Monday Night Raw – November 13, 2017: I Can Survive Stephanie

Monday Night Raw
Date: November 13, 2017
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Booker T.

It’s the go home Raw for Survivor Series but there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing some Smackdown names tonight and some Raw names tomorrow. The big stories tonight though are the returns of Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, the former of the two from a bad illness. You can pretty much guess how tonight is going to go but that’s not the worst thing in the world. Let’s get to it.

We open with a long recap of the Raw vs. Smackdown feud. It’s been good but I never need to see that Under Siege thing again.

Here’s Stephanie McMahon to open things up and it’s full on heel mode this week. She talks about having huge decisions to make that we can’t fathom and needing help for those moments. This includes a General Manager like Kurt Angle, who comes out to address last week’s incident. Angle says there was a raid last week but Stephanie wants to know how the Smackdown roster got into the building.

Kurt doesn’t know and we’re off to the races with Stephanie cutting off his balls. She recaps every single thing in that condescending voice of hers and rips on Angle for every decision on the road to Survivor Series. Stephanie asks why Angle put Jason Jordan in the spot because John Cena was available but went to Raw. Angle says he’s going to start at Survivor Series and break Shane McMahon’s ankle, though Stephanie doesn’t think he can do that anymore. She’s about to fire him when Shield comes out.

They get a nice reaction but Stephanie cuts the fans off to tell them to cheer or boo. Ambrose endorses Angle for his work at TLC and gets annoyed at the YOU STILL GOT IT chant. Stephanie rips on Shield for losing the Tag Team Titles (to another Raw team but that doesn’t seem to bother her) and asks where Roman has been. Reigns asks where Stephanie has been for six or seven months (it’s been like three weeks) after her husband put her through a table at Wrestlemania. Shield wants to fight New Day on Sunday and will take care of business if New Day accepts.

Survivor Series Qualifying Match: Dana Brooke vs. Mickie James vs. Bayley

The other team members are on the floor and Mickie gets sent outside to start. Back in and Dana stacks them up in the corner for a handspring elbow. Bayley gets knocked off the apron and we take a break. Back with Bayley suplexing both of them and sending Dana outside for a Stunner over the ropes. Mickie hits a good looking flapjack into a nipup before dropping Bayley with a neckbreaker. A double faceplant puts Dana on the floor…..where she hits Asuka for some reason. That earns Dana a knockout kick to the head, leaving Bayley to hit the Bayley to Belly for the pin on Mickie at 7:31.

Rating: D+. Asuka looked the best out of all of the people involved with the match and there’s nothing wrong with that. Bayley winning was the right call and makes the most sense, though I could have gone with her losing and having to figure out where she had to go from there. Still though, it makes sense.

Enzo Amore/Drew Gulak vs. Kalisto/Akira Tozawa

Before the match, Enzo goes on an inane rant about Kalisto having short pockets and I have no idea what he’s talking about (as usual). Gulak and Tozawa start things off and some early heel double teaming fails. Kalisto springboards in with a dropkick and we take a break. Back with Gulak cranking on Tozawa’s neck until Tozawa kicks him down. Diving tags bring in Enzo and Kalisto with the masked one hitting a springboard crossbody. A missile dropkick drops Gulak and there are the back to back dives. Kalisto dives onto Gulak but the Jordunzo ends Tozawa at 7:47.

Rating: C-. At least it had some good looking dives. This was every lame Enzo match you’ve seen but thankfully there were some other people around to help take up the slack. Enzo vs. Kalisto hasn’t been interesting since Enzo got the title back but that’s what we’re stuck with for reasons of “well, we can’t just cancel 205 Live”.

We look at the opening sequence.

Team Raw is in the back with Angle making Finn Balor/Samoa Joe vs. Anderson and Gallows to make sure they can work together. Jordan on the other hand gets to face Bray Wyatt to prove that he’s not a handpicked choice in over his head. Braun Strowman wants Kane, which Angle grants.

It’s time for MizTV with the Miztourage in the background. Miz talks about Baron Corbin being his presumed opponent at Survivor Series, assuming Corbin doesn’t choke like he usually does. Corbin couldn’t even make it onto last week’s Smackdown but Miz always capitalizes on his chances.

Like tonight, when he faces the Shield along with his guests tonight: the Bar. The new champs come out and, after congratulating themselves on their win, say they’re real champions unlike the Usos. They’re going to jail break the Uso Penitentiary and show their superiority. Miz promises to take care of the Shield tonight because this is their moment.

We look back at Under Siege again.

New Day has accepted Shield’s challenge.

Jason Jordan vs. Bray Wyatt

Jordan isn’t scared and scores with an early dropkick before driving Bray into the corner. He actually scores with a belly to belly but Bray takes him outside and whips him into the barricade. Bray: “You don’t know what you’re messing with kiddo.” Back from a break with Bray working on the knee but stopping for a backsplash. The Rock Bottom out of the corner has the fans all peppy but they’re calmed down with Jordan getting in a right hand. Sister Abigail is countered into a rollup to give Jordan the pin at 7:16.

Rating: D+. Well that was flat. Jordan had nothing after the break and then wins with a simple rollup. I’ve liked Jordan’s push for the most part but this felt like a BIG stretch and too much at once. Bray is a former World Champion and Jordan casually pinned him like it was nothing. Jordan feels way out of place on that team and it would be nice to have him replaced, though I’m not sure if it would make sense.

Post match Bray beats the heck out of Jordan to a strong reaction. The bad knee is wrapped around the post and we get a THANK YOU WYATT chant. Jordan can’t put any weight on the leg and needs help getting out.

Post break Jordan is getting his knee looked at with Angle thinking of taking him out of Sunday’s match. Jordan begs to stay in but Angle doesn’t say anything.

Here are Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman to address AJ Styles. Heyman gets to the point: if the fans want to see Lesnar beat up Styles, it happens on Sunday. He’s seen Lesnar thrown into the ring with stronger opponents than he’s ever seen before, all of the people who could destroy most humans.

Now it’s AJ Styles, who lives up to the concept of speed kills. Heyman stops to yell at the crowd before saying Styles is the most talented in-ring performer of this generation. Some people might think that’s Finn Balor but Heyman will let people figure that out. Heyman goes over all the reasons that AJ could challenge Styles, but thinks a good old boy from Georgia isn’t going to survive against a Georgia Bulldog eating carnivore. Lesnar is the #1 champion in WWE, then now and forever.

If you want to see a Rocky movie come to live, Heyman gives you AJ Styles. Heyman lists off all the big names that AJ has defeated but this ain’t no freaking Rocky movie. AJ can’t survive the onslaught of the conqueror and he can’t survive the F5. Heyman looks forward to seeing AJ Styles in person on Sunday but this ends with Brock standing tall. Brock actually shakes some kids’ hands on the way out for a weird visual. Paul was all kinds of fired up here and it was great stuff.

Shield vs. Miz/The Bar

Rollins and Cesaro hit the mat to start and it’s an early standoff. A dropkick puts Cesaro down and of course he immediately checks his teeth. Dean comes in for some hard chops in the corner but Sheamus cuts him off with some hard shots of his own. Everything breaks down with Shield clearing the ring, including some double dives to the Bar. Miz and company bail into the crowd and we take a break.

Back with Rollins being thrown outside but Dean is right there to clothesline Cesaro. Sheamus dives into a superkick though and it’s a double knockdown. The hot tag brings in Reigns for his usual clotheslines as everything breaks down. Cesaro’s big uppercut gets two but Reigns is right back with the Superman Punch.

The spear is blocked with another uppercut though and it’s a blind tag to Miz. Reigns doesn’t notice and gets rolled up with a handful of tights for two. Rollins comes back in with the springboard knee, followed by Dirty Deeds to Sheamus. Miz is left all alone and there’s a spear, followed by the TripleBomb for the pin at 15:06.

Rating: C+. Normally I would get annoyed at the champions losing like this but what are you supposed to do when you’re against the Shield? It’s not like someone just pinned Miz clean as it was three people beating the heck out of him for the pin. Miz is getting closer and closer to the most days ever as champion (he’s less than four months away) and if nothing else has taken away his momentum before, this won’t either.

Clips of Kane vs. Strowman over the last few weeks.

Kane says he remembers putting Strowman in the garbage truck like a symphony of horrors. Tonight, he’ll show Strowman that there are worse things in life than death. Like him for instance.

Here’s Angle to announce that Jordan is off the team due to injury. Before he can name it though, Jordan comes out and begs Angle to let him do it. He’ll be fine by Sunday and he’s seen Angle fight injured so many times. Jordan says Angle picked him because he was the best option and it wasn’t favoritism. He won’t get another chance like this because he’s worked his whole life to get here and wants to represent Raw. Stephanie comes out and tells Kurt to make the decision but HHH comes out as well. HHH gets right to the chase: Jordan is out and he’s in instead. A Pedigree plants Jordan and that’s that.

Finn Balor/Samoa Joe vs. Anderson and Gallows

Joe shoves Balor into the ring to start and it’s rapid fire shots to Anderson early on. Gallows tries to sneak in a cheap shot but Joe runs him over with a clothesline and we take a break. Back with Balor slugging away at Gallows but Anderson takes him down into a chinlock. Anderson gets two off a spinebuster and we take a second break in eight minutes. Back again with Gallows kicking Balor down but a Pele allows the hot tag to Joe. House is cleaned and the Rock Bottom out of the corner plants Anderson. Joe dives onto Gallows and the Coup de Grace ends Anderson at 12:48.

Rating: C-. It says a lot when the match is nearly thirteen minutes and they barely showed enough of it to rate. Balor and Joe as good but unwilling partners (no mention of the Dusty Classic win in the whole match of course) is fine and they should be good additions to Sunday’s stacked match. Anderson and Gallows continue to fall apart as a team but that’s to be expected, sadly enough.

We run down Sunday’s card.

Alexa Bliss doesn’t care if she faces Natalya or Charlotte on Sunday. She doesn’t think much of Smackdown, which she usually DVR’s and forgets to watch later. Maybe she’ll just have to show up on the show. As usual, Bliss’ delivery and facial expressions were outstanding here as she really does come off like the most stuck up woman you want to see get taken down a dozen or so notches. That’s hard to do and she does it to perfection.

Kane vs. Braun Strowman

Strowman jumps Kane and I don’t think we had an opening bell. They head outside with Strowman driving him face first into the barricade but getting whipped into the steps. Kane pulls out a table as the referee isn’t even trying to tell them to get in the ring. Smart move actually. Some chair shots to the back just annoy Strowman, who takes the chair away and lights Kane up with it instead.

With the table set up at ringside, Strowman loads up a superplex, only to have Kane punch his way out to avoid a bad case of death. Kane gets knocked inside but can’t chokeslam him down. Instead it’s a middle rope ax handle and the running powerslam through the ring (that made me jump). The bell never rang so no match but that was quite the finish.

Overall Rating: C-. This is a really tricky one to grade as the bad stuff (anytime Stephanie was on screen, the reaction to Jordan, Wyatt getting pinned so easily and most of the wrestling in general) is a bit too much for the good to outweigh but the good is REALLY good. We now have HHH added to Survivor Series, New Day vs. Shield, Bayley on the team and a heck of a promo from Heyman. I’m a heck of a lot more excited for Sunday than I was coming in and that’s one of the best things you can say about a show like this. Good result but not the best trip getting there.

Results

Bayley b. Mickie James and Dana Brooke – Bayley to Belly to James

Enzo Amore/Drew Gulak b. Kalisto/Akira Tozawa – Jordunzo to Tozawa

Jason Jordan b. Bray Wyatt – Rollup

Shield b. Miz/The Bar – TripleBomb to Miz

Finn Balor/Samoa Joe b. Anderson and Gallows – Coup de Grace to Anderson

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