WWE RAW Coverage: Balor Relinquishes Title, Bayley Debuts

With the injury to Finn Balor forcing him to relinquish the WWE Universal title, a two-week tournament began this week on RAW to crown a new champion.

Talk about a bummer.

Add in awful promo from Titus O’Neil and a dragging pace and the first RAW after Summerslam was a complete bore. If it wasn’t for the RAW debut of Bayley and retiring Dudely Boys (and Anderson and Gallows’ decimation of them), this week’s RAW would have been a complete waste of a time.

Matches:

WWE Universal Championship Tournament: Sami Zayn vs. Seth Rollins: Zayn worked the injured ankle angle the entire match as Rollins and Zayn traded strikes and signature maneuvers throughout. Zayn nearly won with a top rope Sit-Out Powerbomb and the Exploder, but Rollins hit a vicious Knee Lift and continued to work on Zayn’s ankle. After a Hell Hook submission from Rollins, Zayn went for the Michinoku Driver, but Rollins countered into the Pedigree for the win.

WWE Universal Championship Tournament: Kevin Owens vs. Neville: Owens got help from Chris Jericho who appeared as soon as Neville started gaining momentum. Owens proved his mettle though kicking out of a German Suplex and Corkscrew Moonsault. Owens was unable to hit the Pop-Up Powerbomb, but Jericho’s antics stopped Neville from going for the Red Arrow. A Torture Rack Neck Breaker later from Owens and he got the win.

WWE Tag Team Champion Big E. Langston w/Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods vs. Karl Anderson w/Luke Gallows: Langston wasted little time and got the win over Anderson with The Big Ending.

WWE Universal Championship Tournament: Colin Cassady w/Enzo Amore vs. United States Champion Rusev w/Lana: Rusev walked out of the match to give Cassady the count-out win.

Bailey vs. Dana Brooke w/WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair: Bailey made quick work of Brooke, winning with the Bayley-to-Belly.

Braun Strowman vs. Johnny Knockout: Strowman won with the Reverse Chokeslam and then hit The Big Ending after the match.

WWE Universal Championship Tournament: Chris Jericho vs. Roman Reigns: Help from Kevin Owens nearly got Jericho the win on several occasions, but Reigns eventually got the win with the Spear.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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