5 botches and outrageous moments from WWE Raw (December 18, 2017)

WWE Raw began a proper surge toward the 2018 Royal Rumble. The triple threat main event was decided and the rumoured Women's Rumble was made official. Those were two big developments. Also notable from this show was a one-night early debut of Hideo Itami, the return of The Revival, and a return by Commissioner Stephanie McMahon. Not all of that is a reason to celebrate, but they were big moments.

As for the botches from the show, there were several. A couple of superstars found themselves splattered with their own blood, Bayley had trouble with one of her wacky tube men, and Brock Lesnar struggled to hit his signature move on The Big Red Machine. Kane must really be the monster he says he is if Brock can't lift him without a struggle.

The main eventers kick off this edition of the Raw botches, even though it's strange to think of Kane in this position on the card heading into 2018.

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#5 Baulked on the F5

By the end of the opening segment, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle made it official that Brock Lesnar would defend his Universal Championship against both Kane and Braun Strowmn at the upcoming Royal Rumble. Kurt wasted no time announcing the news when all three Goliath-sized competitors were in the ring fuming. He then exited before the brawl erupted.

The icing on the cake of this hoss battle was an F5 by Brock against Kane. It was noticeable that the champ struggled at first to hoist The Big Red Machine on his shoulders. He was able to finally get him up proper after replanting his footing, but the botch still happened.

Kudos to WWE's quick production team because if you checked this video clip on their YouTube channel immediately after the show was over, you would've seen that this botch was already edited out.

#4 Jason wasn't in a match yet

The announcers were shocked that Jason Jordan's music played instead of Samoa Joe's. After all, Joe was the one scheduled for a match against Seth Rollins. Seth was already in the ring and looked baffled as to why Kurt Angle's son was coming to the ring. Then, Jojo let the figurative cat out of the bag as she announced Jordan as Rollins' opponent.

Jojo must have an instinct that's hard to break in these kinds of situations. She heard the music and saw the wrestler so she went ahead and rattled off his name and hometown. It was hard to hear his name announced, probably due to somebody cutting her microphone before she could finish.

Samoa Joe came out shortly after this and suggested that the two could wrestle each other to see who would face him. He must not have heard Jojo's introduction.

#3 Bloody Finn

Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas are holding down the Miztourage in the absence of their leader. As seen tonight during their initial match against only Finn Balor, they took full advantage of their handicap match stipulation. They roughed up Balor, even if this one forearm smash from behind was a little too close.

Finn showed a splattering of blood while he laid on the mat. Even Curtis Axel had some of his victim's colour on his chest. The Miztourage were legit roughing up Balor all the way up until even after the referee threw out the match. Bo & Curtis got tastes of their own medicine when they were forced to compete against Balor & a debuting Hideo Itami.

Balor did bleed, but he wasn't the most bloodied competitor of the night. That honour goes to Drew Gulak, who's up next.

#2 Bloody-mouthed Gulak

Drew Gulak was unsuccessful in his match against Cedric Alexander. Not only did he not earn the right to challenge his Zo Train leader for the Cruiserweight Championship, but he also got busted open in the process.

What happened here was that Drew's mouth got bloodied off of a kick from Cedric on the apron. The wrestlers did a well enough job at concealing the injury, but the signal that gave this legit injury away was that the referee placed plastic gloves on in the final moments of the match. He tended to Drew after the loss and if Gulak was done for the night, nobody would've seen any clear shot of his blood.

Oddly, WWE chose not to clean him up very well before his backstage segment with Enzo Amore and Nia Jax.

#1 A tube man burn of Booker T

Having a team of inflatable tube men for your entrance can occasionally cause some chaos. Bayley's yellow buddy didn't want to reach for the sky like it's counterparts as she made her way to the ring, so she helped it out to get some life into it. Despite pulling it all the way to the end, the tube man refused to be revived.

If being an entrance botch wasn't enough, Michael Cole took this opportunity to take a verbal jab at one of his commentary buddies. He blurted out, "That looks like Booker on commentary; he fell asleep," good one, Cole.

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