WWE Raw results, Dec. 11, 2017: Who will challenge Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble?

Before their series of singles matches, The Hounds of Justice mix it up with The Samoan Submission Machine and The Bar.

CLEVELAND — Samoa Joe incurred the wrath of The Shield last week, and the experience left him profoundly unimpressed. After managing to singlehandedly upend Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins’ bid for the Raw Tag Team Titles, The Samoan Submission Machine opened Team Red by unleashing a slew of insults in the direction of The Hounds of Justice — particularly in the direction of Roman Reigns, as part of Joe’s continuing efforts to goad the Intercontinental Champion into a fight.

He got what he was looking for, as Reigns answered Joe’s call, only to be waylaid by Cesaro & Sheamus, who instigated a brawl that also brought the remaining members of The Shield charging to the ring. Joe indeed got the better of Reigns in the scuffle with The Bar's help, but Ambrose — scheduled to face Joe later in the night — was quick to pick up the slack, throwing hands with Joe until Cesaro & Sheamus intervened, dispatching Rollins and feeding The Lunatic Fringe into a Uranage that ended the fight on Joe’s terms.

Bayley teams with Mickie James against two members of Absolution, as Sasha Banks and Sonya Deville look on from ringside.

After competing in her first match in over a year and defeating Sasha Banks last week on Raw, Paige sent a clear reminder to the Raw Women’s division of just what she’s capable of. This week, the Team Red ladies got to see what the former Divas Champion’s lieutenants were made of, as Mandy Rose teamed with Paige to take on the duo of Bayley & Mickie James.

Paige seemingly chose her backup wisely. With Sonya Deville patrolling the outside (Sasha provided reinforcement for Bayley and Mickie), Paige and Mandy had free reign to tee off on The Huggable One until she reached Mickie at the last possible second to make the tag. With Mandy alone in the ring, the six-time Women’s Champion was primed to make quick work of the newcomer, but a timely kick to the head from Paige broke up Mickie's DDT attempt and allowed Rose to steal the pinfall.

One week after defeating Bo Dallas, Finn Bálor takes on Dallas' Miztourage associate.

Last week, it was Bo Dallas. This week, Curtis Axel got intimately acquainted with Finn Bálor’s boots when the former Intercontinental Champion suited up to avenge his Miztourage comrade, even removing his ubiquitous neck brace for the occasion. And even after a pre-bell cheap shot from Dallas threatened to derail the match, Bálor rallied to dispatch Axel with the running dropkick and Coup de Grâce, sending Axel to the showers and leaving him writhing while clutching his neck.

The Architect clashes with The Celtic Warrior in an intensely competitive matchup.

Score one for The Shield. In the first of three singles contests pitting The Hounds of Justice against Samoa Joe and The Bar, Seth Rollins landed the first blow in a victory over Sheamus despite a savage assault on Rollins’ knee from the Raw Tag Team Champion.

The Celtic Warrior soundly executed his game plan, grounding The Kingslayer and threatening to take away the efficiency of Rollins’ signature ripcord knee. When The Alabaster Gladiator applied the Cloverleaf, it seemed like a tapout was a foregone conclusion, but Rollins went to his agility and his speed, escaping the hold and delivering a one-legged superplex/Falcon Arrow combo to bring the bout to an even keel.

The move took as much out of Rollins as it did Sheamus, allowing the Irishman to tee him up for the Brogue Kick. The Architect had one more burst in him, though, stopping Sheamus cold with a superkick and landing the knee for the victory while Dean Ambrose watched backstage.

Who will battle Drew Gulak for the right to challenge WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore?

With WWE having revoked Rich Swann’s opportunity to compete for a WWE Cruiserweight Title Match, a “Second Chance” Fatal 4-Way was sanctioned to determine who will face Drew Gulak for an opportunity to challenge Enzo Amore for his title. And one week after narrowly missing out, Cedric Alexander stepped up and redeemed himself to advance one step closer to his first WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

To do so, he once again had to go through Mustafa Ali, and the two Cruiserweights picked up exactly where they left off last week with a dazzling back-and-forth that was briefly interrupted when Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese got involved. Refusing to be overlooked, Tony Abs and The Persian Lion focused their efforts on grounding and pounding Ali after a top-rope hurricanrana took Alexander out of the running.

Cedric roared back at the exact right moment, however, breaking up a surefire pinfall on Nese after Ali landed the astonishing 054. That instigated a train of big moves — Lumbar Check to Ali; running knee to Cedric — that ended with Alexander dispatching Daivari and Nese singlehandedly, finally planting the former with a Lumbar Check to win.

With Gulak on commentary watching the whole affair unfold, the battle lines are officially drawn. And given that Enzo rebuked Gulak's declaration of friendship after the match (though he was far more receptive to another encounter with Nia Jax), he might not even have the luxury of a friendly challenger if Gulak prevails over Alexander. 

For the first time ever, The Lunatic Fringe goes head-to-head with The Samoan Submission Machine.

With Samoa Joe standing across from Dean Ambrose and two-thirds of The Shield already victorious on Raw, absolutely nothing was going to stop The Lunatic Fringe from gutting out a win against The Samoan Submission Machine in their first-time-ever clash. Except, as it turns out, Jason Jordan.

The former SmackDown Tag Team Champion once again took his father, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, to task for not granting his previous demand of a match against Joe, and went so far as to plant himself at the top of the ramp in a chair to watch Joe battle The Lunatic Fringe.

Jordan’s presence didn’t quite throw Joe off his game, though it did distract the ref when he tried to throw Jordan off the apron following a scrap on the outside, robbing Ambrose of a pinfall and instigating a nose-to-nose between the two competitors. Joe capitalized by taking out both men with a suicide forearm, flattening Jordan with a running senton, and finally putting Ambrose to sleep with the Coquina Clutch for the victory.