WWE Raw results, Dec. 31, 2018: Team Red’s “Rowdiest” New Year’s Eve yet

DETROIT — Dolph Ziggler’s decision to bring Drew McIntyre back to WWE brought him two championships, a revitalized sense of purpose and one of the most successful years of his career. But that friendship fell out, and on New Year’s Eve, The Showoff reaped what he sowed, as the man Ziggler took with him to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up snuffed out The Showoff’s best efforts and left him laying in more ways than one at the end of Steel Cage Match.

Ziggler looked excellent in defeat, leading to a far more dignified New Year’s Eve than his infamously messy 2012 finale, but that’s cold comfort for a Superstar who went into the match with a solid, impressively executed game plan that even came with a crucial contingency: After attempting to out-brawl The Scottish Psychopath in grueling and unsuccessful fashion, Ziggler switched tactics and went for the escape. But that landed him a superplex off the cage, and despite Ziggler executing a quick-strike Zig Zag that served as a last best shot, McIntyre dropped his former partner with a lights-out Claymore that bulldozed The Showoff clean off his feet.

The Scottish Psychopath refused to cover his opponent for three until after he’d administered a second Claymore more or less for fun, but he saved the true demonstration for after the match when Ziggler goaded his former partner into a heinous post-match assault that ended in a chair-assisted kick to The Showoff’s head. (Ziggler later made it back to his feet one more time and received a third Claymore for his efforts).

The story of Drew McIntyre in 2018 was one of reintroduction to an audience and a locker room who forgot who he is or perhaps never had the chance to learn in the first place. He even reminded the audience on the mic for good measure after the match. But with a Men’s Royal Rumble berth secured and a potential Universal Title Match on his mind, 2019 is looking to be a very different story: Everyone knows who he is now. The question at this point is if anyone can stop him.

Few Superstars could benefit from a fresh start better than Apollo Crews, who has made a double-edged name for himself as a Superstar with limitless potential and limited accolades to show for it. Fittingly enough, Crews earned the chance for just such a reset by winning the appropriately-named “Fresh Start Battle Royal” to earn an Intercontinental Title Match against Dean Ambrose.

He didn’t exactly run through a field of also-rans to do it, either: Finn Bálor and Baron Corbin were the big-name contestants in the melee, but all of Crews’ opponents had displayed flashes of brilliance throughout 2018, from championship reigns (The B-Team) to viral sensations (Titus O’Neil) to impressive Open Challenge appearances (Tyler Breeze and Mojo Rawley). Even the still-winless Curt Hawkins had a claim to fame, and to a man, they were all hungry to reach the next level.

Superstars clash in an over-the-top-rope melee for an Intercontinental Championship opportunity against Dean Ambrose later in the night.

And almost to a man, they were eliminated by Crews. Apollo notched eight tosses in the bout before Corbin took over and thinned the field by tossing Bálor, Zack Ryder (fighting hard in what was, remarkably, his first Raw match of the year) and, finally, Hawkins. Crews picked up right where he left off, though, earning the victory by catching the surging Corbin with two step-up enziguiris to notch his final elimination.

The Intercontinental Title has long been considered the championship of the workhorses or the proverbial next-guy-up. Apollo Crews has been both of those for a while; perhaps this is the night his number finally gets called.

Curt Hawkins comments on nearly winning the Fresh Start Battle Royal on a special New Year's Eve edition of Raw.

Dean Ambrose is still the Intercontinental Champion, but just barely. Faced with a house-on-fire effort from Apollo Crews, The Lunatic Fringe did not so much win as survive against a Superstar who seemed hellbent on smashing through the glass ceiling at any cost.

Crews came out swinging — or rather kicking, blasting Dean with the double boots straight out of the bell and forcing the champion to go slightly dirty by throwing his foe into the steel steps. With Crews still smarting from the effects of the Battle Royal earlier in the night, that was enough to slow his momentum, but Ambrose couldn’t close, and the challenger slowly but surely crawled back to the advantage.

Now closing in on the title, Crews emptied his arsenal in lightning-quick fashion, from superkicks to suplexes to an astounding standing shooting star press. Ambrose narrowly escaped defeat by reaching the ropes following a standing sit-out powerbomb, but Crews continued to press until he made his only mistake of the match, whiffing on a frog splash when Ambrose rolled out of the way. The champion quickly pounced with Dirty Deeds to retain his title, and while this likely wasn’t the fresh start Apollo Crews wanted, he may well look back on this night as something just as valuable: a first step.

Next week, Ronda Rousey will be part of a historic event when she’s the inaugural guest on the first-ever talk show hosted by a female Superstar, Alexa Bliss’ “A Moment of Bliss.” But that’s business for 2019. And Rousey’s final WWE appearance of 2018 was, much like the entire year that preceded it, a rousing success.

It was also a continuation of the recent hot streak by Natalya, who challenged Rousey for the title last week and teamed with her this week against Nia Jax & Tamina — the same duo that ambushed The Queen of Harts earlier in the night after she had declared for the Women’s Royal Rumble Match. Rousey came into the match determined to make them pay, blistering both her opponents so thoroughly that the match was looking like a one-woman rout.

Nia & Tamina had much better luck with Natalya, isolating her from The Baddest Woman on the Planet and even maintaining control when Rousey tagged in, thanks to a timely leg drop by Jax. Tamina made a move to close, ascending the top rope for a splash attempt. But Rousey got her feet up to block the maneuver and quickly locked in the Armbar to submit The Sultress of Savagery, capping 2018 with a notch in her win column. It’s anyone’s guess where Rousey goes in 2019, but given the trend of the past 365 days, it’s safe to assume the upward trajectory won’t be leveling off anytime soon.