One day after the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, WWE returned to the ThunderDome inside Orlando’s Amway Center for Raw. Newly-crowned champion Randy Orton immediately discovered how deep the waters would be for his fourteenth run as world champion.
Orton not only had unfinished business with Drew McIntyre after beating him inside Hell in a Cell, but also found himself in the crosshairs of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt. Orton was a guest on A Moment of Bliss, where Alexa Bliss teased the problems that could be facing the champion before The Fiend arrived to make his presence known, but not before McIntyre made an appearance to get some licks in.
CBS Sports was with you all night, bringing you recaps and highlights of all the night’s action. Read on to see everything you need to know on the Hell in a Cell fallout edition of Raw.
Randy Orton has a Fiend problem
A “mad tea party” edition of the Firefly FunHouse aired early in the show as Alexa Bliss hosted alongside Bray Wyatt. Bliss gave Ramblin’ Rabbit poisoned tea and when Rabbit didn’t die, Wyatt beat him to death. The segment was largely a tease for Bliss’ interview later in the show with Randy Orton, including Wyatt staring blankly into the camera when Orton’s name was mentioned. Orton would later be interviewed backstage, saying he had no concerns about appearing on A Moment of Bliss despite the clear threat of The Fiend appearing — or an attack by Drew McIntyre.
Orton’s appearance on A Moment of Bliss closed the show, and rather than The Fiend or Drew McIntyre involving themselves, it was both. After Bliss mentioned that Orton and McIntyre had “burned the house down,” Orton became even more aware of what was happening with The Fiend, having burned the Wyatt Compound in 2017. But it was McIntyre who came to the ring first, immediately attacking Orton until the lights went out to signal the arrival of The Fiend. Orton was backing his way up the entrance ramp when he realized The Fiend was behind him and made the decision to head back toward the ring and the waiting McIntyre, where the two brawled until the show went off the air.
The ending of the show was overbooked, but in a good way, reminiscent of the best days of Monday Night Raw when chaotic segments were the norm. Orton and McIntyre continue to have unresolved issues, but The Fiend has inserted himself into the picture and there’s a lot of backstory with Orton to play off, even if some of that history was not good (House of Horrors, anyone?). A chaotic main event picture is a valuable thing in wrestling, and could keep things fresh as we head toward the Road to WrestleMania. Grade: B+
Survivor Series build begins
As expected, WWE will return to their now-standard Survivor Series format of SmackDown vs. Raw, both in five-man teams and champion vs. champion matches. NXT appears to have been left out of the mix this year despite dominating last year’s three-way matches. Three men qualified for the Raw men’s Survivor Series team by winning singles matches, while the entire women’s team was set by the end of the night.
Sheamus, AJ Styles and Keith Lee were the qualifying men, while Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke and Lana make up the women’s team. Full results for those matches can be found in the recap section below. Also announced for Survivor Series: Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns, Asuka vs. Sasha Banks, New Day vs. Street Profits and Sami Zayn vs. Bobby Lashley.
I’m fully in favor of leaving NXT out this year, but I’m old school and prefer that three and four-way matches are left as very rare special attractions, which has not been the WWE way in recent years. Also positive on the show was the quality of the qualifying matches. All three men’s matches were outstanding television matches with satisfying finishes. The only downside is that, with several weeks of TV before the PPV, it would have been nice to see the women receive the same treatment of having qualifying matches. I’d prefer that build to the weekly invasion angles we’ll be seeing as Survivor Series draws near. Grade: B
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- Survivor Series Qualifying Match — AJ Styles def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall after a Phenomenal Forearm. Jordan Omogbehin played a role as Styles’ bodyguard on the outside, but Styles outlasted Hardy in a very solid TV match. After the loss, Hardy was attacked from behind with a guitar by Elias.
- Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik) def. Drew Gulak & Akira Tozawa via pinfall after Dorado hit Gulak with a crossbody. Early in the match, R-Truth made his way to ringside and Tozawa nearly pinned him to win the belt. In the ensuing chaos with all the match competitors trying to win the 24/7 title, Dorado hit a crossbody on Gulak when Truth ducked, allowing him to score the pin and win the tag match. The pin attempts on Truth continued until the champion ran backstage.
- Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler confronted Adam Pearce about Team Raw on the women’s side. Both women provided a list of who should be on the team at Survivor Series while each claiming they would be team captain only to have Pearce blow them off.
- Survivor Series Qualifying Match — Keith Lee def. Elias via pinfall after a Spirit Bomb. Lee dominated early, including a big pounce on the outside that knocked Elias over the ringside announce table. Elias was eventually able to turn things around by using the ring post to knock Lee onto the defensive. As Elias seemed ready to take the win, Jeff Hardy’s music hit, distracting Elias and allowing Lee to hit a Spirit Bomb for the win. Following the match, Hardy attacked Elias from behind, hitting him with a guitar to return the favor from earlier in the night.
- The Hurt Business def. Retribution in an eight-man elimination tag match. Bobby Lashley and T-Bar brawled out of the ringside area, resulting in the two big men being eliminated from the match. Eventually things came down to Mustafa Ali against Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. Ali used a chair to hit Alexander, losing by disqualification before running away from the rest of the Hurt Business members. Ali cut a promo later in the night saying that Retribution wasn’t about winning and losing and that they would win when they made WWE suffer and shut their opponents down.
- Drew McIntyre def. The Miz via pinfall after a Claymore. The match was a product of Miz and John Morrison interrupting McIntyre’s show-opening promo, with the new Mr. Money in the Bank taunting McIntyre for his title loss. Morrison tried to help Miz throughout the match, but McIntyre was simply too much in the end, taking out Miz with relative ease.
- The Raw women’s team for Survivor Series was revealed. The picks, as revealed by Adam Pearce, were Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke and the winner of a fatal four-way between Lana, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce and Nikki Cross.
- Survivor Series Qualifying Match — Lana def. Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce and Nikki Cross via pinfall after pinning Evans after a Tower of Doom spot in the corner involving the three other women. After the match, Nia Jax hugged Lana before putting her through the announce table with a Samoan drop.
- Survivor Series Qualifying Match — Sheamus def. Matt Riddle via pinfall after a Brogue Kick. This was a very good match. Hard-hitting stuff that saw Sheamus outlast Riddle before wearing down his back to counter a tombstone and hit a follow-up Brogue Kick for the win.