WWE RAW August 28th, 2023 (Memphis- Tennessee/ USA)
WWE Raw from Memphis was overshadowed by the deaths of Hall-of-Famer Terry Funk and at the time of his passing, Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda) was on the current WWE roster.
“Both of these men wanted to entertain their audience. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today,” Michael Cole said at the start of the Raw broadcast.
At the same time, the show also featured “Payback,” the premium live event taking place Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
JD McDonagh Ensures the Result
•Damian Priest def. Sami Zayn via Pinfall with the South-of-Heaven-Chokeslam•
A tag team title match has been announced for “Payback”:
Finn Bálor and Damian Priest will challenge Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens together.
The start of WWE Raw featured a singles contest. When Zayn escaped the Razor’s Edge attempt and followed it up with an Exploder Suplex, there was expected by many to be followed by the Helluva Kick toPriest.
But at this point JD McDonagh suddenly appeared at ringside and grabbed Sami’s foot as well. Zayn was surprised and got distracted. Priest took advantage of this moment, pulled off the South-of-Heaven Chokeslam and won the match.
JD McDonagh wanted to present the winner afterwards. Damian Priest was still not interested in Finn Bálor’s buddy and pushed him to the ground.
The evening ended even more inauspiciously for JD, as Sami was soon behind him, as was Kevin Owens. K.O. delivered a Stunner and Zayn issued McDonagh a receipt with the Helluva Kick.
-Matt Riddle had an idea that Drew McIntyre should wear an outfit that matched him. McIntyre soon had enough of Riddle and ran away.
-A video hyped the upcoming title match between Raquel Rodriguez and Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley on “Payback” Saturday.
The Miz Shows his True Greatness
The Miz now did his best impersonation of LA Knight – and was pretty good at it. The crowd went for it and chanted “Yeah!” – even when Miz called them sheep.
Miz then revealed his message: “This is simple. Anybody can be LA Knight. When I say I’m ‘awesome,’ it’s not a catchphrase. It’s the truth.”
On Saturday, Miz will make Knight a loser, he said, “That’s when it shows what game this is. The game of M-I-Z!”
Things Escalate With a Forming Tag Team
•The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) via Pinfall with the Ragnarok on Kingston•
Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle were sitting at ringside for the match. The situation came to a head when Viking Raider Ivar, grabbed Kofi Kingston, and hurled him against the two bystanders. Riddle and Drew went down.
McIntyre then flipped out. He threw a chair into the ring and another one through the air. The chair hit Woods straight in the head and he went down.
The Viking Raiders took the opportunity to dispatch the upset Kofi, and pin him with their Ragnarok.
Drew immediately owned up to his mistake. Woods had to be treated backstage shortly after. McIntyre and Riddle checked in with Kofi to see how Xavier was doing. Kingston didn’t blame Drew. McIntyre replied that he would take on the Viking Raiders with Riddle next week.
The Judgment Day was there once again with an apparent disagreement between Finn Bálor and Damian Priest. Rhea Ripley couldn’t listen to it any longer: “At ‘Payback,’ you guys are going to straighten this out. If you don’t, there’s going to be trouble!'”
-With tribute videos WWE again commemorated Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk.
Chad Gable is Doing it Again
Gunther had to admit to himself that Chad Gable was the first man to beat him in 500 days. He had ultimately gained nothing with the count out success.
Gable came into the hall with Alpha Academy and countered: “Last week, the count was up to 10 so I could beat you. Then next week, it’s only going to count to 3!” Strictly speaking, Chad is looking to take the IC title from Gunther for good on the next edition of WWE Raw.
•Chad Gable def. Ludwig Kaiser by disqualification•
To get ready for the title match, Gable showed up in top form against Kaiser. When the Chaos Theory was connected on the German, Giovanni Vinci, came into the ring and interrupted the cover. Immediately the DQ was called.
Otis tried to help his friend and mentor, but he was kicked out of the ring by Kaiser and Vinci.
Now, Gunther returned to the ring. He wanted to send a message to Gable and went for the Powerbomb. But Chad took Gunther by surprise and took him into the Ankle Lock.
Vinci and Kaiser now pounced on Chad to break up the Ankle Lock. When Gunther got back to his feet, he pushed his subjects aside, only to follow through with the Powerbomb against Gable.
-With a short clip, WWE remembered host Bob Barker, who made a guest appearance on Raw in 2009. Back then, there was Barker’s “The Price is Right” with the WWE stars.
Nakamura Once Again Faster than Rollins
Seth Rollins greeted the audience at WWE Raw with a “Yowie Wowie”. He wanted to get right to the point and called Shinsuke Nakamura into the hall.
However, the Nakamura did not appear. Rollins, meanwhile, wondered what had become of the Nakamura, a wrestler who once competed in main events at the Tokyo Dome and created a buzz in NXT.
Suddenly, Shinsuke came forward with a video. In it, he could be seen preparing himself with martial arts training for his upcoming chance against the World Heavyweight Champion.
Nakamura declared, “I will make sure that Seth cannot walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. I will break him. He knows his body has betrayed him.”
Rollins reacted indignantly to these statements. His message: Nakamura will not take anything away from him – not his title, nor his future, nor his family.
Suddenly, the title challenger was now in the arena after all! Nakamura launched a surprise attack on Rollins. Seth was knocked down hard with a kick. Then Shinsuke took a close look at the belt that he can win on Saturday at “Payback”.
Special rule for “Payback” revealed
-Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens made an announcement at this point. To counter Judgment Day matches, there will be a special rule approved by Adam Pearce in the Tag Team Title match at Payback.
Judgment Day will now have to face the Tag Team Champions in a Steel City Street Fight.
The promise of the title holders: The Judgment Day matter will now be settled once and for all.
Ciampa Makes his Mark
•Tommaso Ciampa def. Bronson Reed via Pinfall with a Crucifix Bomb•
In the previous week, Ciampa had meant to have reconsidered his Raw career so far. After some failures, he was about to make a new start.
He made his mark here with a win over Bronson Reed.
“Big” Bronson was dominant throughout, but Ciampa answered with the Widow’s Bell, among other things. With a Crucifix Bomb that didn’t look all that elegant, Reed was taken down and pinned.
-Both Becky Lynch and Zoey Stark (with Trish Stratus) brought fight announcements before the Falls Count Anywhere main event.
Raquel Rodriguez Becomes Dangerous for Rhea Ripley
Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley said in the ring, “Raquel Rodriguez, you’re stupid if you think you can take my title on Saturday!” She did admit to being big and strong. But Mami still did not see her reign in danger.
Rodriguez now came to the ring – and a confrontation and physical altercation with Ripley ensued. As a result, the titleholder was carried across the ring by Raquel with a fallaway slam.
When “Dirty” Dom interfered, Ripley tried to fight back. But she was unable to follow through with the Riptide against Rodriguez. Raquel broke free with a hiptoss and sent Rhea to the floor again with a hard Clothesline.
At this point it looked like Raquel had a real shot at becoming the new title holder at ‘Payback’!
The Main Event of WWE Raw becomes an Unofficial Handicap match!
•Becky Lynch defeated Zoey Stark in a Falls Count Anywhere match with a manhandle slam through tables•
The Main Event of WWE Raw was watched by NXT Women’s Champion, Tiffany Stratton from the front row. In NXT, by all appearances, a match is currently being set up between her and Becky Lynch.
Trish Stratus kept making an impact on the match. When Becky fought off the attempt to Stark’s Z360 and went through with the Manhandle Slam, Stratus even came into the ring and interrupted the cover.
Now “The Man” had had enough. She grabbed a kendo stick, which she used to beat Stratus out of the arena with full force.
That brought Stark back in to hit Becky with a chair. Lynch was able to regain control, including a superplex against Zoey on several chairs.
As a Manhandle Slam was teased on the commentary desk, Trish Stratus was suddenly back and the Main Event went on virtually as a handicap match for Becky.
The fight shifted to the audience. Here Trish first brought from a transport box the Stratusfaction against Becky by a table. But Lynch could not be defeated.
At another place in the arena, the fight continued. Fighting on several transport boxes, Stark accidentally hit her colleague Trish here and sent her from there through several tables towards the arena floor.
Stark was aware of her mistake. Becky took advantage of the situation and now pulled off the Manhandle Slam on the opposite side. Both women crashed through tables – and Becky got the win.
Lynch celebrated the win and held her Bray Wyatt armband in the air.
WWE PAYBACK (September 2nd (this Saturday) at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
The following matches are official so far:
World Heavyweight Championship:
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Shinuske Nakamura
Women’s World Championship:
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Raquel Rodriguez
Steel City Street Fight for the Undisputed World Tag Team Championship:
Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens (c) vs. The Judgement Day (Damian Priest & Finn Bálor)
WWE United States Championship:
Rey Mysterio (c) vs. Austin Theory
Steel Cage Match:
Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
Singles Match:
LA Knight vs. The Miz
“The Grayson Waller Effect“ with Guest Star : Cody Rhodes
-Lenny Wrestling
*Photo courtesy of YouTube
WE LIKE SPORTZ SHOW 