A Room with a Review: Raw 08/03/20

This week saw the return of Shane McMahon and he brought Raw Underground with him. Just like Kurt Russell in Tombstone, Hell’s comin’ with him.

• While introducing the show, there appears to be an issue with the TV truck, according to Tom Phillips (no relation). After that hiccup, the real United States Champion Apollo Crews heads to the ring, but there is another issue with power in the Performance Center. After another brief delay, Apollo’s opponent MVP, complete with his fake US title, comes down, accompanied by Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. Crews picks up the win with a tossing power bomb. The Hurt Business swarms the ring and Apollo escapes to the back with both belts. Charly Caruso stops him backstage to get his thoughts on retaining the title. Crews says he’s hanging the original US title in his kid’s room and he will use the belt that MVP paid for from now on.

• Back to ringside and MVP complains about the lights flickering during the match, saying that he should get another shot because of poor working conditions. He challenges Apollo to a rematch at SummerSlam.

• Before the commercial, they show a locker room being guarded by security. Phillips says that something is going down tonight, and it is reportedly the brainchild of Shane McMahon. 

• Sarah Schreiber is backstage with Bayley Dos Straps and 2Belts Banks. She wants to know if they will defend any or all of their titles at SummerSlam. Bayley directs everybody to a TV, which plays a recap of last week’s match between Asuka and Sasha. Asuka pop’s up at the end of the video to say that revenge will be very sweet. Sasha and Bayley are furious, but Shayna Baszler walks up and is sick of them. She shoves Banks to the floor and walks away.

• Kevin Owens is heading to the ring to host the KO Show when he gets stopped by the IIconics. They want to be guests on the show, but Owens says not tonight.

• After a commercial break, it’s the KO Show, surprise surprise. His special guest tonight is Ruby Riott. She was emotional when she finally beat Peyton Royce for her first win in ages and only wishes Liv Morgan was there to celebrate with her. Well, in best Jerry Springer fashion, KO has her waiting backstage. Liv comes to the ring and Owens says they don’t have to be friends, they just need to hear each other out. Ruby is emotional and vulnerable and right when she asks Liv to reunite the Riott Squad, the IIconics come to the ring. Liv says nobody starts a riot like they do. Owens tries to interrupt and both Peyton Royce and Billie Kay get a slap in on KO. He asks the Squad for some help and the ladies brawl into a commercial break. (Note: the microphones experienced “technical difficulties” throughout the segment, so something is definitely going on.)

• Back from the commercial and it’s the IIconics vs. the Riott Squad 2.0. Owens sticks around for commentary and he swears Peyton knocked out a filling. Morgan gets a quick roll-up victory on Kay. 

• Charly is backstage reporting on some equipment backstage that was deliberately knocked over earlier in the night. She says it appears related to the technical difficulties that have been happening, but MVP interrupts her before she can elaborate. Charly tells him that Apollo Crews has accepted his challenge. Shelton Benjamin runs up and says that someone has stolen his 24/7 title.

• It’s time for the face to face between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton. Drew says that Randy won’t get the drop on him again like he did last week. He talks about all the advantages Orton has had in his career because of his dad, Cowboy Bob Orton. That’s enough for Randy, who comes out, along with Ric Flair. Randy says he doesn’t have to keep doing this, but he loves it too much. Drew calls bs, because Randy has done nothing to pull up any of the young guys as the Undertaker had done for Orton. McIntyre says he has a lot of receipts to cash at SummerSlam and Orton will definitely see them coming.

• After a commercial break, Ric Flair catches up with Kevin Owens backstage. He thinks KO hasn’t done enough for himself lately. Owens says he’s trying to do things a different way now, like Randy Orton could do if he wanted to, echoing McIntyre’s sentiment from earlier. Ric tells Kevin he better be careful and Owens says he’s not scared and is willing to face Orton next week.

• Nia Jax is in the ring with WWE Official Pat Buck, whom she attacked last week during her scrap with Shayna Baszler. Buck is expecting an apology, but Jax challenges him to a match instead. He doesn’t want any part of that, but Nia keeps goading him. Pat lets Nia know that she is indefinitely suspended, without pay. Jax is furious and once again lays into him.

• Next up is a Triple-Threat match between R-Truth, Akira Tozawa w/ ninjas, and Shelton Benjamin w/ the Hurt Business. It looks like Truth was the one who stole Benjamin’s belt, as he comes running through the “crowd” with it. Shelton hits Paydirt, but one of the ninjas comes in and distracts him. MVP and Lashley take out the other ninjas, but this gives Tozawa enough time to hit R-Truth with a back senton off the top rope to win the title.

• Backstage, there’s some sort of shoot-fighting setup and Shane McMahon says that Raw Underground starts at 10 PM. They’re bringing back Brawl for All under a different name!

• Sarah is backstage with Dominik Mysterio. He is challenging Seth Rollins to a match at SummerSlam. 

• The next bout is Shayna Baszler vs. Sasha Banks w/ Bayley. Asuka interferes, and they throw the match out. After a commercial, Charly is in the ring with Asuka and they watch the end of last week’s Raw Women’s Championship match. Asuka wants a rematch at SummerSlam. Shayna Baszler gets in the ring and says that she’ll be rooting for Asuka so that Shayna can take the belt off of her. Sasha and Bayley come back out and Sasha says she can have a rematch if Asuka beats Bayley next week. Bayley isn’t happy about that.

• Angel Garza is backstage with a random blonde from the Bachelor. Andrade and Zelina Vega interrupt, and Zelina says that Garza needs to focus up.

• There’s another glimpse of Raw Underground, and besides the MMA style fighting, there’s loud music and dancing women. Oh God, this is going to be terrible. 

• After the commercial, it’s the official debut of Raw Underground. Shane McMahon calls for Dabba-Kato, a 7-footer who used to go by the name Babatunde. He whomps a jabroni and somebody else gets in the ring. He smashes that guy, too, and this is horrible. 

• Time for some Street Profits singles matches against Garza and Andrade. Montez Ford takes a swig from his red Solo cup, but it looks like something doesn’t taste right. Also, Zelina Vega is in full Queen of the Damned regalia. The first match is Angelo Dawkins against Angel Garza. Bachelor Blondie is backstage watching the match on a monitor, firmly gripping the rose that Garza gave her. I really want Charly to come up and take the rose from her. During the match, Ford collapses, which distracts Dawkins long enough for Garza to get the win with a superkick and low dropkick to the face.

• Montez gets a commercial break to recover but is still not 100% during his match with Andrade. Ford collapses again in the ring, and the ref calls for the bell and the doctors.

• Murphy is backstage watching a video of what he did to Aleister Black last week. Seth Rollins says he did the right thing. 

• Back to Raw Underground and Erik from the Viking Raiders trounces a random dude. I really hope this is a misdirection and somebody comes out to destroy the whole thing.

• Charly is outside the trainer’s room to get an update on Montez. Zelina and the Vegaboys are there, too. Dawkins and Bianca Belair come out of the room and say that Tez was poisoned. Bianca knows one of them did it and jumps Zelina.

• Tom says they have some security footage from earlier showing five people dressed in black firebombing a generator outside the Performance Center.

• Charly stops the Hurt Business on their way out the door. They seem to think all the weird issues tonight are related to Raw Underground.

• They play a video package retelling the whole Rollins/Mysterio saga. I’m almost as over this as I was the Sheamus/Jeff Hardy feud. Seth comes to the ring with Murphy and turns his ire toward Tom Phillips. He says Tom was rooting on Dominik Mysterio last week and it’s time for him to be replaced. Rollins orders Murphy to grab Tom, but Samoa Joe will not let that happen. Joe tells Seth and Murphy to step off and it looks like we are getting an impromptu rumble after one final commercial.

• Back from the break and Rollins and Murphy are in the ring with steel chairs, waiting for Joe to join them. Dominik Mysterio slides in with a kendo stick and wails on the boys, causing them to scamper away. Seth says that he accepts Dom’s challenge for SummerSlam.

• Looks like the main event will be Raw Underground. Dolph Ziggler taps out a jobber and the Hurt Business makes their way in. MVP says Raw Underground is under new management and they take turns pounding on some fools (including former Raw announcer Dio Madden, who they don’t acknowledge). The crowd thins out and they swing on the slower ones. Shane says anything goes on Raw Underground and they can come around anytime. 

Well, that sure was some episode of Raw. I give them credit for trying something different with Raw Underground but it looks like garbage. There was also reports of a new faction debuting tonight, but all we got was the shadowy figures throwing Molotov cocktails. I’m sure it’s a slow burn (no pun intended), so I’ll give it time to grow.

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