The Miz has been claiming for weeks now that both he and the championship he holds are owed much more respect than they’ve been given. He may have just taken that recognition for himself on Raw after retaining his Intercontinental Title against a wild Jeff Hardy, who won a Battle Royal last week to earn the opportunity.

The Charismatic Enigma pulled out all the stops in pursuit of his fifth Intercontinental Championship, forcing Miz to go it alone after both Matt Hardy and The Miztourage were ejected following a ringside brawl. The A-Lister proved to be a worthy opponent, answering almost all of Jeff’s signature moves and dodging a Swanton Bomb at the last possible second thanks to a heads-up from Maryse, who alerted Miz to the incoming Hardy.

The A-Lister sealed the match shortly thereafter, writhing free of the Twist of Fate and transitioning straight into the Skull-Crushing Finale. Even as The Miz accumulates haters by the day, defenses like this ensure his respect grows at an equal pace.

Credit: WWE.com

Last week, and again in Raw’s opening moments, The Miz laid out, in blistering detail, why the Intercontinental Champion should be given the same respect as the likes of John Cena and Roman Reigns. Well, ask and you shall receive.

Raw General Manager Kurt Angle responded to The A-Lister’s latest tirade by assuring Miz that the Intercontinental Championship would be defended at WWE No Mercy and sanctioning an on-the-spot Battle Royal to determine a challenger for The Awesome One himself on next week’s Raw.
Battle Royal

Luckily for Miz, Bray Wyatt showed up out of nowhere to eliminate the surging Finn Bálor down the stretch, leaving his henchmen Bo Dallas Curtis Axel a clear path against Jeff Hardy, Elias, and Angle’s son, Jason Jordan. But after Jordan turned the tables and expelled both Elias and The Miztourage, The Charismatic Enigma tossed Jordan to win the contest. So, the good news is Miz is bound to get his spotlight. The bad news, at least for him, is who he’ll be sharing it with.

Credit: WWE.com

The band is back together, and the dream matches have already begun. Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins opened their unlikely Raw Tag Team Title reign by declaring the evening to be a “party” and inviting any team in the locker room to step to them, seemingly expecting Cesaro & Sheamus to come looking for a rematch. Instead, they got a gentleman’s challenge from The Hardy Boyz, and it was exactly as epic as you might have imagined. (Cesaro & Sheamus scouted from the locker room.)

The Most Exhilarating Tag Team In History didn’t just hang with the younger tandem, they came awfully close to defeating the new champions after Matt Hardy hit The Lunatic Fringe with the Twist of Fate to tee him up for Jeff Hardy’s Swanton Bomb. However, Rollins superkicked Matt right after Jeff tagged in, and Ambrose got his knees up to block the Swanton, leaving The Charismatic Enigma alone to suffer the one-two combo of Rollins’ ripcord knee and a match-ending Dirty Deeds.

Credit: WWE.com

Thanks to Scott Dawson’s injury, The Hardy Boyz missed out on an opportunity to get their hands on The Revival. That said, The Miz & The Miztourage made for an excellent substitution as foes for The Most Exhilarating Tag Team In History all the same.

With Jason Jordan joining the former Raw Tag Team Champions, The Hardys unleashed the full scope of their skills in an impromptu Six-Man Tag Team Match. It seemed as though the bout would come down to Jordan and The Miz, at least until Curtis Axel saved The A-Lister from calamity. That kicked off a three-on-one assault of Matt Hardy, at least until Jeff and Jordan entered the fray.

One by one, The Miztourage attempted to break up the action, and one by one they were denied — The Miz was the last to fall to Jordan’s Angle Slam-neckbreaker combo. With Bo Dallas as the last man standing, he was subjected to a belly-to-belly from Jordan, Twist of Fate from Matt and finally a Swanton Bomb from Jeff that sent him to the showers.

Credit: WWE.com

Cesaro & Sheamus may rule the roost as Raw Tag Team Champions, but the competition to rise above the pack has gotten incredibly fierce of late, with The Hardy Boyz, The Revival and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson all trading wins and jockeying for position over the last few weeks. The latest matchup pitted Matt & Jeff against Gallows & Anderson, and no punches were pulled in this battle of brothers, both biological and “good.”

The Hardys attained the win with their Twist of Fate-Swanton Bomb combo to The Suntan Biker Man but quickly found themselves in a brawl at the top of the stage with The Revival, who were watching from commentary.

Gallows & Anderson joined in on the fracas, but Matt & Jeff stood tall after shoving Gallows into the LED boards, dropping Scott Dawson with a pair of Twists of Fate and shoving Anderson and Dash Wilder off the stage before Jeff swooped down on them from above with Poetry in Motion.

Credit: WWE.com