Sasha Banks will face Charlotte on tonight’s Monday Night Raw. (WWE.com)
Tonight on Monday Night Raw, Sasha Banks challenges Charlotte in a one-on-one rematch with the WWE Raw Women’s Championship on the line. Plus, Brian Kendrick goes up against T.J. Perkins, and for some reason Ashton Kutcher is here. The show will be broadcast live from Los Angeles, California at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the USA Network. Read on for match results and spoilers, followed by a preview of the night’s events written earlier this afternoon.
8:00 – Roman Reigns enters, holding up his United States Championship title. He says his bloodline has never had anyone win the U.S. Championship until now, and that’s because he is the guy.
He’s interrupted by Lana. (Just Lana, not Rusev). She says she’s come out here to talk to him, but Rusev doesn’t know. Lana is here to negotiate because Rusev is challenging Roman to a rematch for the U.S. Championship. Roman mocks Lana for doing Rusev’s dirty work, and she says Roman has no respect, calling him a “stupid boy” who needs to wipe his smile off his face.
Rusev enters, immediately assaulting Roman Reigns. The two of them brawl, throwing each other into the barricades and eventually making their way back into the ring. Rusev finally throws Roman into the steel stairs and then over the barricade and into the audience. Rusev starts to leave with the U.S. title, but Roman comes from behind and delivers a Superman punch. He then accepts Rusev’s challenge, saying the two of them will have their rematch at Hell in a Cell.
8:19 – Brian Kendrick defeats T.J. Perkins. Not long into the match, Kendrick is able to injure Perkins by jamming Perkins’ fingers into the turnbuckle. He’s able to recover, delivering an impressive dropkick not long after. But ultimately Perkins is forced to tap out after Kendrick gets in a Captain’s Hook.
8:37 – In an interview with Michael Cole, Seth Rollins says his rib injury is doing better, although doctors told him not to come to Los Angeles tonight. Rollins also says that while Kevin Owens may have won the Universal Championship, Owens didn’t beat him, and so Rollins deserves a rematch. Kevin Owens is the teacher’s pet who gets all the gold stars even though he’s a jerk, Rollins says. And Owens is just a cog in the machine, but Rollins is going to destroy the machine. If he gets his rematch, Seth Rollins says he’s going to cancel The Kevin Owens show and prove to the world that he’s still the man.
8:45 – Braun Strowman defeats a local jobber. After the match, Strowman demands that Foley give him some real competition next week or he may leave Monday Night Raw.
8:51 – Backstage, Bayley expresses her excitement to Sasha Banks that Banks and Charlotte have a main event match tonight. Banks says she’s going to make history tonight.
8:57 – Kevin Owens enters, joined by Chris Jericho. Owens responds to Seth Rollins’ interview, saying that Rollins should sit on the sidelines and let his injury recover instead of already requesting a rematch. Rollins doesn’t deserve that rematch, Owens says; he lost at Clash of Champions, no matter who he wants to blame. Also, since Rollins has been going around blaming the referee for what happened at Clash of Champions, Owens thinks Chris Jericho should serve as the referee at Hell in a Hell. But Jericho has bigger plans, suggesting they challenge The New Day for the Raw Tag Team Championship. Owens likes that idea, but Cesaro and Sheamus already have a title opportunity. Plus, it seems like a lot of work. But Jericho convinces him, and they decide to do it.
The New Day enters. They say that actually, they have the best friendship in the WWE. Because of that, Jericho says that Kofi Kingston just made the list. Big E says they hear their challenge, but they don’t want Chris Jericho involved. Jericho freaks out, adding all three of them to the list. Finally, after mocking Kevin Owens for his weight, The New Day agrees to fight Owens and Jericho.
9:16 – Sami Zayn defeats Titus O’Neil.
9:21 – Backstage, Cesaro and Sheamus can’t stop fighting. Mick Foley intervenes, saying he put them together as a team because he believes in them. He asks them to get on the same page and prove him right.
9:27 – Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeat The Golden Truth. After the match ends, they continue to assault Goldust and R. Truth while being yelled at by the referee.
9:33 – Backstage, Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson confront Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. Masterson grabs Jericho’s list, reading fake entries off of it and mocking him. Jericho says that he and Kevin Owens are way better friends than Danny and Ashton are. During the match with The New Day, Ashton and Danny will be at ring side, and Jericho warns them to stay out of their business.
9:40 – In the ring, Enzo Amore and Big Cass talk about Susan G. Komen and the fight against breast cancer. Joining them in the ring are three contest winners and breast cancer survivors who will be sharing their stories throughout the month. Enzo presents all three of the women with their own WWE championship belts.
9:49 – The New Day defeats Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. During the match, Big E goes particularly hard on Chris Jericho, smashing his head into the LED post and causing Jericho’s nose to bleed. Xavier Woods gets in an impressive suplex from the top rope later in the match, but he’s not able to take out Chris Jericho with that. Just as things seem to be wrapping up, Seth Rollins enters, distracting Kevin Owens. Things don’t end there, though, and just as Big E is getting ready to pin Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens steps in without being tagged. Chaos ensues, but finally Seth Rollins runs out to the ring, distracting Chris Jericho and allowing Big E to get the pin. As The New Day celebrates, Seth Rollins takes down Chris Jericho with a pedigree.
10:09 – Backstage, Charlotte is clearly not worried about Sasha Banks, saying it’s a fact that she’s the best woman on the roster. Charlotte says she was born for these moments, and she’s going to knock Banks off her pedestal.
10:16 – Backstage, Stephanie McMahon confronts Seth Rollins, asking why he ran out into the ring even though he’s not medically cleared to compete. She says that Rollins will not last long without any allies, and he’s going to find out soon enough that he is replaceable. Rollins says she doesn’t get to talk about how things work around here ever since Triple H betrayed him. He goes on to demand Stephanie give him his rematch for the Universal Championship, otherwise he will burn Raw to the ground and take Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens with him.
10:18 – Tony Nese defeats Rich Swann.
10:32 – Sheamus and Cesaro defeat two local jobbers. During the match, Cesaro and Sheamus can’t stop bickering despite being on the same team. At one point, Cesaro launches himself off Sheamus, which makes Sheamus furious. Sheamus eventually gets the pin, and he’s angered to see Cesaro take much of the credit for their victory.
10:45 – Backstage, Charlotte and Dana Brooke mock Bayley, calling her Dora the Explorer. Bayley says that Charlotte shouldn’t be too cocky. Dana Brooke continues to get in Bayley’s face until Bayley snaps and throws Dana against the wall and injures her leg.
10:51 – Sasha Banks defeats Charlotte, becoming the new WWE Raw Women’s Champion. Sasha Banks starts off with the upper hand, but it doesn’t last long, with Charlotte once again targeting Sasha’s back. Sasha builds up some momentum, delivering several clotheslines and dropkicks in a row, but Charlotte is able to kick out. Charlotte impresses the audience with a jump off the top rope, but Sasha Banks continues to fight much to Charlotte’s chagrin. Sasha is finally able to get in a Banks statement, and Charlotte taps out.
The biggest match to look forward to this evening is Sasha Banks challenging Charlotte, with this being The Boss’ biggest opportunity to become Women’s Champion once again. She held the title very briefly over the summer, only to lose it at SummerSlam due to a kayfabe back injury. In real life, Sasha Banks legitimately had to leave for a month due to real injuries, but now that she’s back, will the WWE put her back on top? Or will Charlotte’s reign of terror continue?
Plus, the conflict between Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens rolls on, much to the chagrin of General Manager Mick Foley. Rollins has been defying Foley’s orders over the past few weeks, and WWE.com’s official Raw preview suggests that Foley may soon be pushed too far. There still are some questions, though, about if Seth Rollins will be cleared to compete tonight, as he suffered a legitimate rib injury last week at Clash of Champions.
In the cruiserweight division, Brian Kendrick has another match against T.J. Perkins, who he brutally attacked at Clash of Champions after failing to gain the new title. The belt is not on the line tonight, but Kendrick hopes to earn himself a title opportunity ahead of the upcoming October 30th Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. The tag team of Sheamus and Cesaro also continues, assuming they can stand working together for much longer. And, weirdly, Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson will show up to confront Chris Jericho.
It all goes down tonight on the USA Network.