A Room with a Review: Raw 08/24/20

It’s a rare episode of Raw that follows a pay-per-view but also serves as a go-home show for the next one. What were the schedule-makers thinking?

• Drew McIntyre kicks off the first episode of Raw inside the ThunderDome. McIntyre talks about how he retained the WWE Championship against Randy Orton because he always had to fight for things, while Orton was coddled. Drew heads to the back but gets jumped by Orton. The two brawl into Gorilla Position, where Randy punts Drew in the head twice.

• Sarah Schreiber catches up with Nia Jax backstage. Nia says she is no longer suspended. Shayna Baszler walks up and says she’s ready to face Jax, if she doesn’t get suspended again. 

• Our first match of the evening is Bayley Dos Straps w/ 1Belt Banks vs. Baszler. Nia Jax watches the match from the top of the ramp. After a few minutes, Jax heads down and prevents Baszler from getting back in the ring. Shayna wins by DQ, then brawls with Nia. 

• Kevin Owens looks for Aleister Black’s darkroom. 

• After a commercial break, it’s the Kevin Owens Show. KO introduces his guest, Aleister Black. He still has a wrap over his right eye, which was injured by Murphy a few weeks back. During the interview, Aleister loses it and he hits Owens with a Black Mass. 

• Charly Caruso talks with the Golden Role Models about Nia and Shayna. 

• Next up is a Fatal 4-Way Match for the 24/7 Championship. It’s Shelton Benjamin defending against Cedric Alexander, R-Truth, and Akira Tozawa w/ ninjas. Tozawa wins with a sunset flip on Truth. Benjamin takes out his anger on the ninjas while Akira runs away.

• Randy Orton heads to the ring to respond to Drew McIntyre. He’s mad at the champ for offering him a rematch out of pity. Randy gets interrupted by Keith Lee! He has new music, which sucks, but Keith Lee is here! Lee introduces himself and invites Orton to bask in his glory. He challenges Randy to a match “right here, right now”. Orton says maybe later.

• Charly interrupts Angel Garza and Zelina Vega arguing, while Demi the Bachelorette looks on. Vega still denies poisoning Montez Ford, and Garza invites both Demi and Charly to watch his match. 

• It’s Garza w/ Andrade vs. Ford w/ Angelo Dawkins. Demi is watching at ringside, and Vega is nowhere to be found. Ivar comes down and offers the Bachelorette a turkey leg and she heads backstage with him. Ford wins with a huge frog splash. 

• Shayna and Nia talk backstage. They set aside their differences, sort of, in order to focus on winning the Women’s Tag Team Titles. 

• We have 6-Woman Tag Team action as the IIconics team with Zelina Vega to face the Riott Squad and Bianca Belair. It’s a short match, won by Belair after hitting Vega with the K.O.D.

• MVP interrupts Cedric Alexander and Ricochet. He makes another offer to Cedric and continues to attempt to drive a wedge between him and Ricochet.

• Mark Henry is hosting an arm-wrestling competition between Apollo Crews and Bobby Lashley. Henry says he has banned everybody else from ringside. Crews gets the win easily and Lashley throws the podium.

• Charly talks with the Mysterio Family about the match at SummerSlam.

• Lana and Natalya are in the ring. They announce that they are retiring Mickie James tonight. This obviously prompts Mickie to run to the ring where she knocks out both of them.

• Lashley takes out his anger on Raw Underground. He chokes out a jobber, then gets challenged by Dolph Ziggler. Dolph gets yeeted into the crowd, so the Hurt Business feeds him one more rando to trounce.

• Next up is Randy Orton vs. Keith Lee. The Limitless One looks impressive, but Randy eventually takes control. Drew McIntyre pulls Orton out of the ring, causing a disqualification. The Viper slithers away as quickly as possible.

• After a commercial, Charly talks with Drew backstage. He gets jumped by Orton, who punts McIntyre one more time.

• Another commercial and Charly is outside the trainer’s room. She says the doctors are worried that Drew may have a fractured skull.

• Time for what should probably be the main event. It’s a Lumberjack Match for the Raw Women’s Championship between Asuka and Sasha Banks w/ Bayley. The ring is surrounded by the Raw women’s locker room. Sasha does a move off the ring apron and lands on the Riott Squad. Bayley tries to help with a chair but is stopped by Shayna Baszler. Asuka gets Sasha to tap with the Asuka lock. 

• Backstage, an ambulance containing Drew McIntyre drives off. Charly asks Keith Lee about his friend Drew, and he says that Randy better watch out or something.

• Back to Raw Underground and Lashley is having his way with Cedric Alexander. MVP has to pull his man off, causing the Viking Raiders to get involved. 

• Now it’s the main event, which is Rey and Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins and Murphy. The Mysterios get the early advantage by jumping the Messiah and his disciple before the bell rings, but Rollins gets the upper hand during a commercial break. Rey and Dom hit a double 619, but the lights flicker and RETRIBUTION appears. Rollins and Murphy scamper and the father and son duo get their butts whipped. 

I’m really excited for Keith Lee getting thrust into a high profile angle/match right off the bat, though it really stinks that they changed his music and modified his look. They jammed a surprising amount of stories into this show, which was allegedly still being written after it went on air.

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