Monday Night Raw Review - October 2, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Braun Strowman def. Raw Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins

We haven't seen too much of these two against each other in the last year, so this was a fresh match and they worked a really fun pace. Rollins attempted to take the fight to Strowman and avoid his offense at all costs, but ultimately to no avail. Not only did Strowman win clean, he attacked Dean Ambrose afterward and allowed Sheamus and Cesaro to pick up the scraps. This further fuels my theory that it will be Strowman and The Bar vs. a reunited Shield at TLC as opposed to The Shield facing The Miztourage.

Elias def. Titus O'Neil

Following Elias' win over Apollo Crews on last week on Raw, it was teased that Elias would next face O'Neil one-on-one, and thus we got the match here. As expected, it wasn't anything to write home about, but the commentators did note that O'Neil hasn't wrestled in a while and may have had some ring rust. As forgettable as the matchup was, it at least led to another victory for Elias.

Mickie James def. Nia Jax by Disqualification

James has been such an afterthought for so long that it's important to build her back up as a legitimate championship contender in time for TLC. That said, this match was a successful follow-up to her strong showing in the segment with Alexa Bliss last Monday. This told a story similar to the one Strowman and Rollins did earlier in the evening, but it worked with the live crowd as they rallied behind James and she was made to look credible versus Jax by not being squashed.

Gallows and Anderson def. Matt Hardy and Jason Jordan

I assumed Hardy and Jordan teaming up last week was just a one-time deal, but it might be more than that based off this bout. Rather, my guess is that WWE has no idea what else to do with either of them at the moment. This was a decent enough match and Matt is still extremely popular on his own, but the tandem that is actually a staple of the tag team scene should have gone over and they did. Does Matt eventually snap and go "broken" on Jordan while Jeff is out?

Dana Warrior and the Raw Women's Division Presented Breast Cancer Survivors with Custom Championships

WWE has teamed up with Susan G. Komen for the past five years now to promote breast cancer awareness and honor breast cancer survivors, and regardless of what you think of the organization itself, it's a respectable cause WWE does. They've done segments like this in the past to kick off the month of October, and while you can complain about how the heels and the babyfaces of the women's division were out of character here, it was a cool moment and that's all that matters.

Roman Reigns def. Intercontinental Champion The Miz by Disqualification

I liked how Reigns dispatched of The Miztourage before the break to ensure fans that they wouldn't be interfering. Reigns and Miz had a good match last week, but this was better because the gold was up for grabs, not to mention that Miz has been booked to look like such a vulnerable champion throughout his reign that fans bought into each Reigns' falls here, making the match more enjoyable as a result. The fans in attendance badly wanted Ambrose and Rollins to make the save for Reigns afterward, so it will be huge when they inevitably come together again.

Bray Wyatt Interrupted Finn Balor

As desperately as I would like for this feud between Balor and Wyatt to be over, it does make sense for them to blow it off in a gimmick match at the TLC pay-per-view later this month. If not, then I've got nothing. On the bright side, Wyatt's rambling promos appear to be headed somewhere for a change, or at least I hope so. Is Abigail really alive? Didn't Randy Orton burn her ashes back in February? I'm obviously lost, but I will admit I'm intrigued.

Bayley and Sasha Banks def. Alicia Fox and Emma

For two weeks in a row now we've had two women's matches on Raw. Baby steps, people, baby steps. I was surprised this lasted as long as it did, but it was a well-wrestled albeit formulaic match that gave the babyfaces another win and started something between Emma and Fox. I honestly expected Banks and Bayley to tease tension, but perhaps this is leading to Emma calling out Asuka for TLC.

Kalisto Attacked WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore

I was shocked beyond belief the Cruiserweights closed out Raw last week, and although Amore cut another passable promo here running down the division, it wasn't much different than what we saw on 205 Live the next night. Of course, this was designed to build toward Kalisto being announced by Kurt Angle as the newest member of the division, which I am all for. It might be too little too late, but I appreciate the attempt, nevertheless. How many people missed the tease of The Shield at the end because they tuned out once they saw the Cruiserweights in the main event segment again?

Overall Show

These days, I tune into Raw after the fact and skip through all the filler, commercial breaks and entrances, so I'm done with the show in half the time (only because I'm not available on Monday nights anymore and not by choice). Perhaps that makes the program more bearable for me because I thought this was a perfectly solid show with a strong focus on the Shield stuff and effective hype for TLC in two weeks from Sunday. It was far from an outstanding episode, but the segments and matches that mattered held my interest.