WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for November 20

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Follow along with our live WWE Raw review for all the Survivor Series fallout.

Previously on WWE Raw, The Shield returned to action as a trio and beat three champions. Hooray! Jason Jordan beat Bray Wyatt but got booted off the Raw Survivor Series team because Triple H. And Braun Strowman broke another ring when he powerslammed Kane STRAIGHT TO HELL.

This week, it’s all about Survivor Series fallout. Most likely, it’s going to be about the main event – the men’s traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match. As discussed during the show itself, the main event was an overbooked mess because, once again, Triple H. The Game decided to turn on Kurt Angle, but still win the match for Raw by beating Shane McMahon himself. Did it make sense? Nope! Maybe we’ll get some answers tonight.

In addition, Team Raw proved it was the superior brand at Survivor Series by winning four of the seven interbrand matches. However, with the exception of Brock Lesnar, all of the champions on Raw lost to their Blue Team counterparts. Will The Miz, The Bar, or Alexa Bliss face any repercussions from failing to come out on top?

The winners at Survivor Series included the women’s team in the traditional Survivor Series match. After being down 2-1, Asuka dominated Tamina and Natalya to be the sole survivor for the Red Team. What’s next for the Empress of Tomorrow as Raw hits Houston tonight?

And The Shield opened Survivor Series with an instant classic match against New Day. The Hounds of Justice asserted their dominance over WWE’s Unicorns with a hard fought victory. But New Day had a good point about the strength of the bond between the Shield “brothers.” How much longer will they stick together as a united front?

Related Story: WWE Survivor Series 2017: 5 Things Creative Could Have Done

Be sure to follow along with our live WWE Raw review here starting at 8 p.m. ET.

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Welcome to Monday Night Raw, A Stephanie McMahon Production Starring Stephanie McMahon, Written by Stephanie McMahon, and Directed by Stephanie McMahon

After the events of Survivor Series, it was pretty certain that Triple H and Stephanie McMahon would be involved in the open in some way. Lo and behold, here comes The Billion Dollar Princess to gloat. “Raw is the dominant brand.” “Shane knew what was coming.” Blah, blah, blah.

Stephanie brings out Triple H, but before he can say a word, Kurt Angle comes out with a big ball of fire. He threatens Triple H – maybe not the wisest move after his job was literally proclaimed safe just seconds before. Stephanie reminds him such, and out comes Jason Jordan.

The young superstar is still a little peeved about being booted from the Survivor Series in favor of Triple H. So Jordan does what any reasonable man would do – challenge The King of Kings to a match tonight. Wait, what? Did I say “reasonable”? I meant insane! Sure, Triple H is not the same competitor he used to be, but he’s still Triple H. I’m all for blood rivalries, but this may be ill-advised. Hey, like father like son, I guess.

Even though The Game removed his suit jacket, it seemed like the match with Jordan was a no go. But before that was confirmed, out came Braun Strowman, obviously still ticked off over Triple H’s deception at Survivor Series. A stare down for the ages saw Triple H back away from the Monster Among Men in a great visual. Then Stephanie makes Jordan vs. Strowman for later tonight.

This was a solid opening segment after the chaos of Survivor Series, even though nothing really got answered. You can’t give everything away all at once. Perhaps a Jordan heel turn is in the works for tonight, or the near future?

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Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe

Result: Samoa Joe defeated Finn Balor via ref stoppage/TKO

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

After putting their intense rivalry on hold for (most of) Survivor Series, Balor and Joe went back at it tonight on Raw. And it didn’t take long for them to pick up where they left off. Joe was in an especially aggressive mood, wasting no time in just beating up Balor. Not fighting, mind you – Joe literally beat him up.

Balor did what would be expected of him, too. He absorbed Joe’s onslaught, regrouped enough to stagger his bigger opponent, and followed up with a huge tope con giro to send us into the commercial break.

Of course, even though Balor was in command heading into the break, once we’re back it’s all Joe because WWE doesn’t always feel the need to show their work. It’s like they know the best thing about non-painted Finn is his comebacks, so they just create opportunities for him to do that. Whether we the audience see how we get from point A to B is irrelevant.

But if we’re going to keep getting Samoa Joe doing suicide dives that look like Mjolnir flying through the air, I’ll take whatever weird pacing his matches have. I know he was out due to injury, but Joe looks like a brand new man after that few weeks off. It’s like the perfect argument for a WWE off-season, or at least rotating, built-in “vacations” for the superstars.

There were some great spots towards the end. Joe just sidestepping Finn’s dropkick and obliterating him with the senton was perfect. I liked Finn’s third (at least) comeback, and Joe’s avoidance of the Coup de Grace into the Coquina Clutch. The “opponent passes out” finish is starting to get overplayed, though – let a superstar or two tap out, you know? It doesn’t make them look weak, it makes Joe look like the most dangerous force on the roster.

Black Friday Sale

This is probably the best segment Gallows and Anderson have had in a long time. Gallows, especially, is a terrific personality, and he’s got a knack for impressions.

Why not let the Good Brothers head out there and sell some T-shirts?

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Styles/Lesnar Recap

There’s not much to say about this that wasn’t said in the Survivor Series review last night. Styles and Lesnar tore the house down for 15 minutes – the longest Lesnar match in a few years. It leaned a little heavy on the Rocky story, but it worked – AJ is great at selling offense to make it look brutal. His comeback was fantastic. And the F5 – you only need one – to end it looked awesome. If you didn’t see this during Survivor Series, watch it ASAP.

IT’S HAPPENING

Jason Jordan finds Kurt Angle backstage to announce he’s “injured”. Go figure, last week he was “fully healed” and ready for Survivor Series. But apparently, that was a lie, because he wanted to be in the match so bad. His challenge to Triple H was based on the fact that it was Triple H, so he tried to ignore the “injury.”

Angle is understandably angry. With the McMahon-Helmsley pairing out for his head, Kurt can’t afford any shenanigans or illusions of impropriety. The match must stay on, he says. Jordan understands, and says he can probably compete after all.

I’m guessing we’re accelerating the Jordan heel turn.

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Asuka vs. Dana Brooke

Result: Asuka defeated Dana Brooke via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Last week on Raw, Asuka went to assist Dana Brooke as the latter competed for a chance to join the Raw Survivor Series team. Brooke took offense, slapped Asuka, and got her head kicked in for her troubles.

This week, Brooke aims for revenge, challenging The Empress of Tomorrow to a match. It’s not a great idea. After all, Asuka was Raw’s sole survivor last night – she’s definitely more than capable to take Dana to the woodshed.

There’s not a lot to this one. Asuka took charge pretty early on, and never really relinquished. The highlight of the match for me? When Dana brought back her patented head patting. How many times did she pat someone on the head in NXT? It was great, and to see it come back tonight – especially knowing how Asuka would react – was wonderful.

Dana followed the head pat with a big slap, and then she died. Asuka launched into a flurry of strikes, basically knocked Brooke out with a big kick to the head, and scored the pinfall.

I think we’re getting to the point where Asuka can start doing a bit more than just win glorified squash matches. She struggled a bit against Emma in her Raw debut, but since then she’s definitely built herself back up – especially after Survivor Series. Let her have some back and forth matches, and win those.

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Unexpected Guests on Miz TV

Part of me just wants to copy and paste something in these segment recaps about The Miz, because there’s only so many times I can say that he’s the greatest thing on Raw on a regular basis. He’s the best kind of delusional character who somehow justifies himself on a regular basis. Miz is out here demanding a “thank you” from The Shield for being the catalyst for their reunion, and he makes perfect sense when he states his case.

The interplay between everyone in the ring and the crowd just goes to show how much overscripting hurts some superstars and their mic skills. Look at how natural Roman sounded when he wasn’t reading some ridiculous line from not-Jimmy Jacobs. Just that little bit of improv sounded a billion times better than any succotash, suffering or not.

I absolutely loved this segment. Reigns asking for an Intercontinental Championship match is a good idea – it keeps him busy until he gears up for Lesnar in a few months. Bo Dallas standing up for Miz is touching, because everyone in the world knows it wouldn’t go the other way. Axel begging and pleading not to get attacked was a little sad, but the whole thing was like a classic Looney Tunes cartoon. He walked right into his doom by trying to avoid it.

And while all of that happened, The Miz ran away. It was perfect for everyone in the ring, even if Ambrose didn’t have his checkbook with him.

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Braun Strowman

My wife came into the room while Charly Caruso was interviewing Strowman, and laughed at the height difference. So, mission accomplished with making Braun seem huge.

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Sheamus (w/ Cesaro) vs. Dean Ambrose (w/ Seth Rollins)

Result: Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus via pinfall

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Two things: where did Roman go? (Preparing for his IC Title match?) And I guess we’re doing a title rematch soon, because we’re in the “split the teams into singles matches” part of the feud. Tune in next week for Cesaro vs. Rollins!

In a battle between former world champs, you’re almost guaranteed decent action at worst. (Side note: how weird is it that Cesaro is the only member of these two teams to never be world champ?) Ambrose played up the lunatic thing by stealing Sheamus’s patented Ten Beats of the Bodhrán. And after the commercial, it was an all out war.

Trouble is, it was kind of a convoluted mess. Involvement from Cesaro and Rollins took away from what could have been a better than average match. Ambrose sold the damage to the arm like a champ, Sheamus kept working it – great! Seth Rollins runs through the ring just to hit Cesaro with a suicide dive – not great.

But either way, The Shield strikes first with a singles victory. It’s not quite the “[BLANK] HAS DEFEATED THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS” situation because it’s a singles match. I can forgive tag champs losing non title singles matches – it’s not their wheelhouse at the moment. Still, a distraction finish is lame, especially when it’s a champion who loses.

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Matt Hardy Has Some Wonderful Advice For Jason Jordan

Man, Jeff Hardy needs to heal up already. If Matt is getting broken or woken or whatever, he needs his partner.

Anyway, he’s got some advice for Jordan about facing giants – and it’s not very inspiring.

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Alexa Bliss Has a Parade of Challengers Now

We’re back to the worst trope in all of WWE – the entire women’s division comes out one at a time to state their case for being in an upcoming match. Part of why it’s such a bad segment every single time it happens is because most of the superstars involved have substandard skill on the mic. So any time this segment takes place, it’s just bad promo after bad promo.

Tonight, Alexa is sort of whining about losing at Survivor Series. Before she gets too far, out comes Mickie James. Despite losing basically every time she’s faced Alexa, Mickie thinks she deserves a(nother) title opportunity. I’m going to go with “no,” Mickie.

Then in rapid succession, we get Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Alicia Fox. Each one basically claims they have more of a right to the champ than the person who spoke immediately before her. Like, Sasha Banks has nothing to say about Mickie James, just Bayley. And Foxy only goes after Sasha.

Alexa does the reasonable thing – deny all of them and leave. But as she walks towards the ramp out comes Paige!

Except she didn’t, because that would have created some intrigue. Instead, it’s Kurt Angle announcing a fatal four way next, with the winner facing Alexa Bliss.

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Mickie James vs. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Alicia Fox

Result: No Contest

Rating: N/A

We join the match already in progress, but it doesn’t get very far before a much anticipated return takes place. But that’s not all that happened – a pair of debuts followed shortly thereafter.

While the action in the ring was going on, Paige’s music hit and the Houston crowd erupted. It’s been well over a year since the last time Paige was on WWE television – she was drafted to Raw last summer but was out due to injury and suspensions the entire time.

But here she was on Raw again, apologizing for interrupting the match, but sauntering down to the ring – but she said she wasn’t alone. Before Paige hit the ring, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville from NXT appeared from the crowd and launched an all out assault on the match participants.

Mickie James was the first victim, with a stunned Sasha Banks trying to fight back, but to no avail. Bayley also took a beating, including a Rampaige from the first ever NXT Women’s Champion. Alicia Fox avoided a beating, but only by running away.

I don’t know why Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville are aligned with Paige, but honestly I don’t care. It’s a great idea, and I’m a sucker for stables/alliances, so bring it on.

Backstage, the trio run into Alexa Bliss, who met the same fate as James, Bayley, and Banks. Like Corey Graves said, this turns the entire women’s division upside down.

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Braun Strowman vs. Jason Jordan

Result: Braun Strowman defeated Jason Jordan via disqualification

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

This was a big ball of nothing in terms of a match. Strowman established dominance about 12 seconds in and never let up. The closest Jordan came to getting any offense in was lifting Braun up for a possible suplex, but seeing his leg – the “injured” leg – buckle under the weight of the monster.

Braun went for the running powerslam, but Jordan managed to wiggle free. As he landed, though, the leg buckled once more, and the best thing to do was roll out of the ring. While Jordan was on the outside, Kane appeared from out of nowhere and attacked Strowman. After a few initial shots, Kane utilized a steel chair for his onslaught.

Honestly, that chair looked like the kryptonite for Strowman. A guy who was crushed in a garbage truck and respawned like a week later being taken out by a chair? Seems strange, but that’s how it looked. Of course, the chair shot to the windpipe would have been effective with just about any weapon.

I have to say: Stop. With Kane. Already. There has to be someone out there who would be a better opponent for Strowman. The whole “refusing medical attention” angle is dumb, also – not to mention seeing The Monster Among Men gasping for air like he was a resident of Planet Druidia when Mega Maid started to suck.

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The Zo Train and, Uh, Team Swann, I Guess?

So, this was kind of awkward. It was less a celebration of the Cruiserweight Division, and more an indictment of the worst aspects of WWE. You know, stereotype characters, horrible babyface behavior, and heels who have a point that’s better than the good guys.

Enzo starts off by bragging about his victory at Survivor Series,. He then moves on to compliment his running buddies, but for ridiculous things. The “good guys” interrupt, make fun of the baddies, and end up starting a fight. So strange.

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Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, & Noam Dar (w/ Enzo Amore) vs. Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, & Akira Tozawa

Result: Rich Swann, Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, & Akira Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, & Noam Dar via pinfall

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

The brawl triggers an eight-man tag match to be signed during the commercial break. It was a perfectly fine match that took little risk but stayed in the middle lane. For a group of flyers, there was actually precious little aerial offense. And that made the match suffer a bit.

At some point, the cruiserweights need to take more risk in the matches outside of pay per views. Continuing to play things safe is what gets a rough crowd reaction.

I will say Mustafa Ali’s 054 is a really sick looking move, and I want to see him do it all the time. So he’s got that going for him.

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Kurt Angle Scrambling Like a Madman

Renee Young catches up with Angle backstage. He says Strowman refused medical attention and left the building. He won’t address any repercussions for Kane because he needs to check on his son.

In the trainers room, Jordan is in physical and mental agony – he thinks he let Kurt down. (I mean, kinda?) Angle tells him not to worry, but he’s interrupted by a furious Miz. angle kicks him out and goes back to Jordan.

These segments are why Raw is three hours long, and also a good example of things added in to drag the time out.

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Elias, Rudely Interrupted…Again

At the Survivor Series Kickoff Show, Elias defeated Matt Hardy. It wasn’t anything the dozens of people in the building had any strong feelings about either way. The match was okay – nothing more, nothing less.

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Tonight, Elias offered up a concert in celebration of the victory. It was tough to get things going, because the Houston crowd didn’t understand concert etiquette.

Rule number 1: never clap along with a musician unless specifically invited to do so. You paid good money to see this act – why try and do the whole thing yourself?

Before Elias can get through his set (he should team with Drew Gulak as frustrated sports entertainers), Matt Hardy interrupts to attack.

It’s the perfect way for a babyface to celebrate losing a match 24 hours earlier, isn’t it?

The two brawl for a bit, before Elias bails on the fight. It’s a shame, because Elias is developing nicely, and yet here he is acting like a coward. And all so Matt Hardy can get put over? It’s not 2002 anymore – lets build the young superstars up.

After yet another disrupted concert, though, how long before Elias gives up on trying to entertain the WWE Universe? As a musician myself, it’s frustrating when your audience has other things on their minds.

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WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

The Miz (c) vs. Roman Reigns

Result: Roman Reigns defeated The Miz via pinfall to become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Look, we all know WWE is building Reigns up to be the next big thing. Whether we want it or not, The Big Dog is going to be the face of WWE for the foreseeable future. Even still, at no point tonight did I think that Reigns was going to win the Intercontinental Championship.

But that’s what happened tonight. With the victory, Reigns became a Grand Slam Champion, having previously won the WWE Championship, United States Championship, and the WWE Tag Team Championship. More unbelievably, for the majority of the match, Reigns actually got cheered by the WWE Universe. Not only that, but there were pro-Roman chants clearly audible on my television. What kind of Bizarro World is this?

The match overall was really good. For a random Raw main event, both guys were on their A Game. Even interference from The Bar (and later Ambrose and Rollins) couldn’t detract from the quality of the bout. False finishes, crisp action, stiff looking shots, everything you could want was in this one.

I’m a huge fan of The Miz as Intercontinental Champion, but it’s probably a good move to take the title off him for a little while. Let Reigns carry the belt until, say, Royal Rumble season. Perhaps he can drop the title at the Rumble itself, keeping him from entering the Rumble and saving the WWE Universe from a painfully obvious result. Let him get into a match with Brock Lesnar some other way.

Next: WrestleMania 34 Match Predictions After Survivor Series

This was a great episode of Raw to follow up Survivor Series. It looks like the Red Team is set on continuing to show its dominance. With Paige’s return, the debuts of Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, and the Intercontinental Title change, this was an above average episode overall.