WWE Raw Results, Highlights, And Grades For December 31, 2018

Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender’s Battle Royal

There are so many men in this match vying for an opportunity at Dean Ambrose’s, who was watching this match from backstage, Intercontinental Championship. While the commentary team was busy focusing on Baron Corbin, my eyes were on Zack Ryder, who was able to get on Raw for the final episode of the year! Recall that he was a WrestleMania 32 hero when he won the Intercontinental Championship!

Apollo Crews got a couple of early eliminations with some safe (yes, that’s shade) military presses when throwing wrestlers out of the ring, with No Way Jose being one of the victims. He’s a joy to watch in the ring, and hopefully he continues to get some shine in this Battle Royal. Note that Apollo had an IC Title shot against The Miz at SummerSlam 2016, so he has plenty of history with the championship.

Titus O’Neil tried to get the better of the Lucha House Party, but the trio of 205 Live superstars were able to eliminate the former Florida Gator, narrowing the crowded  field a little bit more.

However, the Lucha House Party found it more difficult to deal with Finn, who launched Gran Metalik out of the ring after the “King of the Ropes” attempted another huge move. Balor shoved Kalisto and Lince Dorado out of the ring, too, after an initial struggle, ridding the other competitors of three dangerous members of the battle royal.

The B-Team tried to team up to eliminate Apollo but he dumped them both outside the ring before tossing Konnor and Mojo Rawley out of the ring to reach six eliminations. He then threw Tyler Breeze at the eliminated members of the match for a seventh.

A fired-up Balor directed his focus on Curt Hawkins and Baron Corbin, flying around the ring and dominating both men before stomping Ryder. However, Corbin got his revenge for SummerSlam and all of their previous encounters, sending Finn out of the ring.

Ryder willed himself up, nailing Corbin with several right hands in the corner before Corbin countered the Broski Boot into an elimination.

Hawkins stared down Corbin with Apollo catching his breath on the floor, and Hawkins surprisingly showed some fire when going after Corbin. It seemed like Corbin had eliminated Hawkins, but Hawkins stayed alive and started trying to pull Corin over the top. He came agonizingly close but ultimately wasn’t strong enough, and it was just Corbin and Crews left.

Apollo ultimately eliminated Corbin, and the best man in the match definitely won. With eight eliminations, Crews had a tremendous performance to close out the year, and he and Dean Ambrose could have a killer match for the IC Title.

Grade: B, I enjoyed this battle royal greatly, especially since Apollo Crews won it. He was the best man to grab this opportunity, and hopefully we get more of this from him in 2019. Crews is excellent.