WWE Monday Night Raw Returns To Evansville

Story & Images By: Brandon Scott Hanks

Evansville Indiana is no stranger to wrestling and actually has quite the storied history with professional wrestling as a whole having hosted countless shows dating back to WWE’s early years. Indiana alone is the birthplace of several names in WWE including Mick Foley and The Funk Brothers. Not to mention Indiana’s third largest city Evansville, having the most rabid fan base you have ever seen. 

WWE has its next PLE coming on October 5th with Bad Blood which will be hosted by the city of Atlanta at the State Farm arena. But before we witness all the bad blood between the likes of CM Punk & Drew McIntyre spilt all over the canvas in a Hell In A Cell match, we have to pay our dues here in Evansville at Monday Night Raw. 

The electricity was palpable as it was thunderous. Thousands stormed the arena grounds of The Ford Center in preparation for the final 3 hour block of Monday Night Raw before the red brand moves to its new home on Netflix in January of 2025. Once the doors were open, you could feel the ground shake as excited fans of all ages made their way inside the beautiful Ford Center arena with smiles on their faces! 

With Bad Blood on the horizon, tonight’s Monday Night Raw was sure to be the biggest of the year for many reasons including the night's main event of Last Monster Standing between Braun Strowman & Bronson Reed. Which by the way, just may have climbed to the top of WWE’s top OMG Moments of 2024. 

New Intercontinental Champion ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso leads off the show to address the WWE Universe for the first time as a singles champion. The segment was sensational and emotionally charged, with Jey thanking everyone for Yeet’ing with him for the last 14 years. The celebration was interrupted by former champ, Bron Breakker. However, the interruption wasn’t one anyone saw coming. Breakker congratulated the new IC champ and extended a friendly handshake with no strings or spears attached. The segment ended in a mutual respect by both Superstars, with Jey Uso telling Bron Breakker that “There’s a lot of Dawgs in Indiana”. 

Rey Mysterio vs Xavier Woods (Winner by pinfall)

Last week saw a frustrated Xavier Woods after his recent troubles he was approached by WWE Hall Of Famer Rey Mysterio. Mysterio tried to encourage and lift Xavier Woods’ spirits but ended up catching some serious responses and an open challenge to go one-on-one against the Lucha legend on 9/30’s Monday Night Raw. The match was thrilling from start to finish. You could see the frustration on Woods’ face as the match evolved, leading up to a very shocking ending. Woods went for the reversal off a 619 into a pin and took Rey’s mask off. Controversy seems to follow Xavier Woods lately and doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon much like the recent bad blood between Kofi Kingston and Woods. 

Lyra Valkyria vs. Zoey Stark (Zoey Stark wins by pinfall)

Left and right blows to the face by Lyra, Zoey was being lit up like a Christmas tree until her pals in Pure Fusion Collective (Shayna and Deville) stuck their nose in the match to tip the scales of justice in favor of the power group. The match was in a high octane women’s match that had everyone on the edge of their seat. 

CM PUNK face off with Drew McIntyre (inside Hell In A Cell)

Superstars Cm Punk & Drew McIntyre have been at each other's throats for months now. Bad Blood is putting it mildly. However, Punk and McIntyre had one final opportunity to fire off one last shot at one another with a huge security presence in the middle of the ring moderated by Raw GM Adam Pierce. Without missing a beat, McIntyre said “I’ll go first.” Drew went on to fire shot after shot and even told Punk he was wearing all black because it was out of respect for Punk’s wife because of what he was going to do to him at Bad Blood. Punk was a man of few words, saying all he’s really needed to say in recent weeks, he doubled down on his promise to end Drew McIntyre. “Throughout my entire career people have called me a lot of things, Best In The World, Second City Saint, Voice Of The Voiceless, tonight I am voiceless because I have nothing to say to a piece of garbage like you.” The promo for the match was incredible and had so much energy that you can feel the match already. 

Judgment Day vs. LWO (Judgement Day win by pinfall)

If you were hoping for a high flying match, this was the one! Dragon Lee, Cruz del Toro and Joaquin Wilde gave the Evansville crowd a spectacular match with catapulting bodies flying through the air and fast paced corner to corner drop kicks. Sadly it would prove to be not enough as the Judgement Day would stick to the old playbook of distractions and get the win over the LWO. 

After a quick tv break the Judgement Day wanted to pour salt into the wound and taunt the Terror Twins Damian Priest & Rhea Ripley by telling Damian he was going to rip his heart out and Liv telling Rhea that she’s one of the greatest women’s champions of all time. Except, Mami was done hearing it so she came out to inform Morgan of something she has in store for Bad Blood. Using Dom’s claustrophobia against him, Ripley says she will have Dom in a shark cage above the ring and he will have to watch Rhea Ripley win back the title she never lost. You see Damian run to the ring behind the distracted Judgement Day as they face the entrance ramp, as he takes out each one of them single handedly. But as numbers games go, Priest was soon overpowered and eventually left laying in the ring with the Judgement Day standing tall over him. 

Chad Gable vs Kofi Kingston (Chad Gable wins by pinfall)

Still looking to prove himself to the WWE Universe, Gable was primed and ready to take out New Day leader Kofi Kingston in singles competition. With Xavier Woods ringside and Gable’s Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile, the match was pure entertainment at its finest. Kofi shows everyone why he’s been in the business for some time now and that he’s one of the most technical Superstars the WWE has ever seen. The match would end up concluding with controversy as Ivy Nile interfered causing Xavier Woods to accidentally trip Kofi Kingston and ultimately causing Kingston to lose the match. 

Gunther & Sami Zayn

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther comes out to the ring to talk to the WWE Universe and brag about how much he has loved being champion. He’s loving the money, cars and overall luxuries being the champ has afforded him. Except the one thing he has absolutely hated has been being bothered by Sami Zayn every week. Zayn’s music hits and Gunther is confronted once more about a World Heavyweight Championship opportunity. Zayn tells Gunther the only way to get rid of him is to give him what he wants. A shot at the title. Gunther again says no and Sami immediately explains how he believes the champ is afraid because he just pinned him at Wrestlemania for the Intercontinental Championship and he believes he can do it again for the World Heavyweight Championship. After a heated back and forth and a nasty dig at Gunther’s dad having to watch his son lose against Zayn everytime. The champ attacks Sami before giving his acceptance of the match at next weeks Monday Night Raw. 

AOP vs Awesome Truth (AOP wins by pinfall)

Rezar and Truth start the match and waste no time pounding on each other blow after blow. Rezar stood  tall above Truth but with a lucky shoulder tackle, R Truth would bust out his favorite moves by his hero John Cena and ultimately hits the 5 knuckle shuffle. After 

 the quick run Truth had, AOP began building momentum and kept Truth out of his corner preventing him from tagging The Miz in. Until after a break of luck, Truth is able to tag in his partner and the second Miz is in the match, he turns to Truth and kicks him in the head, turning on his tag team partner and friend. 

Bronson Reed vs Braun Strowman (Braun Strowman wins)

Last monster standing match. Not something you see everyday, especially when it comes to a scheduled match. Backstage brawls and run-ins are one in a million, but these two have been so hyper fixated on one another for the last several weeks that it has all come down to this. Which one of these two behemoth’s will be the last monster standing? Let’s find out! Making his way to the ring at a whopping 6 feet tall and 330 lbs is Big Bronson Reed. With his sights set on taking the mantle of WWE’s Monster, Reed was in the ring and ready to destroy his nemesis Braun Strowman. Strowman’s music hits and the 6’8” Big SOB ran to the ring faster than we’ve seen him run before. It was on! Strowman & Reed exchanging blows, one after another, throwing everything they had at each other, the match was momentous. Nothing could prepare Evansville for what was to happen next. 

The Superstars beat each other up from the ring, to the announce table, through barricades, through fans, tables, chairs and off of a road case, this match was all over the Ford Center. Death Valley Driver to Strowman onto the floor from a high up road case, both men STILL get up before referee Chad Patton can get to a 10 count. Incredible! The two monsters make their way back to the ring where we see Strowman fly through the air into a pile of WWE Security and Raw GM Adam Pierce. You’d think that this would be the final nail in the coffin but it wasn’t. Both monsters climb back into the ring, both men climb to the top of the ring and a monster super plex implodes the ring. Bronson climbs to the steel steps in the ring and rests his head while Strowman lay seemingly lifeless. In the blink of an eye, in comes Seth Rollins with a stomp on Reed’s head on the steel steps! Rollins is back! The crowd erupted and Strowman beats the 10 count to win the match! 

One hell of a night in Evansville Indiana with WWE Monday Night Raw! Bad Blood premieres Saturday night at 7pm on Peacock live from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta Georgia.