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WWE Raw Live
Columbus, Georgia at the Columbus Civic Center
Report by Dot Net reader John “Pepper” Spurlock
Byron Saxton hosted the show. He hyped the crowd and ran down the card to start the evening. Jo Jo was the ring announcer. I’d estimate the crowd to be around 3,000, about half of which were kids.
1. Sheamus and Cesaro defeated New Day and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson in a Triple Threat to retain the Raw Tag Titles. A very entertaining match to start the card. Typical comedy spots at the beginning of the match, but the action really got going in the closing minutes. As someone would hit their signature move, another guy would roll in and hit their spot on them so they could roll out to the floor. Rinse, lather, repeat. The finish came when Cesaro caught Anderson in a bear hug, and Sheamus hit a Brogue Kick on Anderson for the win. It appeared at one point during an awkward landing on a splash in the corner by Big E that Anderson’s knee got hyperextended. He favored the knee for several minutes but seemed fine by the end of the match.
2. Rich Swann defeated Neville and TJ Perkins in a Triple Threat to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Amazingly, Perkins was way over with the Columbus crowd. The crowd got behind Swann during the match too. Neville did a good job of heeling it up and getting heat. Typical triple threat match with the guys taking turns being thrown out of the ring to spend time on the floor so the other two can hit their spots. Neville set Perkins up for his superplex, but Swann rolled into the ring and hit Neville with a jumping kick to the head knocking him to the floor. He then hit another jumping kick on TJ that knocked him into the ring. Perkins recovered enough to try a superkick on Swann but missed. Swann hit a spinning heel kick for the pin.
3. Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Alicia Fox defeated Charlotte, Dana Brooke, and Nia Jax. Sasha and Bayley got huge pops, as did Charlotte. Columbus is “Flair Country” going back to the old Georgia Championship Wrestling days. The heels worked over Fox for most of the match with Sasha getting a hot tag about half way through the match, and Bayley getting the hot tag leading to the finish. Jax missed splash in the corner and was thrown to the floor by Fox. Charlotte hit Fox with a big boot. Sasha hit a flying knee to knock Charlotte out of the ring. Dana Brooke hit Sasha from behind knocking her to the floor. She turned around right into the Belly2Bayley for the pin.
4. Seth Rollins defeated Rusev. (w/Lana). Lana came out to introduce Rusev in a smoking hot green sequined dress. She got heat by insulting the crowd leading to “USA” chants. Rollins came out to a huge pop. Rusev dominated most of the match. The tide turned after Lana grabbed the ref by the shirt when he didn’t count fast enough for her liking during a near fall. She was ejected from ringside. At that point, Rollins took advantage of a distracted Rusev to hit a suicide dive at ringside. After throwing Rusev back into the ring, he hit a springboard knee to the face and the Pedigree for the win.
5. Big Cass, Golden Truth, Sin Cara, and Darren Young (w/Enzo Amore) defeated Bo Dallas, The Shining Stars, Titus O’Neil, and Curtis Axel. This was the “get-everyone-on-the-card” match. Enzo was on one crutch and did not participate, but did do his normal shtick before the match. Lots of comedy spots, the best of which was Goldust going nuts and hitting about three heels with inverted atomic drops, then turning around and almost doing it to the referee before R-Truth stopped him. It truly was a funny spot. As members of both teams brawled at ringside, Sin Cara hit a dive over the top which took out the whole group. That left Bo Dallas alone in the ring to get hit with a big boot from Cass for the pin. After the match, Dallas got on the mic and cut a promo about not being a loser. He claimed he was championship material and refused to leave the ring until someone in the back came out to fight him. Out came the Big Show who proceeded to enter the ring, knock Dallas out with one punch, and leave.
6. Braun Stroman defeated Sami Zayn. Zayn cut an impassioned promo on the Titantron earlier in the night about not ever backing down from Stroman no matter what. Zayn controlled the early portion of the match by attacking Stroman’s leg. Stroman cut him off and hit several power spots. Zayn got in some hope spots later in the match before attempting to suplex Stroman. Stroman countered into a running shoulder powerslam for the win.
7. Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens to retain the United States Championship. The match was promoted as a Universal Title match. However, during an excellent pre-match promo where Owens had the crowd eating out the palm of his hand (the guy is as heat magnet), he stated that he had spoken to Stephanie McMahon earlier in the day and she changed the terms of the match to a U.S. Title match instead of a Universal Title match. Roman came out and was super-over with the kids. Most adults were ambivalent. Hey, at least they weren’t booing him. Owens dominated the majority of the match, constantly cutting Reigns off every time he got any offense in. During a late flurry however, Owens went for a Popup Powerbomb but got hit with a Superman Punch instead, which stunned Owens. Roman bounced off the ropes and hit a spear for the win. Reigns celebrated in the ring to close the show.
Biggest Pops
1. Seth Rollins
2. Bayley
3. Enzo & Cass
Most Heel Heat
1. Kevin Owens
2. Braun Stroman
3. Lana
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