereo bulldogs and Bliss and Rodriguez fought with Bliss sending the taller woman to the floor. She tried a cannonball, but Rodriguez caught her and slammed Bliss on the barricade.
Into commercial, in a Diva’s Era throwback, Rodriguez held Bliss’ hair and forced Flair to watch as she beat her up. Perez tagged in and choked Bliss with the ring rope. Bliss tried to get a tag to Flair, but Perez cut her off. Rodriguez and Perez took turns throwing Bliss around and Rodriguez snuck an elbow to Flair’s head in the corner.
Back from commercial, Bliss tried again to get the hot tag to Flair, but Rodriguez cut her off. Bliss hit a DDT and finally got the Tag, bringing Flair in off the top rope to take out Perez and Rodriguez. Flair hit a lariat on Rodriguez and used Perez as a weapon, throwing her at her prone partner.
Flair went up for a moonsault and landed it on both, but only got a two count on Rodriguez. Perez caused a distraction so Rodriguez could deliver a big boot to Flair. Perez charged Flair in the corner, but Flair was able to dodge and send Perez into the turnbuckle. They both climbed to the top rope and Perez hit a hurricanrana. Rodriguez tagged in for a hurricane elbow but Bliss broke up the count.
Flair sent Perez out and hit a big boot to send Rodriguez out of the ring too. Bliss tagged in and intercepted Perez for a Sister Abigail. Perez went down and Bliss got the pin, retaining the titles for her and Flair.
Match Result: Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair defeated Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez
-Backstage, IYO SKY and the Kabuki Warriors were hanging out, doing stuff they do, when IYO was approached by Rhea Ripley. Ripley said that she knows IYO asked for a one-on-one rematch against Naomi. Rhea said that she wants IYO to win so that she can beat her for the title. IYO grabbed her arm and lovingly said that she was never going to beat her. The two smiled and that was it.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Dominik Mysterio vs Dragon Lee
Mysterio came down to the ring and the show went to commercial.
Back from break, Micheal Cole said that next year’s SummerSlam in Minneapolis is sure to be “fire” which aged me about 7 years.
Then, Backstage, Bayley went looking for Lyra Valkyria. Bayley tried to apologize for costing her the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam. Valkyria said that Bayle should just stay the hell ouf her life.
Then, the bell rang and the match was on. Lee wasted no time in sending Mysterio to the outside, dragging him back in and pummeling him in the corner. Lee chopped him in the corner, but Mysterio racked Lee’s throat on the ropes, sending him outside.
Mysterio chopped Lee against the ring apron (the choppiest part of the ring!) and sent him back in. Mysterio called for a 619, but Lee dropped out and laid some quick kicks into Mysterio’s face. Mysterio then hit a DDT on the ring apron (the DDT-est part of the ring) as the show went to commercial.
During the break, Mysterio mugged for the crowd and threw punches at Lee on the mat. He then tried to tie the ribbons from Lee’s mask to the bottom rope. His real father never taught him how to tie knots though, so Mysterio abandoned the effort for a headlock instead. Lee fought back, but Mysterio hit a Michinoku Driver as the break ended.
Lee fought back, hitting a dragon kick in the corner. Lee removed his elbow pad to try for a cover, but only got a two-count. Mysterio tried walking the ropes, but Lee countered with a sit-out powerbomb. Mysterio set Lee on the top rope, but slipped, giving Lee the chance to stomp him.
Suddenly, Grande Americano appeared. Then, ANOTHER Grande Americano appeared. Then a THIRD Grande Americano. That was enough of a distraction for Mysterio to get a shot from behind in on Lee and pick up the pin and victory.
Match Result: Dominik Mysterio defeated Dragon Lee
After the match, AJ Styles came out to beat up Mysterio, but Mysterio bolted and Lee and Styles shook hands in the ring, exchanging “can you believe that guy?” looks.
-Backstage, Sami Zayn was interviewed about his match against Karrion Cross at SummerSlam. Zayn rejected a steel pipe in the match, but admitted wanting to use it. In the end though, it’s just not who he is. Zayn wants to be a world champion and he wants to do it right.
Suddenly, Sheamus and Rusev appeared, still brawling and still not being stopped by security. Zayn got caught up in the middle, but WWE said who cares? and switched to footage of Becky Lynch entering the building.
I know that this is supposed to be a funny running bit with Sheamus and Rusev, but really all it’s doing is showing that WWE has terrible security. Also, wouldn’t we, the viewers, be interested in the never ending brawl? Just sayin’.
-Back from break and an inconsequential interview by Byron Saxon of the Judgement Day, Method Man was shown in the audience. This was by far the high part of the episode for me. Dave East was also there along with Da’Vinchii and Adam Blackstone. I am not cool enough to know who the last two are, but they looked nice.
-Becky Lynch’s music hit and the Women’s Intercontinental Champion made her way to the ring in the track suit version of her husband’s suit. Lynch grabbed a mic and said that she plans on being champion for a very long time, much to Lyra Valkyria’s dismay. Suddenly, the music of one Nikki Bella hit and the Hall of Famer made her way to the ring.
Bella said that she was able to take a step away from WWE because stars like Lynch could hold things together. But Lynch became a disappointment to Bella. She’s not the leader she had hoped Lynch would grow into. The two traded jabs about their IMDB listings, with Lynch mocking Bella for having her role cut from Happy Gilmore 2. Now streaming on Netflix. SYNERGY.
Bella called Lynch a liar just like her husband and said she sees right through her. Lynch turned that around into a shot about Bella and John Cena’s failed relationship, which was quite clever if I do say so. Bella said that this isn’t Lynch’s era, so she should put the Intercontinental title on the line in a match against her.
Lynch said that the reason she and Bella never went one on one was– and then she sucker punched her in the face and ran for the ring.
-Backstage, Byron Saxon interviewed Women’s World Champion, Naomi. He asked her how she feels about her SummerSlam win, and she said “great.” She also mentioned that next week on RAW, she would defend against IYO SKY. Stephanie Vaquer wandered by and said that she would beat Naomi or SKY in Paris. Even though no one asked her.
-Next in BREAKING NEWS, Cole announced that GUNTHER would be out of action indefinitely because of a nose injury suffered at SummerSlam.
Also, that Cody Rhodes would be on Smackdown this Friday. Which is good, because that’s kinda his job.
Also, Also, as a result of the never ending brawl, Rusev and Sami Zayn will go one-on-one. I guess Zayn blamed Rusev more than Sheamus.
-Back from break, Backy Lynch was confronted backstage by Natalya. She was real mad about the way Lynch treated Bella and challenged her to a match. Lynch accepted, but not to face Natalya. She said that Maxxine Dupri, who was also there, could have the match and then walked away.
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins vs LA Knight
Alicia Taylor gave everyone their official intros and the Main Event of the evening was on. Knight laid out Rollins with a right hand off the bell and stomped him into the corner. Rollins swung back and Knight caught him with a suplex followed by a neckbreaker.
Rollins charged Knight who sent him over the top rope to the outside. Rollins staggered away, using Heyman as a human shield to lure Knight outside. Knight slid through the ring and bounced Rollins head off the announce table. Rollins responded by sending Knight into the barricade, hitting a big stomp to the back of Knights head.
Off to commercial, and in the ring Rollins stomped Knight and called for Heyman to hand him the belt. Rollins posed with it and then whipped Knight into the turnbuckles. Knight tried to climb out, but Rollins caught him and sent his face back into the turnbuckle. Rollins hung up Knight with the second rope as the show ticked back out of break.
Rollins chopped Knight in the corner, but that seemed to ignite his second wind and Knight fought back and backdropped Rollins in the middle of the ring. Rollins tried going up top,but Knight raced up there too and hit a superplex for a two count.
The two got to their feet and traded punches until Knight laid out Rollins with a lariat followed by a side Russian leg sweep and a neckbreaker. It wasn’t enough to put Rollins down though and he hit a jawbreaker. Knight didn’t get phased though and hit a powerslam and an elbow.
Rollins tried a buckle bomb, but Knight reversed it into a Death Valley Driver. The two men lay in the ring, exhausted. Knight got to his feet first, looking to put Rollins away. Rollins played possum and tried. a curb stomp and a pedigree, but missed both allowing Knight to hit a DDT.
Knight hit his top rope elbow and Rollins bailed out of the ring. Knight sent him into the announce table with a baseball slide. He bounced Rollins’ head off the table and went to pick him up, but Rollins headbutted Knight right in the junk with a low blow. He then tossed Knight into the post and punched him repeatedly before tearing up some of the ringside padding.
Rollins sent Knight into the ringpost again for good measure then dragged him over to the exposed concrete, setting him up for a stomp. But out of the crowd came a wild CM Punk who jumped Rollins and started pounding on him. The ref signalled a DQ and Rollins tried to leave, but Punk followed until Bron Breakker showed up and speared him. Bronson Reed arrived and took out Knight in the ring.
Match Result: LA Knight defeated Seth Rollins via DQ
Breakker speared Knight for good measure and Rollins hit a stomp on Punk, leaving them lying. Reed, Breakker and Rollins exited the ring while Paul Heyman jawed at ringside. The credits appeared and the show seemed over when suddenly…
Roman Reigns’ music hit and the OTC came down and cleaned house, taking out Breakker and Reed. Rollins stood in the ring as Reigns stalked towards him, but bailed as soon as he hit the ring. Breakker tried to get Reigns from behind, but he was intercepted, leaving Reigns open to attack from Reed and a stomp from Rollins.
The three men gave the same treatment to Reigns that they did Knight and Punk, ending with a definitive spear from Breakker and Tsunami from Reed from TWO corners. Adam Pierce hit the ring with various producers (presumably because security was still chasing Rusev and Sheamus around) to break up the beatdown.
The show ended with Rollins and crew standing tall.
Well, that was weird. Not necessarily bad, but definitely a weird show. Maybe I’m just not used to the way WWE produces weekly TV any more, but it felt so fractured. Interviews in the middle of match intros in the middle of commercials. Recaps in the middle of promos in the middle of recaps. It felt like a lot. That said, the action in the ring was fun and most of the stories continued logically from SummerSlam. We’ll get the rest on Friday on Smackdown, so look forward to that.
Thanks for hanging out!