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WWE Raw Recap – Has the Retribution Era of Raw Finally Begun?

On WWE Raw this week, Retribution finally gets a win. It's all uphill from here! Plus: Sheamus gives Drew McIntyre a blast from the past!

I'm Jude Terror, and this is The Shovel: Raw Edition, the worst edition of all editions because it's the edition that's three excruciating hours long. It's the Survivor Series go-home Raw tonight, which means we can count on the show being approximately 5% less grueling and difficult to watch than usual. That's not nothing. And there are a few big matches tonight too. So maybe it won't be that bad. Oh, who am I kidding?

WWE Raw Recap for November 16th, 2020 Part 2

It's 9 PM, and I'm fighting to stay awake. And I'm losing. For a go-home show, this has been a real dud so far. I'd say, "hopefully, WWE will turn things around," but I learned never to have hope when it comes to WWE.

The New Day are in the ring fighting Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. Hurt Business won this match by burning Retribution a few weeks ago. The Raw Tag Team Championships, and a spot at Survivor Series, is on the line. It wouldn't make any sense for New Day to lose here when they've been building New Day vs. Street Profits for weeks, which makes this match pointless. The only potentially interesting part is learning who WWE values less based on who takes the pin: Shelton or Cedric.

It turns out it's Cedric that WWE values least. He eats a pin from Xavier Woods after a Daybreak.

The New Day defeat The Hurt Business to retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships.

The announcers claim this was a great match. I can't vouch for that because I was too busy fighting to stay awake for it. Whether it was good or bad, though, it would have benefitted from being 10 minutes shorter.

Backstage, Sheamus has something to show Drew McIntyre. It's a chest of some kind. Drew opens it up. It's some old family heirlooms. He also has a sword for him too. Is Drew gonna kill Randy Orton with a sword? At least Raw would be interesting.

AJ Styles and Jordan Omegbehin come out as Raw takes a commercial break. Mustafa Ali cuts a promo with Retribution about pawns becoming kings. Retribution is gonna turn everything around tonight and defeat Team Raw, and he won't have to do anything. They'll just implode. Styles is on commentary. Braun Strowman comes out. Then Keith Lee. Then Sheamus. Then Matt Riddle. And then their opponents, Retribution.

I take back everything I said about the last match being pointless because this has reached new levels of pointlessness. Riddle kicks Retribution's ass single-handedly for a bit, but when he tries to tag in Sheamus, Strowman shoves Sheamus off the apron. They end up arguing into a commercial break. The match is back on after that with Retribution beating up Matt Riddle. He eventually makes a tag to Keith Lee, who once again single-handedly destroys Retribution. He's about to murder Maxe and T-Bar outside the ring when Mustafa Ali hits a suicide dive to stop him. Strowman and Sheamus work together now to take out some of Retribution at ringside. Less is about to finish them off, but Sheamus tags himself in. Strowman tags himself in off Sheamus. Then Sheamus pulls Mustafa Ali off Strowman when Strowman is gonna powerslam him. Chaos breaks out, and Ali manages to roll up Riddle, who has somehow become the legal man, to win the match.

Retribution beats Raw Survivor Series Team.

Styles yells at his team. Nikki Cross is backstage, looking for Alexa Bliss. Sarah Schrieber asks Nikki why she still cares when Alexa chose The Fiend over her. Nikki says that's The Fiend talking, and friends don't give up. She has to rescue Alexa from The Fiend's control. Nikki leaves.

Sarah sees Jeff Hardy and goes to talk to him. Hardy has a flyer from Elias asking for information on the accident on Smackdown months ago, where he was hit by a car, allegedly driven by a drunken Hardy. He's mad about the flyer, and he's gonna confront Elias… after Raw takes a commercial break. Elias is playing guitar in his locker room, and Hardy approaches with the flyers. He says he didn't hit Elias with the car. Elias doesn't believe him. Hardy slams him against a wall and insists he's innocent. He says he'll do worse than hit Elias with a car if he keeps accusing him of something he didn't do. You know, now I'm starting to think he really did do it, even though it would contradict the last storyline (not that WWE has ever cared about that).

Miz and Morrison come out because, in a previous life, I must have done something really, really terrible, and apparently, I deserve this. Miz has a mic for his second promo of the night. He apologizes to Bray Wyatt for the things he said in the first promo. He wants to consider it water under the bridge. He says there's no reason for them to have a match tonight when they can find a peaceful solution. Miz says they should work together for Fiend to get revenge on Randy Orton and Miz to cash in his briefcase.

Alexa Bliss comes out. She has a new Fiendy version of her theme song. She says that Wyatt refuses Miz's offer. Nikki Cross shows up and starts trying to get Alexa to give up the Fiend stuff. Alexa pretends to agree with her for a second and then sucker punches her. They brawl until Adam Pearce and Pat Buck pull them apart. Bray Wyatt comes out. He stares down Nikki, and then he and Alexa walk down to the ring. Raw takes a commercial break.

And thank the lord, or Satan, whoever is responsible for this, but there's just one hour of Raw left. To find out what happened during it, click the link below.

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