Another week, another Raw to look forward to, maybe. It’s 50/50 sometimes. It’s your NXT guy here James Toal covering for Elliot Dyson this week because he remembered Emmalina is debuting this episode and he was in such shock that he went into a coma and won’t be back until next week. SO! enough prattling on, let’s recap what happened on RAW this week.

Stephanie Mcmahon came out and announced that she had given Mick Foley the week off. Roman Reigns then came out demanding to take on Braun Strauman right then and there, this led to Stephanie mocking Roman and said that the audience doesn’t care about his well-being(were the Boo’s not a big enough of a giveaway?). Roman stated that he doesn’t care about what she thinks about him or who cares about his safety. Seemingly with nothing better to do this week, The Good Brothers,  Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, come out to defend Steph’s honour and challenge him to a handicap match, and Steph does her best teddy long impression and agrees to the match.

Roman managed to get the first attack in before the brothers even got inside the ring. But, he was soon pummelled by Gallows and Anderson so the ref was forced to DQ. Even when he was beaten down, Roman fought out of the magic killer and managed to stand tall in the ring. “woohoo” I said in a totally enthusiastic tone.

HERE’S SOME OTHER SHIT THAT ALSO HAPPENED:

– Kofi faced Bo Dallas, Bo Dallas destroyed The New Day’s ice cream blue-prints. So, they poured Booty O’s cereal down Bo’s throat and watched as he squirmed and died (Disclaimer: Bo Dallas didn’t die, but now he coughs up booty o’s for the rest of his life)
– Jack Gallagher interrupted Neville being interviewed, Neville then told Jack that he is not on his level. Jack responded by calling Neville a “bloody pillock”. PG Swearing at it’s finest.
– Noam Dar took on Jack Gallagher. Gallagher won with his corner dropkick but Neville came down looking pissed right off and stared him down.
– After seventeen weeks. SEVENTEEN. WEEKS. Emmalina finally showed on on Monday Night Raw. Guess what happened. She said she’s going to get the makeover of Emmalina… into Emma. What does this all mean? I think some analysts around me have come to the conclusion, that this, in professional terms, was a total waste of fucking time.
– We got some backstage shots of Triple H whispering to Kevin Owens which may or may not have impacted a moment later on in the show.
– Braun Strauman vs Mark Henry, Strauman managed to dominate and even though Mark Henry fought back. Braun won with his power slam. Roman came down after the match to fight Braun but was taken down with ease.
– After an intense interview with Samoa Joe which actually made Joe look intimidating. We had Sami Zayn vs Rusev, it was hard fought but Sami Zayn won with the helluva kick. Sami on interview post match called out Samoa Joe who had bad mouthed him. But, Samoa Joe then ambushed Sami and left him motionless on the floor.
– Akira Tozawa proved he is a valuable asset for the cruiserweights as he actually managed to get the crowd invested in his match against Ariya Daivari. Tozawa won with the quick German suplex into a pin.
– Enzo took on Cesaro after the hassle last week where they caused Sheamus and Cesaro to lose their match against Gallows and Anderson. Cesaro picked up the win with his patented uppercut.

Mid-show, we got the long-awaited reveal of what the Festival of Friendship actually was. We got glamourous ladies leading Chris Jericho down to the ring, Chris himself was dressed in a shiny as hell jacket and hat, and fireworks galore. But, it didn’t end there. We got the art of Jericho, “Sculpt it in, maaaaaaaaaaaan” with the image of Chris and Kevin put into the creation of David painting, soon to be someone’s desktop wallpaper I assume.

Kevin himself seemed to have thoughts on other matters but Jericho persisted by bringing in a magician (who then got put on the list as all magicians should be) and to put the icing on the cake called out Goldberg. He appeared… not Goldberg though, GILLBERG! #BestReturn, #GillbergvsEllsworth2017. Kevin not seeming amused took out Gillberg, but after Jericho poured his heart into how good of a year he’s had with Kevin, they hugged it out (Aww). Kevin brought out a gift for Jericho (Awwwwww), Jericho opened the box and saw that’s a new list, (Awwww isn’t that cute). But it had Chris’ name on it, and the list was revealed as the list of KO. Kevin took down Jericho, power bombed him into the apron, and slammed his head into the tv monitor. Well, holy shit.

The last match of the night was Bayley vs Charlotte for the women’s championship. “Let’s go Bayley/ Let’s go Charlotte” chants filled the room as Charlotte dominated with a series of holds but Bayley managed to reverse and get back into the match. But, every time it looked like Bayley would get ahead, Charlotte managed to keep control. After a Moonsault off the barricade from Charlotte, Bayley started to gradually come back and got the macho man elbow on Charlotte and even used the Frankensteiner off the top rope. The match started to come to a close once Bayley got the figure 4 leg lock on Charlotte but this was interrupted by Dana Brooke with a rake to Bayley’s eyes, which left Charlotte to get the lock instead. Sasha banks came down and took out Dana with her crutches, then hit Charlotte while the ref wasn’t looking. The match ended with a Bayley to belly suplex and we have Bayley is the Women’s champion.

I thought that they might’ve built this main event up to WrestleMania for a bigger pop, but it was a good match. What will happen at Wrestlemania with the women’s title? maybe Charlotte, Bayley and Sasha for the title in a triple threat similar to last year? We’ll have to see. Anyways this has been James Toal covering RAW and we’ll see what happens next week as we are heading into Fastlane.