It’s Monday night again, and time to see what RAW has in store for us this week. The preview says we’re getting Roman Reigns taking on Miz, for the Intercontinental Championship, Seth Rollins versus Brawn Strowman, and some shenanigans from Neville and Alexa Bliss. Sounds ok to me so far.

I’m Amanda, and I’ll be your guide through RAW this week.

After a short silence to honour the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, the show opened with a recap of last week’s goings-on between Roman Reigns, Miz and the Miztourage. We’ll be seeing them later for the IC title match.

Seth Rollins vs Braun Strowman

A match to start the show proper, rather than 20 minutes of talking. We are honoured indeed.

As expected, much of this match involved Seth Rollins proving he bounces. It wasn’t bad actually. Entertaining. Especially if you enjoy seeing Rollins getting flattened.

He gave it a good shot, even got the upper hand for a while, with a little help from the ring post. Braun Strowman won with his running powerslam, then delivered another for good measure. He turned back towards the ring, as if to go back for a third when Dean Ambrose appeared to save Rollins. Despite Ambrose best efforts, Strowman beat him up for a while as well.

Just when we thought the segment was finally over, Sheamus and Cesaro came out. Ambrose took a Neutralizer, Rollins took a Brogue kick. Then it was over.

Other stuff that happened

– Alexa Bliss left Mickie James a walking frame and pack of incontinence pads as a gift, leading to James having a match with Nia Jax (Bliss and Jax are friends again now, apparently).

– Bray Wyatt cut another incomprehensible promo

– Elias’ singing wasn’t interrupted quickly enough, but he eventually had a match with Titus O’Neil. It was short. Elias won with Drift Away.

– Mickie James vs Nia Jax took place with Alexa Bliss at ringside. It went a lot longer than expected. Mickie James took a lot of punishment and gave a lot too. She hit Jax with a tornado DDT and would have got the three count if Bliss hadn’t broken the pin. James won by disqualification and got her own back on Bliss on her way out.

– Renee Young asked Enzo Amore what it was like to be abhorred by the whole division, and Enzo was speechless. Speechless Enzo is the best Enzo.

– Kurt Angle gave Mickie James a title shot a TLC.

– Matt Hardy and Jason Jordan had a match against Gallows and Anderson.  A good match as it goes. I think it’s a great idea to have Jason Jordan spend some time with Matt Hardy, hopefully, some of Hardy’s charisma will rub off on Jordan. They lost though. Gallows and Anderson hit the Magic Killer on Hardy for the win.

– Roman Reigns interviewed, mainly about what happened to Rollins and Ambrose. Another Shield reunion signpost. They may as well be up on neon signs at this point. I hate that they appear to be wasting this reunion on the Miztourage. The rumour is, there may be a bigger plan. I really hope so.

– There was a Susan G Komen segment with Dana Warrior presenting replica belts (with a pink background and side plates) to breast cancer survivors. The RAW women’s division was in the ring.

The Miz (C) vs Roman Reigns – Intercontinental championship match

This came an hour and forty minutes into the show. I’d expected it to be the closing segment.

Miz and the Miztourage did the Shield entrance.

Reigns decided to take out Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas before the match. He chased Axel through the crowd, to the stage, took him out with a chair, then took out Dallas as well.

Roman Reigns started well, but got thrown into the steps, then over the barricade, and barely made it in before the ten. Miz was in control for a while, and Roman Reigns was getting duelling chants ‘Let’s go Roman, Roman sucks’. There were even some straight up supportive chants. Hats off to Miz, that’s almost a miracle. There are still a lot of boos, but it’s progress.

Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale, but Reigns kicked out. Miz kicked out of the Superman punch. Reigns was building up for the spear, when Sheamus and Cesaro pulled him out of the ring and attacked him. Reigns won by disqualification but got beaten down by Miz and The Bar.

Everyone was expecting Ambrose and Rollins, surely they weren’t going to let that slide. Especially when Miz and The Bar returned to the ring and hit the Shield triple powerbomb on Reigns. Nope, no sign of them. You know it’s coming though.

FUN FACT: Next week’s RAW is from the same arena The Shield debuted and broke up in. Take what you will from that.

More stuff that happened

– Bray Wyatt may now be turning into Sister Abigail. He’s clearly losing the plot. In response to a long and winding promo from Finn Balor, Wyatt said Abigail is alive and is dying to meet Finn (it’s the abs, it’s always the abs). Looks like we’re getting a demon vs whatever Abigail is match. All the face paint, but if Bray comes out in a dress, I’m out.

– Wow! A second women’s match. How wonderfully unexpected. Oh, it’s another tag match. Sasha Banks and Bayley vs Emma and Alicia Fox. Apparently, Emma picked Fox so she could prove it was Nia Jax fault she lost last week. This week, Emma walked out on Fox at the end of a pretty decent match. She evaded the tag attempt, and walked away, leaving Fox to take the Bayley to belly and get pinned. Really good match, and it got nearly 10 minutes. Sasha Banks was bleeding from the mouth, I’m not sure what from. Looked like an Alicia Fox kick.

For the second week running, the cruiserweights closed out the show. If sticking Enzo Amore in as champ has done nothing else, it has at least got the division into a prominent place on the RAW running order – although the ratings, and tv clashes, might have more than a little to do with the decision.

Enzo Amore got his voice back for this segment. He said the entire cruiserweight division, and any haters who agree with them can go to hell. He laid out the fact the cruiserweights were getting no reaction, and that they’ve now been the main event twice in a row, then boasted about how much money he makes. Interesting that there are no custom plates on the cruiserweight belt yet.

Apparently, as the no-contact clause didn’t work, he now has a clause saying if anyone touches him they get fired.

Of course, the entire division came out and surrounded him. They all stood on the apron while Amore walked around in the ring insulting each one in turn. He taunted them with the, anyone who touches him gets fired clause, until Kurt Angle came out.

Angle said Amore was right, but none of it applied to the brand-new cruiserweight that Angle had just signed. Then out walked Kalisto. A slight disappointment, although it’s the right move for Kalisto, I was hoping for someone unexpected and new. Anyway, Kalisto went to the ring, hit the Salida del Sol, job done.

The final shot of the show was Roman Reigns nursing his injuries in the locker room. Dean Ambrose, then Seth Rollins, came and stood either side of him. It was all very intense; no words were exchanged. Next week will be interesting.

Raw seemed to have a long match theme this week. No complaints about that at all. Long may it continue. We were gifted two women’s matches as well, I’m pleased with that, although some storylines would be nicer. All in all, a decent episode of RAW with more wrestling and a little less filler than normal.