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Andreas Hell
Now that the dust has settled after CM Punk took over as the new World Heavyweight Champion at last weekend’s “Saturday’s Main Event”, it’s time to put the pieces on the board for Survivor Series: WarGames on November 29.
Logan Paul returned to “Raw” on Monday to begin rounding out the participants for the annual Survivor Series cage match. Paul was on Punk’s side when The Vision came to cancel Punk’s championship acceptance speech to start the night, but surprisingly (not really) turned on Punk and ultimately chose The Vision, while Jey Uso sided with Punk. The rest of Raw was a mediocre affair, started by an excellent segment between Dominic and Rey Mysterio. Penta returned from losing the Intercontinental title on Saturday and defeated El Grande Americano. and AJ Styles and Dragon Lee successfully defended the World Tag Team Titles against Finn Balor and JD McDonagh.
It wasn’t a game-changing night of wrestling after Saturday Night’s Main Event, but with less than two months to go until Survivor Series the night served as a table-setter. Not everything was a hit, and many of the matches were of the hectic variety, but we are starting to see some direction heading into next month’s PLE.
November 3 ‘Raw’ results
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Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez defeated Stephanie Walker and Nikki Bella by pinfall
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Penta defeated El Grande Americano by pinfall
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The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) defeated Lyra Valkyria and Bayley by submission
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World Tag Team Championship: AJ Styles and Dragon Lee defeated Finn Balor and JD McDonagh by pinfall
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CM Punk and Jey Uso vs. The Vision (Bron Breaker and Bronson Reed) ended in a double count-out
Wargames alliances are taking shape
There was a collective groan throughout the WWE Universe when Logan Paul came to the aid of newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk after he was attacked by Braun Breaker and Bronson Reed to open “Raw.” The universe righted itself when Paul leveled Punk with brass knuckles, then handed him to Paul Heyman, in solidarity with The Vision, to end the show. Paul has become a kind of ratings-boosting mercenary who comes in when it feels like things are getting stale. His ploy to make Punk believe they were on the same side was deftly handled, as Paul solidified himself as an easily hated heel. The result of Paul eliminating the champion was a great start to “Raw”. The question now is whether Paul will be a real part of The Vision going forward, now that Seth Rollins is out with an injury and has been removed from the group.
Paul does not have faction-leader qualities, but if he is a part of The Vision System, he can promote the faction. If nothing else, the stage is being set for Survivor Series: WarGames next month. Paul is forming a team with Reed and Breaker against Punk and Jey Uso. Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso will likely join Punk and return Punk’s favor for helping him defeat The Bloodline at Survivor Series last year. LA Knight will likely make room for the fifth spot on Punk’s team, but who will be the fourth and fifth members of The Vision and Paul? We’ll see over the next few weeks, but if I had to make a wild guess, Austin Theory could use one of these days to do something worthwhile.
All this will keep Punk busy until it is decided who will be the first person to challenge him for the World Heavyweight Championship.
More ‘Raw’ Takeaways
• “You keep my father’s name out of your mouth,” was Dominik Mysterio’s sharp line to his father Rey in reference to the late, great Eddie Guerrero.
After being sidelined with injury since WrestleMania, Rey came out for an excellent segment in which he interrupted his son’s praise about being the “King of Luchadores” to join the list of Lucha Libre legends. The list ended with Guerrero taking down Rey before Dominic slapped him in the face with his response. There was some physicality in this, as Ray hit his son with the 619 before Dominic left the ring.
Recovering, Ray can resume his never-ending feud with Dominic. But Ray will turn 51 in December and is nearing retirement. When the time comes, only his son can send him out. Dominic continues to prove his worth as an excellent heel, but now he can resume his feud with his legendary father.
• “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce announced that Rusev vs. Damian Priest and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sheamus would be the first two opening round matches of the tournament to determine John Cena’s final opponent. We can go ahead and remove Priest and Nakamura from the list of potential winners, given that Cena has had memorable feuds with both Rusev and Sheamus. It will be really difficult to decide who will be Cena’s final opponent. Hopefully, this has been handled correctly.
• Stephanie Wacker has her first title challenge. Raquel Rodriguez will challenge Wacker for the Women’s World Championship next week after Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez defeated Wacker and Nikki Bella in a tag match on Monday. It’s hard to figure out where this is going because Wacker has taken a liking to Bella, who keeps dragging him into some shit. Bela is apologetic, but how long can this friendship last?
• The Kabuki Warriors will challenge Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship in the near future. After Bayley and Lyra defeated Valkyria, Asuka and Kairi Sane were run out by Flair and Bliss, indicating that a tag team title match was imminent. As much as people have enjoyed Flair and Bliss as champions, Asuka and Sane would be the rightful owners of those tag titles. As long as the tag titles are not forgotten, this all works for me.
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