WWE Raw Results, Highlights, and Grades: NXT is the main event

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The Viking Raiders vs. East Hampton Polo Boys

Next up we saw Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders, and WWE took that moment to announce a triple threat tag team match at Survivor Series that pit them against NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival in a battle for brand supremacy.

The Viking Raiders were up against a pair of local talents dubbed “East Hampton Polo Boys” that looked like knockoff versions of MJF or the illegitimate sons of the Mean Street Posse. The Viking Raiders absolutely destroyed them with relative ease, with a gutwrench powerbomb by Erik and top rope splash by Ivar giving them the victory.

After the match, The Viking Raiders acknowledged their loss in the gauntlet at WWE Crown Jewel and said while The O.C. may have won one battle, nothing can stop the riad.

Grade: B, Basic little squash match, and a solid promo by The O.C. It was refreshing to see the faces acknowledge their loss while still looking forward to their next challenge.

NXT Championship Match: Adam Cole (c) vs. Seth Rollins

It was finally time for the night’s main event, as Adam Cole defended his NXT Championship against Seth Rollins. Cole, of course, had Triple H by his side, and the father of NXT grabbed a seat at ringside to observe the action.

In the early back and forth, Rollins managed to send Cole to the outside and launch himself over the ropes and into the champion. Back in the ring, Rollins tried to close it out with an early stomp, but Cole slipped away and out of the ring. Rollins followed him, grabbing Cole and sending him crashing into the barricade as things went to commercial.

Back from commercial, Adam Cole was in control of things only for Seth Rollins to begin fighting back with a flurry of strikes. After several exchanged strikes and dodged strikes, Rollins nailed a superkick for the near fall.

Rollins tried to follow it with a springboard knee, but Adam Cole caught him with a big superkick counter that earned a near fall. Cole then went for the Panama Sunrise, but Rollins countered and lifted Cole up off the mat for a buckle bomb that dumped him into the corner.

Adam Cole fought back with a suplex before dropping Rollins head-first into his knee. He followed it with a running knee that earned another near fall, and at this point Cole was looking to end it. He went for The Last Shot, but Rollins ducked.

Rollins rolled up Cole for a near fall, before both men got to their feet and crashed into one another with a double clothesline attempt that leveled the playing field. Cole climbed the turnbuckle, only for Rollins to quickly ascend as well to hit a superplex into a falcon arrow.

It earned “The Beast Slayer” a near fall, and he began calling for the Stomp to finish things. Before he could hit it, Rollins was attacked by Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish. The Undisputed Era started beating down on Rollins, and it didn’t take long for both Raw and NXT superstars to spill out and a brawl to begin.

The brawl included Seth Rollins, The Undisputed Era, Matt Riddle, Donovan Dijakovic, Damian Priest, Keith Lee, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Pete Dunne, Ricochet, Erick Rowan, Tommaso Ciampa, and probably someone else I missed.

As the brawl continued, Ricochet hit a springboard shooting star press to the outside onto a pile of superstars. A few moments later, Keith Lee went sailing out of the ring to take out an even larger group of superstars as WWE Raw went off the air.

Grade: B+, I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. This was largely a great match, but things didn’t quite hit like they could’ve at the end. Undisputed Era’s interference wasn’t surprising, but seemed to dampen things, and the brawl afterward just turned into a mess.

WWE Raw Quick Results and Grades

Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman called out Rey Mysterio (Grade: A)

Charlotte Flair and Natalya def. The Kabuki Warriors (Grade: A)