Welcome back to the blog. RAW was LIVE from the Wells Fargo Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart kicked off the thirtieth anniversary, there were audio issues during this promo, salutes to the sound guy for running out and handing Hogan another microphone, he saved this from being a complete mess.
There were various montages of some of the top moments in RAW's history throughout the show.
The Bloodline walked to the ring for a Tribal Court to decide the fate of Sami Zayn as a member of the prestigious group. Paul Heyman acknowledged the ECW chants, the crowd was in full support of Sami here.
We saw footage/exhibits of Sami possibly betraying the Bloodline. he said he had no defence, Jey Uso stopped Solo Sikoa from hitting Sami with the spike, he had footage in defence of Sami.
When all was said and done, Roman said Sami was not guilty and will remain in the Bloodline for now until his final test at the Royal Rumble.
Jimmy and Jey Uso took on Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio with their RAW Tag Team Championships on the line. Jimmy suffered an injury, Sami took his place, with Adam Pearce's approval. This was a great match, Sami pinned Dominik to win the match and ensure The Usos remained RAW Tag Team Champions.
There was a backstage segment involving The Godfather, Ron Simmons, JBL and Baron Corbin as they entered a poker tournament.
LA Knight was talking about his current feud with Bray Wyatt. He was interrupted by the legendary Undertaker, we got the American Badass version of the character, theme song and all, this was great nostalgia, Knight stopped talking after he was interrupted by Bray Wyatt.
Undertaker threw Knight to Wyatt who hit Knight with a Sister Abigail. Taker appeared to give Wyatt some advice before leaving the ring. This felt like a passing of the torch moment.
The poker tournament continued backstage where we saw Hall of Famers Diamond Dallas Page and Alundra Blayze to name a few.
Damage CTRL attacked Becky Lynch and locked her in the Steel Cage before the match began. A lot of people were complaining about this on social media, the consensus is this was cut short due to previous segments going over their allotted time.
DX were joined in the ring with Kurt Angle to continue the nights Anniversary Celebrations before they were interrupted by Imperium. Gunther challenged DX to a fight, they declined, Seth Rollins music hit, he answered the challenge along with the Street Profits.
Teddy Long announced it would be Imperium vs. Street Profits and Seth Rollins in a six man tag team match playa! Kurt Angle was the special referee and Jerry "The King" Lawler joined the commentary team for this one. Seth Rollins and Street Profits defeated Imperium.
We saw more Hall of Famers, Ted DiBiase and IRS, who took all of Corbins winnings, Ron Simmons saw what happened and said, yes you guessed it. DAMN!
Bobby Lashley and MVP talked backstage ahead of Lashley's United States Championship opportunity against Austin Theory.
Ric Flair introduced his daughter, the SmackDown Women's Champion, Charlotte, who made her way to the ring. She was interrupted by the RAW Women's Champion, the EST, Bianca Belair. Sonya Deville interrupted the champions and was challenged by Bianca, the match was made official during the commercial break. Bianca Belair defeated Sonya Deville.
Bianca and Alexa hyped up their match at the Rumble.
The build to Cody's return continued.
Kevin Owens stunned The Miz and put Roman Reigns on notice ahead of the Rumble and then hit Miz with another Stunner.
Brock Lesnar returned during the No Disqualification Match for the United States Championship and hit Bobby Lashley and Austin Theory with F5's. Theory landed on Lashley to get the pinfall win, the closing moments of the show felt rushed. let's see where this goes next in terms of storyline progression.
That does it for the review, if a rating has to be given it would be a five out ten, the first hour of the show was great, however, things seemed to hit a bump and slowed down as time went on.
Be sure to check out the archives on this website as well as the upcoming schedule.
Thanks for reading.