Monday Night Raw from Miami Florida opens with a quick rundown of tonight’s show.
See Alexa Bliss backstage and she walks up to Kurt Angle. Alexa asks why Kurt booked her to face Asuka tonight, to which he says he wanted to book a good match. She says Asuka attacked her unfairly and she shouldn’t get rewarded. Bliss says Asuka is in the Rumble match anyway, so if she wins she gets to face her anyway. Angle says she can’t change his mind and tells her she is lucky it isn’t a Championship match. Angle’s music hits and he says he has to go.
General Manager Kurt Angle comes to the ring to a raucous crowd and welcomes us to Raw and 2018. Angle says 2017 was a great year for him and he’s excited to see what this year brings. He reminds us of Raw’s upcoming 25th anniversary, then the Royal Rumble. Angle mentions John Cena’s participation in the Rumble match and says that it’s time to discuss the rules of the women’s Rumble match. Angle says that what is good for the men is good for the women, so the same rules apply. 30 women will enter the match and he expects a Raw superstar to win both matches and headline WrestleMania.
Sheamus and Cesaro, The Bar, come out to interrupt Angle. Sheamus says that they were robbed last week. “You look stupid” chant breaks. Cesaro says that they cannot stand favoritism. He gave his son a tag team title shot. What he did after the match was too much says Cesaro. They shows a clip of last week’s main event, with Kurt Angle applauding and hugging Jason Jordan. The Bar asked for a rematch tonight. Kurt Angle says that they will get their rematch when he says so.
Jason Jordan’s music hits and he comes out. Jason says that if he didn’t deserve an opportunity at the tag team titles, then why does he have the title? Jason says last week’s opportunity was based off his track record not his DNA. Seth and him earned the tag titles. They start arguing, then Kurt Angle makes a match right now. Seth Rollins comes out. Seth tells Jason that even though they are tag champions, he has a lot to learn about being a teammate. Seth explains that Jason was outnumbered right now. That needs to stop being so self-absorbed. Seth tells Jason that he will be in his corner tonight, but the way he sees it, he is out here tonight to watch him lose. Right then Jordan gets attacked from behind and he’s down as we head to the break.
*Commercial Break*
Jason Jordan Vs. Cesaro
Uppercut by Cesaro as soon as the bell rings. Jason fights back with a drop kick and a cover but Cesaro kicks out. Jordan has Cesaro in the corner, Cesaro fights back with an uppercut again, and then again. Takedown by Cesaro and applies a sleeper hold.
Jordan eventully fights back and gets to his feet. He picks Cesaro and runs into the corner with him, to commentators talk-up Jordan’s strength. Sheamus gets up on the apron to distract Jason, this allowed Cesaro to attack Jason’s knee, while distracted. Cesaro continues to work on Jason’s left leg/knee. Both men are up and Jason clotheslines Cesaro and then back body drops him to the outside, while limping on his leg. On the outside, Cesaro drops Jason leg-first on the apron, then high fives Sheamus.
*Commercial Break*
Cesaro still in control and we see Jason down on the outside. Cesaro throws him back in. Uppercut by Cesaro. Cesaro applies a half crab on Jordan. Both men are back up and Cesaro delivers a couple of uppercuts. Jason tries to fight back with a couple of belly to back suplexes. Jordan delivers a modified Perfect Plex and looks for the pin but Cesaro kicks out.
Cesaro returns to attacking the leg, then Jordan is down leaning on the second rope, and Sheamus hits him. Rollins takes out Sheamus on the outside and the fans erupt. In the ring, Jordan delivers the belly-to-back neckbreaker for the shock win!
Winner: Jason Jordan
Jordan celebrates on the ramp and Rollins offers him an applause. Worth noting the fans popped for Jordan’s win.
Roman Reigns is being interviewed by Renee Young. She asks him about his title match tonight. Roman calls Joe a punk and says at one point he would have called him a great opponent, but not after he hurt Ambrose . He says tonight it’s going to be intense and ugly and he can’t guarantee he won’t get disqualified.
Bray Wyatt makes his entrance amidst a sea of fireflies. He’ll be in action, next!
*Commercial Break*
Back from commercial we get a promo from Sasha Banks backstage about how her New Year’s resolution is to win the women’s Royal Rumble and go on to win the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania.
We return to the ring and out comes Bray’s opponent, Apollo Crews accompanied by Titus Worldwide.
Bray Wyatt Vs. Apollo Crews W/Titus O’Neil & Dana Brooke
The bell rings and they lock-up. Wyatt backs Crews to the corner and makes a clean break. Apollo ducks a running attack from Bray and manages to put him in a headlock and grounds him.
Wyatt throws him to the apron, but Crews nails a kick and an elbow drop for a quick one count. He gets another one count with a nice dropkick. Bray knocks him off the top turnbuckle and brings him down with a jawbreaker. Dana Brooke and Titus O’Neil cheer him on from ringside as we head to a break.
*Commercial Break*
We return to see Wyatt holding Crews down with a headlock. He punishes Apollo with some strikes until Crews hits a running kick out of desperation. He starts to build some momentum against The Eater of Worlds with a standing shooting star press. He follows up with a moonsault off the apron to take Wyatt off his feet.
Wyatt counters a sit out powerbomb attempt and sets himself up for Sister Abigail by hanging upside own in the corner. Brooke gets on the apron and Wyatt locks eyes with her. He scares her into falling into Titus’ arms, pretty funny. Crews tries to take advantage of the distraction, but Wyatt counters with Sister Abigail for the win.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Broken Matt Hardy cuts in and says last week he transformed Bray’s fireflies into his Woken Warriors and now he’ll devour the darkness he spews across WWE and convert it into light! He’s the consumer of terrestial entities but he can’t escape his woken wisdom for much longer because Matt is an omniscient ghost that haunts his dreams, and once Abigail’s power is no more, he will delete Wyatt! Hardy starts laughing and the video multiplies so that there are dozens of him on screen before snapping back to being just one of himself and leaving his mouth agape.
We see Nia Jax walking backstage, seemingly about to leave the arena, when she’s approached by Alexa Bliss. Alexa says she needs her in her corner tonight but Nia says that Enzo is in the E.R and she really needs to go take care of him. Alexa can’t believe it and says it’s either Enzo or her, to which Jax apologises and walks away. It seems we won’t be having our Cruiserweight Championship match.
Alexa Bliss will take-on Asuka, next! We get a video for the 25th anniversary of Raw.
*Commercial Break*
