The Bloodline ruin the intro, Bianca Belair VS Alexa Bliss: Raw Women’s Championship
During the normal Raw intro, we cut straight to the ringside era and saw the Bloodline destroying the area. The Usos were sending a message on commentary before they all lifted up the announce table. Kevin Owens then came out and said that he wouldn’t let this happen so he decided he was going to fight all four of them. Adam Pearce stopped this and declared that he had had enough of the Bloodline causing chaos so he called out some security to handle the situation but Solo Sikoa destroyed all of them. KO then ran into the ring and he was attacked by the Bloodline before the Raw locker room ran out and broke it up. A fine start to the show and it was nice to see the likes of Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin all make an appearance.
Grade: B-
Bianca Belair was being interviewed by Byron Saxton backstage and Belair said that she wants nothing to do with Alexa Bliss after tonight. Adam Pearce then had the Raw locker room asking to be picked for a match against one of the members of the Bloodline. Elias got his wish of a “Music City” Street Fight against Solo Sikoa whilst the Street Profits and Kevin Owens were given a six-man tag match against the Usos and Sami Zayn. This was too predictable, I’ve seen the Street Profits VS The Usos about 40 times and Elias literally battled Sikoa a few weeks ago. Seeing Ali, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin all just standing there and not getting picked (or being allowed to say a word) was quite sad. It was then time for our first Championship match of the night as Bianca Belair put her Raw Women’s Championship on the line against her “former friend” Alexa Bliss. At different points in their careers, both women have been the top female star in the company so I knew this would be a decent encounter. Belair was on top mostly due to her power but Bliss was able to get on top at the end. However, a couple of men were wearing “Wyatt-like” masks in the crowd and this clearly bothered Bliss before the Wyatt logo popped up on the screen. Alexa then snapped and attacked the referee meaning the match was over. The Goddess then attacked Belair before she hit two of her trademark DDT’s onto the steel steps. The match was fine and the way Bliss reacted to the titantron was silly but the rest of it was very good. Bliss turning into a proper mad heel was cool and it reminded me of the old “Little Miss Bliss character”. Belair was also bleeding which actually made the whole thing even cooler. If this was an official heel turn from Bliss, it was very well done.
Grade: B (Overall)
Solo Sikoa VS Elias, The Usos and Sami Zayn VS Kevin Owens and the Street Profits
Austin Theory cut a promo backstage and he said that he is going to put Seth “Freakin” Rollins in the past for good. Theory always cuts a good promo. It was then time for a “Music City” Street Fight between Solo Sikoa and Elias. This match was fine and drums, guitars, keyboards and tambourines were all used in this match. For some reason, a singer called Hardy decided to jump over the barricade and hit Sikoa on the back with a guitar. This didn’t affect Sikoa one bit and the singer ran off. How is this allowed; we literally saw with Dexter Lumis and Xia Li just how angry WWE gets with people jumping the barricade and getting involved in matches but no one seemed to care. Sikoa hit Elias with the Samoan Spike before he got the win with a Rock Bottom that saw Elias go crashing through the piano. This was ok but I’ve seen way better.
Grade: C
After a quick recap package from last week's Friday Night SmackDown, we headed straight into a six-man tag team match between the Bloodline (The Usos and Sami Zayn) and the team of Kevin Owens and the Street Profits. The Profits were wearing their Tennessee Titans-like gear from Summerslam, when they faced the Usos! Earlier on in the night, Montez Ford was shown carrying his wife (Bianca Belair) to the backstage area and you could tell that this was still playing on his mind in this match. This massively helped the Bloodline out as they were able to isolate KO as a result of it. In the end though, Owens tagged in Ford and he went on a big run where he looked completely back to normal. Solo Sikoa then came out and he took out Angelo Dawkins before Owens dealt with him. The Usos then laid out KO before Sami Zayn hit the Helluva Kick onto Montez Ford to get the win. The Bloodline winning was the right call, but why didn’t the whole “Ford not focused” thing play into the finish? It just would have made more sense. After the match, the Bloodline were beating up KO and the Profits before Drew McIntyre and Sheamus came out to make the save. At some point, Drew McIntyre and Sheamus need to stop feuding with the Bloodline as it’s been going on for months.
Grade: C+
Chad Gable VS Dexter Lumis, Damage CTRL VS Becky Lynch and “Michin” Mia Yim
We then went straight into another match as Dexter Lumis took on Chad Gable. Otis was outside the ring and he reacted very well to all of the strange motions that Lumis was doing. Dexter is a decent wrestler and he tells a good story during his matches whilst Chad Gable is just fantastic. After a pretty back-and-forth match, Dexter Lumis picked up the win with a “sort of” roll-up. A good win for Dexter but another loss for Master Gable. Also, neither Johnny Gargano nor the Miz featured on this show for some reason.
Grade: C
A video package aired showing the return of Cody Rhodes at last year's WrestleMania. It looks like we are going to get a few more of these vignettes which makes me wonder if he’s returning at the Royal Rumble. Damage CTRL were then walking backstage before we went to an ad break. The only reason I’ve brought this up is that in the background, Adam Pearce was being surrounded by MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. This could have something to do with the fact that Cedric and Shelton weren’t picked to fight the Bloodline or, it could have something to do with Bobby Lashley. Either way, it looks like the Hurt Business might be coming back and they are certainly a group that can challenge the Bloodline. Damage Control were then out and Bayley was celebrating the fact that she beat Becky Lynch “all by herself” two weeks ago. She also said she couldn’t wait to get out of “Trashville” before the Man came out. Becky Lynch said that she didn’t have her phone to call anyone about being her partner, but it didn’t matter to her as she was happy to go 1-on-2 against the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Becky Lynch was on top for the first part of the match before Damage CTRL used the numbers game to take control. “Michin” Mia Yim then ran down to the ring and inserted herself as Lynch’s tag partner. Bayley quite rightly said that that isn’t legal. Anyway, the ending came when Becky Lynch was brawling with Bayley on the outside meaning Sky and Kai were able to take advantage of Yim to get the win. This wasn’t great. Even with a win, Damage CTRL were made to look pretty rubbish.
Grade: C-
A few promos, Austin Theory VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins: United States Champion
Cathy Kelley interviewed Seth “Freakin” Rollins backstage and the Visionary said that even though Austin Theory is great, he just isn’t Seth “Freakin” Rollins. He then did his strange laugh. Alexa Bliss then made it clear to Byron Saxton that she took control tonight and showed Bianca Belair that she is the only person she needs to be worried about. Dominik Mysterio then cut a promo about how jail had affected him before we saw a video package for Bronson Reed. Overall, I thought all of these small segments were pretty good. Seth’s great, Alexa has done more great things on this show than in the past few years, Dominik acting like he’d been in jail for 10 years when it was only a few hours was excellent and the video package for Bronson Reed put over the fact that he could be a tough force to stop.
Grade: B (all together)
It was Main Event time as Austin Theory put his United States Championship on the line against Seth “Freakin” Rollins. The crowd were well into the Visionary and he pulled out all the stops against his former disciple. However, Theory knows Rollins well so he was able to reverse a lot of his offense including Seth’s attempt at the roll-through/falcon arrow suplex. During the match, Seth Rollins’ hurt his knee/leg and Austin went straight for it. Late on in the match, Seth got a near fall with a Frog Splash before the referee was taken out. Rollins then hit a Pedigree onto Theory before a new referee ran down and counted to 2 before Theory kicked out. As the referee was checking on the other referee, he was also knocked into by Rollins/Theory and this allowed the champion to hit a low blow and a chop block onto Rollins before he picked up the win with the A-Town Down. A great start to the year for Austin Theory.
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