BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Roman Reigns has said for months that Raw needed a fighting Universal Champion. One night after winning the title from Brock Lesnar, The Big Dog put his money where his mouth was by naming Finn Bálor — a Superstar who Reigns acknowledged never lost the Universal Title — as his first challenger.

Bálor, of course, didn’t hesitate to accept a chance to reclaim the title, but Constable Baron Corbin quickly attempted to tie The Extraordinary Man up in red tape. According to The Lone Wolf, Bálor violated his match contract at SummerSlam when he showed up as The Demon, and a man-to-man match against The Constable took precedent over the title bout with Reigns. Luckily for Finn, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle was quick to pull rank on The Constable, preserving the title match on the grounds that it was what the WWE Universe wanted. Which isn't to say Corbin was getting the night off: Angle quickly sanctioned an immediate match with The Constable, bringing out Bobby Lashley as his opponent.

Dealing with an unruly Superstar is more art than science, but Kurt Angle certainly made a masterstroke when he decided to place the meddlesome Baron Corbin in a match against Bobby Lashley, who has everything to prove and a chip on his shoulder after a SummerSlam where the former ECW Champion was conspicuous by his absence.

Indeed, if not for a fateful loss to Roman Reigns a few weeks back, it would have been Lashley who challenged Brock Lesnar at The Biggest Event of the Summer, so he treated Corbin as a punching bag and launching pad in equal measure. The Lone Wolf rallied to muscle Lashley to the canvas, but he was overpowered when the former ECW Champion hoisted Corbin onto his shoulders and barrel-rolled him into the mat.

Despite adding Ember Moon to their ranks, the team of Sasha Banks & Bayley came up short for the third consecutive week against The Riott Squad, though The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection remains strong in the wake of the disappointment.

In an often wild match, Bayley found herself isolated by The Riott Squad until she tagged in Sasha, bringing the bout down to The Boss and Ruby Riott. As interferences began to mount, Ember took herself out of the action when she blasted Liv Morgan with a suicide dive, and Bayley found herself waylaid by Sarah Logan at ringside. As the now solitary Sasha ascended to the top turnbuckle, Ruby targeted Banks’ taped-up hand to knock her off her perch and finished her off moments after with a pinpoint Riott Kick.

Curt Hawkins has lost 218 matches in a row. Elias is out there trash-talking his home city. So it was a case of “if not now, then when?” for The Prince of Queens, who interrupted Elias’ performance, challenged him to a match and gave The Living Truth such a tough fight that it looked as though the former WWE Tag Team Champion’s infamous losing streak would finally be snapped.

Alas, the goose egg remained, though Hawkins put up a valiant effort, forcing Elias to spring a trap, catching Hawkins with a knee as he climbed between the ropes to set up Drift Away. Between the heart, the fire and the “You can do it” chants from the WWE Universe, Hawkins can certainly count this one as a moral victory, though a literal one remains just out of reach.

Titus Worldwide have had a rough go of it against AOP lately, and it hasn’t gotten any better despite a clandestine "strategy" session between Dana Brooke and Apollo Crews before the tag teams’ latest bout began. Granted, Crews put up a gritty, highly impressive performance against the former NXT Tag Team Champions, even using their aggression against them at certain moments. But Akam & Rezar would not be denied, and they decimated Crews with the Last Chapter — much to the concern of Dana at ringside, who all but cradled Crews on the outside as he nursed a tweaked wrist.

The B-Team have kept their Raw Tag Team Titles from The Revival largely on a combination of luck and canny exploitation of tag-team rules. More power to them. Without those protections, however, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel might be more vulnerable than they’d like to admit.

The champs’ post-SummerSlam afterglow was spoiled ever so slightly when Scott Dawson knocked off Dallas in the first of two singles matches between the two teams. In fact, save for an elbow from Dallas that kicked off a brief rally, the match was almost all Dawson: The “Top Guy” brutalized Dallas with every old-school tactic he had in his arsenal, grinding his elbow into Bo’s head and ramming his dome into the turnbuckle en route to victory. Axel was quick to rally his team, immediately entering the ring to goad Dash Wilder into their own match.

Make it two in a row for The Revival against The B-Team, now that Dash Wilder followed up Scott Dawson’s singles victory with a win of his own against Curtis Axel, making The B-Team 0-2 in singles competition against the two-time NXT Tag Team Champions. Wilder lived up to his team’s reputation as in-ring surgeons, targeting Axel’s back before putting him away with a modified Gory Bomb. The B-Team were quick to remind the “Top Guys” they were still Raw Tag Team Champions, though given the events of the night, it might be fair to ask if those days are numbered.

With a full-time, fighting champion back in the fold, Kurt Angle is feeling pretty good about things, even going so far as to tell Paul Heyman he’ll give Brock Lesnar his Universal Title rematch more or less when he feels like it (for the record, Lesnar’s preference is at WWE Hell in a Cell). Unfortunately, Angle wasn’t at attentive as he maybe should have been with his new Raw Women’s Champion, and Stephanie McMahon wasn’t happy about it.

Between allowing Baron Corbin to get beaten down by Bobby Lashley and failing to prevent Ronda Rousey from attacking Stephanie, Angle ended the show with the rest of Raw’s governing body firmly against him. And for the first time, those ever-present threats against Angle’s job were finally turned into action when Stephanie told Angle she was giving him a “vacation” to ostensibly recharge his batteries, promoting Corbin to Acting General Manager in the meantime.