5 surprising moments from Raw after Summerslam 2017

I really hate beach balls. I want that to be very clear after tonight’s show in Brooklyn for the permanent record.

One of the reasons I wanted to review last night’s show was the Raw and Smackdown after the major pay-per-views are being treated by the WWE as such a big deal. A lot of WWE fans think the Raw after WrestleMania is usually better and more surprising than WrestleMania itself.

The WWE is trying to duplicate that magic with all the major pay-per-view events now. What would the crowd be like for the important post-Summerslam Raw? The crowd was certainly more obnoxious than the Summerslam fans from the night before. But to be fair, they didn’t get a show as interesting as Summerslam.

With all of this in my thoughts, I present my list of the top five most surprising moments of the Raw After Summerslam 2017:

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#5 Big Cass suffers a horrible injury

Poor Big Cass

This was not an expected surprise by the WWE but it deserves a place on this list regardless. It is never a comfortable sight seeing a WWE wrestler just collapse on WWE programming. He must have been in a tremendous amount of pain to stop the match and it was a shocking sight to see.

I wonder what this means for Big Cass. We certainly need to find the severity of the injury first but it wasn’t like Big Cass was setting the world on fire before the injury. His one-sided feud with Enzo did him no favours. His mic skills didn’t look very good after being separated from Enzo.

Say what you will about Enzo, but he has few equals in the talking department, and it quickly exposed Big Cass’ weakness in that department. To top it off, Big Cass had clearly the worst match of Summerslam.

I hope that the Big Cass’ injury isn’t too bad as it looked terrible and he can come back repacked in some way to take him to the next level.

#4 No debuts

Raw wasn't very glorious.

One of the best things about a Raw after a major pay-per-view is the debut of new Superstars, generally from NXT. The rumours were floating that Bobby Roode would have debuted or another NXT star was overdue for a call-up. So imagine my surprise to see no new superstars arrive on the main show.

Granted Raw is pretty stacked with talent, but even last year’s Raw after Summerslam had debuting NXT stars with the official arrival of Bayley.

The show also didn’t have a Superstar Shake-up or its announcement. I have my doubts if that is really a good idea four months after the last one but with so many rumours floating around, it was surprising to not see it happen. I think a few unexpected debuts would have helped the rowdy audience and show stand out.

#3 Rollins/Ambrose vs. The Hardy Boyz steal the show

The best match possible on this edition of Raw is set up.

The tag matches stole the show at Summerslam. It was still a surprise as Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were celebrating their impressive Summerslam win when the Hardy Boyz showed up and demanded a match.

I feel like that was a potential pay-per-view encounter that was given to the fans just one day after a major pay-per-view.

The best part is, it delivered. You don’t always get the best matches from people working together for the first time but it worked on Monday night.

It helped to have four strong veterans that know how to work. It was a pleasant surprise on a long night and one of the few times the crowd was truly into the show and not their just doing their own thing.

#2 The Miz wins the crowd

The Miz giving one of the best promos of the year

Is there anyone better at grabbing the crowd’s attention than The Miz? He has certainly jumped up another level in the last few years with his always amazing promo work.

Granted he got a crowd that would be more receptive to cheering a heel, but it is very rare to see the crowd get behind him ever. So imagine the surprise to see The Miz become the face for the Brooklyn crowd.

The promo was excellent. The Miz fed off the crowd and used their responses to build his point. And his point made sense that Roman Reigns and John Cena stole all the moments leaving none for talented performers like the Miz.

He even brought it the legit complaint that the Miz was the only champion to not defend his title at Summerslam. It was one of The Miz’s finest promos and a fun surprise in front of a loud crowd.

#1 The crowd hates Cena, Reigns, and the main event

What? Reigns and John Cena won!

Granted it isn’t exactly shocking to see a crowd hate both John Cena and Roman Reigns at this point, the rowdy nature and reactions from the fans is what gets it on this list. It was somewhat surprising to see John Cena re-debut on Raw but the crowd was having none of it.

As Roman hit the ring, it was an amazing sight to see a loud Brooklyn crowd give them a long lasting “You Both Suck!” chant. John Cena tried to play off it well but Roman was clearly not comfortable with the nature of this crowd and it continued in the main event.

The tag match between Cena/Reigns versus The Miz/Samoa Joe was fine, but predictable. The crowd tried to hijack the show; whether it was the wave or another damn beach ball, the could care less about the in-ring product.

Heck, Cena even stopped the match to play off the crowd’s disinterest. It was a “unique” way to end Raw, to say the least.