WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for November 27

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Follow along with our live review of WWE Raw.

Previously on WWE Raw, Roman Reigns completed the Grand Slam, defeating The Miz to become Intercontinental Champion. Kane attacked Braun Strowman right in the windpipe. Paige returned to lay waste to the Women’s Division, with Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville in tow. And Kurt Angle does not like Triple H or Stephanie McMahon right now, no sir.

This week, there’s a lot to unpack, especially after last week’s bonkers episode. First off, The Big Dog begins his reign (his Roman Reign?) as Intercontinental Champ. Speculation is that he’ll institute an open challenge, much like Daniel Bryan did with the IC Title a few years back. Numerous superstars have already indicated that they want to face Reigns, but who will actually step through the curtain when it counts?

As stated above, Paige made her much anticipated return to WWE last week as well. By interrupting a number one contender’s match for the Raw Women’s Championship, it’s probably safe to say that Paige is looking to insert herself in the mix for the title. With a pair of young superstars seemingly on her side in Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, Paige is a force to be reckoned with. What will happen this week?

Braun Strowman must hate doctors, because once again he refused medical attention last week after an attack by Kane. The Big Red Machine took a chair to Strowman’s windpipe, but The Monster Among Men walked out under his own power. (Maybe he just doesn’t have insurance?) How will Braun respond to the attack this week?

And the war between The Shield and The Bar continued last week. Dean Ambrose faced off against Sheamus in singles action before all four men got involved in the main event. Ambrose and Seth Rollins are adamant that they will get the Raw Tag Team Titles back, but Sheamus and Cesaro beg to differ. When will these teams meet with gold on the lone?

Related Story: WWE Raw: 5 Predictions for November 27, 2017

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

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Roman Reigns Begins His Reign

I don’t want to jump the gun here, but is it possible Reigns has finally won over a larger portion of the WWE Universe? Dude’s out in the middle of the ring getting “You Deserve It” chants from the live audience. It’s a long time coming, and Reigns even says as much himself. Hate on him all you want, but denying that he’s great in the ring is foolish. Roman was born to be a professional wrestler – look at him.

Anyway, Roman comes out to recap last week’s episode, because the video recap at the top of the show was all about Kane and Braun Strowman. As Roman gives us the lowdown, we’re treated to the video of him getting triple powerbombed through the announce table after Raw went off the air.

Reigns announces his version of an open challenge, and it appeared to be answered by The Miz. Instead, it’s Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel, who are furious about how Miz was treated last week. They’ve scoured the locker room to find a worthy challenger for Reigns, and they’ve got one – Elias.

Reigns isn’t worried, despite Elias vowing to take the Intercontinental Championship away from him as fast as he won it. Roman, ever more smooth on the mic, tells him to take a gander at Axel’s neckbrace. If all goes according to plan, Elias is going to have to sing wearing one of those.

It wasn’t the best opening segment in Raw history, but it absolutely got the job done. Reigns seems to be getting the fans on his side, Elias shows no fear, and we get our first open challenge without getting too disappointed (at least I’m not disappointed).

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Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro

Result: Seth Rollins defeated Cesaro via pinfall

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

In a somewhat rare occurrence, members of two feuding tag teams had a singles match against each other! Who would have thought that would happen?

It’s actually a true singles match, though – Dean Ambrose is honeymooning, and Sheamus is taking a vacation back home to Ireland. So Rollins and Cesaro are flying solo here.

And, ho hum, just another above average match between members of The Shield and The Bar. It’s weird, for a while, Seth Rollins was just not doing it for me in the ring, even though there was nothing technically bad about what he was doing. But he seemed like he was wrestling in a video game –  big move after big move, with no real connection in between.

Lately, though – a few weeks before he reunited with Ambrose, if I had to pinpoint it – his matches have started clicking. He’s not doing anything drastically different, mind you. The only thing different is his opponent. Wrestling the same match against Cesaro as he did against Bray Wyatt results in a totally different experience.

It just goes to show how good Cesaro is at this whole wrestling thing. The gut wrench bomb out of a cross body splash. The uppercuts. How about during the (second) commercial break when he just ran Rollins ribs-first into the ring post? Great match, great finish, and we’ve got ourselves a real feud for the tag titles brewing.

After the match, Charly “Hey, you’re not Renee Young” Caruso teases some dissension among the members of The Shield. Rollins puts the kibosh on that quickly, and after some lousy jokes about Ambrose and his honeymoon invokes their rematch clause for next week.

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Kurt Angle Remembers He’s In Charge of the Cruiserweights

Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann, Akira Tozawa, and Mustafa Ali air their grievances about the Zo Train. They want Angle to do something, so he does – a fatal four way tonight, another next week, and the winners face off the following week to determine Enzo’s next challenger. This is what happens when there’s no pay per view between Survivor Series and Royal Rumble for the Raw brand – storylines get stretched out to fill time.

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Titus O’Neil (w/ Apollo Crews) vs. Samoa Joe

Result: Samoa Joe defeated Titus O’Neil via submission

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Last time these two crossed paths, it didn’t go particularly well for Titus. So once the bell rings, Titus comes out with guns blazing, throwing haymakers like crazy. It’s been a loooooooong time since Titus looked like a force to be reckoned with. In all honesty, it’s probably been at least since his ridiculous suspension for touching Vince McMahon.

But for a big part of the match, it was all Titus with strike after strike after strike. I loved it. Let the big man be brutal again! It can only make Apollo Crews look better, too – win win.

And Samoa Joe is the perfect guy for Titus to have this kind of match against. He can take a beating and shake it off. Case in point – this match. For a mere mortal, those shots from Titus would be world-ending. For Joe, it’s like brushing away an annoying mosquito.

Absolutely great set up to the end, with Joe taking a probably unnecessary shortcut. a straight shot over the ref’s shoulder? Why not pass up the opportunity. A Coquina Clutch later, and Joe was victorious. Crews tried to get some payback, but Joe made short work of him as well.

Not a barnburner of a match, but again, it accomplishes its goal – make Joe look near unstoppable, make Titus look like a threat again, and make Apollo have an edge.

Good Brothers Back at the Gimmick Table

Okay, just because it was good last week, did we need this again? You can’t find a match for these guys anywhere in three hours?

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Sasha Banks, Mickie James, & Bayley vs. Paige, Mandy Rose, & Sonya Deville

Result: No contest – Mickie and Bayley unable to compete

Rating: N/A

Sadly, the match never actually got started. Sasha made her way to the ring, but as Mickie’s music hit, then Bayley’s, no one came out to the stage. If you’ve watched wrestling at any point in the past, you knew why. But we have to go through the charade, and out comes Paige with her buddies – now known as “Absolution.” I kinda don’t like it, but I kinda do? Check back next week after I’ve slept on it a bit.

Paige shows exactly what happened to Mickie and Bayley – sort of. We see them in the back seemingly suffering the effects of an ambush at the hands of Absolution. Paige then addresses the elephant in the room – why did she do what she did last week?

Honestly, it was a good story. She’s got a lot of valid points – I mean, how many times did we hear Michael Cole say, “Some say Paige started the Divas Revolution”? She was known as the “Anti-Diva,” for goodness sake. So when she says she wants to remind us of what she did, it shouldn’t be necessary – but clearly is.

Mandy and Sonya could use a few more promo classes, but they’re definitely on the right track. It was less “middle school drama club girls” and more “Roman Reigns circa 2014-15” in terms of delivery – I’ll take it. They give Sasha a chance to join them, but are rebuffed. So Sasha gets beat down, and Paige stands tall.

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Bray Wyatt vs. Matt Hardy

Result: Bray Wyatt defeated Matt Hardy via pinfall

Rating: 2.25 out of 5 stars

Oh, good, we’re back to square one with Wyatt. Serious illness didn’t stop him, it just slowed him down. And now that he’s back, we get to start his one storyline all over again.

Here’s the TL;DR version of Wyatt’s pre-match promo: We do what “the man” tells us to do, so we’re all dead. I don’t get it. It’s more morbid than he’s been in the past, but besides that it’s more of the same from Wyatt. Like I said, he’s got one story – issue bold proclamation, do spooky stuff, win a match here and there, lose the big one, rinse and repeat.

His opponent tonight is Matt Hardy, fresh off his Starrcade appearance. Ol’ Matt is in a rough patch since Jeff’s injury, so he’s slowly going off the deep end. Less flash and pizzazz, more moping around. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like anyone is opening up the checkbook for the rights to the Broken Universe, so we have Mopin’ Matt instead.

Half the match happens in the commercial break, so I can’t go too crazy with the in-ring stuff. Wyatt wins with a Sister Abigail after a useless spider walk, since Matt was still on his back. Post match, Matt sat in the corner and did the DELETE arm motion over and over. Michael Cole asked if we’re “seeing the beginning of a Matt Hardy BREAKdown?” and I say, Nope. I can understand wanting to do the Broken thing, but this isn’t exactly how it came about. A cheapened version of it for the sake of doing it would be a mistake. Do it right, or not at all.

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Jason Jordan is a Modern Day Ralph Kramden

Because he’s got a BIIIIIIIIIG MOOOOOOUTH. Jordan talks himself up, acting overconfident about being able to take on Kane. Kurt Angle stops being slackjawed just long enough to make the match, and Jordan immediately regrets his decision.

Rich Swann vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Noam Dar vs. Ariya Daivari

Result: Rich Swann pinned Noam Dar to win the fatal four way

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

This is the first of two fatal four way matches to determine Enzo Amore’s next challenger for the Crusierweight Championship. The Zo Train alliance between Dar and Daivari was in full force, with the pair working together to isolate Swann and/or Tozawa.

Overall, this was the kind of cruiserweight match that WWE should be booking on a regular basis. All four guys brought it tonight – it was on point. Multi-man matches may be overplayed in some cases, but for the cruiserweight division – theoretically home of fast-paced, high flying action – it’s a perfect fit. More bodies equals more chaos, so it really enhances the speed of the match.

Swann and Tozawa get bonus points for their aerial attacks – Daivari, too, with that ridiculous height on his frog splash. But the Phoenix Splash by Swann may be the prettiest move in all of WWE.

So now Swann moves on to the singles match, awaiting the winner of next week’s fatal four way. Guessing it’ll be Ali, Alexander, Nese, and Gulak, with either Nese or Gulak picking up the win. It’s a shame (even though I’m a huge Gulak fan and one of the few Nese fans out there), because Alexander or Ali would be great champions.

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WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Elias vs. Roman Reigns (c)

Result: Roman Reigns defeated Elias via pinfall

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

You know, every time I think Elias has peaked, he goes out and does something like this. The pre match concert tonight was his masterpiece. I’m 99% sure that this one really was the peak, and he ain’t topping this. He embodies this gimmick in a way few have been able to in the past. It’s as if he was born for this. And his schtick did the unthinkable – he got the crowd chanting “We want Roman.” (Or maybe that was the harmonica stylings of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel.)

Speaking of peaking, to this point this is Elias’s best match in WWE in a walk. The commentary team was working overtime to make him seem like a credible threat to walk away with the Intercontinental Championship. And what he was doing in the ring made it easy to visualize such a development.

The best part of John Cena’s open challenges with the US Title was the unpredictability. Not just in terms of who was going to accept, but whether they could win or not. Most of the time, even knowing Cena would come out on top because Cena, his opponent made you believe he had a chance. Those matches were usually pretty exciting.

Tonight, Reigns had the same kind of match. Elias was an unlikely winner, but he made you believe he had a legit shot. A couple of very near falls sprinkled in only added to that belief. But we’re still at the beginning of Roman’s reign, so he finds a way to overcome and win (though he may have given himself a stinger on the spear; looked like his head went into Elias’s chest). If every installment of The Big Dog’s open challenge is like this, keep the title on Roman until WrestleMania 35 (not a typo).

Following the match, Samoa Joe ambushed Reigns from behind, locking him in the Coquina Clutch until he passed out. You know Joe meant business because even Fit freakin’ Finlay couldn’t free Roman. I, for one, would welcome Joe vs. Roman until the end of time, so let’s do this.

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Asuka vs. Dana Brooke

Result: Asuka defeated Dana Brooke via submission

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 1 out of 5 stars

Dana Brooke deserves a medal for her performances the last few weeks. She claimed to have studied film on her match with Asuka last week to expose a hole in her game. Then, in true Bond villain fashion, Dana gives away her plan. See, Asuka is a slow starter, so Dana intends to take it to her quickly and – oh, the match is over.

It’s the best squash match since Strowman vs. Random Enhancement Talent #12. Literally, a perfect match. It was over so fast you’d think Asuka had a plane to catch.

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But before Asuka can leave the ring, out comes Absolution. Yes, please. The mere thought of Asuka vs. Paige is intoxicating. Paige may have some ring rust, but by the time she finally gets around to a match with Asuka, woo baby it’s gonna be good.

Interestingly, the trio surround the ring but back off without confrontation. Maybe they realized that 3-on-1 still isn’t great odds when dealing with The Empress of Tomorrow. Regardless, Mandy, Sonya, and Paige let Asuka leave without incident.

Whatever is going on in the women’s division, I applaud it. With the addition of Absolution, Asuka’s continued dominance, the tenuous friendship between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax, and so much more, Raw has become a great home for women’s wrestling these past few weeks. Let’s keep the ball rolling with that division, huh?

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Jason Jordan vs. Kane

Result: Kane defeated Jason Jordan via count out

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

As stupid as this whole Jason Jordan knee story is, this was stunningly good, and well thought out. I know, right? I’m as surprised as you are.

To recap – Jordan has an “injured” knee. He alternates between claiming full health, and claiming flare up of the injury. Either he’s a genius, or an idiot – the distinction between the two is often very blurred. This week, he started off healthy, ended up in a match with Kane due to his big mouth,

Jordan holds his own early on, actually getting the upper hand on Kane. The Big Red Machine blocked a suplex attempt and sent Jordan to the outside, where he “injured” his knee again. Jordan “valiantly” tried to get back in the ring, but just missed the ten count, so he lost. Kane wasn’t having it, and he just bear the stuffing out of Jordan.

While the beating was going on, you knew someone would help out Jordan. Conspicuous by his absence all night, out comes Finn Balor to save the day. During the commercial break, Kurt Angle sanctioned a legal match between Balor and Kane, who finally get to finish their sort of started feud – that was almost immediately abandoned – about four weeks after it started.

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Finn Balor vs. Kane

Result: Finn Balor defeated Kane via disqualification

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

There’s a lot of things I really like about this whole thing, but there’s one thing I truly, absolutely hate. Let’s get the negative out of the way first.

Finn Balor – a man once rumored to be on deck to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship – has become nothing more than an afterthought in the Kane/Strowman feud. When reports surfaced that Vince McMahon didn’t think Finn was “over” enough, my conspiracy theory was that it was a ploy to get even more fan support behind Balor. Sadly, after tonight, I don’t think that’s the case. Why would a superstar like that need to be saved?

Now, onto the good – welcome back, Braun. There’s nothing better than Braun Strowman no-selling a vicious attack. His expression after Kane’s first chair shot was priceless. Even Kane’s reaction – a callback to his original, Michael Myers-esque characterization with the head tilting – was on point.

More good: Strowman got his revenge on Kane in a meaningful and impactful way. None of this “I’m going to cost him a match after he almost killed me” stuff we see all too often. This was straight up Hammurabi – an eye for an eye. Well, a windpipe for a windpipe. You get my drift.

It seems like the end game with Strowman and Kane is a chairs match – such a shame TLC already passed with just a single stipulation match. Maybe we’ll get a last man standing match instead – could you imagine either of these two monsters being kept down for a ten count?

Next: 25 Greatest Entrance Themes in WWE History

Two really good matches made this a solid episode of WWE Raw. Even the lousy matches helped further a ton of storylines. The past few weeks, Raw has been really good. Let’s hope that continues next week!