WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 9/14: Raw Gets “In Your Face,” Drew vs. Lee, Dominik vs. Rollins in a Cage, Asuka Defends Against Mickie, Street Profits vs. Cesaro & Nakamura, Raw’s Greatest Creation

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
ORLANDO, FL. AT THE THUNDERDOME IN THE AMWAY CENTER
SEPTEMBER 14, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM SPECIALIST

Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe

Top Three Developments from Last Week

• WWE Champion Drew McIntyre gave Randy Orton three Claymore Kicks. The first was when he interrupted Orton’s show opening promo, as Drew returned driving an ambulance into the arena. The next was during a match with Orton and Keith Lee. The third was when Orton was being interviewed leaving the arena. Several weeks ago, Orton gave McIntyre three kicks to the head.
• Cedric Alexander turned on Ricochet and Apollo Crews during a six-man tag match eventually won by the Hurt Business (MVP, U.S. Champion Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin). Later, the four-man Hurt Business featuring Cedric defeated Apollo & Ricochet & the Viking Raiders.
• Retribution interrupted a handicap match between Nia Jax and the Riott Squad (following another handicap match between the Squad and Shayna Baszler in which Liv Morgan pinned Shayna) and cut their first on-air promo since “debuting” many weeks ago.

Items Advertised by WWE for Tonight

To counter Monday Night Football which returns tonight with two games including my N.Y. Giants taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 7:10 p.m. game (I will be watching Raw late tonight), WWE gets “In Your Face.” Here’s what’s advertised:

• Drew McIntyre goes one-on-one with Keith Lee.
• Dominik Mysterio and Seth Rollins clash in a Steel Cage Match.
• Raw Women’s Champion Asuka defends against Mickie James.
• The Street Profits battle Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura in a Champions vs. Champions Match.

Non-Title Match: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Keith Lee

Well that didn’t take long. Keith Lee, who made his Raw debut the night after SummerSlam, is set to take on WWE Champion Drew McInytre in a non-title match tonight.

In that debut, Keith took on Randy Orton, who is set to challenge Drew for the WWE Championship at Clash of Champions. The match ended when Drew interfered, who was getting revenge for Orton attacking him earlier. Keith acknowledged Drew as his friend when Drew was taken to a local medical facility following Orton’s third attack on him that night.

Keith and Drew haven’t said anything significant to each other on social media, but for some reason Drew and Tyson Fury have trash-talked each other (we know where that’s headed). There was a video several weeks ago of Keith and Drew “sparring” in advance of their title matches during SummerSlam weekend where Drew defended against Orton and Keith defended the NXT Championship against Karrion Kross. Here’s that clip if you so desire to check it out:

Frank’s Analysis: I don’t like Keith getting involved in another match that will likely have shenanigans. He’s already had two matches with Orton that ended in a DQ (or non-finish … yeah, I call it DQ). I’m of the old school mentality of building someone up with strong wins before moving them into a bigger match, let alone with your current champion.

Steel Cage Match: Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins

In the latest chapter of the feud between Seth Rollins and the Mysterios, Rollins and Dominik go one-on-one in a steel cage match tonight. Last week, Dominik defeated Murphy in a street fight. Murphy was looking to even the score since he was “cast aside” by Rollins following their tag team match loss to Dominik and Rey at Payback. Following the match Murphy was beaten down with a kendo stick by the entire Mysterio family (Dominik, Rey, Angie and Aalyah). This was revenge for the kendo stick beatdown Dominik got from Rollins and Murphy many weeks ago. Here’s the family following the attack:

This was Rollins before Raw last week:

Penance isn’t paid by polishing rust on a sinking ship. Dig deeper, my disciple.#ForTheGreaterGood

— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) September 7, 2020

Frank’s Analysis: I’m admittedly mentally exhausted thinking about this match. There’s not much more to say after seeing versions of these people feuding for over three months now. I’d like to see Rollins do something else as well as Dominik. He’s done a nice job, and I want to see if he can move from Rollins. That said, I would think the end point of this feud is Rey vs. Rollins, so we’ll see if something happens tonight to point us in that direction.

Raw Women’s Championship: Asuka (champ) vs. Mickie James

Mickie James gets a shot at gold as she challenges Asuka for the Raw Women’s Championship. She last pursued the title around three years ago when she challenged Alexa Bliss. Mickie’s last title reign in WWE was back in 2010 when she held the previous version of the Women’s Championship.

Mickie returned to Raw recently and after an unceremonious first match with Natalya, she “threw down the gauntlet” so to speak by telling Asuka she was going after the championship. In true WWE format, last week they teamed together and defeated Natalya & Lana. Asuka and Mickie have battled over WWE gold before as they wrestled for the NXT Women’s Championship at Takeover: Toronto back in 2016. Here’s a WWE exclusive interview with Mickie:

Frank’s Analysis: While I would have preferred this be saved for Clash of Champions, I look forward to this match. They can get a great match out of each other, and I wouldn’t mind a series of matches. Shenanigans are likely though with Natalya & Lana seemingly involved.

Champions vs. Champions Match: Street Profits (Raw Tag Team Champions) vs. Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura (Smackdown Tag Team Champions)

Last week, the Street Profits once again defeated Andrade & Angel Garza. Following the match, Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura from Smackdown made a surprise appearance. They traded verbal insults including Cesaro referring to the ridiculous series of challenges the Profits and Viking Raiders had a while back and Angelo Dawkins referring to Cesaro & Nakamura as “The Bar 2.0.” (Cesaro & Sheamus were multiple-time tag team champions as The Bar from 2016-2019) Cesaro challenged the Street Profits to a champions vs. champions match.

The Street Profits interrupted Cesaro & Nakamura on Smackdown by crashing their “championship lounge,” distracting & causing them to lose their non-title match with Lucha Houe Party. Tonight, thanks to the “quarterly brand-to-brand invitational,” these two teams face off in a non-title champions vs. champions match. Cesaro & Nakamura were none too pleased at the Street Profits following their antics on Smackdown. Here they are on Twitter as well as a WWE exclusive:

who messed our #championslounge? we make them pay what #streetprofits did. pay you back double!#倍返しだ !! pic.twitter.com/irGwZrvLrS

— Shinsuke Nakamura (@ShinsukeN) September 12, 2020

Why? #smackdown pic.twitter.com/pmDD8o6Xae

— Cesaro “Espresso” (@WWECesaro) September 12, 2020

Frank’s Analysis: If this leads to a match where the titles are merged and the tag champions float between the shows, I will sign for that. If the women’s tag team titles can float between shows, so can the men’s titles. There’s not enough depth nor do you need two sets of tag team championships. I’d go so far as to say that for the women’s singles title, but one thing at a time.

Mandy Rose

It was announced by the Miz on Talking Smack that Mandy Rose was traded to Raw. Mandy had recently feuded with her former best friend Sonya Deville after Sonya corroborated with Dolph Ziggler to keep Otis (Heavy Machinery) and Mandy apart earlier in the year. She eventually became romantically involved with Otis and would frequently accompany him to the ring.

WWE framed this on their website as another way for Miz and John Morrison to get Otis to part with his Money in the Bank contract. They have been trying to get it from him the last few weeks. Here’s Mandy’s response on Twitter, as she retweeted WWE’s announcement:

… what? https://t.co/mr3wqDwQ0K

— Mandy (@WWE_MandyRose) September 12, 2020

Frank’s Analysis: I was wondering what had happened to the Otis-Mandy storyline. This just adds someone to the mix for Raw. No offense to Mandy, but I don’t see her having any impact unless WWE surprises us with bigger plans.

Other Match Results & Notable Segments from Last Week

• Peyton Royce defeated her former IIconics tag team partner Billie Kay. They hugged after the match. Here’s Peyton in a WWE exclusive:

• Aleister Black took on some nobody and then Kevin Owens in Raw Underground. Dabbo Kato got involved and slammed both men.

Final Thoughts

I don’t agree with Raw loading up a show just to compete with Monday Night Football, especially if they’re going to pull shenanigans in matches that don’t deserve them. I don’t care so much about Dominik vs. Rollins since we’ve seen it 20 million times, but the other matches deserve a real ending and a proper build for that matter (especially Drew vs. Lee). That said, by the time this report comes out I will have been on Wrestling Night in America with Pro Wrestling Torch columnist Greg Parks. Check that show out as well as this past Friday Night Smackdown Wade Keller Pro Wrestling post show where Wade and I broke down Smackdown!

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.