Raw Reactions: Meat and Greet

By Ryan Satin

Raw featured a beefy triple threat match this week, Drew McIntyre making a statement and more creepy fun from Alexa Bliss.

First, here are the quick results from the November 2, 2020 edition of Monday Night Raw:

- Jeff Hardy defeated Elias in a Guitar on a Pole match

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- Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax retained the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles by defeating Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke via submission

- Bobby Lashley defeated R-Truth in less than a minute

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- Braun Strowman defeated Sheamus and Keith Lee to earn a spot on Team Raw at Survivor Series

- Nia Jax defeated Lana

- Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin of The Hurt Business defeated Raw Tag Team champs Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods

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- Ricochet defeated Tucker

- Drew McIntyre defeated The Miz and John Morrison

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This episode was more of a miss than a hit for me.

Luckily, the whole world is pretty distracted by a very different thing happening this week ... so this shouldn’t affect Raw very much in the long run.

People were mainly just happy to have something else to focus on for a few hours.

Now, here are my four biggest takeaways from Raw this week.

We Have the Meats

WWE has been doing a fantastic job building to the Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown match this year at Survivor Series.

That continued Monday on Raw with a meaty match between Braun Strowman, Sheamus and Keith Lee to determine if "The Monster" would join in their efforts against Team SmackDown.

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This match never got dull and highlighted the strengths of each performer without diminishing anyone’s value.

Sheamus especially gave a noteworthy performance to continue the roll he’s been on as of late. The matches he’s had against Matt Riddle, Kofi Kingston and Big E have all shown "The Celtic Warrior" is still very much at the top of his game.

Keith Lee also recovered well from hitting his head on the ring apron during an outside dive gone wrong.

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It’s remarkable that he was able to carry on seamlessly after without ever missing a beat.

AJ Styles provided a nice bit of comedic relief throughout this portion of the show as well.

Not only did he fire off a ton of meme-worthy reactions while on commentary, but his delivery in segments before and after the match elevated what could’ve otherwise been mediocre material in the hands of another performer.

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The funniest moment of the night was AJ following his teammates in attacking one another, only to immediately drop to his knees after screaming, "Why?" as if he had no choice but to do what he did.

So far, the traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series match this year has had a better build than all of the other matches at the upcoming event.

McIntyre Won’t Back Down

McIntyre’s insistence on taking the WWE Championship back from Randy Orton shows the company isn’t using his recent title loss as way of shuffling him out of the main event scene.

This is good for everyone who watches WWE TV.

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Drew has been an entertaining champion, and COVID affecting his run has made it impossible to gauge how over he’d be with the crowds right now.

Personally, I believe he’d still be getting big reactions had life not changed as we all know it.

But with there being no way to tell really, "The Scottish Psychopath" remaining at the top of the card indicates upper management were at least satisfied with his title reign.

McIntyre staying focused on regaining the belt, even with The Fiend staking his claim and Orton having a match scheduled at Survivor Series, also establishes that he still views the title as his own.

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His declaration that nobody will be defeating Randy Orton for the title other than him makes it clear that the belt is all that matters to McIntyre.

This is important if they want him to be taken seriously again as champion in the future.

Case in point: Kofi Kingston

The long-overdue WWE star finally got a WWE Championship run last year, but after losing it to Brock Lesnar he barely brought it up again outside of a few instances (one of which was on this week’s show).

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This makes it feel like he’s unlikely to ever win a World title again.

Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case with McIntyre.

Have a Plan

As a viewer, it’s frustrating to watch characters who feel like their creative direction wasn’t properly mapped out ahead of time.

Here are a few examples:

RETRIBUTION – WWE gave a ton of screen time to this faction.

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Some fans were invested. Others weren’t.

Regardless, one fact that is undeniable is that they were given a big push and lots of screen time prior to their unveiling.

Since revealing themselves, however, the team has been made to repeatedly lose ... then not really care about it afterward.

This caused their interaction with Ricochet on Monday to almost feel meaningless, since they’ve been unsuccessful at every single thing they’ve done in WWE up until this point.

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Why should we take them seriously as a threat?

Tucker – The former member of Heavy Machinery was part of a big angle when he turned on his longtime tag team partner by intentionally causing him to lose his Money in the Bank contract.

Since he and Otis are now on different brands, though, there was no follow up the next night on Raw.

Instead, he wrestled in a losing effort last week on Main Event.

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Then, this week on Raw, he lost to Ricochet in around 30 seconds after debuting not-so-fresh new gear.

In just two weeks, they’ve rendered his heel turn useless. Why should we care about his newfound edge?

Peyton Royce – WWE broke up one of their most entertaining women’s tag teams in The IIconics for seemingly no reason.

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Now, they’ve already got Peyton teaming with someone new (who she has LESS chemistry with in backstage promos).

… why?!?

There are other examples, but these are the most glaring that were on display in frustrating fashion this week on Raw.

Bliss on Fire

Alexa Bliss’ newfound direction continues to help her act with Bray Wyatt become one of the most compelling parts of Raw.

Her brief interaction with Randy Orton at the top of the show made her look like a star, even if she only uttered a few words.

She also once again nailed her part in the Firefly Fun House and was intimidating as hell during her encounter with Nikki Cross.

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Alexa has been more effective working with Bray than anyone could’ve imagined when this angle began.

I’m starting to feel like praising her work with Wyatt each week is almost becoming repetitive, since these two delivering together is basically a given at this point.