By Tarron Coalson

MONDAY NIGHT RAW comes to us from Hartford, Ct this evening as the fall out from HELL IN A CELL and picking SURVIVOR SERIES team members dominate the night.

But first, the show start out with Goldberg coming to the ring and talking about Brock Lesnar and their upcoming match at SURVIVOR SERIES. But before Goldberg can get much out, the advocate for Lesnar, Paul Heyman comes to ringside. Heyman teases everyone that Lesnar’s coming to ringside, but just his music plays.

When Heyman tells everyone he “got them”, Goldberg starts at Heyman with menacing intent, but then Rusev comes to the ring and begins to tell Goldberg that he doesn’t have it anymore. In fact, Goldberg does look smaller and it is twelve years later, which is probably why WWE has had him fully dressed in pants, long sleeve shirts and a jacket in every appearance. They’re trying to save the illusion in your mind about Goldberg.

Rusev sucker punches Goldberg and Goldberg just looks at Rusev. Goldberg grabs Rusev and starts to knee him but slips and falls but they recover and Goldberg takes Rusev up for a pretty impressive Jack Hammer. Then, as Heyman is standing over Rusev, Goldberg decides to spear him, sending Heyman to the hospital via ambulance.

After that, they have a recap of the Kevin Owens/Seth Rollins HELL IN A CELL match that Chris Jericho interfered in.

Next up on Monday Night Raw is a ridiculous match, called a Trick or Treat match featuring Enzo Amore with Big Cass at ringside verses Luke Gallows with Karl Anderson at ringside.

The ring is surrounded by Pumpkins and other Halloween items and you can tell it’s a waste. The only neat thing was a candy corn looking Kendo Stick.

Anyway, Anderson gets hit in the face with a Pumpkin Pie and goes thru a table. Big Cass gives Gallows a big boot and Enzo gets the win.

A rematch for the WWE Cruiserweight championship is up next as the new champ, Brian Kendrick takes on former champ TJ Perkins. WWE is destined to push this feud, no matter how bad it is. Kendrick and Perkins are outside the ring and as Perkins dives back in, Kendrick halfway gets in and slides back out of the ring, allowing Perkins to win but retaining the title. Perkins has the personality of a rock. Afterwards, Perkins attacks Kendrick and put the knee bar on him for two seconds and lets go. It’s not good folks.

A promo with Monday Night Raw General Manager Mick Foley is next and he’s interrupted by Brawn Strowman who demands to be on the RAW SURVIVOR SERIES team. Foley tells him that he’s been asking for competition, so tonight there will be a Battle Royal and the winner of that will be on the RAW team, which pleases Strowman.
Foley then comes to the ring and berates Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, which brings them out to the ring. Foley tells them they manipulated the HELL IN THE CELL match and insulted the cage. But then Foley tells them that he needs them for the SURVIVOR SERIES match, even Jericho, who Stephanie McMahon didn’t want because of his actions at HELL IN A CELL. Foley said he convinced Stephanie by telling her that anyone that smart and devious could help the RAW team to victory.

Foley then introduces them to the next member of the team, THE MAN, Roman Reigns, which doesn’t sit well with Owens and Jericho. Jericho ends up challenging Reigns, which will be the main event tonight for the US Title.

Next up is the Battle Royal with the winner getting a spot on the Monday Night RAW team. Predictably, it comes down to Brawn Strowman and Sami Zayn, who WWE has been teasing a feud with. Zayn gets Strowman almost off his feet but Strowman tosses Zayn out to earn a spot on the team for RAW.

Then it’s a six man Cruiserweight match featuring Rich Swann, Lince Dorado and Cedric Alexander going against Tony Nese, Drew Gulak and Daivari. I’ve already bashed WWE for their screwing up the Cruiserweight division, so there’s no need to continue here. It’s an OK match with Rich Swann hitting a spinning hook kick into a roll up to earn the victory.

A recap of the Sasha Banks and Charlotte HELL IN A CELL match is next in which Charlotte regained the Ladies title and Charlotte is carried to ringside again and she proceeds to say that she’s the captain of the RAW ladies team and threatens Nikki Bella, the SMACKDOWN ladies captain.

Charlotte then calls out Bayley and tells her the team is only as strong as the weakest link and she wasn’t sure about Bayley. Bayley reminds Charlotte that she beat her protege but Charlotte calls out Nia Jax to face Bayley. Although it’s Jax’s toughest match thus far, she hits the Samoan Drop on Bayley and then goes for the pin, realizes she’s not facing the camera’s and turns around to get the pin so she can look menacing. I’m not kidding folks. I wonder if the Fabulous Moolah ever worried about posing for the camera while she was going for a pin? That’s where we’re at nowadays. But, let’s move on before I sound like the grumpy old man and tell you to get off my lawn..

A recap of the HELL IN A CELL match with Rusev and Roman Reigns is next.

A tag match featuring Sheamus and Cesaro against The Shining Starts is next and ends with Sheamus hooking on the Cloverleaf submission move while Sheamus catches the other Shining Star with an uppercut to keep him from making the save. They continue to argue outside the ring but are winning inside the ring.

The prudent thing to do would have had Sheamus and Cesaro win the belts at HELL IN THE CELL to keep the momentum going but why would WWE want to do that. They seem to be intent on pushing New Day to the mark of longest reigning champs which is currently held by Demolition.

OK, wait for it..a promo of Golden Truth going thru the Factory of Terror Haunted House is next. Yep, that’s right. Moving right along…

Main event time as Chris Jericho takes on Roman Reigns for the US Title. Predictably, Kevin Owens interferes and the crowd is chanting for Seth Rollins to come and make the save, which he does. As Owens and Jericho leave ringside, an awkward stare between Reigns and Rollins follows with the crowd chanting “Shield” is happening. Rollins will obviously be named the last member of the RAW men’s team, so we’ll see how they play that next week.

Overall, not a very good episode from the Monday Night RAW brand, which tends to happen the Monday after a Pay Per View. Watch for WWE Roundup’s weekly at SportsCarolina Monthly!