SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
ORLANDO, FL. AT THE THUNDERDOME IN THE AMWAY CENTER
OCTOBER 26, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe
Top Three Developments from Last Week
- In the opening match, The Hurt Bussiness (U.S. Champion Bobby Lashley, MVP, Cedric Alexander, and Shelton Benjamin) defeated Retribution (T-Bar, Mace, Slapjack, and Mustafa Ali) when Lashley tapped out T-Bar. Before the match “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt appeared with Alexa Bliss, followed by Retribution coming out, and then the Hurt Business. Bray reappeared after the match and attacked all of Retribution with the Hurt Business looking on.
- A.J. Styles with his new “heavy” Jordan Omogbehin defeated Matt Riddle. Here’s A.J. in a WWE exclusive:
- Braun Strowman defeated Keith Lee in a rematch. Afterwards Keith kicked Braun on the bits. Here’s Keith in a WWE exclusive:
Hell in a Cell Results Pertinent to Raw
- R-Truth defeated Drew Gulak to retain the 24/7 Championship.
- Elias defeated Jeff Hardy via DQ when Jeff hit Elias with a guitar. The match came about because of Jeff attacking Elias after he performed a song last week on Raw. Here’s Jeff in a WWE exclusive:
- The Miz defeated Otis to win the Money in the Bank contract. Tucker hit Otis with the MITB briefcase with the referee not looking, betraying his former Heavy Machinery partner. Here’s Miz in a WWE exclusive discussing the possibility of cashing in MITB:
- Bobby Lashley defeated Slapjack of Retribution to retain the U.S. Championship.
- Randy Orton defeated Drew McIntyre in a Hell in a Cell match to win the WWE Championship. Here’s Randy in a WWE exclusive:
Items Advertised by WWE
We move past Hell in a Cell and start to turn our attention towards Survivor Series. Yes folks, it’s that one time of the year where Raw and Smackdown face each other in the battle for brand supremacy. Last year, NXT joined the fray and won, which proved they were the superior brand!
I’m sorry. I’m not proud. I dread this time of year. You all must share in my pain. Maybe they won’t do brand supremacy this year. Yeah not likely, but one can hope!
WWE does not have any advertised items yet, as is typical the day after a PPV. Let’s look at the major developments from last night and last week.
New WWE Champion Randy Orton
Last week, Randy Orton closed the show inside the Hell in a Cell cage talking about his history inside the ominous structure. Now-former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre came out and cut open the cage. The show ended with them staring at each other with Drew entering the cage. Last night, Randy won his 14th overall world championship in WWE when he defeated Drew for the WWE Championship inside Hell in a Cell. While Randy has been involved in several championship matches at the Hell in a Cell PPV, it was the second time he won the title inside the “cell” at the event. At the first event in 2009 he defeated John Cena. He retained the title over Sheamus the following year. Drew had been champion since WrestleMania when he defeated Brock Lesnar. He retained the title in his last two defenses against Randy at SummerSlam and Clash of Champions, in which they had an ambulance match. In his reign he retained over Big Show, Seth Rollins, and Dolph Ziggler.
We move forward with Randy as champion and await his first challenger. With Survivor Series as the next PPV, we’ll see if they hold off on setting anything up and go with the “champion vs. champion” match with Randy facing Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Last year they didn’t do that as Brock Lesnar defended the WWE Championship against Rey Mysterio while Bray Wyatt defended the Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan.
Frank’s Analysis: It’s interesting to see them put the title on Orton when they appeared to line up heels in the draft for Drew McIntyre to work with over a period. They could be setting up a rematch, or Drew going off and doing sometime else and then reconvening with Randy down the line to get his win back. As far as Randy winning the title, I don’t have a problem with it, but with which babyfaces is he working? Are they heading towards a title match with Edge? They haven’t built up Keith Lee despite him beating Randy at Payback. Braun Strowman, I suppose is possible, but not all that exciting. They have damaged Ricochet, Matt Riddle, and had Jeff Hardy lose a DQ to Elias. Maybe they’ll pull someone from the Hurt Business since they’ve been portrayed as babyfaces? I really don’t know, and spit balling is all I can do.
New Mr. Money in the Bank the Miz
The Miz is now Mr. Money in the Bank as I mentioned earlier. It’s the second time he possesses the contract after winning it in 2010 at the initial Money in the Bank PPV. Ironically, he cashed in on Randy Orton later in the year following Randy retaining over Wade Barrett on an episode of Raw in the Amway Center. Miz earned the right (sort of) to wrestle Otis for the contract at Hell in a Cell last night because of JBL ruling so during a Law & Otis skit this past Friday on Smackdown.
It will be interesting to see if Tucker gets involved with Miz & John Morrison because of Tucker turning on Otis last night. We’ll also watch to see when he cashes in.
Frank’s Analysis: It doesn’t matter what happened here because it’s low card, and I don’t want to give it too much thought. Miz has been jobbed out so much for me to care when he cashes in. Maybe Otis benefits from this, but I have my doubts.
Retribution and Hurt Business and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (oh my)
I talked about what happened between Retribution, the Hurt Business, and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt last week in the top three developments. The story continued last night when Mustafa Ali, the new leader of Retribution, challenged Hurt Business leader MVP to a match between one guy from each of their groups. As I mentioned in the results of Hell in a Cell, U.S. Champion Bobby Lashley defeated Slapjack to retain the title.
Ali and T-Bar of Retribution are the most vocal on social media. They put up a LOT of tweets. Here are the latest, which aren’t much, but they like to cryptic:
Good thing God built me to last. Not done yet. #HIAC pic.twitter.com/h3Karx2Msv
— Mustafa Ali / Adeel Alam (@AliWWE) October 26, 2020
Daily reminder that nobody cares what you think.
— T-BAR (@TBARRetribution) October 26, 2020
We’ll find out how they move forward with this very strange dynamic between two heel factions (Hurt Business and Retribution) and heel Bray Wyatt.
Frank’s Analysis: As a pilot, sometimes we do what’s called a missed approach. When we’re landing in bad weather conditions such as low clouds, the instruments in the airplane guide us down to a point where if we see the runway and the winds aren’t howling, we can land. If we don’t see the airport, we fly a missed approach procedure, and decide whether we’re going to try another approach or divert to another airport. In the case of Retribution, the field is socked in, and the winds are howling. Divert the flight, land, send them back to the hangar, and take the gimmick permanently out of service! I don’t understand Bray’s involvement. You can say he’s going babyface, but why? Besides all the others he’s terrorized just did so to Kevin Owens and transformed Alexa Bliss against her best friend. I get he’s cool to some, but with which heel do I want to see him work? Everyone that work with him is worse off afterwards. As far as the Hurt Business goes if they’re turning them, then just do it. It’s crazy they just turned Cedric Alexander against Ricochet to join the group, but the announcers have praised the move so why should I be mad at Cedric? Ricochet is a defined-down jobber. I’ve clearly put more thought into this than Vince McMahon.
Other Match Results and Stories from Last Week
- Asuka defeated Lana to retain the Raw Women’s Championship. She got her weekly Samoan Drop through the announce table courtesy of WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion co-holder Nia Jax.
- Speaking of Nia, she and her championship partner Shayna Baszler defeated Smackdown’s Riott Squad (Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan), Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose, and Lacey Evans & Peyton Royce in a fatal four-way to retain their titles.
- Raw Tag Team Championship co-holder Kofi Kingston of New Day defeated Sheamus one-on-one.
- Mustafa Ali of Retribution, in a backstage promo with his group, discussed his joining the group and their mission. He admitted to being the “hacker” on Smackdown.
- The Hurt Business rejected Titus O’Neil’s request to join the group by attacking him backstage.
- Tucker & El Gran Gordo (Otis) defeated the Miz & John Morrison.
- Another episode of the Firefly Funhouse aired with Bray Wyatt. Alexa Bliss made her first appearance on the skit.
Final Thoughts
I don’t have much to add outside of what I’ve talked about. Like anything with wrestling, we have to wait and see how things play out. It’s just very strange to see where things are currently. With Survivor Series around the corner, and the imminent brand supremacy battles to take shape, we’ll see what stories continue and what gets put on hold.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.