The WWE Raw Reaction for Nov. 4 by Kelly Dishnow

Welcome to The WWE Raw Reaction where I offer my take on the happenings of this week in Long Island. As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth review here.

We open with a quick shot backstage showing Triple H and some of the NXT roster arriving before the opening video and pyro.

Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman grace us with their presence to start the show off. Heyman offers up some sort of explanation of why Brock is now on Raw instead of the show he got drafted on. The explanation was weak and still made the Draft look pointless. Anyway, the focus then shifts to the Rey Mysterio hunt Brock is about to go on. The promo finishes up about the same as always and Brock goes off looking for Mysterio, wreaking a little havoc backstage and coming up empty-handed.

Our first match of the night has the Kabuki Warriors taking on the team of Charlotte Flair and Natalya. Quick plug for the woman’s match at Crown Jewel before the bell rings. Once the match gets underway, it’s a bit of a disaster which is surprising given the talent participating. The timing just seemed off. Asuka got a bloody nose early and that might have thrown things off. Charlotte attempts a moonsault on both Kairi and Auska, actually hitting Asuka (who wasn’t legal) and completely missing Kairi before a near fall attempt on Kairi. Natalya had to keep backing up at one point because it wasn’t time for the hot tag spot. When it was finally time for that spot, Charlotte had to keep looking back to make sure it was timed right. The long match finally concludes with Asuka tapping out to Natalya’s Sharpshooter. The match did go a bit too long and after consulting the WWE Booking Playbook, it should set up a tag title match soon. Hopefully that match is better.

Brock is back out like Elmer Fudd hunting Bugs Bunny with Heyman demanding answers from the announce team. Heyman threatens Lawler and Dio Maddin gets Brocks face. Maddin is taller and appeared a bit bigger than Brock. Brock makes short work of him ending with an F5 through the announce desk. Mysterio comes out with a “lead pipe” and kneecaps Brock like he owed him money. Mysterio gives Brock a parting shot to the head with the WWE title to send Brock sliding down the ramp. Officials try to get Mysterio to the back while Brock is laid out at the bottom of the ramp.

Back from break with a quick recap of what just happened between Brock and Mysterio, including footage of Brock unable to stand and walk during the break to sell the attack. Mysterio with a strong promo about why he did it and challenges Brock to a title match at Survivor Series, which was accepted later in the show. A title change would be a good idea, but since it is a Brock match, it’s likely Brock retaining in under five minutes.

Buddy Murphy and Cedric Alexander are up next for a basic wrestling match. I like both guys, but there is just no story behind it. Why are they feuding? I don’t follow 205 Live but was there something from when either was Cruiserweight Champ that we can build off of? Decent match. It just needs to fill in some story gaps.

Quick recap on the NXT invasion of Smackdown before heading to a break before Seth Rollins comes out. Seth talks about the rough week he’s had and how he might not be able to fix things with Brock back holding the WWE Title. This leads to Triple H coming out reflecting on how they keep intersecting throughout the years when Seth needed something. Triple H hints at recruiting Seth for NXT again. Undisputed Era arrives on the scene with Triple H asking Seth to make a choice. The OC appears to do a quick segmental face turn to square off with Undisputed Era before NXT jumps The OC. The Raw locker room jobbers rush out to chase off the NXT invaders for right now and Seth stomps to the back. Seth finds Triple H and wants a match with Adam Cole for the NXT title tonight and Triple H agrees to it.

Mixed tag action is next with Zelina Vega, dressed like the Statue of Liberty, and Andrade taking on Sin Cara and Carolina. Vega with a quick promo while coming down the aisle. Good to see WWE still hasn’t figured out if they are going to call the masked woman Carolina or Catalina, as the announcers keep going back and forth. Not sure of the booking here as Vega picks up the win for her team. What’s the point of introducing the Carolina/Catalina character to help even the odds for Sin Cara and they still continue to lose?

We recap the whole terrible King’s Court segment from last week as Rusev is out for a promo on Lashley. Rusev told “Bob” he could have Lana, but his ass was Rusev’s. Lashley and Lana come out with Lashley selling a “torn groin” from being with Lana. Lana still hasn’t figured out if she’s going to be an American or Russian in her promo on Rusev. Since Lashley is injured, Drew McIntyre is introduced as Lashley’s replacement for a match with Rusev. The match was okay before it ends on the shocker that Lashley was faking his injury and attacked Rusev for the DQ ending. McIntyre just left and Rusev battled back against Lashley until Randy Orton drops Rusev with an RKO outta nowhere. Ricochet eventually runs down to even things up before clearing the ring of the heels, even having Lashley do the knock Lana down bump spot. I’m sure somewhere Teddy Long is frothing at the mouth for that tag match next week. I just feel bad for Ricochet, Orton, and McIntyre having to get dragged into this awful storyline.

Becky Lynch is up next for a sit-down interview to hype the Woman’s Champion triple threat match at Survivor Series when Shayna Baszler. Baszler shows up to have a chat with Becky. We get a nice little exchange between the two before it ends with a staredown.

The OC are back to heels for their six-man tag with the Street Profits and Humberto Carrillo. The match was pretty good with Ford doing his usual face in peril to lead to the hot tag to Carrillo. Styles eventually picks up the win for his team bumbling his feet on the ropes for the pinfall. Carrillo needs some wins for people to get behind him.

Viking Raiders are out next to destroy the East Hampton Polo Boys, who look like Kerwin White’s twin sons. At least the match was over quickly.

Main event time as Adam Cole defends the NXT title against Seth Rollins. There’s less time for this match than the Cole/Bryan Smackdown match. The match was good for what it was ending with Undisputed Era attacking Rollins for the DQ. The locker room empties now and here come more NXT guys to close the show out with the wild brawl that Smackdown didn’t have.

This week’s highs and lows.

The Highs:

The Becky Lynch/Shayna Baszler face-off was done really well. It promoted both the Survivor Series match and their likely one-on-one match at the Royal Rumble if I had to guess. That could be one of the better matches at Survivor Series.

The NXT Invasion was done really well again. I think Smackdown’s was a little bit better and it leaves you wondering who is going to show up on Wednesday at NXT.

The Lows:

The women’s tag match was just off for some reason. Hopefully the next match between the four is better. Also, Charlotte needs to stop attempting moonsaults. She’s going to hurt someone.

Let’s hope that Orton and Ricochet don’t get tainted by the Rusev/Lashley storyline. They could do better feuding outside of this.

Still not quite sure why Sin Cara is still losing even though he has backup now. You’d think he would win at least a match.

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That’s all I’ve got for now. See you for Smackdown.