5 botches and outrageous moments from WWE Raw (December 25, 2017)

December 25th is a very special day. What better way to celebrate your Christmas, Rusev Day, and all other sacred holidays than with a special live episode of the longest running weekly episode show in history?

WWE Raw broadcast live from the always energetic city of Chicago, and even though it was a slightly more festive edition than usual, it was still filled with plenty of the botches that would be expected from WWE's three-hour anchor show.

Some of the moments that WWE probably wishes they could have a second take with include Cesaro losing his balance in the main event, Brian Kendrick getting roughed up off by the move Hideo Itami invented, and a rare occasion of Booker T getting scolded by his coworkers when he actually didn't deserve it. Who would've thought that Booker knew so much about boxing?

So sit back, top of whats left of the eggnog, and relive some of the more outrageous moments from Raw.

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#5 Making Kendrick Go To Sleep

Leading into this Chicago edition of Raw, Hideo Itami made it clear on social media that he wanted to show that specific audience the move that he created. Perhaps the repeated "CM Punk" chants got on his nerves because when he finally hit his Go To Sleep on Brian Kendrick at the end of their match, he put some stank on it.

As Kendrick laid on the mat after the match was over, a small bit of colour could be seen on his nose. The replays showed a very snug knee to Brian's face, indicating that Itami held very little back in his demonstration of how dangerous this move could really be.

#4 Defending Booker T's boxing knowledge

Booker T occasionally offers some interesting additions to the dialogue heard on Monday nights. His cohorts aren't afraid to call him out for the times when he isn't being consistent or when he simply says something silly.

So, when Booker complimented Samoa Joe's "southpaw right-hand jabs," he was quickly made a fool. However, Booker was actually spot on with his analysis this time.

Corey was quick to ask Booker what a Southpaw right-hand jab was as if Booker had no clue what he was talking about. To set the record straight (by consulting with the Wikipedia entry for Southpaw Stance), a boxer who is left-handed "has his right hand and right foot forward, leading with right jabs."

The jab is given by the non-dominant hand. If Samoa Joe is left-handed, then the punches from his right hand are technically his jabs. Graves was wrong here and Booker T was right.

To be fair, Booker did mispronounce the word equilibrium by omitting the 'r' in the very same sentence, so we can at least laugh at that.

#3 Playing by the rules

If WWE is going to air a show on Christmas Day, then you know that they won't be able to help themselves with the offering of a Yule-inspired match. The "Miracle on 34th Streetfight" gimmick was utilized for this 6-man cruiserweight tag match.

Cookie sheets, wrapped presents, and even full-sized Christmas trees were all potential weapons in a match that promised festive mayhem.

The big problem here is that for most of the contest, at least four of the men involved failed to take advantage of the Streetfight stipulation. Corey Graves even mentioned that "anything goes" at one point on commentary. So why did they all stand idly by and wait to get tagged in as if this was an ordinary tag match?

Sure, tags would've been necessary for determining who's legal during the pinfalls, but the ref otherwise had no jurisdiction against any wild melees that could've happened otherwise.

#2 Caught off guard by the chants for you-know-who

Elias had a few deer in the headlights moments during the opening segment with John Cena and it was all thanks to an expectedly rowdy Chicago crowd. They busted out several chants for their beloved CM Punk, something The Drifter didn't handle too well initially.

After trying to tell the returning Cena how he's been interrupted for months, Chicago chimed in with their own interruptions for the Straight Edge now-MMA fighter. Elias abruptly ended his monologue and stood there in silence for what felt like forever.

He then told John Cena, who is seen in the above highlight to have a nervous anticipation for the words about to come out of his mouth, that CM Punk most certainly wasn't going to interrupt him.

The fact that Elias spoke Punk's name on Raw was a defeat of sorts for him. Cena helped him steer the promo back on track as they built for their match. For a couple of minutes, he was noticeably frazzled by Chicago.

#1 Cesaro lost his balance

The unlikely duo of Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins capped off this special edition of Raw with a huge Tag Team Championship win, defeating The Bar in the main event. Cesaro & Sheamus put up a good fight against their challengers, yet there was this one awkward moment in which a few factors were working against them.

First of all, Sheamus and Jason Jordan were the legal men during this highlight. Sheamus was pinning Kurt Angle's son and never did either of the other men in this match touch them during the fall. However, the referee did not continue with counting to three even though there was no real reason for him not to.

The other point of note and the real botch is that Cesaro, as strong as he is, couldn't keep his balance after catching a springboarding Seth Rollins. Rollins slowly collapsed onto The Swiss Superman, then started pummeling him with right hands to the head.