Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is the conclusion of the WWE Draft. Last week’s first part was uh… it was a draft. Tonight will be more draft. Jordan Huie of the Overtimer here to recap the blow-by-blow, let’s go!
Becky Lynch is out here first. She announces that the Man has come around to Denver. As the overall first draft pick, she showed up here fully expecting to kick Sasha Banks all over Colorado. But it turns out she can’t make it ’cause of the last beating that I gave her. Instead, the woman she’ll be fighting tonight, she just can’t seem to get rid of. But everytime they step foot in this ring, there turns out to be a war. She came here to rip somebodies’ arm off. That brings out Charlotte.
Charlotte says “Who knows? Maybe this nightmare will never end and I’ll get drafted to Raw and we’ll fight forever.” Charlotte says she doesn’t want to take opportunity after opportunity, she doesn’t even want to fight Becky tonight. She tells Bex that she misses her and just wants to be her friend. This of course leads to an immediate cheap shot. Charlotte claims Becky makes it so damn hard to be her friend before a brawl starts. Refs come in to break up this fight, which was meant to open up the show.
Naturally “Let them fight” chants start. They’re being pulled apart as we go to commercial.
Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair
Charlotte immediately gets Becky in the corner with shoulder blocks, but eats a clothesline. Becky repeatedly rams Charlotte’s head into turnbuckles and lays in kicks. Charlotte fights back with an elbow, clobbers her in the corner, grinds against the ropes. Kick to the gut. Charlotte with chops, backslide gets 2. Becky with the go behind, dragon screw leg whip takes her to the corner. Becky wants her springing kick but Charlotte avoids this and hair whips it. Charlotte with her figure four headscissor head rams, feels like it’s been a while since I’ve seen that. Keeps the scissors locked in and eventually continues the head rams.
Eventually Charlotte scissors her into the corner and kips up. Wants to single out the leg, Becky avoids it, but eats a forearm to the back of the head. Cover, Lynch matrix’es out of it, gets a dropkick. But Charlotte takes the advantage anyway with chops in the corner. Slaps to the back of Becky’s head, Becky tries to lay in a forearm and eats one right back. Becky whips her to the corner, Charlotte escapes to the apron, tries to ram Becky’s head into the turnbuckle but gets stopped, springing kick takes her to the floor. Becky wants a baseball slide, Charlotte avoids, Becky ends up getting posted. Commercial break.
We come back to see Charlotte whip Becky to the corner, she bounces off into a big knife edge chop. Becky reverses another corner whip, Charlotte off into a series of clotheslines, leg lariat. Becky rolls to her feet, spin kick to the stomach, flying forearm. Becky gets taken to the apron, WWE Headkick, she goes up top, Missile Dropkick! 2 count. Charlotte with an elbow, misses a big boot, Becky wants a running dropkick but she gets caught into a Boston Crab! Becky fights, but gets dragged away. Charlotte wants to turn it into a Figure Four but Becky kicks her to the floor. Baseball slide takes her down! Becky with a flying clothesline off the apron! She throws Charlotte into the ring, wants a flying clothesline but Charlotte sidesteps it. Natural Selection! Nearfall.
Charlotte seems to want a moonsault, but Becky ankle picks her and sends her to the mat. But Charlotte trips Becky headfirst into the corner! Pulls her out and covers, narrow kickout. “This is awesome” chant starts as Charlotte begins working over the leg. Becky kicks away from the Figure Four again, roll up gets 2. Reverse DDT lays Charlotte out. Middlerope Leg Drop, nearfall! Becky wants a Dis-Arm-Her, Charlotte reverses with a whip, HUGE spear cuts right through her, close nearfall! Charlotte seems in disbelief about this… Becky catches her with a crucifix cradle, and that gets the win!
Winner: Becky Lynch
Raw gets the first pick of the night yet again.
Round 1 of Night 2 of the Draft starting now. Interviewer Girl #1 is back with Seth Rollins. He says today is a good day, ’cause it’s draft day live in the Mile High City. Mentions Bray Wyatt doesn’t seem to give a damn about where he gets drafted because he goes wherever Seth goes. He says he thought this was over because the things he did at HIAC, he’s not proud of them. But the Fiend, he doesn’t even know if he’s a human being, but when he was pulled to hell on SmackDown, he began to think he was doing this all wrong. He’s been trying to move on while the Fiend has been picking spots. He says that tonight… he’s going Fiend hunting. Tonight, he’ll end this, and burn it down.
Mad Money guy likes Seth Rollins, Andrade and Ricochet for draft picks. Atleast he knows current guys, or was given a script.
Shots to the War Room! Nice to see Fox’s silly robot is back.
Stephanie out to announce the first picks of the night.
RAW is gonna burn it down with the Universal Champion Seth Rollins. SmackDown picks Brock Lesnar. Stephanie hilariously called him ‘Ledner’. Raw picks Charlotte Flair. Next up, SmackDown picks The New Day as a unit. And next, Raw goes for Andrade and Zelina Vega.
We continue to only have a handful of actual moves, but it’s nice to see Andrade positioned high with this.
Andrade interrupts the Draft Panel to make his first official appearance for Raw. Zelina on the mic, saying that they were not drafted into the same round as Universal Champ Seth Rollins or WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, or even one of the four horsefaces Becky Lynch or Charlotte Flair. They were drafted into the same round as Andrade!
He’ll be competing next.
Andrade vs. Ali
We come back to see that Ali has spawned into existence, takes Andrade down with a speedy headscissor. Zelina gets on the apron to stop a dive, tries to distract to help Andrade attack from behind but Ali avoids it, whip, tries to duck under but Andrade gets him with a basement dropkick to the ribs. Andrade lays in stinging kicks. Ali kicks him away, wants to go up top but Andrade with a shove sends Ali flipping to the floor! Andrade singles out an arm, throws him shoulder first into the post. Crossarmbreaker against the bottom rope, wearing down that arm until the ref forces a break.
Andrade into the ring to lay in stomps, Ali fights back with chops and punches until Andrade cuts him off. Whip to the corner, big running knee to the face! Cover for 2. Arm wringer. Ali flips out of a back suplex attempt onto his feet. Andrade with another crossarmbreaker over the top rope this time! Andrade slips into the ring. Idiot charge, Ali evades and Andrade ends up flying over the top rope to the floor! Ali hits the ropes, huge tope right over Zelina’s head to wipe Andrade out! Throws him into the ring, but Zelina comes off the apron to hit a rana on Ali as the ref is distracted! Ali is taken back into the ring, Hammerlock DDT finishes things off.
Winner: Andrade
Good action as you’d expect from these two. Shame neither are hot in the slightest, hope that changes.
Stephanie out for Round 2. Raw gets the Women’s Tag Team Champions, the Kabuki Warriors. SmackDown drafts Daniel Bryan. Raw will be getting Rusev. SmackDown of course keeps the SmackDown Women’s Champion, Bayley. And Raw shall be selecting Aleister Black.
I continue to not really want to recap any of these guest spots, they’re not really significant. Colin Jost and Michael Che call back to getting reamed by Braun Strowman.
WWE Raw Tag Team Championship: Bobby Roode & Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. The Viking Raiders
Roode swiftly taken to the outside, Ivar with a suicide dive taking him out, back in the ring, huge frog splash squashes Ziggler. Roode has to pull Ivar by the ankle to break up the pin. Tag to Erik, Roode in to intercept, Erik wants an exploder, Ziggler with a chopblock. Ziggler gets Erik into a sleeper, Roode tags in, stomps on him. Chops Erik in the corner. Erik elbows Roode, forearm to Ziggler. Erik thrown to the outside, Roode posts him. Ziggler dashes up to Erik, running Zig Zag slams the back of Erik’s head into a seated chair! Pinning him would definitely earn a 1.8. Commercial.
We come back to see Ziggler coming down with a big elbow drop on Erik. Sleeper wears him down. Erik makes it to his feet, reaches over to tag to Erik but Ziggler forces him to the opposing corner. Tag to Roode who pummels him in the corner. Erik fights back with an enormous chest chop. Roode with a dropkick to the left knee. Roode hooks Erik’s leg as Ziggler tags in, gets him with a forearm drop. Starts yelling “Do something!” so he’s probably about to get smashed. Erik indeed stands and just decimates him with a forearm. Hot tag to Ivar! Back body drop to Roode, Pendulum Side SLam to Ziggler, rolling senton, west coast pop to Roode, cartwheel to avoid a clothesline, big lariato of his own to Ziggler! Tag to Erik, they want their springboard clothesline/German Suplex but Ziggler clips Ivar to the floor, Roode slams Erik into the corner. Roll-up, Erik kicks out.
Erik wants his Hip toss into the knee, but Ziggler blind tagged in, Spinebuster/Zig Zag combo! Nearfall! Wow, Zig Zag just cannot function in any capacity! Fameasser gets another nearfall. Double team, whip to the corner, Roode whips Ziggler but Erik evades letting him nail facefirst into the corner. Gets a shot in on Roode, but Ziggler gets him with a Superkick into the Glorious DDT, Ivar has to break up the pin. Brief “Let’s go Vikings” chant starts, Ziggler tags in, as does Ivar, handspring double back elbow! Tag to Erik! Viking Experience to Ziggler and that is that!
Winners: The Viking Raiders
That was a good enough match to get a dead crowd into it by the end and a not-so-bad pop for the Viking Raiders’ win, considering they’re the Viking Raiders. It was such a hurdle to get over with that name and gimmick and stop-and-start, but they’re really just too special as talents to be denied on some level.
We see the Raiders in their little red room. Erik says that three days ago they said Raw was exactly where they belong, and tonight, they captured the Raw tag team champions. Erik says it’s one thing to get these, it’s another to defend them. Erik surprisingly boasts about being the first to win the IWGP, ROH, NXT and Raw Tag Team Championships.
Stephanie back for Round 3. Raw selects Cedric Alexander. SmackDown keeps the IC Champ, Shinsuke Nakamura (and it appears Sami is sticking with him). Raw drafts 205 Live’s Humberto Carrillo. SmackDown selects Ali. Raw drafts Erick Rowan, that’s legit one of the bigger moves.
Aleister Black vs. Eric Young
This might be EY’s first singles match on Raw since originally being taken here in April. Black trips him up, basement dropkick, springboard moonsault. Wants Black Mass, Young slips to the floor to evade it. Slides in but thinks better of it as Black just sits there. Black catches him with a high kick to the chest. Hotshot, EY hits the ropes, Black with a big running knee lift! Whip to the corner, Young escapes to the apron, tries to come in sliding through the legs, Black catches him and gets him with the Dark Ritual, his new submission hold. EY has no choice but to tap!
Winner: Aleister Black
Keep doing these and there’s no reason Black won’t get get over. Pretty simple guy to use.
Stephanie here for Round 4. Raw gets Buddy Murphy. SmackDown selects Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler. Raw drafts Jinder Mahal for some reason. SmackDown chooses Carmella. Raw gets the 24/7 Champion, R-Truth. Treated as a major split…
Street Profits backstage say Tyson might just cause a Fury when he and Braun Strowman sign their contracts for Crown Jewel. And they of course celebrate their being drafted to Monday Night Raw. More like Monday Night smoke. The OC also come in applauding themselves. AJ reiterates that it is official, the Street Profits are on Monday Night Raw. But then AJ says he’s not sure why USA Network drafted them. Why would they want the Profits as the unofficial hosts of Raw when the OC is already here? They say Raw belongs to the OC. They walk off all smiles, but then jump the Profits! Knock them to the ground and stomp them until officials come to help.
Ricochet comes out. Inset promo has him claiming that only you can be the driver of your destiny. And his destiny saw him drafted to Monday Night Raw. He does his usual bit about proving that superheroes can be real. He’s in action next.
Ricochet vs. Shelton Benjamin
Ricochet rolls over Shelton in the corner, big dropkick. Ricochet lands on his feet off a leg pick, headscissors takes Shelton over. Leap frog, ducks an elbow, back suplex! Ricochet rolls to the floor. Benjamin comes out, takes him into the ring, pop-up faceplant. Ricochet elbows his way to his feet, ducks a dragon whip but Benjamin nails a big boot! 2 count. Ricochet rolls to his feet, more elbows but clubbering shots keep him down.
Benjamin hits the ropes, Ricochet with a flip kick, inverted enziguri takes Shelton down. Escapes a charge by going to the apron, WWE Headkick drops Benjamin to the mat. Springboard clothesline wipes him out, running shooting star press gets a nearfall! Ricochet wants to go up top, Benjamin stops him with knees to the apron, runs into a second WWE Headkick, now Ricochet going up top. Benjamin follows him up there, wants the classic Super Belly To Belly but Ricochet lands on his feet! Recoil, that’s that!
Winner: Ricochet
Decent match that could’ve been stellar in different circumstances.
We see Lana getting a massage. Masseuse asks if it’s the right kind of pressure. Lana says no, she likes it harder. Subtle! After commercial we come back to see Lana continuing to get a massage. She explains that she likes it deeper. The masseuse leaves, and predictably in comes Lashley in nothing but a towel to take her place. Of course Lana loves it, says Rusev was never that good. Lashley says “This is so much fun, maybe not so much for Rusev.” Lana says that’s enough for that side, and flips over… screen pans up as not to show her.
We cut back to see Jerry Lawler in the ring to moderate the Fury/Strowman contract signing. Introduces Braun. Introduces Fury. Braun says he knows more about him than he thinks. He knows he’s undefeated and a hell of an athlete. He also knows he has one of the biggest egos he’s ever seen. Braun says he knows he was at WWE’s premiere of SmackDown to steal some of WWE’s spotlight, his spotlight. In Saudi Arabia, you’re stepping into Braun’s world. That’s not a good line… says on October 31st, you’re gonna get. These. Hands.
Fury signs the contract and says he’s a fan of Braun’s, has been for a while. Says him and his family were there to see him. All his kids have been talking about is how many trucks he’s flipped over, how many guys have gotten these hands. Fury says he’s not out of his element in any ring and he’ll prove that at Crown Jewel. Says he’ll be on his back, ’cause he’ll knock him out. Braun stands, as does Fury as they confront each other. Braun up and shatters the table before him. Fury lifts up his pen, and with some great effort eventually kinda snaps it. Walks away laughing.
That… was really, really, really dumb! Wow. Wow, wow. I really didn’t do justice to how poorly that came off, why on Earth did they do that?!
Stephanie out for Round 5. Monday Night Raw picks Samoa Joe. They were implying that injured folks would not be signed until later but oh well. SmackDown picks the Miz, who basically never really left even though I do think he’s been on Raw most of this year. Raw selects Akira Tozawa. SmackDown now picks King Baron. Lastly, Raw selects Shelton Benjamin.
Cedric Alexander vs. Buddy Murphy
Murphy with an arm wringer, Buddy flipping and rollins out of it, trip takes Cedric down over and over. Controls him on the ground. Cedric with a headscissor, Murphy kips out of it, sequence continues until they both nip to their feet, stalemate. Murphy with a back elbow, tosses Cedric facefirst into the middle turnbuckle! Murphy laying in kicks. Takes him to the apron, Alexander with a shot, goes for a springboard but Murphy trips him up, Cedric falls painfully into the adjacent apron and to the floor!
Back from commercial, Alexander taken to the apron, WWE Headkick, comes in but eats an enormous high knee that seems to send teeth flying! Murphy hits the ropes, enormous tope wipes Cedric out! Throws him into the ring, Murphy goes up top. Flying Meteora! 2 count. Gets him against the second rope, whips around, Cedric tries a superkick, Murphy catches it, but Cedric gets him with a rolling elbow! Murphy rolls out of the ring, Alexander hits the ropes, Baseball slide takes him into the barrier! Good God, vicious suicide dive drives Buddy into the barricade! Sends him into the ring, Springboard Reverse STO nearfall! Alexander wants a Lumbar Check, Murphy hooks a side headlock to counter. Murphy flips over onto his feet, goes up top, Cedric with an enziguri cutting him off. Pursues him up top, Murphy slips between his legs, Cheeky Nandos kick leads into the Liger Bomb for a 2 count! But Murphy hoists him right back up, Murphy’s Law, for the win!
Winner: Buddy Murphy
This crowd has been dead all night and it’s really exposed how poorly built practically everyone whose wrestled on this show is. But that was a fantastic match for what it was.
Crown Jewel rundown includes the announcement of the Fiend vs. Seth Rollins, Falls Count Anywhere for the Universal title.
Street Profits backstage talk about strength in numbers. They want to go after the OC but they need a partner. Dawkins says they should keep it a mystery. Ford says what’s not a mystery is that they want the smoke.
Steph here again for the final round of the WWE Draft. Sad to see it go. Raw selects Rey Mysterio. SmackDown picks, ugh, Shorty Gable. Raw keeps Titus O’Neil. SmackDown drafts Elias. Lastly, Raw selects Liv Morgan.
Booker T on the Draft Panel now claiming that rumors are swirling of a blockbuster trade taking place over the next 24 hours.
Kabuki Warriors out now. Nattie comes out and says she had to pick a partner against the Women’s tag champs. She has to pick a woman that’s driven her to her limits. It’s… it’s Lacey Evans. This show is stupid.
The Kabuki Warriors vs. Natalya & Lacey Evans (Non-title)
We come back to see Kabuki isolating Lacey Evans who they now expect us to accept as a face I’m sure. Evans gets Kairi with a reverse headlock takedown that looked like it could’ve broken her neck. Kairi wants a leap frog, Lacey takes her out of the air with a big boot. This takes her to the outside. Lacey pursues, Kairi catches her with a sharp backfist. Running neck snap onto the floor! Asuka tosses Lacey to the barricade. Kairi takes Lacey into the ring with an inverted headlock, transitions into an Inverted Dragon Sleeper, Lacey fights out. Kairi kicks her away to stop a comeback.
Kairi singles out an arm, tag to Asuka, she comes in with a double axe handle to the arm. Arm wringer, kick to the elbow. Gentle, very protected kawada kicks follow. Evans with a drop toe hold, then a back elbow to get to her corner, Nattie tags in. Sidesteps a charge, Release German Suplex! Knocks Kairi off the apron. Sharpshooter, Asuka counters with a heel hook! Natalya fights her way to her feet through the hold, hoists her up for another German, Asuka counters with a roll-through cover, they trade 2 counts, Nattie transitions to another Sharpshooter! Asuka pushing up from the canvas, but Nattie walks her to the center. Kairi eventually breaks things up with a running bulldog. Asuka gets Nattie off the apron with a running hip thrust. Commercial.
We come back to see Asuka having Nattie in an Octopus Stretch, Natalya throws her down, basement dropkick. Asuka with a full nelson, transitions to a cross-armbreaker, Nattie got to the ropes forcing the break. Asuka keeps the wrist locked and stomps on her back. Eventually Nattie rolls away but gets stomped to the face anyway. Short knees. Nattie shoots to her feet and smacks Asuka across the face. Wants to get to her corner but a double axe handle cuts her off. Cheap shot takes Lacey off the apron. Tag to Kairi, double suplex. Kairi with an arrogant cover, has no chance. Body scissors holds Nattie down. Kairi transitions into an Inverted Dragon Sleeper as Nattie fights to her feet, counter suplex! Lacey finally tagged back in, series of clotheslines to Kairi, backwards roll into a splash gets 2. Throws Kairi into the corner, springing Bronco Buster, into a springing dropkick into a springing elbow for 2.
Kairi stops Lacey’s moonsault attempt, Tree of Woe, gets a huge double footstomp onto her face, Nattie runs in to stop a pin attempt but gets dumped. Sliding D to Evans. Asuka tags as Kairi comes off with her elbow, Lacey evades it and gets a Women’s Right but Asuka sneaks up for the roll-up win.
Winners: Kabuki Warriors
Solid, well-worked match in which alignments were super mis-cast and no one cared.
Firefly Funhouse segment begins. Bray tells Seth that he saw him. He’s noticed people saying really mean things about him. But he thinks Seth’s strong, brave and definitely smart. But you have to understand, he… he never forgets. Ramblin’ Rabbit pops up and says Seth is coming right now and he’s really mad. Bray promises to him that everything will be fine and tells Rabbit to go play. And remember, “He keeps us safe here-” right as Rollins comes rushing in to attack Bray. Seth grabs his portrait and throws it to the ground as the puppets beg him off.
Bray stands and asks Seth why he’s doing this to him. Rollins tosses him into the fake wall. Seth growls, “Burn… it… down” before lighting the table on fire and shoving it over. The set burns as we see shots of the Fiend flash in and Bray’s usual laugh loop.
We have one last shot of fire as the screen fades.
Somehow WWE has come off this series of supposed blowaway shows looking like they’re right back in a rut.
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