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WWE Raw Report: Retribution Shuts Things Down, Zelina Vega Exposed

It's the last Raw before SummerSlam, and the last WWE show to be broadcast from the Performance Center for the foreseeable future, with WWE set to broadcast live from the Amway Center arena inside the new WWE Thunderdome starting with SmackDown this week. What will that mean for Raw Underground? And what antics will those angsty 15-year-olds in Retribution get up to this week?

WWE Raw Report for 8/17/2020 Part 1

The "Then, Now, Forever" intro is is weird. Several times, it "rewinds" and then ends kind of garbled. I guess that's a Retribution thing? Tom Phillips apologizes for those technical difficulties after welcoming us to Monday Night Raw. Byron Saxton tells us Rey Mysterio is rumored to be here tonight. Phillips tells us Asuka will team with Shayna Baszler to take on the Golden Role Models. Saxton tells us Shawn Michaels will get punt kicked by Randy Orton tonight. I respect the fact that Samoa Joe doesn't shill anything at the top of the show.

Drew McIntyre comes to the ring. He's wearing slacks and a button-down, so I guess this is a promo, not a match. We see a video of Randy Orton's despicable attack on Ric Flair last week.

Raw Promo – Drew McIntyre

Drew says what Orton did last week is unforgivable. He brutalized Ric Flair. McIntyre runs down Flair's accolades, including "71-year-old man." Flair was Orton's mentor for twenty years and his friend. Flair loved Orton. Orton is pure evil. He kicked Flair in his skull. McIntyre says at SummerSlam, he's not facing a defenseless old man. He's facing a pissed-off 6'5" Scottish fire-breathing dragon and McIntyre is gonna hurt him for everyone he's wronged in his life.

As the promo continues, we get lots of weird camera cuts and the wrong graphics and videos flashing on the screen. My god! Kevin Dunn has finally gone over the edge! The camera cuts to backstage where Retribution is in the production truck. They start breaking all the equipment and force someone to turn the feed off. The screen goes black and then Raw goes to commercials after a few seconds. If they really had any balls, they would have left dead air for a minute or more.

We get a recap of all of this courtesy of Tom Phillips after the break. How is the show even on the air when Retribution literally broke all the computers in the truck? Does WWE just keep a ton of backup equipment on hand in case anarchists destroy some? Drew McIntyre comes backstage where the Raw locker room is in chaos. McIntyre rallies the troops against Retribution. Seth Rollins walks up and claps sarcastically. Rollins says he's the locker room leader, not McIntyre.

McIntyre says if people don't respect Rollins now, they're never gonna respect him. Rollins says being a champion doesn't make McIntyre a leader. Rollins taught McIntyre what it takes to be a champion just like he taught Dominik Mysterio last week. Ricochet says Rollins is about to get a receipt for that tonight. Cedric Alexander says he heard that too. Rollins doesn't believe Rey will be here tonight. McIntyre accuses him of being chicken. Rollins says McIntyre couldn't even protect Ric Flair last week. McIntyre threatens to fight Rollins. The boys break it up.

Hurt Business comes to the ring. So will this be a match or another promo? Promo, for now.

MVP says the Hurt Business is here to make a statement. He calls out Retribution. While the rest of the roster is wringing their hands over where Retribution will strike next, Hurt Business is calling them out to the ring. He says attacking people in the shadows isn't tough. Guys like Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley are tough.

MVP says you have to follow the money to see who benefits most from Retribution. He says that trail will take you to catering where Apollo Crews, Ricochet, Cedric Alexander, and Mustafa Ali hang out. He says Apollo came up with Retribution while he was sitting at home with COVID. The group shows up the same time MVP was facing Crews for the United States Championship.

Apollo Crews has heard enough and comes out to the stage. He says he knew MVP would be out here making excuses, but accusing him of being behind Retribution is low. He says MVP is just trying to create distractions before his match against Crews at SummerSlam. MVP can't beat Crews without help.

MVP says Crews' career has sucked up until he won the championship and that's why he started Retribution. Crews knows when he loses the championship, it's back to catering for him. Crews agrees he's afraid of losing the championship. But if he were anything like MVP, he would have joined MVP's crew. Crews offers a stipulation for his match with Shelton Benjamin tonight: if he beats Benjamin, Benjamin and Lashley need to stay in catering during the SummerSlam match. A match gets started right as Raw goes to commercials.

Shelton Benjamin vs. Apollo Crews

• It's nearly a half-hour into Raw and they're just getting to the first match.
• Shelton Benjamin is dominating the match.
• R-Truth runs out, chased by ninjas, with the 24/7 title.
• Benjamin is distracted and Crews pins him.

Hurt Business attacks after the match, but the Catering Crew runs out to make the save. All of Hurt Business but Ali puts a sleeper on Lashley while Lashley has the full nelson on Alexander. Alexander drops and Richochet superkicks Lashley in the face. They dump him out.

R-Truth runs out again. Shelton Benjamin intercepts him with a kick and pins him to win the 24/7 Championship. MVP grabs a microphone. He says Hurt Business isn't going out like that tonight. They won't be disrespected by idiots like R-Truth and ninjas. He wants a six-man tag match against Apollo Crews and two of his crew later tonight.

Angel Garza hits on the girl from The Bachelor again and gives her another rose. WWE didn't put up a graphic with her name so I couldn't tell you what it is. Ivar walks up and starts chatting her up. He asks her to join Ivar as his date to Raw Underground tonight and gives her a turkey leg. She's totally into it. Ivar brings up Garza poisoning Montez Ford. He gets mad and throws the turkey leg on the ground. Ivar pulls another one out of nowhere and gives it to her. On the "spilling a cup of coffee on Kane scale of reasons to have a match," this is about an 8.5. Raw goes to commercials.

Tom Phillips shills WWE Thunderdome. Ivar and Angel Garza are in the ring.

Ivar vs. Angel Garza – Girl from the Bachelor on a Pole Match

• Demi Burnett. That's her name. Tom Phillips says it.
• Erik is at ringside, as are Andrade and Zelina Vega.
• Burnett is watching backstage when Angelo Dawkins starts talking her up.
• Michael Cole questions Dawkins looking for a hookup while his partner is still recovering from being poisoned.
• Oh, is there a match going on in the ring?
• Ivar is winning.
• The hand motions Ivar makes when he wants to hit a bodyslam look like he wants to grab Garza's balls. Well, he is quite a charming dude.
• Ivar stops short on a dive out of the ring onto Garza when Vega gets in the way.
• He beats Garza up at ringside anyway.
• Garza takes advantage of a distracted Ivar to get the pin.

Dawkins appears on the Titantron with Burnett after the match. Burnett is excited to watch the match at SummerSlam. Dawkins says he was vouching for Ivar to her. He makes fun of Garza's velvet pants and brings up his relationship with Charly Caruso. Garza tells him to mind his business. Dawkins says the world is about to find out something shocking about Garza and his group. Garza runs to the back.

Samoa Joe implies he knows what the video is. Vega demands he tell her. Joe says that due to Retribution, WWE has been reviewing hours of security footage and it looks like they uncovered something having to do with Vega's stable. Joe got to see the video and he gave it to Dawkins. But we won't find out what it is now because Raw has to go to commercials.

We see a video for Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog at SummerSlam 1992. Tom Phillips brings up those rumors Rey Mysterio is gonna be here tonight. He shows us photos of the bruises and lacerations on Dominik Mysterio after last week's match.

Angelo Dawkins is getting Demi Burnett's number backstage when Garza runs up. Vega and Andrade appear. They want to Dawkins' phone. Charly Caruso appears and wants to know what's on the video. He tells production to play it. The video shows Zelina messing with Montez Ford's solo cup. Andrade looks shocked. Charly asks Zelina if she poisoned Ford. Vega says the footage is clearly messed with. She accuses Charly of doctoring the footage because she's jealous of Demi Burnett. Dawkins interrupts. He's mad about the poisoning. As they square off, Ford runs up and the Street Profits attack Andrade and Garza, who run away.

Mickey James vs. Natalya

• This match just abruptly stars after the previous segment.
• Lana is at ringside streaming the match from her phone.
• Seth Rollins and Murphy come to the commentary table during the match.
• Rollins wants to know how Samoa Joe knows Rey Mysterio will be here tonight. They bicker.
• The camera spends more time watching this exchange than the match.
• Mickey James gets counted off after Natalya to the floor from the top rope (something that happens constantly and never results in a count-out).
• What a disgrace.

Lana films Mickey after the loss and Mickey kicks her in the face. Now the cameras can concentrate fully on Rollins, who says if Rey does show up tonight, it will be a big mistake because neither he nor Dominik will make it to SummerSlam. Tom Phillips says the women's tag match is next and Raw goes to commercials. And as that concludes the first hour of Raw, we'll be moving to part two of this report. Click down below.

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