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Six Takeaways From WWE ‘Raw’ — Braun To Get Title Shot, Invasion, And More

By Dave LeClair
Published on: 15:29 PST, Nov 12, 2018

This week, Monday Night Raw aired live from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO. The two main promotional items leading into the show were the return of Stephanie McMahon and an appearance from Brock Lesnar.

Braun Strowman Will Get Another Universal Championship Opportunity

The opening segment of the show started with most of the Raw tag team division in the ring for a Battle Royal to determine which would be the captain of the Survivor Series team.

Within moments of the match starting, Braun Strowman came to the ring and took out all the competitors. He then threatened to hold the show hostage until acting Raw general manager Baron Corbin came to the ring.

Instead, Stephanie McMahon made an appearance and promised Braun a match with Corbin wherein Braun gets to choose the stipulation. She also promised Braun another chance to win the Universal Championship as long as he doesn’t put a hand on Corbin until after Survivor Series.

Dean Ambrose Finally Offers An Explanation

Dean Ambrose had a backstage segment where he offered some of his reasoning for turning on Seth Rollins on the very same night that Roman Reigns revealed that he has leukemia.

Basically, he implied that Seth and Roman talked down to him all the time. He said “maybe Rollins is wondering if he shouldn’t have talked to him like he was an imbecile.” Dean Ambrose also indicated that he’s always been this guy (the heel version we’re seeing develop now), but that Rollins was too self-absorbed to notice.

The promo offered a nice look into where the new Dean Ambrose character is going, and it moved the story forward. For their part, both Seth and Dean delivered quality performances. It ended with Ambrose lighting his Shield vest on fire, which is a nice bit of symbolism for him finally moving on from the group.

Raw Tag Team Survivor Series Squad Revealed

After Braun Strowman interrupted the tag team battle royal at the start of the show, WWE squeezed the match in the middle of the show.

It was a short match that came down to Roode and Gable against the Ascension. Roode and Gable won, making them the caption of the Raw Tag Team Survivor Series Squad.

After the match, WWE revealed that the full team would consist of Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, The Revival, The B-Team, The Lucha House Party, and The Ascension. The match will take place on the Kickoff Show for the Survivor Series event on Sunday.

Brock Lesnar Appears

Because of his limited dates, just an appearance from Brock Lesnar is newsworthy. His time on Raw tonight to promote his match with AJ Styles at Survivor Series was no exception.

With that said, there wasn’t much in the way of storyline development here. Ultimately, Lesnar stood there while Paul Heyman cut a promo about the rest of the SmackDown roster being lucky that they don’t have to face Brock, and that there’s no one on any roster that Brock wants to take to suplex city more than AJ Styles.

Jinder Mahal and the Singh brothers interrupted Brock’s segment. Brock pretended to participate in Jinder’s mantra before destroying all three of them with German suplexes and F5s. The Singh brothers really took some incredible bumps.

The most interesting thing about the segment was how over AJ Styles actually was. Even though Styles wasn’t on the show, the Kansas City crowd was happy to cheer him and boo Lesnar.

Lashley Qualifies For Men’s Survivor Series Team

The segment to determine whether Bobby Lashley or Elias would make the Survivor Series team kicked off with Lashley doing poses for the crowd (including his favorite pose, in which he bends over and shows off his gluts).

The crowd didn’t respond much until Elias came out and called child services on Lashley, stating that he’s kidnapped Lio Rush and that Rush couldn’t be older than 10. It was quite funny and got over with the crowd.

Everything wrapped up with a match where Lio Rush got involved and helped Lashley get the win and spot on the team. After the match, Elias threw Rush into Bobby Lashley, which looked quite impressive.

Women’s Survivor Series Team, Bayley Versus Sasha, And Invasion

To call the main event segment eventful would be an understatement, as a whole bunch of story development took place leading into the PPV event.

First, Alexa announced that the team would consist of Mickey James, Tamina, Nia Jax, and Natalya. She said that the fifth member would be the winner of a match between Sasha Banks and Bayley.

Ultimately, the match ended in a double disqualification when the three members of the Survivor Series team attacked both competitors. Since neither woman won, Alexa announced that the fifth member of the team would be Ruby Riott. While the match ended up being pointless, Bayley and Sasha both worked hard and it was a great match.

The big angle occurred after the Riott came out when they cut to the back where Becky Lunch was giving Ronda Rousey a Disarmer (Ronda cut a great promo on Becky earlier in the show). After officials separated the two, Lynch came to the ring from the back, and the rest of the SmackDown women came through the crowd and attacked.

A large brawl took place, and it ultimately ended with Becky Lynch standing tall, covered in blood. It was a good angle to bring hook viewers into Survivor Series. It wasn’t clear when Becky got cut during the melee.

An important thing to note is that Alexa Bliss isn’t in the match, nor did she participate in any of the physical aspects of the segment. As reported by Inquisitr, she’s had multiple concussions, and we don’t know when she’ll return to action.

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ronda rousey Monday Night Raw dean ambrose Braun Strowman Alexa Bliss
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