WWE Monday Night Raw opens with The Texas Rattlesnake, Stone Cold Steve Austin coming out to the roar of the Madison Square Garden crowd. He downs a couple of beers and prepares for the contract signing between WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman. He travels down memory lane talking about facing Bret “The Hitman” Hart at Madison Square Garden. He says that he’s the only person who can oversee the contract signing.
Stone Cold introduces Braun Strowman first. Braun offers his hand to Austin but Stone Cold refuses and then introduces the WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins. Stone Cold shakes Seth’s hand. The crowd is heavy into the “What?” chants. Rollins promises not to stab Braun in the back during their WWE Raw Tag Team Title defense at Clash of Champions. Braun quotes Stone Cold by telling Seth he’s gonna open up a ‘Can of Whoop Ass’ and Rollins is gonna “Get These Hands.”
AJ Styles and The OC comes out. Styles insults Stone Cold and the crowd, as they continue to “What?” him. AJ also complains about Rollins and Strowman not giving Gallows and Anderson a rematch for the WWE Raw Tag Team championships. The crowd called AJ Styles an “A**hole” and Austin made sure he heard them. He called Stone Cold an “Old Fart.” Stone Cold moved the table as the ring filled and after hearing all they could stand, the champions attacked The OC. The ring cleared and eventually only AJ Styles and Stone Cold were alone. AJ turned around and ate a Stone Cold Stunner! The crowd exploded big time as Austin caught more beers before Raw went to commercial.
Back from commercial, AJ Styles is still in the ring suffering the ill-effects from the Stunner he took from Stone Cold Steve Austin. Cedric Alexander comes out as they are scheduled for a one-on-one match. The announce team talks about last week’s Raw where the OC attack Cedric Alexander right before his King of the Ring match against Corbin. Alexander would get the upper hand from the jump until AJ targeted his injured shoulder. Just when Cedric had regained the momentum, The OC interfered in the match and jumped him to cause the disqualification. The Viking Raiders hit the ring to make the save. They laid waste to The OC and nailed Anderson with The Viking Experience.
backstage, Sasha Banks and the smackdown women’s champion Bayley beaming with pride over what they’ve done to Charlotte and Becky Lynch the past few weeks. Bayley says that there’s not a stronger connection in WWE. They face off against “The Man” and “The Queen of All Eras” later tonight. The cameras cut to Becky and Charlotte in the dressing room preparing for the match while staring each other down. They’re being forced to team together out of necessity since neither of them like the other.
Roman Reigns is out on the ramp with Connor’s Cure t-shirt on. He talks about his battle with leukemia. He also brought out some young children suffering from cancer and said that it was important to help raise awareness. The crowd saluted and cheered the young people on stage (as they should because kids suffering from cancer is a tough card).
It’s The Man Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair against Sasha Banks and Bayley. Charlotte and Becky ran out of the ring and up the ramp to attack Sasha and Bayley while they were making their entrance. Banks and Bayley would get the upper hand for a moment until they all got in the ring and Charlotte produced a steel chair. After nearly twenty minutes of back and forth action (lots of “This is awesome!” chants.), Charlotte would pick up the victory after hitting Natural Selection on Bayley, whom she challenges for the Smackdown Women’s title at Clash of Champions.
Backstage The OC do an interview and say that they run WWE Monday Night Raw. Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode showed up and the two teams united over common enemies.
Rey Mysterio took on Gran Metalik next in a match-up of two of WWE’s best Luchadores, of course with one of them being a future Hall of Famer. Mysterio would pick up the win with a 619 and splash combo. Afterward, they shook hands in the middle of the ring in a show of respect.
The Street Profits were shown backstage doing their normal hype men routine talking about the women’s championship matches as well as Braun and Seth’s big upcoming night at the Clash.
It was Baron Corbin versus Ricochet versus Samoa Joe in the WWE Raw King of The Ring final. it will be the first time that a King of the Ring match-up will be contested under Triple Threat rules. The reason being is that last week on WWE Raw Samoa Joe and Ricochet fought to a draw and the referee could not determine a real winner so they were both placed into this matchup with Baron Corbin. After fifteen minutes of action, Ricochet hit Samoa Joe with his 630 splash only to have Baron Corbin yank him out of the ring and toss him over the barricade. Corbin rolled back into the ring and covered Joe to advance to the finals of the King of The Ring tournament. He will face the winner of Elias and Chad Gable, who do battle on Smackdown Live tomorrow night.
Lacey Evans took on Natalya in a rematch of last week WWE Raw where we saw Evans distract Natalya with a tissue only to follow it up with a Woman’s Right to pick up the victory. This week Natalya would get her retribution as she made Lacey tap out to the Sharpshooter.
They replayed a clip from earlier in the night where NBA center Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics rolled up R-Truth to become the new 24/7 Champion. He revealed his Celtics jersey to the New York crowd and they booed him heavily before Truth rolled him up to take his title back. He is now a 15 time 24/7 champion.
Bray’s Firefly Fun House is next and his puppets keep yelling “stranger danger.” Bray says that strangers are friends we just haven’t met yet. He said that Braun and Seth just made new friends in the Viking Raiders and Cedric Alexander. But it’s too bad because friends forget, but The Fiend never forgets. He ended the segment by looking straight into the camera and saying, “See you in hell.”
It’s main event time and it’s a 10-man tag team match up with Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman, Cedric Alexander, Erik and Ivar vs. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. The team of Rollins, Strowman, Alexander and The Viking Raiders picked up the win after Cedric hit AJ Styles with the Lumbar Check for the 1-2-3 in the middle of the ring.
Stone Cold Steve Austin’s music hit again and he made his way down to ringside to share a few beers with the babyfaces after their win as Raw went off the air.
Smackdown Live opened with a dong. The only Kong that matters, that of The Undertaker. He made his way down to ringside and in a similar fashion to Stone Cold the night before, he reminisced about all the memories he’s made in Madison Square Garden. Sami Zayn with play the role of AJ Styles tonight as he came down the ring and insulted The Undertaker. He told the Undertaker to leave his ring only to eat a chokeslam for his disrespect.
Shane McMahon is in his office in Chad Gable enters. Elias has hurt his ankle and will not be able to face Gable tonight, but Shane said they’ll find him an opponent because he knows how tournaments work.
Andrade with Zelina Vega takes on The Miz in a one-on-one matchup. Miz has a match against Nakamura for the Intercontinental Championship at Clash of Champions. Nakamura is out for commentary. Miz picks up the win with a Skull Crushing Finale and suffers a post-match beatdown from Nakamura.
Shane McMahon into the dressing room with Apollo Crews and Matt Hardy in there. He makes some short jokes about Chad Gable and then proclaims that he’s the only guy to face Gable tonight. Shane McMahon has inserted himself into the King of the Ring semi-final.
Mandy Rose made her way down to ringside with her partner Sonya Deville in tow as she prepared to take on Nikki cross. Mandy insulted Nikki’s looks and called her ugly. Alexa and Nikki would make their way to the ring for the match up. Last week it was Rose and DeVille picking up the win, this week Nikki Cross would gain retribution after defeating Mandy Rose.
Heavy Machinery defeated a couple of jobbers in a two-minute squash match.
Kevin Owens walks into Shane McMahon’s office. Shane McMahon says he has reconsidered the $100,000 fine he was going to levy against Kevin. He gave Kevin a referee shirt and told him to do his job correctly tonight and he would cancel the fine.
Rowan is out in the ring alone. He says that he cannot be controlled and that no one pulls his strings and tells him what to do. Roman Reigns came out and they would brawl for a few minutes trading heavy blows until security and referees broke it up. rains and Rowan go one-on-one at Clash of Champions.
Charlotte Flair is out for commentary as the Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley faces off against Ember Moon in a SummerSlam rematch. in a very short match, Bayley would pick up the victory over Ember. Charlotte entered the ring after the match and gave a golf clap to Bayley. She pointed at her championship and held up ten fingers to signify that she will become a 10-time women’s champion.
WWE Heavyweight Champion Kofi Kingston is up next. He goes to the ring and talks about all the memories he’s made at Madison Square Garden. The one he specifically mentions is he and Randy Orton calling all over the place 10 years ago. They show the clip of Kofi hitting a big boom drop onto Randy who was lying prone on a table. Randy would interrupt this trip down memory lane by calling Kofi stupid and putting himself over by saying he didn’t have to use a fake accent or talk about the Power of Positivity.
Opie had all that he could stand and he ran up the ramp to attack Randy. They would brawl all over ringside similar to the way they did in 2009. Randy attacked him with a steel chair and threw him outside. Kofi would regain the upper hand and use the chair to attack Randy. In yet another Madison Square Garden moment for Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston nailed Randy with another leg drop through a table. The crowd went nuts.
Kevin Owens in his role as the referee came out before the Shane McMahon and Chad Gable matchup. Chad Gable made his entrance. Shane McMahon would bring his best in the world trophy out with him during his entrance. He entered the ring and mock Chad Gable by getting down on his knees. Gable would respond by hitting a rolling German suplex and pinning Shane McMahon with Kevin Owens making the three count. Shane grabbed the mic and made the match a 2 out of 3 falls match since he lost the first one in 20 seconds.
Chad Gable would pick up the second fall and match victory with an Ankle Lock on Shane McMahon who was forced to tap out. He will face off against Baron Corbin in the King of the Ring Final on WWE Monday Night Raw. As the show was going off the air Kevin Owens turned around to leave the ring and got ambushed by Shane McMahon. He fired Kevin Owens after beating him down as the show went off the air.
