Main Event – November 16, 2017: The Smart Choice
Main Event
Date: November 16, 2017
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Vic Joseph
It’s the go home show for Survivor Series and I’m not sure if that’s going to mean anything around here. The best hope I have here though is last week’s episode containing a clip from Smackdown, which you never see around here. It would make sense again this week and would help set up Survivor Series. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Heath Slater vs. Curt Hawkins
Slater pauses to start and throws Curt the I’VE GOT KIDS shirt. That’s fine with Curt, who sends him shoulder first into the post. Some stomping sets up a chinlock before a quick leg trip keeps Heath down. Back up and Slater avoids a charge into the corner, setting up Sweetness for two. Hawkins can’t hit a superplex so Slater grabs a top rope sunset flip for the pin at 4:49.
Rating: D+. Just a match that you would expect these two to have, though the switched up finish worked as a nice change of pace. Slater is a perfect choice to open something up as you’re going to get an entertaining little match and the fans are always going to cheer for him. Nothing to see of course but at least the reaction worked.
We look at Jason Jordan defeating Bray Wyatt on Raw but getting beaten up soon after.
From Raw.
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.
From Raw again.
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.
Very quick clip of Paul Heyman’s promo on Raw.
Tony Nese vs. Gran Metalik
Nese poses to start and runs Metalik over with a clothesline for an early two. Tony misses a charge though and gets caught with a dive as we take a break. Back with Nese getting caught on top, allowing Nese to get two off a gutbuster. A superkick cuts Nese off though and it’s the Metalik Driver for the pin at 6:15. Not enough shown to rate but it was exactly what you would expect.
Pay per view rundown.
Clip of AJ Styles’ promo from Tuesday.
And again, from Smackdown to close the show. New Day vs. Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens ended when Shield came down and then everything went nuts.
Sami and Owens bail to the floor, leaving New Day to get beaten down. The Usos come in but the Bar cuts them off. We see the Raw women’s team invading the Smackdown women’s locker room for the big brawl with Charlotte taking the big beating. Back in the arena, Samoa Joe and Finn Balor run in along with others, only to have Shane lead some reinforcements. Shinsuke Nakamura starts striking away but Kurt Angle shows up to bring out Braun Strowman for the real house cleaning.
Everyone brawls to the floor where Shield surrounds Shane McMahon. Shane has to watch as Smackdown is decimated on the floor, including Samoa Joe breaking the trombone over Big E.’s back. Angle gets in the ring and asks Shane how this feels before a TripleBomb plants the boss. Angle takes off his jacket and gives Shane an Angle Slam. Strowman watches as it’s a second TripleBomb to end the show.
Overall Rating: B-. The ending helps this one (again) and the HHH stuff helped a lot too. They were smart to go with the Smackdown stuff here again as that’s far more interesting than most of the stuff on Raw. I’ll be glad when the Raw vs. Smackdown stuff is done but at least it’s been entertaining while it’s lasted.
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