Kurt Angle starts the show. He talks briefly about TLC before turning his attention Survivor Series. He says that the show will have a Raw vs Smackdown theme. There will be Miz vs Corbin, Bliss vs Natalya, Ambrose & Rollins vs Usos, and Lesnar vs Mahal, as well as two traditional Survivor Series matches for the women and the men. Miz, Sheamus, Cesaro and Axel (who I'm going to call Murder Inc.) arrive and Miz says that Angle should resign. Angle declines that tempting invitation so they surround him, but Ambrose and Rollins make the save. Angle books Miz and The Bar vs Ambrose, Rollins and AJ Styles for tonight. Right now in fact. Decent opening segment, Angle addressed Survivor Series and Miz did his thing. Also, who doesn't like a spot of unexpected AJ Styles. It's a bit weird that nobody mentioned Braun's murder though.
AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs The Miz & The Bar - This was a great match. 5 of these men were in the main event of TLC and AJ has been traveling like crazy so for them to put in a match this good is a testament to everyone involved. They were given time to shine and they delivered. The faces won when Styles pinned Cesaro.
After the match Kane made his presence felt by helping the heels to beat down the faces. Why is Kane getting another push as a monster? Kane gets some mic time. He says that he had heard about Strowman destroying people but he is a piece of trash and that's why he murdered him with a garbage truck. He saw fear in Strowman's eyes, which makes sense as being crushed by a trash compactor would be worrying. Kane wants competition.
Kane vs Finn Balor - What the fuck?! Balor beat Styles in a great match at TLC and now he is losing clean to Kane in 7 minutes on Raw. Couldn't someone else have taken this loss? Hawkins, Crews, Titus, Elias, Anderson & Gallows, all of these would have been better than sacrificing Balor. It's 2017 for fuck sake. Nobody cares about Kane.
Kurt Angle meets with Shane McMahon backstage. Angle tries to poach Styles for Raw but Shane ain't up for that. Both men say that their show will prevail at Survivor Series.
Asuka vs Emma - This was basically a shorter version of their match from the PPV. Asuka won, Emma got offense in. I wish they booked Asuka to look more like a dominant force but it is what it is. I'm more annoyed by the Balor/Kane thing.
Alexa Bliss is out to talk about her victory over Mickie James last night. She is annoyed that the fans don't give her the respect she deserves. Mickie James came out and attacked Bliss, laying her out. It was fine.
Bayley, Sasha and Alicia Fox want to be the captain of the women's Survivor Series team. Angle books a match to see who gets the honour.
Elias is out to play a song. He makes fun of Aaron Rodgers' injury but gets some technical issues, which he is not happy about. Jason Jordan comes out and we have a rematch from TLC.
Elias vs Jason Jordan - Not much of a match. Elias gets annoyed with Jordan and hits him with the guitar for the DQ finish.
Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar are out to address Jinder Mahal. Heyman says that Jinder has barely escaped his title defenses while Lesnar has run through the entire division. He calls Jinder the make believe Maharaja and says that he even has the Singh Brothers doing his introduction, just like Heyman does. Heyman says that nobody thinks of Jinder when they think of WWE champions and runs down a list of people that were worthy WWE champions. He says that Suplex City will just be the start of Jinder's nightmare as the last time Lesnar faced a Smackdown wrestler the match had to be stopped due to Orton's blood loss. Heyman officially accepts Jinder's challenge. Heyman was good here but there isn't anything they can do to make me care about this match.
Kalisto does an interview. He is annoyed at losing his title and will have his rematch on 205 Live. Tonight there will be a 10-man tag.
Sasha Banks vs Bayley vs Alicia Fox - This was somehow worse than the Sasha vs Fox match from the TLC Kickoff show. Alicia Fox's crazy gimmick is more annoying than anything, and she is pretty crap in the ring. She won this though.
Enzo has lost his voice so he can't do his usual promo. Drew Gulak reads it out instead. Classic. I love Gulak, he is great.
Kalisto, Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, Gran Metalik & Mustafa Ali vs Enzo Amore, Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari & Noam Dar - This was easily the best match since the iopener of the show. The go home stretch was really fun and having Kalisto win makes sense as he is not winning tomorrow.
Kurt Angle is back out. He is out to big up the elimination matches for Survivor Series but before he can announce his team he gets interrupted by Shane McMahon and a whole bunch of Smackdown wrestlers who enter through the crowd. Shane gets the mic and says 'Under Siege'. It's probably Steven Seagal's best movie. Seagal plays a chef on a military submarine and he has to save the day from a turncoat officer (played by Gary Busey) and a bunch of mercenaries (led by Tommy Lee Jones). Seagal's character is called Casey Ryback, I shit you not. It's dumb fun. Back to what's happening here. Shane sends his minions to attack people. They run into Titus and Apollo, beat them down. Curt Hawkins and Goldust show up, they get beaten down. They go to the locker room where they find Jason Jordan. Chad Gable seems especially interested in beating his ass. Matt Hardy is there too and gets a beating. Good Brothers, get their ass beat. They run into the women, they get their ass beat by Smackdown's women. Rollins and Ambrose get a few shots in following a sneak attack but they, like everyone else, get their ass beat. They make Kurt Angle watch. Sick bastards. They take him to the ring and Shane tells him that they will finish this at Survivor Series. That was a really fun way to finish out the show. It's good to see Smackdown get the upper hand and I'll be intigued to see if Raw fire back on tonight's Smackdown. Raw really could have done with Steven Seagal.
Overall Thoughts
If you cut this down to the start and finish you will have a hell of a show, unfortunately the middle isn't great at all. The wrestling is bad and, Paul Heyman aside, the promos aren't anything you need to see. I don't get why Kane is being pushed like this in 2017 either. It boggles my mind. Also, nobody is going to answer for the murder of Braun Strowman.
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