WWE.com Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe will fight tonight on Monday Night Raw.
A new episode of Monday Night Raw is currently airing live on the USA Network. Here’s what has happened so far:
10:41 – Samoa Joe fights Roman Reigns for the right to face Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam next month. Towards the end of the match, Braun Strowman enters and attacks Roman Reigns. He attacks Samoa Joe too, though, and so the show ends with Strowman leaving as Roman and Joe both lie injured in the ring. There is no winner of the match.
10:36 – Backstage, Titus O’Neil defends his decision to end the match between Akira Tozawa and Ariya Davari.
10:29 – Samoa Joe says that tonight he will defeat Roman Reigns and will go on to finally slay The Beast at SummerSlam.
10:13 – The Revival defeat The Hardy Boyz. At least, this is how the referee calls the match; as pointed out by the commentary team, it seems that Jeff Hardy kicked out before the three count.
9:59 – Kurt Angle enters. He apologizes for being a distraction over the past few weeks. Actions have consequences, and he just found out that an action from his past had had serious consequences. It changed his life, and he was afraid of change because he thought it would change his family, but his family is 100 percent supportive.
Angle makes the announcement: when he was in college, he dated a young woman, and he just recently found out that she gave birth nine months after their last date to a baby boy, who he was unaware of until now: Jason Jordan.
Jason Jordan enters, and he and Kurt Angle hug.
9:47 – Ariya Davari defeats Akira Tozawa. At the request of Titus O’Neil, the referee stops the match, as Tozawa’s shoulder was injured.
9:46 – Backstage, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson say they don’t care about The Hardy Boyz and their legacy; they just want to destroy them because they’re top guys.
9:42 – Kurt Angle talks on the phone with someone mysterious. He says that he’s calmed down but is anxious to reveal his secret. Bayley and Sasha Banks enter. They say that they’re having a disagreement about who deserves to face Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam. Angle says that they both deserve it, and so he books a Bayley vs. Sasha number one contender match next week.
9:35 – After the match ends, as Finn Balor is recovering, Bray Wyatt appears on screen. He laughs and says that he bets Finn Balor didn’t expect that. The look of pain and suffering in Balor’s face lights the fire in his soul, Wyatt says. Wyatt says that he’s going to cause Balor even more pain.
9:28 – Finn Balor fights Elias Samson. The match ends when Elias Samson hits Finn Balor with his guitar and gets himself disqualified. He hits Balor so hard that the guitar breaks and Balor starts bleeding.
9:23 – Elias Samson does his regular schtick, singing a song and insulting the entire city of Nashville. He’s interrupted by Finn Balor.
9:21 – Backstage, Kurt Angle books a match with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins going up against any two members of the Miztourage. Ambrose suggests they take on all three of them instead of just two. Angle agrees, booking a three-on-two handicap match.
9:15 – Roman Reigns says in a backstage interview that he performs best under pressure, and tonight he’s going to beat Samoa Joe and then move on to defeat Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam.
8:59 – Enzo Amore enters. He says that there’s nobody in the business who can elicit a reaction like he can, and he does so knowing the repercussions of his actions. He goes on to say that he let Cass throw him around all the time because he wanted to win, but they never won any championships while they were together. Recalling Big Cass’ confrontation with Big Show last week, Amore says that Cass folded when the going got tough.
Big Cass enters. He calls out Corey Graves on commentary, saying that if it weren’t for him, none of this would have happened. Cass also says that he’s going to teach Enzo Amore to shut his mouth. Enzo goes into the crowd and says that he’s going to watch Cass get beat down, at which point Big Show enters.
Big Show and Big Cass start brawling, with Big Show mostly dominating Cass. This is not a part of an official match, though. Enzo watches from the audience and seems very amused. Enzo tries to help out Big Show, but Big Cass takes him down. Although Big Show has the upper hand for most of the match, Cass ends up standing over Big Show victorious and leaving as Big Show lies in the ring.
8:52 – Mustafa Ali and Jack Gallagher defeat Bryan Kendrick and Drew Gulak.
8:45 – Backstage, Titus O’Neil hypes up Apollo Crews and Akira Tozawa. Ariya Daivari enters and challenges Tozawa to a match, which Tozawa accepts.
8:42 – Backstage, Kurt Angle says that he’s having second thoughts about coming clean tonight. Corey Graves tells him that the secret is going to get out anyway. Graves also says that Angle has nothing to be ashamed of.
8:34 – Corey Graves abruptly leaves the commentary table holding his phone, leading to a brief awkward silence before Michael Cole continues his sentence.
8:24 – Bayley defeats Alexa Bliss. After only about a minute, Nia Jax enters, standing at ringside. At one point, she stands in between Bayley and Alexa Bliss in order to protect Bliss. Not long after, Sasha Banks runs out and attacks Nia Jax. Bayley then gets in a Bayley to Belly and wins.
8:21 – The Miz, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel walk backstage and refuse to answer interview questions, saying that Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins heard everything that needed to be said.
8:03 – Dean Ambrose enters. He’s carrying a steel chair, and he says that he’s bent out of shape because of The Miz. He sits down in the chair in the middle of the ring, challenging The Miz to come out now.
Seth Rollins enters. He doesn’t get why Ambrose asked him not to interfere on his behalf, yet he himself interfered on Rollins’ behalf. Ambrose says he just wanted to beat up The Miz, and he tells Rollins to scram. Rollins asks if Ambrose will be standing in his way or standing by his side when he takes the fight to The Miz.
Ambrose brings up the days of The Shield, saying that he doesn’t know Seth Rollins anymore after what he did. Rollins says that this was over three years ago, and he’s sorry. He also says that he has moved on, and he wants to know how long it will take until Ambrose moves on. Ambrose says that he sees Rollins’ lips moving but doesn’t hear anything. Rollins encourages Ambrose to hit him with the chair in order to get back at him. Ambrose seems to consider it, but instead he throws the chair out of the ring.
The Miz enters, sarcastically clapping. He says that it’s touching to see Ambrose and Rollins working through their issues. Ambrose will never forgive Rollins, Miz says. He also says that Ambrose does not have the wrestling skills to handle Miz on his own. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel grab chairs from underneath the ring, and Miz grabs a chair as well. Miz beats down Ambrose while Dallas and Axel beat down Rollins. With both Ambrose and Rollins taken out, Miz, Dallas and Axel stand in the ring victorious and then walk out, with Miz hitting Ambrose one more time for good measure.
8:00 – The show opens with a recap of the Kurt Angle storyline, with it then being advertised that Angle will “come clean” tonight.