WWE RAW PRIMER 11/25: Survivor Series Fallout, U.S. Championship, A Return to In-Show Feuds Following Brand Supremacy Battles

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
NOVEMBER 25, 2019
CHICAGO, ILL. AT THE ALLSTATE ARENA
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Vic Joseph, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Dio Maddin

Arena, Survivor Series Results, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE

So, who hasn’t had enough wrestling the last three nights? If that’s you, well WWE rolls out another episode of Monday Night Raw tonight. They remain in the Allstate Arena as they have since Friday.

Here are the results of Survivor Series. Check out Wade Keller’s PPV for more details on each match:

Kickoff Show:

· Robert Roode & Dolph Ziggler won a tag team battle royal for the Tag Team World Cup trophy. Well, it should have been them.
· Lio Rush retained the NXT Cruiserweight Championship over Akira Tozawa of Raw and Kalisto of Smackdown.
· Raw Tag Team Champions the Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) defeated Smackdown champs New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) and NXT champs Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly).

Main Show:

· Team NXT won the women’s triple threat Survivor Series match when Rhea Ripley hit Riptide on Sasha Banks to be the sole survivor.
· NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong defeated U.S. Champion A.J. Styles and Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
· Adam Cole retained the NXT Championship over Pete Dunne
· “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt retained the Universal Championship over Daniel Bryan
· Team Smackdown won the men’s triple threat Survivor Series match when Roman Reigns eliminated Keith Lee of team NXT to be the sole survivor.
· Brock Lesnar retained the WWE Championship over Rey Mysterio
· NXT Shayna Baszler defeated Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley.

Here are WWE’s picks for the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:

WWE.com thus far does not have their official preview up likely due to last night being Survivor Series. We know of one match in which A.J. Styles will defend his U.S. Championship against Humberto Carrillo. We’ll preview that match here and look at some of the big takes from the show last night as well as from Raw last week. We put Survivor Series behind us now as well as all the brand supremacy craziness and start to turn our attention towards TLC, which rolls in Sunday, December 15. I very much look forward to previewing that show with long-time PWTorch columnist Greg Parks on Wrestling Night in America one week before on December 8.

Matches & Segments:

U.S. Championship: A.J. Styles (champ) vs. Humberto Carrillo

Last week on Raw, Humberto Carrillo defeated Karl Anderson of the O.C. with the Street Profits in his corner. They weren’t originally there but came down as the rest of the O.C. (Luke Gallows and A.J. Styles) were getting involved.

Before the match, A.J. Styles said he would have loved to put the title on the line against Carrillo, but Carrillo disrespected him a week earlier (glad he gets to make that decision). This week no such luck for A.J. as he must defend his title. He previously retained over Carrillo at Crown Jewel. Here’s A.J. on Twitter:

Dream match Sunday. #SurvivorSeries
Dream crusher Monday. #Raw https://t.co/xL4oYgPFXc

— AJStyles.Org (@AJStylesOrg) November 19, 2019

Frank’s Analysis: I still don’t see Carrillo winning the title here, although I don’t necessarily rule it out. If he doesn’t, you hope he’s not damaged in the process having lost as much as he has thus far on the main roster. He got a token pin over A.J. a few weeks ago and beat Anderson last week, someone he should beat. That’s the problem with jamming new talent right into title pictures from the get-go if you don’t want to put the title on them.

Big Takes from Survivor Series

Charlotte Flair & Asuka

Charlotte Flair and Asuka have been on the dance floor in many ways over the past two years. You go back to Asuka winning the 2018 Royal Rumble and challenging Flair unsuccessfully for the Smackdown Women’s Championship at that year’s WrestleMania. Earlier in this year, just prior to ‘Mania, she took the same title off Asuka in an unannounced match on Smackdown. Recently, they’ve been at it in tag team matches as Charlotte has paired with both Natalya and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. Last night at in the triple threat women’s Survivor Series match, they got into it which lead to Asuka spraying green mist in Charlotte’s eyes and then she walked out on team Raw.

Asuka currently holds the Women’s Tag Team Championship with her Kabuki Warrior partner Kairi Sane. They paired with Charlotte, Natalya, and Sarah Logan in the Survivor Series match last night. Sane was eliminated by Sasha Banks of Smackdown. As a result of what happened between Charlotte and Asuka, look for that to continue and Charlotte possibly going after the tag titles with Natalya. They were supposed to challenge them a few weeks ago, but Natalya couldn’t be at the show. Asuka had a little trash talk for Charlotte on Twitter. Also, take a look at this video on WWE Japan’s Twitter account, where Asuka and Sane were visibly upset:

Charlotte is not the Queen🤮
I am the Empress🤡 pic.twitter.com/JyaXhWnuuq

— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) November 25, 2019

【 #サバイバー・シリーズ 速報】悔しい結果に吠えるカブキ・ウォリアーズ！果たして次なる展開は…！？#WWE #SurvivorSeries #wwe_jp @WWEAsuka @KairiSaneWWE pic.twitter.com/lqiNpppjgl

— WWE Japan (@WWEJapan) November 25, 2019

Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens

Prior to the men’s Survivor Series triple threat match, team captain Seth Rollins had words with teammate Kevin Owens. He questioned his loyalty to Raw, considering he took part in the WarGames match the night before on Tommaso Ciampa’s team. Owens said his participation was to get revenge on Undisputed Era for them attacking him on Raw last week. He also said he loves NXT, but they don’t need him right now. He turned the tables on Rollins and questioned his loyalty, and then put out the Shield fist bump. For those new to the game here, he was referring to Rollins turning on his Shield brothers Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose back in mid-2014.

Owens eliminated Shorty G of Smackdown in the match but was then eliminated by his NXT teammate of the night before, Tommaso Ciampa. Rollins eliminated hometown favorite Mustafa Ali of Smackdown and Ciampa but was then eliminated by NXT’s Keith Lee.

Frank’s Analysis: Based on that interaction and given how Rollins has gotten such a negative reaction as of late, look for more to develop between Rollins and Owens. I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if Rollins turns heel on Owens at some point and they have a feud. You have to make sure you position Owens as a strong babyface to make it effective. Here in 2019, his booking has been subpar at best.

Next Challenger for Brock Lesnar

Last night, Rey Mysterio failed to capture the WWE Championship in a no-holds barred match against Brock Lesnar. His son Dominick, who had been taken out by Lesnar on Raw almost two months ago, came out in an attempt to help his father. They each gave Lesnar a low blow, a dueling 619, and frog splashes off the top rope. Lesnar fought them off, and eventually hit his F5 on Rey for the win.

TLC is the next PPV event and then the Royal Rumble. Lesnar usually does not work the “B” events, but we’ll see what happens considering Dominick at one point used a chair in the match. They can always have a “chairs” match although I can’t remember the last time Lesnar worked a match of that kind.

Frank’s Analysis: I didn’t like the framing of Mysterio here. It made it look like the only way he could win was by using weapons and having his son help him. I get he’s way smaller than Lesnar, but Mysterio has made a career of going toe to toe with big guys you would never depict him fighting against. I think we’d have been better served if he got some offense in, but just came up short. I also wonder if something develops with Dominick down the line, meaning him turning on his father.

Next Up for Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch

In the main event last night, NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler defeated Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley and Raw Champ Becky Lynch in a triple threat match. Baszler won by tapping Bayley to her Kirafuda Clutch.

After the match, Becky went after Baszler as she was celebrating on the announce table. She put her through it, and then gave her a double leg drop. She then held up her Raw title to close out the show. Since this was the last match, many were expecting Ronda Rousey to appear but that did not come to fruition. Becky of course defeated Ronda and Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania to win both the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championships. Baszler is a close friend of Ronda’s, and they are half of the Four Horsewomen of MMA with NXT’s Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir.

With Survivor Series behind us, we likely start to see who will be positioned as Becky’s next challenger.

Frank’s Analysis: I was not in the majority of people expecting Ronda Rousey. I wasn’t a big fan of what they did to end the show, but I guess I can buy it. That said, they have brought up the fact that Becky lost to Asuka earlier in the year. I could see her being positioned as Becky’s challenger in the near future to allow Becky to get rid of that “demon” if you will. Charlotte is involved too based on last night, so we’ll see how it all comes together.

Other Results and Issues from Raw Last Week Not Addressed at Survivor Series

· AOP attacked Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder before their championship match against the Viking Raiders, and thus could not compete. Hawkins & Ryder did partake in the tag team battle royal.
· Lana said she has filed for divorce from Rusev. Rusev must stay 90 miles … no 90 feet from her. Her new boyfriend Bobby Lashley went on to defeat No Way Jose.
· In a match to determine the Raw team captain for last night’s triple threat match, Seth Rollins defeated Andrade via DQ when Lucha House Party got involved. After the match, Rollins told Andrade “we’ll do this again.”
· Buddy Murphy defeated Akira Tozawa. Funny, shouldn’t Murphy have gotten the slot in the triple threat match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against Lio Rush on the pre-show and not Tozawa?
· Erick Rowan won a squash match and talked to his whatever in the cage that has a camera in it.
· Asuka defeated Natalya.
· Randy Orton and Ricochet teamed to challenge the Viking Raiders for the Raw Tag Team Championship. The match ended in a no-contest when wrestlers from Smackdown and NXT got involved and broke out into a brawl leading into Survivor Series.

Summary & Closing Thoughts

I am thankful we are done with the brand supremacy craziness and can get back to normal. I’ll talk about some of the stuff pertinent to Smackdown in Friday’s primer, but I’m curious where things go there as well as what happens on Raw. It’s clear the crowd has rejected Rollins, so they’ll have to do something there. Owens is in an interesting spot. McIntyre eliminated Walter early but then was eliminated by Reigns. There are worse things than getting eliminated by someone still viewed as the top guy, but it’s still bizarre to see how he’s been booked. I’m curious to see how people are positioned going forward coming out of last night as we head towards the holidays and eventually “WrestleMania season.”

Follow Frank on Twitter @frankpeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.