Conspicuous by his absence from Raw’s opening gathering (and last week’s siege, for what it’s worth) was The Miz, who chose to arrive “fashionably late” and was placed into an Intercontinental Title defense by Kurt Angle for his troubles. The opponent? Matt Hardy, and while The A-Lister’s casual disrespect of Angle certainly landed him in more hot water than he would have liked, he put on an impressive show for the General Manager who called him nothing less than a coward.

Initially, it seemed the key to Miz’s victory would be the reunited Miztourage, who threatened to interfere early on and succeeded in doing so in the later goings of the match, landing cheap shots on the former Raw Tag Team Champion to slow him down. But The A-Lister sealed the deal without his cronies’ help, rolling under the ropes after a Twist of Fate, bouncing Hardy gullet-first off the ropes and closing the match with a devastating Skull-Crushing Finale.

Credit: WWE.com

Braun Strowman’s monstrous tear through the roster continued at the expense of Matt Hardy, who had the unfortunate task of facing The Monster Among Men one-on-one, but The Gift of Destruction went from hunter to hunted in the blink of an eye when The Shield came knocking.

Hardy turned in a gritty, turn-back-the-clock effort against Strowman that saw him land a Twist of Fate, only Strowman to kick out at one, retorting with two chokeslams and a Running Powerslam for the win. After the match, Strowman looked primed to put Hardy through the LED screen a la Curt Hawkins, but he was quickly interrupted by The Hounds of Justice, who met him on the stage, overwhelmed the monster and plunged him through the announce table with an incredible Triple Powerbomb

But The Gift of Destruction’s fate will remain entwined with The Shield’s for the foreseeable future. Not only did Kurt Angle sanction Strowman vs. Reigns in a Steel Cage next week, but Ambrose’s offhanded remark that The Shield could take out four or five opponents at once were noted by The Miz, who recruited The Monster Among Men to be that very same fourth man at WWE TLC.

Credit: WWE.com

Forced together by circumstance, Matt Hardy & Jason Jordan caught lighnting in a bottle by claiming a tag team win last week, and after running afoul of Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson in the backstage area tonight, a few fighting words were exchanged — “nerd” chief among them — leading them to join forces one more time for an effort against the good brothers. If only it went as well this time around.

Much like last week, Hardy pulled Jordan out of the fire following an extended isolation at the hands of Gallows & Anderson. But the end result was as different as could be, as Anderson disposed of Jordan by hurling him into the barricade, and Gallows rammed Hardy into a turnbuckle he had discreetly exposed earlier in the match, weakening Matt for the ring-shaking Magic Killer.

While it would obviously be a shame for an impromptu team as fun as Hardy & Jordan to go one and out, it’s fair to wonder after tonight if the more established tandems of Team Red have them figured out.

Credit: WWE.com