Samoa Joe Contract Signing: Joe came down and signed his contract, then Roman came down to ruin the party. For a complete review of this segment, click here.

Nia Jax vs. Bayley: Bayley actually made Nia work in this match. There were a couple back and forth segments and the match stretched over a commercial break. There was a moment in the closing sequence where they re-created a little Hulk vs. Andre action, as Nia charged at Bayley who was leaning against the post, Bayley moved and Nia smashed herself against the LED board, Bayley followed it up by driving Jax into the ring post one more time for good measure. Just as Bayley looked like she was going to win by count out, Charlotte came down to distract Bayley giving Nia the chance to slide back in the ring, hit the Samoan Drop on Bayley and get the win.

Braun Strowman in a 4 on 1 Handicap Match: Strowman came out looking as angry and scary as ever. This week WWE figured they’d go back to old-school booking strategies to make The Monster Among Men look strong in a match we haven’t seen in a while (that wasn’t a punishment), a 4 on 1 handicap match. There were four nervous jobbers in the ring, with hands in the middle.

It didn’t take Corey Graves to make a reference to the Power Rangers before Braun started throwing everyone around the ring. Braun smashed every man in order and one even went bolting toward the exit. Braun kept throwing stiff forearms and eventually hit the jobber in green trunks with his running powerslam for the win. Oh yeah, he stacked everyone on top of each other before he pinned them all. That was a nice touch.

Braun then took the microphone and called Foley out for not giving him any competition. Strowman said, “I warned you, not I’m going to find you.” Then he left to go find Mickles. He went backstage and Mick answered his call. Braun said “I want everyone.” Foley then booked Roman Reigns to face Strowman at Fastlane. So, Roman Reigns is the equivalent of ‘everyone’ now. That’s fun.

Akira Tozowa vs Drew Gulak: The two cruiserweights battled back and forth a little before Tozowa started to no sell some chops and he turned things in his favor with a stiff right hand. Gulak hit the mat and took a stiff looking kick to the chest. Tozawa wound up on the outside for a moment, but Gulak just threw him back in without doing anything out there for a two count. Tozowa turned things around with a hurricanrana and then a forearm which sent Drew to the outside, then Tozawa hit him with a nice looking suicide dive that hit his target perfectly. Once he got inside Tozawa dropkicked the knee and followed it up with a shining wizard for a near fall. Drew got back on his feet, got knocked around a little bit more, then Akira hit the bridged german suplex for the three-count. Good Raw debut for Akira Tozowa.

Goldberg vs. Kevin Owens Match Set For Fastlane: After the break, Kevin and Chris have a little tiff about the fact that Chris Jericho volunteered him for a match with Goldberg. Kevin gets angry and says that accepting his match is not “having my back” and storms off while Jericho looks bewildered as to why KO would be upset by this.

Related: Goldberg Makes The List Of Jericho, Lesnar vs. Goldberg Confirmed For WrestleMania 33

Raw Tag Team Title Match: Enzo and Cass are ringside, apparently, we missed their deal on the microphone this week. Michael Cole said that Enzo and Cass called dibs on the winner of this match. Both of these teams took it to each other hard, there were plenty of stiff kicks and forearms from everyone involved.

Cesaro and Sheamus did a really cool double team move that ended with The Swiss Superman hitting a nice looking double-stomp. Cesaro ended up getting laid out on the outside but Sheamus didn’t chase Gallows around the ring because Enzo and Cass were chilling in rolling desk chairs, blocking his path next to the ring.

When we came back from commercial Karl Anderson was in control over Cesaro. They took it to Cesaro for a bit and Anderson hit one of those beautiful spinebusters on Antonio. The Swiss Superman sidestepped Anderson and got the hot tag into Sheamus.

Sheamus got a close two-count on Anderson, but couldn’t quite pull off a rolling senton, then he got Anderson with the 10 Beats of the Bodhran. Cesaro and Sheamus hit Karl with a doubleteam move but Gallows broke up the pinfall.

Cesaro and Sheamus sent Gallows out over the rope right in front of Enzo and Cass. Gallows kicked Enzo in the head, and Big Cass returned the favour. When the ref saw Colin Cassidy big boot Gallows, he called for the bell.

Seth Rollins Injury Montage: Michael Cole says that Rollins’ WrestleMania match might be in jeopardy.

New Day vs. Shining Stars: The New Day come out as Corey Graves puts over the Shining Stars’ resort. Graves said that he got a great massage there, I’ll bet he did. Kofi calls the Shining Stars out about their resort and asks “who, who, who, who” has actually been there, answer: nobody.

Xavier got the microphone and cut a great promo about how they gave the people what they wanted (including ice cream bars) which concluded in him saying: “when the people were hungry we fed them Booty-O’s!” This gave Big E an opportunity to dump a box of the cereal all over a child at ringside. Don’t worry, the kid looked like he loved it.

Xavier and Big E represented New Day in this one as Kofi got to sit the match out. Shining Stars got the upper hand on Woods for a little while and put a nice little beating on Xavier. The former Consequences Creed was able to make the hot tag to Langston after a nice looking missile dropkick off the top rope.

Big E cleaned up with a few belly-to-belly suplexes and followed it up with a splash. Epico went for a roll up, but Xavier got the blind tag and they hit the ‘Midnight Hour’ on Epico as Woods screamed “ice cream!” He continues to yell “ice cream” throughout the pin for the win.

Chris Jericho Backstage Interview: Y2J is interviewed about his match against Sami Zayn tonight and Kevin Owens interrupted. KO said that he will beat “Bill” at Fastlane and he’s got Jericho’s back. The two hugged and everyone let go a huge sigh of relief that the two best, best, best friends of the WWE made it through yet another issue.

Rock n Roll Express Hall of Fame Video Package: Good for these guys, Ricky and Robert deserve it. Just seems like there’s something missing without Jim Cornette included in the package. Cornette’s involvement was greatly reduced during the video package to just a very quick blip too. But it is true, fresh off of their appearance at Total Nonstop Deletion’s “Tag Team Apocalypto,” the Rock n Roll Express are going into the WWE Hall of Fame.

United States Championship Match- Sami Zayn vs Chris Jericho: Chris and Sami had a pretty good match until Kevin Owens got involved. Y2J ended up retaining his United States Championship due to nefarious means. For a full report of this match-up click here.

Backstage Segment with Sasha Banks: Sasha is in the trainer’s office backstage when Charlotte came in to talk some trash to her. She reminded Sasha that Bayley got beat up by Nia in order to protect her honor. Charlotte then reminded her that she will destroy Bayley next week.

Neville Interview: Austin Aries is in the ring to remind us why he’s one of the best parts of having the cruiserweights on Raw. He introduced Neville to the ring for an interview segment. Aries said that there is breaking news, that TJ Perkins, Tony Nese, Cedric Alexander, Noam Dar, and Jack Gallagher will compete in a fatal five-way elimination match tomorrow night on 205 Live to determine #1 contender to get a shot at Neville’s belt at Fastlane.

Austin asked Neville which one of those men he is most worried about facing, in the middle of his response Cedric Alexander came out, followed by Noam Dar (of course he said Alicia Fox), then Gentleman Jack Gallagher came out, Tony Nese was out next, followed by TJ Perkins. All 6 men were in the ring, this broke out in a brawl/spot-fest, and the crowd went mild for the segment. Neville really is a good heel though as he acted like he was going to do an aerial maneuver, but stopped to get heat on himself.

Emmalina Promo!: Can’t wait for this to be worth the wait. Emmalina was promoted once again to be premiering NEXT WEEK!

6-man Cruiserweight Tag Match: The heels and faces from the previous cruiserweight segment got into two teams for this matchup. Gallagher took some punishment for a bit from the bad guys, and Nese hit a great looking leg drop on him that puts Hogan’s to shame.

They didn’t let Gallagher get the tag off to his team util he hit Nese with a mean looking headbutt that sent both men down. Gallagher got the tag off to TJ Perkins and he moved very quickly in the ring, but Noam Dar was able to get a dropkick off and went for the tag, but Neville jumped off the apron, took his belt, and left instead.

Cedric Alexander got the tag eventually and hit Noam Dar with his finishing move almost immediately for the win.

More From Kevin and Chris: The two best friends are backstage patting each other on the back when Jericho announces that they’re going to have the “Festival of Friendship” next week on Raw, live from Las Vegas. Jericho promises the “WrestleMania of Friendship.” Kevin says he wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sounds fun.

Hype Video for Elimination Chamber: They aired a good looking promo for the SmackDown exclusive Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on Sunday. So much for keeping the brands separate. But, at this point, it’s really just an idea, not necessarily written in stone.

Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns: Samoa Joe is out next for his debut match on Raw. Roman got a pretty heelish reaction from the crowd, but it was nothing compared to Joe as he jumped Reigns from behind. They’re really pushing that whole “ambush” angle for Joe.

Joe beat Roman down for a bit outside the ring and then rolled himself into the ring for a rather nice reaction from the crowd. Roman remained outside selling his injuries, and Joe went back outside to continue his assault. The bell hadn’t even rung yet and Roman already took a lot of damage.

When Raw came back from commercial both men were in the ring and Roman was selling his injuries looking like he had some internal damage. Joe punched Roman to the mat and hit Reigns with a headbutt for good measure.

Reigns fought back and Joe ended up on the outside, he threw Joe into the barricade and then rolled The Destroyer back in the ring. Roman kept up the fight on Joe and backed him into the corner with some punches. Joe reversed an Irish whip into the corner and hit Roman with a smash in the turnbuckle.

Joe hit Roman with some chops, but Roman didn’t feel them due to his illegal chest protector. Joe ended up knocking The Big Dog down, kicked him in the chest, and hit an elbow drop.

Joe hooked Roman and hit him with a snap suplex for a one-count. Joe grounded Roman with a submission until Reigns “hulked up” and got back to his feet. The two traded punches and Joe came out with the advantage.

Roman started hitting Samoa Joe with uppercuts and grounded Joe with a clothesline. Roman got Joe in the corner and hit him with 9 short clotheslines and another clothesline off of the ropes, but Joe didn’t go down.

The Samoan Submission Machine grounded Roman with a powerful move and then he began to stalk Roman as Reigns crawled to the corner. Joe punched Reigns in the face a few times, but Roman got back to his feet and hit Samoa Joe with the….Samoan Drop. Two-count.

Roman then poised himself in the corner and prepared for the Superman punch, Joe rolled out of the ring, but Roman followed and hit him and hit the drive-by. Once they got back in the ring, Roman hit Joe with a Superman punch.

Then Braun Strowman’s music hit.

Braun caused a distraction, Joe hit Roman with his finisher and came down with the victory. Samoa Joe wins his first match on Raw over Roman Reigns.

Braun followed up Roman’s loss by giving him a running powerslam. Strowman stood over Roman’s broken body as Reigns attempted to get to his feet. Braun kicked Roman outside and followed him.

The Monster Among Men grabbed Roman who tried to fight back to no avail. Braun grabbed the ring steps and smashed them right off of Roman’s face.

Braun then picked Roman up over his shoulder and sent him through the barricade at ringside. The camera panned up to Strowman as the WrestleMania logo hung from the ceiling above just over his shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

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