The April 10, 2017 Edition of RAW is a Professional wrestling television show of the WWE's RAW brand, which took place on April 10, 2017 at the NYCB Live! at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. This was the Raw selection of the 2017 WWE Superstar Shake-Up.
Summary[]
On day one, minute one of the much-ballyhooed Superstar Shake-up, Monday Night Raw kicked things off by debuting a major acquisition from SmackDown LIVE... AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CE — oh, wait, it's The Miz.
Reprising his Cena impression from the last few weeks of SmackDown LIVE, The Awesome One came to Raw with Maryse-as-Nikki Bella in tow and delivered some A-list roasting of The Cenation Leader until another Raw signee, Dean Ambrose, came down to talk some trash of his own.
The reigning Intercontinental Champion seemed fooled by Miz's impression at first, talking to The A-Lister as if he actually was Cena and even offering his congratulations for defeating Miz & Maryse ("Those two are the worst") at WrestleMania. But once Miz removed all his Cena garb and screamed that he was, in fact, The Miz, Ambrose hit him with Dirty Deeds. Like you thought that would end any other way.
The Revival’s Raw debut last week was a smashing success — literally. They smashed Kofi Kingston’s ankle to such a degree that The Dreadlocked Dynamo needed surgery. So, down a man and looking for payback, The New Day decided to step to the #TopGuys in a rematch of last week’s loss that ended, once again, in disappointing fashion for the former WWE World Tag Team Champions.
Much like last week, Dash & Dawson kept Xavier Woods out of Big E’s reach, teeing off with impunity on their opponent. The entrance of E into the match briefly changed the complexion, but it was Woods’ return that allowed The Revival to capitalize for the second time, once again reversing Woods’ finishing maneuver attempt — this time it was the Midnight Hour — into the Shatter Machine.
Among the sleeper acquisitions of the Superstar Shake-up is Curt Hawkins, who has been dropping his own brand of #Facts on SmackDown LIVE since his return last year. Now that he's back on Raw, The Prince of Queens wasted no time in demanding that Raw roll out the welcome wagon — at which point Big Show promptly strolled into the ring and knocked him out. Welcome!
Say this for Neville: He can kill two birds with one stone. By insinuating that TJ Perkins had fallen from grace since winning the Cruiserweight Classic, The King of the Cruiserweights managed to get in The Phil-Am Flash's head and knock Austin Aries down a peg when Perkins reacted ... unfavorably, following his win over the No. 1 contender to the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
With Neville watching from commentary, Perkins deployed his full arsenal of style and skill, as if to demonstrate he had not diminished as a threat in the Cruiserweight division. He looked pretty good, too, though he needed a bit of an assist from Neville to surprise Aries with a small package to seal the deal. But when Aries went right back to jaw-jacking with Neville, Perkins took the lack of attention as an affront and jumped Aries from behind, blasting him with a detonation kick before realizing, apparently, that the King had used him as a pawn.
The short version is that Seth Rollins is staying on Raw, but he might regret it in the long term. After a week of hand-wringing over whether or not The Kingslayer would remain on Team Red, the former WWE Champion essentially proclaimed that he had no intention of running to SmackDown LIVE, and if still-absent Commissioner Stephanie McMahon wanted him gone as revenge for his WrestleMania win over Triple H, she'd need an army to do it.
Instead, new General Manager Kurt Angle greeted The Architect and proclaimed that, despite Stephanie having made it clear she wanted Rollins gone, The Olympic Hero had decided to retain Rollins on Raw as reward for his efforts at The Show of Shows. The implications of that decision quickly made themselves clear, however, as Samoa Joe appeared in the ring and attacked. While Rollins managed to deny The Destroyer this time, it was clear that as long as Rollins stays on Raw, the target on his back stays with him.
For someone who calls herself The Queen, Charlotte Flair’s had a rough couple of weeks. She lost at WrestleMania, Nia Jax beat her up at the end of last week's Six-Woman Tag Team Match when she tried to pass the buck on a loss, and now she's lost one on one to Jax herself. To be fair (to Flair), the match was more of a fight than Jax expected, but whenever Charlotte started to put a string of moves together Jax would unleash her power maneuvers and stop Charlotte cold. The Queen found daylight for a moment with a chop block and Natural Selection, but Jax kicked out, toughed her way through a moonsault and thwarted the Figure-Four Leglock by shoving Charlotte into the turnbuckles, splashing her in the corner and administering the Samoan Drop.
Last week, Finn Bálor made his triumphant return after nearly a year on the injured reserve list. It was awesome. This week, he earned his first singles victory since SummerSlam, defeating the on-a-roll-lately Jinder Mahal in a surprisingly hard-hitting match where the Irish Superstar essentially got punched in the face over and over again. A battered Bálor answered with a match-ending Coup de Grâce, but, of course, a Superstar as high-profile as Bálor is bound to attract challengers from all sides. And Bray Wyatt, having recently been crossed over from SmackDown LIVE, appeared on the TitanTron to declare three things: 1) Raw is his new home. 2) he's bringing his House of Horrors WWE Title Match with him to the Raw-exclusive Payback event, and 3) that he would be watching Finn very, very closely.
‘Twas a decidedly un-awesome return to Raw for The Miz, who got shown up by Dean Ambrose in the opening of the show and couldn’t close out a tough match against Sami Zayn, who was both fighting to prove his worth to Raw and, perhaps, increase his stock in the eyes of the SmackDown showrunners who might be looking to poach him.
If Team Blue does decide to pull the trigger and get him, they’ll have a hell of a Superstar on their hands. After being manhandled by Miz, Zayn reversed The A-Lister’s Daniel Bryan kicks into the Blue Thunder Bomb. Maryse tried to pull Miz out of harm’s way and allow him to reclaim his momentum, but the moment Miz attempted the Skull-Crushing Finale, Sami rolled him up for three. So Miz has egg on his face, but if Sami is headed to SmackDown LIVE, he goes out a hero.
Roman Reigns may run the yard after defeating (and potentially retiring) The Undertaker at WrestleMania, but he clearly hasn’t learned to keep an eye on the monsters running around in it: The Big Dog was in the middle of a sit-down interview with Michael Cole when Braun Strowman attacked, savagely beating Reigns about the backstage area to such a degree that he had to be loaded, on the spot, into an ambulance. However, The Monster Among Men ambushed the EMTs and threw Reigns off the loading dock while he was still strapped to the gurney. And then, when they finally got Reigns in the ambulance, Strowman straight-up tipped it over.
What’s the only thing more enticing than The Hardy Boyz vs. Cesaro & Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Titles? (Apart from Elias “The Drifter” Samson wandering through Raw, of course.) The answer is The Hardy Boyz teaming with their No. 1 contenders in an 8-Man Tag Team contest against former champs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, as well as The Shining Stars.
Ironically, both champions and challengers were in perfect sync, with Cesaro & Sheamus helping bounce Karl Anderson from the ring and tee him up for Jeff Hardy’s Poetry in Motion over the ropes. After Matt administered a Twist of Fate to Epico, Jeff sealed things up with a Swanton Bomb. Good teamwork all around. Let’s see what happens when they go against each other.
Sasha Banks and Bayley are both pretty open about their desire to stay together on Raw during the Superstar Shake-up. If they do, there’ll be no shortage of competition for them. Right as Sasha was seemingly about to declare her intention to challenge Bayley for the Raw Women’s Title, two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss reared her head.
The arrival of The Wicked Witch clearly threw a wrench into The Boss’ plans, but Mickie James was hot on her heels to throw her own name into what has suddenly become a very, very crowded race for the Raw Women's Champion. But, lest we forget, there's still one more woman in play: Nia Jax, who bulldozed James from behind, ran through Sasha (who Alexa shoved right into her path), and finally laid out Bayley before declaring, openly, that she has designs on The Huggable One's title.
Superstar Shake-up or not, Monday Night Raw is still The Kevin Owens Show, and the U.S. Champion will not abide the arrival of a new star like Dean Ambrose. Unfortunately, however, he might end up having to make do. The non-title Champion vs. Champion bout pitting “The Face of America” against The Lunatic Fringe ended with the curtain falling on KO's head.
All of which was pretty unexpected at first, because Owens was having his way with the Intercontinental Champion and showed no signs of stopping. A trip to Chinlock City and a straight-up heave-ho, ribs-first into the turnbuckle, left Ambrose gasping for air and Owens with a perfect target that he did not skimp on punishing. Ambrose managed to maneuver his way into Dirty Deeds to seal the match, but Owens’ night wasn't over yet: Chris Jericho made his presence known, blasting Owens with a Codebreaker as some reciprocity for getting put through a table last week. It wasn't capital-P Payback just yet (that's in a few weeks), but it was definitely a start. Shane, Daniel? You're up.
Results[]
- Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
- (c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.
- The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) defeated The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) (8:30)
- T.J. Perkins defeated Austin Aries (4:40)
- Nia Jax defeated Charlotte Flair (5:50)
- Finn Bálor defeated Jinder Mahal (2:45)
- Sami Zayn defeated The Miz (w/ Maryse) (7:40)
- Cesaro & Sheamus and The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy) defeated Gallows and Anderson (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) and The Shining Stars (Epico & Primo) (9:00)
- Dean Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens (14:15)
Draft selection[]
| Pick # | Brand (to) | Employee | Role | Brand (from) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raw | Apollo Crews | Male Superstar | SmackDown | Announced prior to Raw via WWE's social media. |
| 2 | Raw | The Miz | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 3 | Raw | Maryse | Manager | SmackDown | |
| 4 | Raw | Dean Ambrose | Male Superstar | SmackDown | Bringing the WWE Intercontinental Champion to Raw. |
| 5 | Raw | Curt Hawkins | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 6 | Raw | Bray Wyatt | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 7 | Raw | Kalisto | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 8 | Raw | Heath Slater | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 9 | Raw | Rhyno | Male Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 10 | Raw | Elias Samson | Male Superstar | NXT | |
| 11 | Raw | Alexa Bliss | Female Superstar | SmackDown | |
| 12 | Raw | Mickie James | Female Superstar | SmackDown |
Other on-screen talent[]
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Image Gallery[]
Dean Ambrose confronted “John Cena”[]
The Revival v The New Day[]
Big Show knocked out Curt Hawkins[]
T.J. Perkins v Austin Aries[]
Kurt Angle revealed Seth Rollins’ fate[]
Nia Jax v Charlotte[]
Finn Bálor v Jinder Mahal[]
Sami Zayn v The Miz[]
Braun Strowman attacked Roman Reigns[]
8-Man Tag Team Match[]
Alexa Bliss confronted Bayley and Sasha Banks[]
Dean Ambrose v Kevin Owens[]
