By: Keila Cash
Hello everyone and welcome to the Christmas Edition of The Raw Exposé. Tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw emanated from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. This is the first time WWE has aired a LIVE show on Christmas night which is quite remarkable, to say the least. Did the company give us something to cheer about this holiday season or did they give us a lump of coal instead? The answer to that question can be found throughout this blog. Since the first hour of Raw was commercial free, here is my random stream of consciousness covering all the yuletide festivities. Enjoy!
· John Cena is a classic act for giving his t-shirt and hat to a young fan in the audience.
· Elias saying that WWE stands for Walk With Elias is absolutely genius.
· Elias serenaded the crowd with a song dissing the city of Chicago. Cena cut him off and told The Drifter to make amends for being a jerk.
· Elias agreed and remixed the song to make it more fan friendly. Cena joined in by singing the last line from “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, but Elias sucker punched Cena as he dissed Chicago and the Christmas holiday for being overrated.
· Elias challenged Cena to a match which took place after the commercial break moments later.
· John Cena defeated Elias with the AA in a decent match. Elias dominating 80% of the action got a little tedious down the stretch, but this was a nice spot for him to showcase his stuff against the biggest star in WWE. Elias has grown by leaps and bounds since his main roster call-up, but there is still room for improvement heading into 2018. His future is super bright versus the go away heat he received in NXT.
· Kurt Angle announced two championship matches set for later tonight as Sheamus and Cesaro defend the Raw Tag Team Titles against the unlikely duo of Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan while Roman Reigns squares off against Samoa Joe for the Intercontinental Championship.
· Hideo Itami defeated The Brian Kendrick with the GTS in a decent match. Kendrick had a few hope spots, but the outcome was never in doubt. Itami should fit in the Cruiserweight Division if he rediscovers the fire that burned so brightly in Japan before the injury bug bit him during his run in NXT.
· Absolution defeated Bayley, Mickie James, and Sasha Banks when Paige pinned Bayley with the Ram-Page in a good six-woman tag team match. The heels dominated the action early on with the best spot of the match taking place at ringside when Sonya Deville nailed Banks with a sick clothesline. Banks played the babyface in peril until she made the hot tag to Bayley.
· Bayley and Paige went at it and appeared that Bayley had the match won when she dropped Paige with the Bayley-to-Belly, but Mandy Rose and Deville pulled their leader out of the ring before the referee counted the pinfall.
· This led to a full-on melee which saw Banks and James take out Rose and Deville which allowed Bayley to take out Paige by herself. However, Paige outsmarted Bayley and pinned her clean as a sheet as the first hour of Raw came to an end.
· The Chicago crowd cheering on Bayley put a smile on my face because her character has been put through the ringer over the past six months or so. Major market crowds have turned on her, but Chi-Town still showed the Hugger Extraordinaire some love because they can see through the bullshit booking. For that, I give them virtual air kisses and hugs for not being bamboozled.
· Step one of Rhyno toughening up Heath Slater backfired when Kane defeated Slater with a Chokeslam in a quick match. Rhyno tried to avenge his tag team partner, but he ate Chokeslam as well. Season Beatings!
· Curtin Hawkins’ losing streak now stands at 0-147 as Finn Bàlor pinned Hawkins with the Coup De Grace in a quick and decisive match.
· Woken Matt Hardy unleashed his new character in front of a live audience for the first time when he attacked Bray Wyatt from behind. Hardy tried to nail Wyatt with the Twist of Fate, but the Eater of Worlds rolled out of the ring. Hardy grabbed the microphone and laughed manically as he led the crowd in a Delete chant while Wyatt looked on from the main stage. The Great War of 2018 is upon us. Yaaaaaaaassss!!!!
· Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, and Akira Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak, Ariya Daivari, and Enzo Amore in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight when Alexander nailed Daivari with the Lumbar Check for the win. Christmas Trees, wrapped presents, candy canes, and cookie trays were used as weapons as the crowd ate up the holiday hijacks. It was a harmless and fun way to set up the Cruiserweight Championship match between Enzo and Alexander which takes place next week from Miami, Florida.
· Nia Jaz and Enzo Amore were about to share a kiss under the mistletoe until Alexa Bliss cock blocked her best friend. Bah Humbug!
· Samoa Joe defeated Roman Reigns via disqualification when Reigns kicked too much ass which caused the referee to ring the bell. Until the bullshit finish, Joe and Reigns were having a good match that featured hard-hitting action throughout.
· Joe putting Reigns in the Coquina Clutch was the highlight of the match as the fans became unglued at the possible tap/pass out. Joe had the hold cinched in, but Reigns grabbed the rope to break the hold.
· From there, Joe targeted Reigns’ left elbow as he dropped him with a tope which caused Reigns to slam into the barricade.
· Reigns got back on offense by using his right hand to attacked Joe in the corner which resulted in the DQ moments later.
· Reigns didn’t let up as he nailed Joe with a Superman Punch before hitting him in the shoulder with the steel steps. He nailed Joe with another Superman Punch at ringside and was about to finish him off by hitting him with a steel chair, but he hit the ring post instead as Joe moved out of the way to avoid certain doom.
· Reigns wanted to avenge Dean Ambrose and almost succeeded by taking out Joe’s elbow. The Battle of the Badass Samoans will continue because Joe is due a rematch for the Intercontinental Championship after Reigns got intentionally disqualified. It should be a good one if no one gets DQ’d the second time around.
· Braun Strowman destroyed Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel in a Secret Santa match when Strowman pinned Dallas with a Running Powerslam. Axel suffered the same fate as Strowman gave everyone what they wanted 6X over. Have a Holly Jolly Strowmas!
· Alexa Bliss cut a great promo about wanting credit for the women having the first-ever Royal Rumble match next month in Philly. Asuka came out and announced that she was entering and winning the Rumble because no one was ready for Asuka before kicking Bliss in the head. I guess the message sent and received accordingly.
· Who says title changes can’t take place on Christmas. Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan defeated Sheamus and Cesaro to become the NEW Raw Tag Team Champions when Jordan dropped Cesaro with an Elevated Neckbreaker for the win. This was a very good match that featured fast-paced and hard-hitting action throughout.
· Rollins played the babyface in peril as The Bar isolated him from Jordan early on. Jordan tried to intervene, but Sheamus slammed him against the barricade which prevented Rollins from making the hot tag.
· The crowd willed Jordan on his feet as he got back in the ring to attack Sheamus. This allowed Rollins to make the tag as Jordan cleaned house. Jordan was in a couple of near fall situations, but Rollins bailed him out of trouble. Rollins took out Sheamus by slamming him against the steel steps which led to the finish moments later.
· Raw went off the air with Rollins and Jordan celebrating in the ring while Sheamus and Cesaro sulked on the floor as their 2017 came to a disappointing end.
· This was an interesting title switch. One can assume that Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were going to win the Tag Team Titles until Ambrose’s elbow injury sidelined him for an unspecified period of time. Jordan being Ambrose’s surrogate should create an interesting dynamic heading into 2018. Jordan had no problem saying that he was better than Ambrose and proved it by winning his biggest match to date. Will he become an honorary Shield member or is he too vanilla to don the SWAT gear?
· In all seriousness, don’t expect Jordan to change his less than innocent ways based on this title win. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and I expect the other shoe to drop sooner or later because WWE has been dropping hints that Jordan is not exactly the boy next door. The big reveal should be good if everything is executed properly. In the meantime, Angle is the doting father celebrating his son’s biggest win to date. All is right in the world. For now…
· Overall, I thought tonight’s episode of Raw was solid. It was a light and carefree show that featured good wrestling action throughout. WWE didn’t go overboard with the holiday hijinks as they kept the cornball comedy to a minimum. All in all, this was a nice way to spend Christmas night as a diehard wrestling fan.
On that note, this wraps up another edition of The Raw Exposé. I hope you enjoyed it and I will be back tomorrow night with a brand new installment of The SmackDown Files. Merry Christmas, boys and girls!
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