Date: October 24, 2022
Location: Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC
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Show Recap —
Judgment Day promo
Rhea Ripley said that AJ Styles found out what the idiot fans should already know, that Judgment Day runs Raw and that Dominik Mysterio was all man. Finn Bálor called it an all-time great match and said Styles fell to the legend, Dominik. Damian Priest demanded that the crowd rise for Dominik, the greatest luchador in history.
Dominik spoke as the crowd booed over him. Dom said he was built differently and Ripley said, “yeah you are!” Dom first called himself this generation’s Eddie Guerrero before saying that Eddie was actually his generation’s Dominik Mysterio. The crowd booed.
AJ Styles, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson interrupted. Styles told Dom to shut up. He said North Carolina knew great wrestling when they saw it and Dom was not it. Styles said Dom belonged to the generation of James Ellsworth. Styles said Dom wouldn’t be able to hide behind Judgment Day for long.
Bálor said Styles was hiding behind a group that he created and everyone who joined that group after him was living off of his name. Anderson told him to stop talking so he could show him that he was the toughest man in the building.
They cleared the ring and the match started before they went to break 30 seconds later.
Finn Bálor (w/Judgment Day) defeated Karl Anderson (w/AJ Styles & Luke Gallows) (17:11)
They went to a second break about 8 minutes later after Anderson hit a spinebuster for two. Anderson hit a running sit-out powerbomb immediately following the break for two. Bálor came back with a headlock elbow drop for two.
Anderson flew off the ropes moments later with a neckbreaker for a nearfall. Bálor came back with a slingblade and a shotgun dropkick but Anderson tripped him off the top rope and followed with a superplex.
Dom got on the apron so Styles yanked him off. Priest wiped out Styles before Gallows took out Priest. Ripley then pushed Gallows into the ring post and gave him a scoop slam. (This really popped the crowd and they made sure to show a replay post-match.)
Anderson got Bálor on his shoulders but Ripley gave him a low blow as Dom distracted the referee and Bálor crawled on Anderson for the pinfall win.
This was good. The crowd was quiet for the first half but they were into the second half. They also gave Anderson a fair bit in this match.
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Johnny Gargano and Miz had an argument backstage. Gargano was still pressuring him to tell the truth. Miz said he wasn’t hiding anything and planned on going to the ring to set the record straight. Gargano was happy to hear it.
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They showed a clip of Styles hanging out with NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie. LaJoie was shown in the front row downing a beer. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also shown in the crowd and he got a big ovation.
Miz/Gargano segment
(This turned into a comedy segment which didn’t do Gargano any favours.)
Miz entered. He told us the “truth” by simply running down recent events with Dexter Lumis (whose name he wouldn’t say aloud). He noted that he was kidnapped from his tag partner Tommaso Ciampa who we have not seen since.
Miz also mentioned being taken by Lumis and waking up in precarious situations that he doesn’t want to speak about. Miz pleaded with everyone to tell him if they’d seen his best friend Ciampa.
Gargano interrupted. He said Ciampa wasn’t missing and, in fact, he texted Ciampa a few minutes ago. Ciampa was just injured. He implored Miz to tell the real truth or else he’ll blow his whistle on Miz. The crowd encouraged him to blow the whistle.
Miz claimed he was telling the truth and kept saying “truth” repeatedly which led to R-Truth entering. Truth did his whole entrance with song. Truth said Miz wanted to “tell the Truth,” so he awaited Miz’s response. Miz said Truth must be losing it after eating food from North Carolina. Truth told him not to insult his hometown’s macaroni and cheese.
Truth challenged Miz to a match and Miz said no. Gargano thought Lumis only deflated Miz’s balls, he didn’t realize Miz didn’t have any balls left. He popped for his own joke, as did Truth. Miz accepted the match which led to Gargano and Truth saying, “you can’t handle the truth” simultaneously.
R-Truth defeated The Miz (2:46)
Truth did John Cena’s usual comeback before Miz cut him off with his attempt at Bryan Danielson’s running knee. A man in a hood appeared in the front row which distracted Miz so Truth caught him in a schoolboy for the pinfall win. The hooded man revealed himself as Gargano.
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Cathy Kelley did a sit-down interview with Candice LeRae. LeRae talked about all the changes in their (her and Gargano’s) lives lately. She mentioned the support she was getting from the likes of Alexa Bliss, Asuka and Bianca Belair.
Damage CTRL interrupted and sent Kelley on her way. Bayley basically tried to intimidate LeRae who didn’t back down. LeRae has learned that IYO SKY was still untrustworthy, Dakota Kai was still spiteful, and Bayley was still not the Women’s Champion.
Bayley told her that they were still in control of the division. Bayley shoved the cameraperson down and they put the boots to LeRae (which we could only hear).
[SECOND HOUR]
Elias ran into Matt Riddle and his bongos backstage. Elias called himself a serious musician who hated being interrupted but he liked Riddle because he was friends with Ezekiel.
Chad Gable and Otis interrupted. Gable said their band name should be “Blink One-eighty-shoosh.” He noted that Elias played the keyboard last week and wondered if kazoos would be next. He said Elias should shave his beard so he could look like that moron Ezekiel.
Elias warned him not to talk about his younger brother that way. Gable warned him that Otis ate bigger pieces of crap than him for breakfast. Riddle responded with a line from Happy Gilmore. (Corey Graves made sure to point this out.)
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Seth Rollins entered before the upcoming match to join commentary. The crowd hummed his song during the match and chanted, “we want Seth.”
Austin Theory defeated Mustafa Ali (12:03)
After a break, Theory decided to take a mid-match selfie so Ali dropkicked him and made his comeback which included a rolling neckbreaker for two and by a tornado DDT for two. Ali went for another DDT after missing a 450 splash but Theory countered into a neckbreaker for two.
Rollins encouraged Theory to finish it but Ali countered his finisher and hit a backstabber. Ali went to the top but Rollins distracted the ref. The extra time allowed Theory to trip Ali off the top rope. Theory hit his finisher, now called “A-Town Down,” for the pinfall win. Rollins raised Theory’s hand.
Three matches, three distraction finishes.
(I’m not sure what the point of the distraction was. Theory’s counter was legal and could have happened without Rollins. Maybe the distraction made Ali hesitate, but it didn’t come across that way, and there was no reason for him to hesitate anyway.)
— Rollins attacked Ali after the match and sent him into the crowd. It seemed like the segment was over as Rollins posed on the ramp but Ali flew in and attacked him. Ali launched Rollins into the videoboard but Rollins managed to escape as officials held back Ali.
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JBL and Baron Corbin ran into Gargano backstage. JBL called Gargano an internet hero and independent darling. He said Gargano had to spend ten years in Triple-A, while he and Corbin went straight to the bigs.
JBL told Gargano that when he sees a Hall of Famer backstage, to show respect and shake his hand. He also said Gargano should respect Miz and said that if Gargano was around during the Attitude Era, he’d be carrying his bags.
Gargano noted he was eight years old during the Attitude Era but offered his hand to JBL before referring to him as “MC Hammer pants” (in reference to JBL’s ill-fitting pants last week). He also wondered what Corbin’s newest name was and accidentally on purpose called him Boring Corbin. JBL said they’d see him in the ring.
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There was a Belair/Bayley video package.
The announcers congratulated Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on the success of Black Adam.
1-on-4 handicap match: Omos (w/MVP) defeated four guys (1:40)
Omos won.
MVP cut a promo on Braun Strowman before the match.
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Elias defeated Chad Gable (w/Otis) (9:30)
This went to break after Elias fell out of the ring because Otis pulled the rope down on him. Gable was in control after the break and hit a flying headbutt. Elias made a comeback but another distraction allowed Gable to apply an ankle lock until Elias slipped out.
Gable went for a moonsault but Elias caught him mid-air with a cool-looking knee strike. (The ref checked on Gable who seemed fine.) Elias avoided a charge by Otis who ran into the ring post and followed with Drift Away on Gable for the pinfall win.
— Otis and Gable attacked Elias after the match but Riddle ran out to make the save. Riddle cleared the ring and wiped out Alpha Academy with a dive.
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The OC was backstage in the trainer’s room. Anderson whimpered as he held an ice pack to his balls (because of Ripley’s earlier low blow). Styles admitted they have a Rhea problem. Gallows wasn’t worried because they all knew he was the best with women.
Styles said she body-slammed him earlier and Gallows said that was his love language. Gallows left to smooth things over with her. Anderson, still in pain, was baffled and said Gallows was the worst with women. Styles told him to keep the ice pack on.
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JBL entered ahead of a break.
[THIRD HOUR]
Gallows limped back into the trainer’s room. Gallows said Ripley got him too and took the ice back from Anderson to put on his own balls. Styles knew they had to do something.
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JBL said the people of NC were losers which is why they liked Gargano. He noted that Gargano was from Cleveland and Cleveland’s former quarterback Baker Mayfield was now leading the Carolina Panthers to a losing record. They also turned Michael Jordan into a loser because Charlotte is where dreams go to die. He introduced us to the new wrestling god Baron Corbin.
JBL joined commentary. He again made references to Gargano wrestling in Single-A (I said Triple-A earlier) and repeatedly said Gargano should be carrying his bags.
Baron Corbin (w/JBL) defeated Johnny Gargano (14:08)
They went to break after Corbin slammed Gargano onto the announce table. The crowd chanted, “you can’t wrestle” at Corbin moments before Gargano made a comeback which included a slingshot spear for two. Corbin hit a fallaway slam for two.
Gargano came back with strikes but Corbin hit Deep Six for two. Corbin tried the thing where he slips in and out of the ring but Gargano caught him with a superkick on the way back in for a nearfall.
They fought outside the ring and Gargano got the upper hand after Corbin went into the steel steps. Gargano stood on the announce table, put on JBL’s cowboy hat and did a little dance before giving Corbin a tornado DDT. Gargano feigned giving JBL his back but kept it.
That pissed off JBL who tripped Gargano on the apron. Corbin followed with End of Days for the pinfall win.
Fourth distraction finish of the evening.
(For the second straight week, JBL did all the talking for Corbin who did not say a word.)
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Kelley interviewed Belair. Belair said a win tonight would put an end to this and it was about time now that others like LeRae were catching strays. Tonight was about payback because Bayley has taken out every single one of her friends. She wanted to make sure Bayley left tonight with nothing.
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Backstage, Miz gave Gargano a get-well card for Candice on behalf of him and Maryse. (Did he leave the arena and come back?) Gargano admitted that was nice of him. Miz wanted them to hash things out but all Gargano wanted was for him to tell the truth. If Miz didn’t do it next week, then he would.
Before leaving, Gargano opened the card and complained that Miz didn’t even sign it. He mentioned that Miz was rich and could have at least put some money in it.
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There was a video package for Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar will appear on Raw next week in Dallas.
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Non-title match: Bayley (w/Tag Team Champions Dakota Kai & IYO SKY) defeated Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair (23:05)
They had an excellent match that ended when a returning Nikki Cross attacked Belair.
There was a great spot early on where Belair did a backflip out of the corner and Bayley responded by running and clubbing her in the face with a forearm. Belair responded with a backbreaker and slingshot dive, leading to break. Bayley was randomly in control after the break and hit a vertical suplex outside the ring. Belair set up for KOD but Bayley yanked her arm on the top rope.
Belair came back with a vertical suplex, shoulder tackles, dropkick, corner punches, and body slam but Bayley got her knees up on a standing moonsault. Bayley tried a diving elbow but Belair got her knees up and hit the standing moonsault for two. Bayley gave Belair a draping DDT off the barricade which led to another break.
Bayley tried a KOD but Belair countered into a Bayley-to-belly for two. Bayley tried to use Belair’s braid so Belair yanked her with it into the steel steps before hitting a spinebuster for two. Belair went to the top but SKY got on the apron and Belair stopped what she was doing for some reason. Bayley used the distraction to hit a Bayley-to-belly off the middle rope for a nearfall.
Bayley instructed SKY and Kai to clear the announce desk. Belair clubbed them both with forearms, then powerbombed Bayley on the desk (which didn’t break), slammed her into the ring post and onto the apron (without ever letting go).
Belair shoved Bayley into the ring but as the ref checked on Bayley, SKY and Kai attacked Belair. The ref yelled at SKY and Kai and told them to leave.
As they argued with him, a mysterious woman (Nikki Cross) flew off the top rope and wiped out all three of them with a dive.
Belair countered Bayley’s Rose Plant and hit a KOD but the ref was out. Cross shoved Belair shoulder-first into the ring post and hit her with a swinging fisherman neckbreaker. Bayley crawled into a cover and a new referee counted the pinfall win.
Nikki Cross (which is what they called her) attacked Bayley after the match as well. Kevin Patrick said he’s never seen this unhinged side of Nikki before. Graves said, “I have” and said Cross was about to become a problem for the rest of the division.
(The match itself was really good but the quiet crowd, which has been oddly quiet all night, didn’t help.)
News Summary:
- WWE Raw live results: Bianca Belair vs. Bayley – WON/F4W
- Check all news and articles from the latest Cricket updates.