WWE Raw is live tonight from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tonight’s show opens with a video highlighting the Kurt Angle mystery storyline with Corey Graves. It shows clips of Kurt Angle winning the Olympic gold medals, and also getting married, with Angle saying the secret could cost him his career, his marriage, and his kids.
Dean Ambrose kicks off the in-ring portion of the show, reporting to the ring with a steel chair. Rollins meets Ambrose in the ring and asks him if when he takes his shot at Miz and the MIztourage whether Ambrose will stand in his way or stand beside him. The Lunatic Fringe says Rollins shouldn’t call him brother. Ambrose’s brothers were in The Shield, but a guy who looks just like Rollins ended that by driving a steel chair through his back. Rollins tells Ambrose he’s sorry. Rollins says he has to live with his betrayal. He’s had to live with it every day for the last 3 years. Rollins then turns his back on Ambrose and exhorts Ambrose to hit him with the chair until he feels better.
Miz and The Miztourage come out and ambush Rollins and Ambrose with chairs. Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas hold up Rollins so that Miz can hit a Skullcrushing Finale, driving the Kingslayer’s head into the seat of a steel chair. Miz and the Miztourage then leave Rollins and Ambrose sprawled on the ground as they make their exit holding the steel chairs high over their heads in celebration as they make their way backstage.
Bayley vs Raw Women’s Champ Alexa Bliss
The champ opens up with a slap right across Bayley’s face. Bliss then kicks Bayley in the corner, but the former champ fires right hands into Bliss’ face on the mat.
Nia Jax starts making her way to the ring as Bliss steps out and we go to break.
Winner: Bayley
After the match, Corey Graves leaves the announce table after receiving another secret text message. Kurt Angle is backstage looking nervous with Corey Graves. Angle is having second thoughts about going public tonight, and Graves reminds Angle that we live in the age of social media and the secret will get out anyways. Angle agrees, and says we should hear this from Angle himself. Angle thanks Graves and says his friendship means a lot to Angle and the mystery person.
Cruiserweight No. 1 contender Akira Tozawa is backstage with Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews. Ariya Daivari interrupts and asks where Tozawa’s honor has gone. Daivari demands a rematch and walks off.
Gentleman Jack Gallagher & Mustafa Ali vs. The Brian Kendrick & Drew Gulak
Gallagher pounds on Gulak early. Gulak breaks free and drops Ali from the apron, then sweeps Gallagher and pummels on him. Gallagher starts mounting a comeback until Kendrick gets the tag. Kendrick immediately goes to work on Gallagher, but Gallagher comes back with a headbutt and tags in Ali. Ali hits the inverted 450 splash on Kendrick for the win after a short match.
Winners: Gentleman Jack & Mustafa Ali
Back from commercial, Enzo Amore makes his ring entrance.
The Certified G says for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction, and there’s not a man in this business that can get a reaction like he can. And he does it full well knowing the repercussions of every word and action, and if he said it, he owns it. He can’t lie, sometimes his losses outweigh his assets, but that’s fine, because the same holds true in this business as in life.
You lose some, you win some, but you always gotta fight for what you believe in, and Cass, he’ll tell you right now that he believes that he believed in what they were fighting for, he really did. But maybe he believed in it more, because for five years he threw caution to the wind, letting him pick up his 5’11, 200 pound frame and toss him at their opponents, and why?
Because he wanted to win, he did. And when Cass threw him, he was left standing at seven foot tall, and that didn’t win them any championships. He can’t take his height away, and when he holds Enzo up he could dunk him in a basketball hoop, but this isn’t the NBA, it’s WWE, and when you throw him 14 feet it’s gonna hurt.
Cass said he threw him out of his life, but listen people, he didn’t throw him out of his life then and he’s not throwing him down, and if you knock Enzo down nine times, he’ll get up ten. It took everything in him to climb back in the ring but he did and he made Cass finish the fight, like he always has.
You say his hind end writes checks that he can’t cash, well, run the footage back last week of Cass with his checkbook in hand. They play footage of Big Show beating the crap out of Big Cass last week. You bounced the check! Enzo says at Balls he brought the fight and Cass couldn’t even look him in the eyes, and when the going got tough he folded like a lawn chair.
Amore’s a G and he would have at least tried against Show! And Cass ain’t a lawn chair, he’s more like a big comfy couch because there’s only one word to describe his character–
Enter Big Cass. He tells Graves that if it wasn’t for him nothing would have happened before making his way to the ramp. He says Enzo’s always running his mouth and he didn’t learn his lesson at Balls, so he’s gonna come down to that ring and beat some sense into him, and hopefully finally he’ll learn to shut his mouth.
Enzo asks how he can make sense when he’s got millions on his mind and he backs out of the ring. He says he’s smarter than the average bear, he loves a fight but he’s hopping the wall and he asks for a chair and pulls a kid in an Enzo wig over to watch Cass get smoked with him, and then he’ll ask three simple words– How you doin’?
Enter Big Show! Cass strikes first but Show uses his veteran wiles and yanks him from the apron, putting him into the barricade! Across the aisle and into the barricade again! Cass throwing punches, backing Show off, but he gets a boot in return and the giant puts him into the apron! Body slam on the floor! Enzo is loving it!
On the apron, Cass manages to put Show’s back into the ringpost and stun him momentarily, so he puts him in again! Dumping him in the ring, mounted punches, yanking at the beard, and a kick to the ribs for good measure. A trickle of blood is running down Big Show’s nose and Enzo makes the save!
Well, he tries to make the save, but he runs right into a boot from Cass! Cass walks off but Big Show rises, vengeance in his eyes, and they have a staring contest.
Roman Reigns is hanging out backstage when an interview rolls up. He says when the stakes are high, he’s at his best, like when he beat the Undertaker. Tonight he’s the guy that’s gonna beat Samoa Joe, and then he’s gonna move on to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam and become the next Universal Champion, because he’s the Big Dog and this is his yard.
Back from commercial, Dean and Seth are bickering in the locker room. Dean says he’d rather fight them three-on-one and Seth tells him if he didn’t jump the gun they could have taken them. Ambrose tells him to stop telling him what to do and Kurt Angle rolls up, telling them next week it’s them two against any two members of the Miztourage.
Dean wants to take on all three and Seth agrees, so Kurt makes the match!
The Drifter is in the ring to sing us a song. He talks about his long history here in Nashville and says it inspired him to write the song he’s going to play. The crowd chants “We want Balor!” and he says he does too before launching into his usual “hold your applause” spiel. He dallies just a little too long getting started and Finn makes his entrance, but we head to break before the actual match begins.
Finn Balor vs. Elias Samson
Samson pushes Balor back in the corner and breaks clean. Finn with a waistlock, snapmare into a kick to the back, armbar applied, but Elias reverses with a slam. He pulls Balor over the apron, smashing his face into the hardest part of the ring a few times, back in, choking him against the ropes.
Irish whip to a clothesline, knee to the back, full nelson applied, shaking it but Finn’s fired up and breaks with an elbow. Off the ropes he takes a forearm but hits the Pele kick, boots up in the corner, forearm smashes, chop in the corner, setting him up, basement dropkick! Strikes in the corner, Balor looking to go up and over but the Drifter catches him in an electric chair.
Finn turns around, thinking Frankensteiner, but Samson is just a tick faster and hits a sitout powerbomb! Back suplex backbreaker, only two, popping up top and Finn catches him with a kick, dropkick through the ropes, Pele Kick off the apron. Balor stays on the offensive with a double dropkick that puts Elias into the barricad.
Samson then grabs his guitar and bashes Balor with it.
Winner: Finn Balor By Disqualification
As the ref and medics attend to Balor, Bray Wyatt’s creepy face appears.
Wyatt is laughing in a smoky room as Finn has recovered.
Wyatt says Finn didn’t expect that, did he? That look on Balor’s face, Bray likes what he sees. It hurt, and that is what real people do, they have feelings, just like everybody else in this sea of humanity. That look, Wyatt lives for it, pain, suffering, it ignites the fire in his soul and his soul is thirsty, ravenous.
Bray feels the need to satisfy his soul, put Finn in not just pain but agony, as the hair on the back of his neck stands up and his heart beats faster. He’s a product of Irish mythology, but Wyatt is real, the worst nightmare you’ve ever had, and he’ll summon the tortured souls of the devil himself and rain them down on him.
And the best part is he’s gonna enjoy every second of it. Wyatt laughs.
Back from commercial, Kurt Angle is on the phone. He’s still a little anxious but he’s ready to do this.
Bayley and Sasha Banks roll up, they’re having a disagreement as to who should get to wrestle Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam. Banks says everybody knows she had the match won before Alexa left, and Bayley’s case is that she’s actually pinned the champ twice. Kurt says they both deserve it, but he’s not going to decide, they will – in a #1 contender’s match next week. They thank him and walk off.
Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson are backstage saying that The Hardy Boyz pretended not to know who they were before last week’s Raw, but The Revival will be hard to forget now.
Tozawa and Titus O’Neil are backstage prepping for a match as we go to break.
Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari
Tozawa with a kick and a senton but Daivari gets the knees up and Akira’s shoulder goes out. Arm wringer, working the shoulder over, cutthroat armbar, Tozawa out but he gets caught with a short-arm knee and put into the turnbuckles with a backhammer for a nearfall. Ariya slapping disdainful, off the ropes and Akira catches him with a Frankensteiner.
Kicks, he goes under, back suplex connects, holding the shoulder but gamely fighting on, climbing the turnbuckles, nobody home, he lands on his feet and Daivari hits a double knee armbreaker. Hip attack, cover for a nearfall, stomping away at the shoulder, knee drops, Titus is on the apron calling it off.
Winner: Ariya Daivari by referee stoppage
Tozawa and O’Neil snap at each other as they make their way backstage. Tozawa says he never quit and O’Neil doesn’t care about him.
Angle Reveals His Secret
Back from commercial, Kurt Angle makes his entrance.
He gets on the mic and says he’s a little nervous. He apologises for being a distraction over the last couple months, and before his announcement he’s gonna talk about his life. As a kid he was told that every action had a consequence, and he just found out that an action in his past had a serious consequence, because it changed his life, and he was afraid of change, because he thought it would hurt his family.
But he’s happy to say his family is 100% supportive of this, and WWE is supportive of this announcement, and he hopes we are too. So, here we go– when he was in college, he dated a young lady. They dated for a while, and then they stopped, and it wasn’t until recently that he found out she gave birth nine months after their last date.
She gave birth to a baby boy, and he was unaware of the pregnancy and the birth. This baby boy was put up for a closed adoption and was adopted by two loving parents that taught him great American values, and if you’ll indulge him, he’s going to brag about his young man. He was a three-sport athlete and a great student, drafted to play baseball but he chose to get his degree and keep wrestling.
After college he had many options but pursued his dream of being a WWE Superstar, and Kurt is happy he did that. He always says we settle things in the ring here, and this is no different. So, introducing the newest member of the Raw roster, his son… JASON JORDAN!
Jordan makes his entrance and Kurt gets a little choked up. They hug! Angle raises his son’s hand a few times and they embrace once more.
The Revival vs. The Hardy Boyz
The Revival and Hardy Boyz are playing the feud, brawling before the match starts. Matt and Dash to start, quick tag to Dawson but Hardy is on them, shoulder blocks in the corner, Scott wrenching the ear to turn it around but Matt knocks him on his ass and tags Jeff in.
Tandem boots in the corner, axehandle, face into the turnbuckles, whip reversed but Brother Nero comes back hard with a lariat. Tag to Matt, he locks Dawson down with a side headlock on the mat. To his feet, reaching for the tag, he gets it, Wilder in, punches flying, uppercuts, another tag made.
Dawson throwing chops and punches in the corner but Hardy puts his face into the turnbuckles repeatedly and in succession, follows it up with a bulldog for two and makes the tag. Double team mat slam, off the ropes, splash and an elbow drop, only a nearfall and Wilder gets a double rolling slam as we go to break.
Back from commercial, Dawson tags in and the Revival lay Matt Hardy low, going after his leg, snapping and tearing. Repeated elbow drops, leg drop across the throat, only good for two and Scott slams him into the Tree of Woe, tagging Wilder back in. Dash mocking the “Delete!” arm, Jeff gets hot and keeps referee Shawn Bennett busy as the Top Guys work his brother over further.
Stepover toehold, sitting down deep on it, Matt throwing upkicks to break it, tag to Dash and Hardy can’t break away! Hooking his leg over the middle rope, kicking at it, quick tag and a Banzai Drop on the knee! Elbow drop, grapevining the leg, Matt out with elbows to the face, desperate for the tag, kicking Scott back, trying a backslide but it’s just another two!
Wilder back in, right on him, another quick tag, just absolutely refusing to let Matt anywhere near his brother. Thinking Trailer Hitch, Matt kicks Dawson out of the ring but he gets back in in time to tag Wilder back in… Jeff gets the tag! Manhattan Drop to the double leg drop to the basement dropkick, only two!
Whip reversed, boot in the corner, to the second for a diving splash… but he was denied. Dawson running interference from the apron, Wilder gets a tag, whip, duck the lariat, Jeff gets a nearfall off a schoolboy pin! Twist of Fate.. Dash breaks up the pinning combo .Poetry in Motion connects, Jeff climbs but Wilder knocks him off-balance. Dawson hits a press slam and holds on to Jeff’s tights for the win.
Winner: The Revival
Samoa Joe is interviewed backstage. He says he’s not a man who possesses qualms. Last month he showed the world he doesn’t fear Brock Lesnar, and at Balls he came within inches of beating him. Roman has a wrecking ball right hand but his path is skewed, and in Joe’s world it’s far bigger than that. Reigns thinks he’s some kind of obstacle in his way, but Samoa is more than an obstacle, he’s a force of nature that will blow right through him.
The first two times they met, Roman was laid out and Joe’s hand raised in victory, and tonight, the third time will be the charm.
Titus is backstage with Tozawa and he apologizes for getting the match called earlier. Titus says he was just thinking of Tozawa’s future. Tozawa says he wants Titus to get him a rematch with Daivari for 205 Live.
Elias Samson will battle Finn Balor in a no DQ match will take place next week on Raw.
Samoa Joe vs Roman Reigns
Joe slaps Reigns across the face early on but Reigns comes back with right hands and floors Joe. Reigns sends Joe to the outside and Joe regroups.
Back from commercial, Joe with a whip, back elbow, corner enzuigiri, firmly in control, the cover only gets two. Drawing Reings up, knee lift, right hands, jabs and body blows, a forearm, another jab, Roman is stumbling but manages to grab a quick schoolboy pin! Wipeout back elbow gets another quick cover, Samoa laying Mongolian chops in from behind before settling on a neck crank, sweat dripping off his face.
The Big Dog flagging but not failing, reaching for the ropes, pushing up, on one knee and Joe cuts him off with a knee, snap suplex, another cover, just a nearfall. Back to the neck crank, Reigns breaks with body blows, hits the big slicing right, follows it up with the trifecta of lariats but Joe catches the third!
Rock Bottom blocked, the flying lariat connects this time, only two! Corner lariats connecting, off the ropes for the Mafia kick for the big finale, he calls for the Superman Punch but Samoa rolls out of the ring. Roman out after him, thinking Drive-By but Joe clobbers him with a lariat so hard he lands on the apron! Reigns hits a big lariat on the floor in return and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Joe has Reigns by the hair, jawing at him. Trading headbutts, Roman pulls ahead and shifts to punches, charging in, Samoa has the fireman’s carry, he slips out, Samoan drop! Big Dog charging, Manhattan Drop, big boot, running senton, but Reigns kicks out.
Joe hooks him for the Rock Bottom, Roman fights out, thinking Moment of Silence, Samoa throwing hands, back to the Rock Bottom, countered with an arm drag, Superman Punch, but Joe extends the match.
The roar of Braun Strowman echoes through the area, and the Monster Among Men interrupts the match. He strides to the ring with confidence and yanks Joe out of the ring. The ref watches warily as Braun turns to face Reigns and climbs in the ring, but Roman meets him with a right hand. Boot from the apron, to the floor, another right and Braun meets him with a knee lift before putting him into the barricade and throwing him in the ring.
Match result: Braun Strowman interference stops match
Braun levels the Destroyer with a clothesline. Strowman heads back in, he shoves Reigns away and clobbers him in the corner, repeated right hands, choking him with a boot, Samoa is back in and Strowman has a body avalanche for him.
Reigns with a boot up in the corner, slicing right, Joe climbs the turnbuckles and locks the Coquina Clutch on! Braun to the middle of the ring, fading, Roman knocks him down with a Superman Punch! The Big Dog charges in for another and Strowman catches him with a thrust spinebuster! Charging lariat for Joe and the powerslam follows!
Braun goes back to Roman, picks him up and powerslams him right next to Joe! Strowman goes to leave but heads back in and draws Reigns back up again as security floods the ringside area! None of them want to fight the monster among men, however, and he scoops Roman up again for another powerslam!
Strowman leaves as Joe and Reigns writhe in pain on the mat.