Join 411’s Live WWE Raw Coverage

Hey kids! It’s Steve Cook, filling in for Tony Acero yet again with the weekly Raw Live Coverage & Review. Not sure what’s going on with Tony lately, seems like he’s been missing Raw more often than the great Lee Corso has been missing ESPN College Gameday. Lee is beloved in Louisville, where he coached the University’s football team for four successful seasons before moving on to bigger & better things. Hope he’s doing well.

Speaking of Louisville, that’s where Raw is this week! Louisville’s a city with quite the interesting pro wrestling history, dating back to the time of William Muldoon, Ed “The Strangler” Lewis (who got his name in Louisville), Bill Longson and a man known in Louisville during the 1930s as Don Louis Thesz. Jerry Jarrett & Jerry Lawler would promote shows there from the 1970s-90s, then Danny Davis’s Ohio Valley Wrestling became the WWF’s farm system and produced many of the industry’s top stars of the 2000s. Heck, one of OVW’s current owners just got elected Mayor of Louisville. Wrestling is in the town’s ecosystem.

Tonight, we hope that Seth Rollins & Finn Balor will put on a match worthy of the legacy of Louisville professional wrestling.

(Shoutout to John Cosper, the author of Bluegrass Brawlers, a title I recently checked out of the local library and am in the middle of reading. Learning all kinds of things about Louisville wrestling I had no idea about!)

PYRO & BALLY HOO! IT FEELS LIKE GREATNESS!

Here comes Seth “Freakin” Rollins! Kevin Patrick & Corey Graves are at ringside to announce the action. We see some things from last week that involved the United States Championship. We see Theory cashing in his briefcase on the US Championship and coming up short. I have no comment on this.

Rollins welcomes us to Monday Night Rollins. The fans sing along with his name. He’s got a lot of people coming out of the woodwork to answer his challenge. Austin Theory tried to cash in his contract on his US Championship. Didn’t work out too well for him. The fans chant “That was stupid”. Rollins suggests they can tell Theory that later. Now that Rollins is US Champion, the title is the top prize on Monday night. He’ll add to his legacy tonight when he goes 1 on 1 with Finn Balor.

The All Mighty Bobby Lashley comes out. Big Bob wants his title back. Mustafa Ali comes out to the ring after Seth name drops Brock Lesnar. Lashley tells Ali that he needs to walk out of here before getting hurt again. Ali doesn’t listen, and gets deposited over the top rope. It happens one more time while Seth walks out. Lashley accepts the challenge for an opening match.

Bobby Lashley vs. Mustafa Ali: The bell rings and Ali lands a kick before ending up on the outside. Ali tries to choke Lashley on the outside, Lashley powers out. Ali gets tossed over the announce table. Ali jumps back in the ring at the 9 count. Lashley works the man over. Ali tries a tornado DDT and gets chokeslammed for his trouble. Lashley drives Ali down again. Lashley misses a spear, Ali hits that tornado DDT. But Lashley hits that spear and locks in that Hurt Lock. It over.

Winner: Bobby Lashley

Cathy Kelley is backstage with the OC & Mia Yim. AJ Styles challenges Finn to a one on one match at Survivor Series. Mia will face off with Rhea…tonight? Sounds good to me.

Mia Yim vs. Tamina: Tamina attacks right away while Rhea Ripley walks to the ring. Headscissors to Tamina. Backstage, Bayley and her girls watch. Mia Yim hits Eat Defeat for the victory.

Winner: Mia Yim

Rhea teases getting into the ring, but won’t, since that’s a match people might actually want to see.

Matt Riddle bangs his drums backstage, and is asked where is Elias. Riddle doesn’t have much of an answer before getting sushed. Chad Gable & Otis come in & promise to take care of business.

Mia walks around backstage and bumps into Bayley & her girls. Mia doesn’t seem interested, and the OC breaks things up.

Matt Riddle vs. Chad Gable (w/Otis): Two guys here that would be “shooters” or “hookers” back in the day. Gable favoring those Dragonscrews in this matchup. Riddle gutwrenches Gable into a suplex. Otis distracts Riddle, which leads to a Gable German suplex off the top and a commercial. Riddle reverses a suplex as we return from commercial. Riddle & Gable exchange strikes. Exploder out of the corner by Gable. Powerbomb gets two. Gable works into an anklelock. Riddle rollls out, locks in a triangle on Gable. Gable works into a DDT for two. Gable misses a moonsault, gets locked into a draping DDT. Gable goes for the Chaos Theory, gets blocked, but then goes for the backslide, Otis assists and there’s the victory.

Winner: Chad Gable

JBL & Baron Corbin play poker with some poor backstage fool that thinks he’s Elon Musk’s best friend. Akira Tozawa shows up, and his money is good.

The Miz is out here for Miz TV. He is not going to be the host this week, Byron Saxton is out here to fill that role. Miz has a statement he’d like to read. Miz regrets paying Dexter Lumis. He runs down his resume. He never got so much as a cheer or a pat on the back. Dexter kept taking and taking, and that’s why Miz had to stand up for himself. Hollywood doesn’t want real, but Miz is a devoted father & a loving husband. He’s torn up about everything that has happened.

Johnny Gargano is out here to point out that Miz was vacationing with his family in Cabo. Miz is outraged about all of this and leads the fans into a “Johnny Wrestling” chant. Johnny says that Miz lies about everything. Miz insists he’s a good guy after Johnny mentions Mr. Rogers, nobody buys it. Johnny says this will all come to an end in 2 weeks when Miz takes on Dexter Lumis, and if Dexter wins he’ll get a WWE contract. Miz says it’ll be AWESOME. Johnny suggests Miz tell Dexter himself, as Dexter is in the ring. I do love Johnny still serving as a father-in-law figure to Dexter.

Dom Mysterio steps up to Shelton Benjamin during an interview segment. Damien backs Dom up, but it ends up with Shelton accepting Dom’s challenge.

Dominick Mysterio (w/Rhea Ripley & Damien Priest) vs. Shelton Benjamin: Shelton & Dom face off. Dom with a cheap shot before going to the floor. Dom attacks from behind and shimmys like he’s Eddie. Shelton shoulders Dom down. Back in the ring, Shelton with a vertical suplex. Dom with a chinbreaker. Dom with the trademark Eddie hilo. Some more shimmying & pointing. Dom headscissors Shelton into the ropes, but Shelton answers with a powerslam for two. Shelton with an anklelock in the ring, but Damien pulls Dom to the ropes. DDT by Dom, a frog splash gets 3.

Winner: Dominick Mysterio

Cathy Kelly is backstage with Austin Theory, who claims that nobody understands him. Nobody can relate to him. He’s more alive than he’s ever been. He explains why he didn’t cash in on Roman Reigns…he was afraid. The best other option was going after Seth Rollins. Dolph Ziggler disagrees with this line of thinking. Theory wants to wrestle Ziggler, which sounds fine to me.

Iyo Sky vs. Dana Brooke: Dana will not go down without a fight! Iyo will kick Dana’s head between the ropes. Iyo with an elbow in the corner. Brooke tries a flying headscissors, Sky answers with a faceplant. Brooke handsprings into a German suplex. Meteora in the corner by Iyo. Moonsault by Iyo Sky ends it.

Winner: Iyo Sky

Mia Yim comes out and lets us know that she’s picked her side for War Games, which is the side with Bianca Belair, Asuka & Alexa Bliss.

Tozawa is doing well at poker.

Austin Theory vs. Dolph Ziggler: I feel like Dolph would be the perfect babyface jobber here in 2022, but he’s not interested in being likeable. So we’ll see how this goes. Theory decks Ziggler. Ziggler hits a headbutt, some punches in the corner. Theory decks him and we head to a commercial. Ziggler hit a big DDT for a two count. Theory hits the A-Town Down for a two count, which isn’t a great sign. Dolph goes for the sleeper! Theory doesn’t look finished based off that look in the sleeper. Dolph’s still working it. It’s broken, but Dolph hits the Famouser for two. Theory dominates for a couple of minutes, then gets caught in a Zig Zag for two. Louisville thinks it’s awesome. Theory hits the A-Town Down, pauses and hits another one. Theory still doesn’t cover, stomps Dolph down, then sends him into the steps on the outside. Sends Dolph face first onto the announce table. Throws some chairs onto Dolph and the referee has no choice but to disqualify the man.

Winner: Dolph Ziggler

Lots of referees trying to keep Theory off of Ziggler.

Up next, we’ve got Tozawa vs. Corbin? Goodie.

Rhea Ripley inserts herself onto Bayley’s War Games team.

Baron Corbin (w/JBL) vs. Akira Tozawa: That racist redneck Jim Cornette had to put JBL’s promos over as his favorite part of the show, so we’re not getting a JBL promo here. Tozawa goes up top, hits a move and gets two. I remember when Tozawa was the most hyped guy on the indy circuit. He hits a tope suicicda off of Corbin. Misses the second one, and Corbin sends him into a barricade. Back in the ring, tornado DDT and a shining wizard by Tozawa. Tozawa jumps into an End of Days for the 3.

Winner: Baron Corbin

Cathy Kelly is backstage with the babyface side of the women’s War Games match. Cathy tries to create dissention in the team, but Bianca won’t allow it. Chad Gable & Otis wander over and hit their catchphrases before Seth Rollins does some singing.

Finn Balor accepts AJ Styles’ challenge for Survivor Series. Tonight, he’ll remind Seth Rollins of who he is.

United States Championship Match: Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins (c): It’s main event time with 25 minutes left on the show. Should be a good one! Rollins works the arm, Balor shakes him off. Louisville is behind Rollins. Not sure why they are, but that’s where we are. Rollins winds up in control of things when the commercial comes, and the fans sing along.

Rollins hits a forearm in the corner as we return, but Balor fights back. On the outside, Rollins sends Balor into the announce table. Balor whips Balor into said announce table, and Rollins hit his ab section. Kitchen Sink knee by Balor gets two. Balor with the rear chinlock. Then he works the ABDOMINAL STRETCH! Not sure Gorilla would have approved of the application, especially since Seth fought out. Rollins with the tope suicida knocking Balor onto the announce desk! Cover back in the ring got two. Balor hits a Sling Blade, but Rollins hits a frog splash into knees for two.

Seth hits a superplex, Finn reverses after that move into the 1916 for a two count! Rollins does the deal and only gets two! Judgement Day shows up at ringside, and the OC follows them! Finn dropkicks Seth into the turnbuckle! Seth hits the stomp on Balor, and gets the three count!

Winner: Seth Rollins

Austin Theory comes down so he can hit that A-Town Down to Seth Rollins. He hits another one. What the hell? Theory takes that US strap and whacks Rollins upside the head with it!

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