WWE RAW review, Nov. 27: 3 takeaways

The final episode of WWE RAW for November took place in Knoxville, Tennessee Monday night. It proved to be a pretty eventful one.

With Survivor Series in the rear-view mirror, WWE RAW’s journey to the Royal Rumble marched on Monday night. Knoxville, Tennessee played host to the flagship program, and fans there enjoyed what was quite an eventful show. Two matches stood out amongst the pack, and the newest women’s stable made their mark again.

A few noteworthy events occurred, those of which didn’t garner most of the spotlight. Here are a few of those moments:

• Matt Hardy had some… interesting reactions following his loss to Bray Wyatt. Hardy sat in the corner of the ring, and twitched and quivered before an eye-popping moment occurred. Matt shot his arm out wide multiple times, whilst shouting “DELETE!” at the top of his lungs. As Michael Cole pondered on the broadcast, could Matt Hardy be going through a… break down?
• Seth Rollins battled Cesaro in a hotly-contested opener. Rollins defeated “The Swiss Cyborg,” and afterward, Charly Caruso interviewed him in the ring. “The Architect” of The Shield announced that he and Dean Ambrose’s intentions were clear: A week after Roman Reigns won the Intercontinental Championship, they wanted their own belts, as well. Later in the show, fans learned that Ambrose and Rollins will challenge Cesaro and Sheamus next week for the RAW Tag Team Championships.
• Rich Swann won an important Fatal 4-Way Match. Swann defeated Noam Dar, Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari to assure himself an opportunity at landing a chance to regain the Cruiserweight Championship. In two weeks, Swann will face the winner of a Fatal 4-Way occurring next week. The winner of that match will then become the No. 1 contender for Enzo Amore’s title. On that note: The best possible option here is Rich Swann vs. Cedric Alexander, right?

Now, onto important business.

Roman Reigns’ Intercontinental Title reign will be important to watch

After watching Monday night’s telecast, it’s abundantly clear that with Roman Reigns holding the IC Title, it will be as important as ever. Reigns got the opening promo slot and then got a big match against Elias Samson at the top of the third hour. And, as we learned, a top-flight superstar is now gunning after it.

As Reigns promised, The Big Dog issued an open challenge for his title. The Miz’s music hit, but The Awesome One didn’t come out. Instead, it was Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel — The Miztourage. Samson followed, answering Reigns’ call. Samson and Reigns collided later on.

The match was terrific, to say the least. It was certainly Samson’s breakout performance, and a noteworthy one at that, as he continues to excel and be a success story in 2017. Reigns prevailed, but the hits kept coming.

Samoa Joe, who defeated Titus O’Neil earlier in the show, came out and put Roman in a chokehold. He left after making quick work and appeared to essentially insert himself into the Intercontinental Title picture.

Whatever you think of Reigns, a feud between him and Samoa Joe over the IC Title should help it get main-event status. With no Universal Champion around, that may be what RAW needs to continue to go in stride as 2017 concludes.