As we begin the month of November, we get closer and closer to Survivor Series. With that being said, RAW focused on the women that will be on the red brand’s team for the traditional Survivor Series match. And by focus, I mean, have them against each other.
There are still a couple of shows before the big event, but at this rate, this team will never be on the same page. Before I get into what happened with those five women, let’s go over how Alexa Bliss impacted Randy Orton’s night.
Orton kicked off the show and gave an emphatic statement that he is a legend. He challenged anyone in the back to prove him wrong. He named several people from Drew McIntyre to The Miz to even The Fiend. No sooner than he said The Fiend’s name, the music of Alexa Bliss played. Bliss made her way to the ring.
Once in the ring, Orton circled her while looking for where The Fiend could possibly come from. Bliss smiled the entire time as she puts her hands up to her chin to show her gloves that say Play and Pain. She slowly removes her hand that says Play while keeping up the Pain. She then says, “He could be here.”
The light then turns red and Bliss lifts her arms up in the air. The Fiend would end up not showing up, but McIntyre does and delivers a Claymore.
Later in the night, there was a Firefly Funhouse. Bliss introduces the swear jar after Abby the witch became a little vulgar with her words. She also showed a surprise that you can see below.
There was one more moment with Bliss as Nikki Cross approached her backstage. Cross says that Bliss hasn’t answered any of her messages. She blames The Fiend for Bliss not answering her. The whole time Bliss has her back towards the camera. As Bliss doesn’t respond to her, Cross turns her around which reveals her “icy stare” as she smiles.
Now we can get into the two matches of the night. As stated earlier, the two matches revolved around the dissension between the members of the RAW Survivor Series team. The first match was for the Women’s Tag Team Titles and it was the champs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler defending against Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose. At first, this was not scheduled as a title match but it is as if creative just realized there is such a thing as the tag titles.
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (c) defeat Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose to retain the Women’s Tag Team Titles –
The match itself was actually pretty enjoyable for me. Brooke and Rose took on a lot of offense and it wasn’t just a quick squash match in any way. There were several near falls and the team work between the two was great. Generally with Jax and Baszler they make them look unbeatable, I didn’t feel that this time.
Lana was at ringside (who is the fifth member of the Survivor Series team) which ended up being the reason why Brooke and Rose didn’t win. She ended up on the apron which threw off Brooke and she wound up in the Kirifuda Clutch. Baszler won the match for her team by submission to retain their titles.
The second match was formed when Jax was being interviewed backstage. She said she would either make Lana leave the RAW Survivor Series team or she will simply end her career.
Nia Jax defeats Lana
Jax basically played with Lana for the entire match. She belittled her both mentally and physically. Lana wouldn’t just lay down though and she continued to get up.
They are truly building up Lana as the underdog and if there is a payoff for this then I am all for it. Lana would end up losing the match and then be put through the announce table for the seventh time. I partly wished that Lana would have won somehow which would have angered Jax even more.
If there is a payoff, it should be that either Lana is the sole survivor from the Survivor Series match, or she gets a new tag team partner and wins the titles.
The other women on the show were Lacey Evans & Peyton Royce in a short backstage promo in which they mocked the Survivor Series team, particularly Lana. I am not really sure why we are randomly putting these two together. How do you break up The IIconics and randomly put two people together?
Asuka wasn’t present on the show this week. Granted she is facing Sasha Banks in the normal Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series, they could still be doing something with her. She should be having a feud. This is where either Royce OR Evans should be used as singles competitors. Preferably Royce, because why break up a tag team if there is no point?
Let’s get to the Winners & Losers of the week:
WINNERS: Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose
I know they lost the match, but in my opinion, they looked strong throughout. They were never dominated or made to look weak. I definitely can see them defeating Nia & Shayna who is being built up so much as unbeatable.
WINNER: Alexa Bliss
Bliss continues to excel in this role. It makes me wish they would have done this a while ago, but I guess it has come at a perfect time. I really want to see her face Nikki in a feud. They could really do some fun stuff if given the time.
LOSER: Asuka
Sadly, Asuka has to wind up on the losing end this week. They haven’t done really anything with her in the past two week’s but now they didn’t even have her on. They could be building up to something for after Survivor Series but that takes too much effort to not be lazy about her booking.
LOSERS: Peyton Royce & Lacey Evans
I don’t get it.
My last note from this week, which seems to be what we will get until after Survivor Series, is I don’t like all the women grouped together. They have backed themselves in a corner that they are just going to have the five women on the team fight amongst each other for the next couple of weeks.
This is why I hope they at least put Alexa vs. Nikki in the ring.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
