Sasha Banks is now the WWE Raw Women’s Champion. (WWE.com)
Tonight on Monday Night Raw, the era of the boss begins (again), with Sasha Banks making her debut as Raw Women’s Champion after defeating Charlotte last week. Plus, Seth Rollins continues to challenge Kevin Owens in hopes of getting a title match,q and the feud between Roman Reigns and Rusev will continue ahead of their Hell in a Cell match at the end of the month. Raw will be broadcast live from Oakland, California beginning 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 today.
8:00 – Sasha Banks enters with the WWE Raw Women’s Championship. After the crowd chants “you deserve it,” she says that it wasn’t so long ago that she was sitting in the crowd herself. Her dreams came true last week when she faced Charlotte in the main event, and she dedicates the championship to every little girl watching who wants to be like her. She also wants to up the ante for her rematch against Charlotte in Hell in a Cell, having their match inside a cell.
Charlotte enters, but before she can say anything, Rusev and Lana walk out. He says nobody cares about their stupid Women’s Revolution, nor does anyone care that Sasha main-evented Raw. That’s because Rusev is the main event wherever he goes. Charlotte grabs his microphone, saying that no one disrespects the queen. She goes on to accept Sasha’s Hell in a Cell challenge.
Rusev grabs the microphone back, saying that this is his ring and whatever he says goes. Sasha throws the microphone to the ground. Lana said that these two are lost women who need to find their place because they keep whining like little girls. Sasha and Charlotte both throw Lana to the ground and kick Rusev out of the ring.
Roman Reigns enters. He stares down Rusev and Lana, and they both leave.
8:17 – The New Day enters. They say the Bay Area is home to some of the best in sports and entertainment, including Danny Tanner and Uncle Jesse. They say that Sheamus is hot garbage, but for some reason he and Cesaro have a title opportunity at Hell in a Cell.
8:21 – Kofi Kingston defeats Cesaro. During the match, Sheamus sits at ringside broadcasting on Facebook instead of watching Cesaro. Outside of the ring, Xavier Woods argues with Sheamus, Big E attacks Sheamus, and while Cesaro is distracted, Kofi Kingston gets the victory.
8:35 – Bayley defeats a local jobber. As she’s celebrating, Bayley is attacked from behind by Dana Brooke.
8:47 – Chris Jericho complains on the phone, presumably to his manager, wanting a pay day. R. Truth comes up and offers him an actual Payday candy bar.
8:49 – Lince Dorado and Sin Cara defeat Tony Nese and Drew Gulak.
8:54 – Backstage, Stephanie McMahon asks if she can join Mick Foley for his Hell in a Cell address. He agrees, and they both start walking out to the ring.
9:01 – Mick Foley say that Sasha Banks and Charlotte deserve their Hell in a Cell match. He also says he’s going to grant Seth Rollins his rematch against Kevin Owens, which also will take place in a cell.
Kevin Owens enters, saying this is the dumbest decision Foley has made. Chris Jericho mocks Foley for giving exactly what Seth Rollins asked for. Rollins already got two title shots, Owens complains, and Jericho claims this is all coming from Foley’s dislike of him. Stephanie McMahon decides that if Chris Jericho can defeat Seth Rollins tonight, Jericho will be added to the Universal Championship match.
9:10 – Seth Rollins says he’s going to beat Chris Jericho tonight. He’s no longer a cog in the machine or a player in the game; he’s the man who’s going to destroy that machine.
9:17 – Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel prepare to fight Enzo Amore and Big Cass. But while Enzo and Cass are talking, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson attack them from behind.
9:23 – After the commercial, Curtis Axel complains that he and Bo want a fight. Sami Zayn enters, followed by Neville.
9:25 – Sami Zayn and Neville defeat Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas.
9:28 – Backstage, Lana tells Charlotte she had no right to put her hands on her. She also tells Charlotte to stay out of Rusev’s way or there will be consequences.
9:35 – R. Truth defeats Titus O’Neil.
9:37 – Backstage, Brian Kendrick is incredibly anger at T.J. Perkins. Perkins says that he doesn’t think Kendrick is a bad guy, he’s just afraid that he’s going to run out of chances for a victory. It’s not too late for him to be the Brian Kendrick, Perkins says. They shake hands, but Kendric suddenly goes in for a punch which Perkins deflects.
9:43 – Braun Strowman defeats two local jobbers in a two-on-one match. Afterwards, he again gives Foley a warning that he wants real competition next week or what happens will be on Foley’s hands.
9:49 – Backstage, Roman Reigns and Sasha Banks talk about their match tonight. Sasha Banks says she can handle Charlotte, and Roman should just worry about Rusev.
9:56 – Sasha Banks & Roman Reigns defeat Charlotte & Rusev when Sasha Banks delivers a Banks statement and Charlotte taps out.
10:13 – Backstage, Kevin Owens says that it doesn’t matter if the Hell in a Cell match is a singles match or a triple threat because he’s going to walk out with the Universal Championship.
10:22 – Paul Heyman arrives in the ring, addressing Goldberg’s recent comments about potentially returning and fighting Brock Lesnar. He says that Goldberg’s career ran parallel with Lesnar’s, and it bothers him that Goldberg has one up on Brock Lesnar. And so Heyman officially challenges Goldberg to a Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match.
10:32 – T.J. Perkins defeats Ariya Daivari when Daivari taps out.
10:41 – Backstage, Stephanie McMahon tells Chris Jericho she’s rooting for him in his match. Jericho now feels bad because he started writing Stephanie’s name on the list earlier, removing it halfway through. Either way, Stephanie wants Jericho to win so Hell in a Cell can have an even better triple threat match than No Mercy.
10:49 – Seth Rollins defeats Chris Jericho. Not long into the match, Kevin Owens enters. While Rollins is distracted by Owens, Jericho drops him onto the ropes; Rollins lands on his ribs, which he just recently injured. Jericho continues to go for Rollins’ ribs for the rest of the match. At one point, Kevin Owens intervenes, kicking Rollins in the face from ringside and almost allowing Jericho to win, but Rollins is able to kick out. Ultimately, Rollins gets the victory, and Kevin Owens immediately runs into the ring and begins assaulting him. In the closing moments, after a brawl, Rollins delivers a pedigree to Jericho, and Kevin Owens leaves, not helping out Jericho at all.
The main event of last week’s Raw was a Women’s Championship match between Charlotte and Sasha Banks. This came over a month after their brutal confrontation at SummerSlam, during which Charlotte stole back the championship and severely injured Banks’ back. The Boss was unable to defeat Charlotte at Clash of Champions, but she finally got the title back on October 3rd’s Raw. Now, the era of the boss, previously interrupted by Sasha Banks’ real life injury, can truly begin.
Plus, last week on Raw, Seth Rollins was very insistent that he deserves a Universal Championship rematch against Kevin Owens. Later in the show, Owens said that Rollins shouldn’t get another shot at the title, but when Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens had a match against The New Day towards the end of the show, a clearly furious Seth Rollins intervened. What will Mick Foley have to say about all this? Will Seth Rollins finally get his rematch?
Last week’s show also saw a brutal confrontation between Roman Reigns and Rusev, which ended with Reigns delivering a superman punch on Rusev from behind. He then accepted Rusev’s challenge, agreeing to have a rematch with him at the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. Will the two be able to hold off from attacking each other again tonight? That seems pretty unlikely.
Over in the cruiserweight division, Brian Kendrick is determined to take the title from T.J. Perkins, and he came one step closer last week when he defeated Perkins in a non-title match. Will Perkins’ reign be short-lived? Plus, Braun Strowman will presumably dominate some more innocent jobbers, and Cesaro and Sheamus will struggle to work together without constantly bickering. It all goes down at 8:00 p.m. on the USA Network.