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WWE Monday Night Raw comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Aug. 3, 2020) from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, with all the latest build to the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for later this month.
Advertised for tonight: Shane McMahon returns, a new faction debuts, Apollo Crews vs. MVP for the U.S. championship, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the Raw live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE RAW RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR AUG 3
She came over the fence with an argument in her head, no empathy. Escape strategy, I understood her, we were trying to share a genuine human moment just like the way they do in movies, but instead I’m here liveblogging this here pro wrestling show for y’all, folks.
The show opens with the intro video.
Commentary chats up the show until the power goes out.
It comes back on and Apollo Crews makes his entrance, so here we go.
Montel Vontavious Porter gets on the mic before the bell and cuts a short promo about how he’s the real champion and suchlike.
Apollo Crews (c) vs. Montel Vontavious Porter (WWE United States Championship)
Collar and elbow, rolling around in the lockup, Porter with a go-behind, sitting down to look for a sleeper hold as Crews fights him every inch of the way. Back elbows to break, Montel fighting from mount, Apollo rolls through into a jackknife pin, stalemate! Test of strength, MVP feints into right hands with a stomp to the foot!
Lights flickering as Porter lays uppercuts in, whip across and Crews finds his momentum! Snap suplex for one, staying on him, repeated covers to grind the veteran down into punches to the head. Apollo shifts gears into a standing armbar, MVP escapes and drops him with an elbow strike and a big boot follows it!
Crews back to his feet, throwing forearms into the ropes with vigor, whip across, the Hurt Business pull Montel out to protect him but Apollo comes off the ropes... TOPE CON GIRO WIPES THEM OUT AND SENDS US TO BREAK!
Back from commercial, Porter has a cravate locked in, keeping the legitimate champion under his control. Crews with body blows to get out but he runs the ropes right into a lariat that turns him inside out and gets MVP a two count! Staying on him, drop toehold facebuster wipes Apollo out! CAMEL CLUTCH IN THE ROPES!
Porter backing him into the corner, elbows on elbows, but Crews sidesteps a charge and hits the enzuigiri! Shoulder thrusts in the corner, legit champ fired up, Stinger Splash sets up a spinning spinebuster... NO GOOD! Back suplex lift, Montel blocks the finish, release German suplex but Crews is fired up... DELAYED BLUE THUNDER DRIVER! IT’S OVER!
Apollo Crews wins by pinfall to retain the WWE United States Championship.
Apollo goes to the back with both title belts in hand, and immediately gets interviewed.
He says Bob’s full nelson is like nothing that’s ever happened to him, and because of it he had to stay at home and watch MVP pretend to be champion while his kids asked him if he was still champ. He says he’s giving his kids the old version of the belt, and he thanks Porter for getting the new title made for him.
Montel gets on the mic back at ringside and berates the commentary team, complaining about an unsafe working environment with the lights flickering and whatnot. He tells Crews he doesn’t care about his wife or his kids, but he wants that rematch— Shelton Benjamin whispers in his ear— and he wants that rematch at SummerSlam.
We see Bayley and Sasha Banks backstage clinking title belts together.
Cut to a man standing in the shadows in front of a door as commentary tells us it has to do with whatever Shane McMahon has cooked up for tonight.
This sends us to break.
Back from commercial, Bayley and Sasha Banks are interviewed.
They crow about having all the gold and deride interviews as boring when asked if they’re defending any titles at SummerSlam. They brought something special for us tonight, and it’s a trailer hyping up their victories.
Cut to Asuka standing in front of a leftover set wall from the Super Mario Bros. movie and screaming in Japanese before saying in English that her revenge will be sweet. Bayley and Sasha complain about that, too, before Shayna Baszler rolls up. She says a few words before popping Banks right in the jaw!
Kevin Owens is shown walking backstage when he runs into the Iconic Duo.
They’ve heard that he’s hosting an episode of the Kevin Owens Show next and they want to be guests. He says he loves Australia but he already has guests for tonight, sorry.
Owens makes his entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Kevin Owens is in the ring.
He welcomes us to the Kevin Owens Show and says there’s a lot of interesting things happening tonight, including the return of Shane McMahon. He’s got plenty of thoughts about that, but that’s not what he wants to talk about tonight, and he introduces his guest tonight, Ruby Riott.
He thanks her for being here and brings up her recent victory over Peyton Royce and how emotional it made her. She says it’s no secret, she’s had pretty bad luck since coming back, and the Iconic Duo have ground salt right into that wound. She’s dealt with toxic, sad broads like them her entire career, and last week she finally got to shut Peyton up and put and end to their bullshit.
She mentions Liv Morgan, and KO introduces her as his second guest! She says Riott asked her to listen to what she has to say, and Kevin convinced her to come here, so let’s go. Owens says he asked them here because he saw them when they started here in WWE as the Riott Squad, and they were great, they had something special.
And just because Sarah Logan has moved on doesn’t mean they should be done, and as great as they are individually, they bring the best out of each other as a team. He speaks from experience, he’s done crappy things to a lot of people because he thought it was better for his career, but he doesn’t know if it was really worth it.
It might be cheesy, and they don’t have to be friends, it’s just worth hearing Ruby out. Riott says when she came back she thought everything would be the same, but everything was different, and she saw Morgan thriving and thought maybe she didn’t need her, and that hurt. Then Liv beat her twice, and she thought she definitely didn’t need her, and she wasn’t ready for that.
She apologizes for taking it out on her and says every time she looks at the tattoo she has of their debut date... all she’s asking for is another chance for the Riott Squad to be stronger than it’s ever been.
Enter the Iconic Duo before Morgan can respond.
They get on the mic and say everyone is sick of hearing the two of them prattle on because no one cares. Liv should have stayed in the bathtub, and they’re so tired of all of Ruby’s social media posts about her one emotional win. They have dominated the tag team division, they conquered WrestleMania and will always be better than the two of them.
Liv says that she and Ruby might not be iconic, but they agree on one thing— no one starts a riot better than they. Kev says he thinks their message is pretty clear and unless the Iconics have something else to say, they should leave and let them carry on with their business. Peyton challenges them to a match right here, right now. (Van Halen is kicking ass in America?)
They bicker over who should say the thing and KO calls for more technical difficulties. Peyton slaps him, he asks if that was necessary, and then Billie Kay slaps him! He asks Ruby and Liv for help, they jump the Aussies, and we go to break before it can become an official match.
Back from commercial, we see somebody try to bring Shane McMahon’s project some drinks but he gets turned away by the bouncer.
Iconic Duo (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) vs. Riott Squad (Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott)
Kay and Riott to start, Ruby in control, ducking punches but she takes a throat thrust and Billie follows with a straitjacket neckbreaker! Tag to Royce, grinding Ruby down, quick tags, the usual. Morgan tags in in short order, comes in hot, dropkick gets a nearfall on Peyton but Billie makes the save and forces the tag.
Schoolboy, holding her down...
Riott Squad win by pinfall with a schoolboy pin from Liv Morgan on Billie Kay.
Post-match, the Iconics go to take Morgan out but Riott makes the save and lays them out! They hoist Billie up and hit a double-team STO on her!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Charly Caruso is on the scene backstage with some knocked over road cases with equipment spilling out of them that may be the cause of the technical difficulties tonight.
Montel Vontavious Porter rolls up to complain that the focus isn’t on his loss today, but he’s confident he’s getting his match at SummerSlam and he’s gonna win the title then.
Shelton Benjamin rolls up and says somebody stole *his* title belt, and MVP leaves with him, promising to teach whoever a lesson.
Drew McIntyre makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He says Randy Orton has spent twenty years preying on vulnerability, and talks about how he’d rather slip in after a match and hit the RKO, but that’s on him. Randy warned him, and he thanks him for that education, saying it’ll never happen again. He says they’re both equally motivated, and at one time or another, Vince McMahon himself look them in the eye and told them they were the chosen one, the future of this industry.
He paces a beat before continuing, admitting that things didn’t go according to plan. Edge said it best, this wasn’t his Plan A, B, C, or even D. He didn’t lie awake as a kid thinking about how he’d make it to WWE. He talks about Orton’s early accolades, that got fed to him on a silver spoon because of who his dad was.
He says he made mistakes and got fired for them, and he deserved to be fired. He’s spoken to so many people around here over the years, and he’s spoken to people that cleaned up Randy’s literal crap, and he should have been fired way more times.
Enter Randy Orton, flanked by Ric Flair.
He asks Drew if his respect for him isn’t enough, and if he doesn’t want to be here... why is he here? He’s here every week because he loves it, and he appreciates it. He should have been fired over and over again, yeah, but he wasn’t, and Drew was. Why? Because he’s more valuable to this company than McIntyre ever will be.
He says Drew is saying all these things that everyone else has, and challenges him to come up with one original thought about Randy Orton. McIntyre says he’ll shoot, sure, and says he thinks that Randy represents everything that is wrong with WWE. He talks about the Undertaker pulling him up to his level, because he wants to preserve this industry, but how many times has Orton returned the favor?
Drew talks about when he was self-destructing when his mother was sick, and a kind word from a guy like Randy Orton might have been enough to pull him out. All he sees when he looks at Orton is a selfish prick, and he’s got a whole bunch of receipts to cash in at SummerSlam. He promises he’s gonna kick Randy in the head at SummerSlam.
Nia Jax is seen chatting backstage with an agent to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Kevin Owens is chatting with the Riott Squad when Ric Flair rolls up.
He wants to talk with Owens alone and the Squad leave. Ric talks about history with him a beat and says he thinks he’s turning into a guy that helps folks out more than a guy that looks out for himself. Kev says he gets it but he’s sacrificed so much over the years to get to the top and now he’s trying to take a different path, to be the person he wanted to look up to in the locker room.
Flair says that’s pretty strong and he’s in Orton’s corner, so he’s gonna give Owens some advice he needs to hear. Mind your own business, take care of Kevin Owens, and maybe you get a title match at SummerSlam. Kev says if Ric is so worried about his career, he’ll show him what kind of fight he has, next week against Randy Orton.
We get a replay of Nia Jax assaulting road agent Pat Buck last week.
Buck is in the ring with Nia and she says she really takes to heart the millions of us who idolize her, so when a spindly little run of a WWE agent steps to her, it’s her responsibility to step back. She knows Pat is looking for an apology, but instead she’s looking for an opportunity to prove her wrong. She wants a match!
He says he was only here because he expected an apology, and she says he’ll get one, after their match. This is his big opportunity, one that he’d never get without her. She provokes him further, and he suspends her indefinitely without pay! SHE PULLS HIS JACKET DOWN AROUND HIS ARMS AND SHOVES HIM DOWN!
Nia kicks Pat out of the ring!
The 24/7 Championship scene comes barrelling through to send us to break.
Akira Tozawa vs. R-Truth vs. Shelton Benjamin (c) (WWE 24/7 Championship)
Tozawa immediately bails as Truth punches Benjamin into the corner. Shelton whips him across, hard knee strike sets up a snapmare into mounted punches on the apron! Putting boots to Truth, Akira runs in looking for a snap win and fails. Kiai, kick combo, go under, rapid-fire punches to the midsection but Benjamin shrugs them off and powerbombs Tozawa!
Punches in the corner, Truth ducks ‘em all and fires right back, snaps off a jumping solebutt, front kick, off the ropes, scissors kick misses... PAYDIRT! A ninja runs in, handspring into a kata, lariat attempt bounces off and Shelton destroys the guy with a boot! He goes to the floor to attack him more as his Hurt Business stablemates beat some other ninjas down!
Tozawa off the top...
Akira Tozawa wins by pinfall with the diving senton on R-Truth to become the WWE 24/7 Champion.
We go to Shane McMahon’s secret project, which is a no ropes bar fight in a smoky room that he says is Raw Underground, and will start at 10PM Eastern.
Back from commercial, we get a recap of the latest Dominik Mysterio happenings.
Dom is interviewed backstage.
He says it may be crazy to keep fighting Seth Rollins, but it’s easy— he literally saw his dad blinded, so he thinks it’s understandable that he hasn’t been in the right place of late, and if anyone thinks he’s crazy now, they’re REALLY gonna think he’s crazy after he challenges Rollins to a match at SummerSlam.
Sasha Banks vs. Shayna Baszler
Banks wading right in, offering her jaw up and punching Baszler a few times. This gets a waistlock takedown, stomp to the hand, roll-up for two. Sasha with a kick for separation, handful of hair, jawing at her, looking for a suplex but Shayna rolls her around... TIGER DRIVER LIFT DROPPED INTO A CROSS ARMBAR BUT THE BOSS IMMEDIATELY GETS THE ROPES!
Double knee armbreaker while Baszler is distracted with Bayley on the apron, roll through, schoolboy, only two! Knees to the arm, following it up with a top wristlock but Shayna turns her around and puts her into the corner for shoulder thrusts. Banks up top, diving crossbody, Baszler rolls through into an STO backbreaker!
Jockeying for position, Bank Statement crossface applied but Shayna pries her hands apart! Standing for a counter, headscissors blocks, trading kicks, both women down and out! Asuka attacks Bayley at ringside and... the bell rings?
The match... ends... for no apparent reason. Maybe we missed a standing ten count and it’s a double count-out draw? I dunno. Answers on a postcard, kids.
Brawling sends us to break.
Back from commercial, Asuka is interviewed in the ring.
She says Kairi Sane will be okay, but she’s not here now. What she wants is a rematch against Sasha Banks at SummerSlam!
Enter Shayna Baszler.
She says she’ll be cheering for Asuka to win the entire time, because she’s gonna be so excited to dismember her and take the Raw Women’s Championship off of her.
Enter Sasha Banks and Bayley.
Banks has a message for both of them— this is her title, but she’ll give Asuka her title match if she can beat Bayley next week.
Bayley is blindsided by this announcement.
Backstage, Demi Burnett from the Bachelor (as she tells us) is hanging out with Angel Garza when his stablemates roll up.
Zelina Vega tells her she doesn’t belong her, but Garza protests, saying she’s his friend. Vega says they need to talk, and Angel promises Demi he’s gonna find her a seat.
We see a dude hit a counter powerbomb in Shane’s Raw Underground before the camera pans to show the dancing girls.
In the year of our lord 2020.
C’mon, man.
Anyway, that sends us to the break.
Back from commercial, Shane McMahon welcomes us to Raw Underground.
He says there’ll be chaos and carnage, and introduces Babatunde under a new name.
Babatunde destroys the guy with mounted forearms and Shane calls the match off.
Another challenger comes up and eats an uranage that sets up more forearms and McMahon declares him the winner?
He beats the guy down more.
That’s Raw Underground?
The Street Profits make their entrance cut a promo running their opponents down.
Angel Garza vs. Angelo Dawkins
Action hot and heavy in the corner, it spills to the floor and Dawkins absolutely blasts Garza into the barricade to send us to break!
Back from commercial, Garza’s in control but Dawkins manages to hit a pop-up drop for a quick nearfall. Whip reversed, leapfrog, leapfrog, shove, Angelo with a dropkick for two! Powerbomb lift, Angel gets the ropes and Dawkins is only able to powerbomb his pants off of him! Garza with the underhooks, blocked, right hand takes his head off!
Spinning Stinger Splash, running one-handed bulldog, Montez loses control celebrating and its enough distraction for Garza to land a superkick! Following it up...
Angel Garza wins by pinfall with a basement dropkick to the head.
Dawkins checks on Ford, still woozy at ringside, to send us to break.
Andrade “Cien” Almas vs. Montez Ford
Match is joined in progress, Ford seems okay as he shifts a wristlock into a waistlock. Almas counters with a shoulder armbreaker, arm wringer, roll through, Montez reverses, back to the waistlock, club to the back and into a side headlock. Back suplex escapes, putting boots to Ford, chops, choking him over the ropes with a knee.
Action to the floor, Montez takes control, boots and mounted punches only for Andrade to punch him in the face! Running knee, reverse chinlock applied, Ford fires up, escapes, and drops him with a lariat! off the ropes, flip over, leaping lariat connects and his eyes are wild! Calling his shot, but Almas gets the boot up on the charge!
Up top, but Montez knocks him to the floor with a dropkick! Off the ropes... TOPE CON GIRO! Back inside, shaking the ropes... Ford collapses again! Referee Shaun Bennett calls it...
Andrade “Cien” Almas presumably wins by referee stoppage, although it’s never announced.
Medics check on Ford.
Backstage, Buddy Murphy is hanging out with Seth Rollins.
Rollins says he made the right decision and he’s proud of Murphy. The past is the past, and tonight they focus on the future. Buddy asks if he’s put any thought to Dominik Mysterio’s challenge, saying he thinks it’s ridiculous for a guy with no experience to challenge Seth to a match. Rollins merely smiles at him and walks off.
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get more Raw Underground as Erik from the Viking Raiders beats the crap outta some dude.
A recap of Montez Ford collapsing follows, because Raw is three hours long. (Three hours long.)
Angel Garza rolls up on Charly in front of the trainer’s room to flirt with her and is shortly joined by his stablemates. Zelina Vega says they’re all very concerned about Montez, but also curious as to what this might mean for the tag titles come SummerSlam.
Angelo Dawkins leaves the room.
He says they’re not 100% sure yet but the docs think he might have been poisoned.
Bianca Belair joins them and gives Vega one chance to come clean about which one of them did it.
Zelina is not forthcoming, and a brawl breaks out.
Commentary shows us footage from earlier today of five individuals dressed in black lighting some equipment on fire, and that sends us to break.
The Hurt Business are walking backstage when they run into an interview.
MVP takes issue with the idea that they can’t get it done when the real question is about the way they’ve been sabotaged.
Commentary hypes up next week’s show.
We get a recap of the Seth Rollins / Rey Mysterio business.
Seth makes his entrance, flanked by Buddy Murphy.
He gets on the mic and says before he responds to Dominik’s challenge, he and Murphy have some housekeeping to tend to. He calls Tom Philips out and says he’d like to ask a few questions. He asks if he considers himself professional, an unbiased journalist, does he take pride in his body of work? What was he doing last week when Mysterio was assaulting him with a kendo stick?
Seth yells at Tom and says he was cheering Dom on, inciting his rage, and asks if he knows what that means. His voice matters, and he’s part of the Greater Good whether he likes it or not. What he says is important because the people at home hear him, and it’s his job to call it down the middle, not to skew or slant or create bias.
And so he thinks the time has come for Monday Night Raw to find a new voice, and he commands Murphy to take Tom.
Samoa Joe stands up and says that’s not gonna happen, asking Rollins if he really thought he was gonna do this, bidding he turn around and say what he came here to say before he pops him in the lips. Joe points out he was laughing harder than anybody last week. Seth tells him he doesn’t want to do this, but Samoa says he does, actually, and takes his headset off.
The Greater Good beat a hasty retreat and Rollins says Joe should get in the ring but what happens isn’t his responsibility.
We go to break before Samoa Joe can get in the ring.
Back from commercial, the Greater Good are holding Samoa Joe at bay with chairs in hand... DOMINIK MYSTERIO ATTACKS THEM FROM BEHIND WITH A KENDO STICK! DOUBLE LEG INTO GROUNDED PUNCHES ON ROLLINS, SLINGSHOT DROPKICK... 619! PLANCHA!
He rolls back inside and waves a chair at the heels as they run off.
Seth gets on the mic and says he’s had enough, and if he wants a fight at SummerSlam, he’s got it.
Commentary informs us there’s one fight left at Raw Underground and we cut to it.
Dolph Ziggler is grappling with some dude and rolls through into grounded punches before finishing the guy off.
The Hurt Business rolls up and Shane gives the mic to MVP.
He’s got an announcement to make on behalf of the CEO of the Hurt Business, Bobby Lashley, and that’s that they’re in control of Raw Underground from now on. He asks who wants to step up to Lashley, and some guy gets in the ring only to get immediately destroyed with a slam and a punch.
MVP says he wants some and gets in the ring, pulling some schlub up from ringside to Judo throw him into mounted punches for the win.
Shelton Benjamin gets in the ring with a big dude with braids and makes short work of him with grounded strikes.
All three Hurt Business guys descend to ringside to beat everybody that’s left up.
Shane says that’s what Raw Underground is all about, anything goes.
We get another shot of the dancing girls, because why not.
MVP says they’re the Hurt Business, and business is booming.
That’s the show, folks.