SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
ORLANDO, FL. AT THE THUNDERDOME IN THE AMWAY CENTER
NOVEMBER 9, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe
Afternoon Update
This afternoon, WWE put out their official preview and announced four matches:
- Drew McIntyre & Raw Tag Team Champions New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs. WWE Champion Randy Orton, Mr. Money in the Bank The Miz, and John Morrison. Drew was advertised to be on A Moment of Bliss with Alexa Bliss, but that has been pulled.
- Second Chance Triple Threat Match to determine the final spot on team Raw for Survivor Series: Jeff Hardy vs. Riddle vs. Elias. In previous qualifiers Jeff lost to A.J. Styles, Riddle lost to Sheamus, and Elias lost to Keith Lee.
- Ricochet vs. Mustafa Ali. This is as a result of Ali and Retribution attacking Ricochet and Tucker as I mention later in the report.
- Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Women’s Tag Team Championship co-holder Nia Jax. WWE does not specify if this match is non-title or not, but my guess is that it’s non-title.
Original Report
The rest of this report is what was published earlier based on what was advertised and what I anticipated.
Top Three Developments from Last Week
- Braun Strowman qualified for team Raw at Survivor Series by defeating Keith Lee and Sheamus in a triple threat match. Before the match A.J. Styles declared himself the champion and after the match, Sheamus hugged Braun. Then there was a bunch of fighting.
- After they interacted on another edition of the MVP Lounge, the Hurt Business (Shelton Benjamin & Cedric Alexander) defeated Raw Tag Team Champions New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) in a non-title match. Here’s the Hurt Business in a WWE exclusive:
- Drew McIntyre defeated “Mr. Money in the Bank” the Miz & John Morrison in a handicap match but was RKO’d by WWE Champion Randy Orton to close out the show.
Items Advertised by WWE
We take another step towards Survivor Series which comes to us Sunday November 22. This past Friday on Smackdown we learned that Seth Rollins and King Corbin joined Kevin Owens and Jey Uso with one spot to go. One spot remains for team Raw which now features Braun Strowman, Keith Lee, Sheamus, and A.J. Styles. One item is advertised for tonight:
- Drew McIntyre to be a guest on A Moment of Bliss
A Moment of Bliss: Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre continues his quest to regain the WWE Championship after dropping it to Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell. Drew defeated Brock Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania and retained it over the likes of Big Show, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Dolph Ziggler, and Robert Roode. Last week, his long-time friend Sheamus approached him about being on team Raw for Survivor Series, but he said his focus was on regaining the title. He went so far as to interrupt Miz from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract as he tried to take advantage of champion Randy Orton, who was treated to a Claymore Kick from Drew as “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt’s effects were playing while Randy was on A Moment of Bliss. Randy returned the favor at the end of the show as I mentioned earlier in the top three developments.
This week, it’s Drew turn for a “moment” as he joins Alexa on A Moment of Bliss. Here’s the video hyping the segment tonight which WWE put on their Twitter account as well as a “cryptic” tweet by Alexa:
With his sights firmly set on WWE Champion @RandyOrton, @DMcIntyreWWE joins @AlexaBliss_WWE for “A Moment of Bliss” this Monday on #WWERaw! pic.twitter.com/QysLSbyYFh
— WWE (@WWE) November 8, 2020
https://twitter.com/AlexaBliss_WWE/status/1325256231502684160?s=20
Frank’s Analysis: I was on the Raw post-show with Pro Wrestling Torch columnist Zack Heydorn last week and we talked about the playing field around the WWE Championship. I’ve thought about it more since, and while I’m intrigued, I’m also worried about the Fiend’s involvement in this. He doesn’t need to be involved in the WWE Championship picture. It’s hard to say where this is all going, but if I had to guess Fiend and Orton will have a feud. Whether that involves the title remains to be seen. What I’m really curious about is what you do with Drew moving forward. I suppose a feud with Sheamus could work for a while, but then what? I’d have to imagine he’ll get the title back at some point because I don’t see him being that legacy star that can have non-title feuds just yet. There’s a lot more ground to mine with him as champion.
More Survivor Series Build
I mentioned the participants thus far in the men’s Survivor Series match. One spot remains on each time. I talked about Sheamus trying to get longtime friend and former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre on the Raw team, but his focus is on regaining the title. There are plenty of wrestlers left including Ricochet, Angel Garza, and Humberto Carrillo amongst others. Ricochet defeated Tucker last week but were attacked by Retribution after the match. Angel Garza talked about feelings and held up a rose.
For the women’s match it’s WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke, and Lana on the Raw side. Last week, Nia & Shayna retained their titles over Mandy & Dana. Nia later brutalized Lana in a one-on-one match, and yes folks … she put her through the table with a Samoan Drop. On the Smackdown side it’s just Bianca Belair and Ruby Riott for now.
I mentioned Retribution earlier as well as Ricochet and Tucker. Here are some exclusive videos with Reckoning (Mia Yim) talking about wanting to dethrone Raw Women’s Champion Asuka, and Ricochet calling out Tucker’s betrayal of Otis:
Other Match Results and Stories from Last Week
- Jeff Hardy defeated Elias in a guitar on a pole match. Here’s Jeff in a WWE exclusive:
- U.S. Champion Bobby Lashley defeated R-Truth in a quick match. Truth then lost his 24/7 Championship to Drew Gulak. Here’s Drew in an exclusive:
- Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss ran another episode of the Firefly Funhouse. There was lot of telling people to go f*** themselves and a recalling of when Randy Orton burned down Bray’s house nearly four years ago.
Final Thoughts
As I talked about with Zack last week, it’s hard to be inspired by WWE around Survivor Series time. We had one caller last week, which tells me people are just not into this brand supremacy nonsense. They’re trying to be different this year calling it “Best of the Best.” Listen to me WWE. That tagline belongs exclusively to the movie Top Gun. I will say I look forward to Survivor Series because I enjoy the elimination matches and I don’t mind the champion vs. champion stuff, but there are just no stakes. It’s kind of similar to professional sports’ all-star games. That said we’ll see what they have in store tonight.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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