Edge and Beth Phoenix, Damian Priest VS Angelo Dawkins
Raw started off with the GRIT couple as Edge and Beth Phoenix made their way down to the ring. Edge actually started his promo by putting over the Judgment Day (except Dominik) before the Judgment Day interrupted and said they are coming out to injure them both again. Beth Phoenix then challenged Finn Balor and Rhea Ripley to a mixed tag team match for the Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event which the Prince happily accepted (Ripley wasn’t in the arena). As it looked like the JD were about to take out Edge and Beth, the Street Profits came out to make the save. It was an alright opening segment, but I’m done with seeing these guys around each other.
Grade: C
The first match of the night was an Elimination Chamber qualifying bout between the Street Profits’ Angelo Dawkins and the Judgment Day’s Damian Priest. Angelo Dawkins has massively improved from a few years ago and Damian Priest has been on fire recently so it made sense as to why these guys were in this position. The match itself was solid and I liked how Dawkins hit a lot of different offense as he knew he needed more to beat Priest. In the end, though, Damian was able to pick up the win after hitting the South of Heaven Chokeslam. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Priest can do inside the Chamber.
Grade: C+
Baron Corbin VS Dexter Lumis, Brock Lesnar challenges Bobby Lashley
Austin Theory arrived in a very fancy-looking Lamborghini before we cut to Adam Pearce’s office. The Maximum Male Models were there and they signed a contract to become officially a part of the Raw roster before Chelsea Green walked in and complained at Adam Pearce for giving her Belgium chocolate when she wanted Swiss chocolate. I’m really intrigued to find out what the difference is between them. She also complained about not being given an opportunity to qualify for the Elimination Chamber and that if she wasn’t given a match tonight, she would speak to Pearce’s boss about him getting fired. Given what happens later, I think we should fully keep Green as a character who just shows up in backstage segments (because she’s quite funny). We then got a recap showing what went down at the end of last week’s SmackDown before we got a match between Baron Corbin and Dexter Lumis. Lumis seemed to get a bigger reaction from the crowd than usual, but that might have something to do with the fact that this show was being held in Orlando. The match itself wasn’t particularly long and Baron Corbin was mostly on top. However, Dexter Lumis got on top late in the match and he picked up the win with his sidewalk slam. This will make more sense later on.
Grade: C
Becky Lynch was being interviewed by Byron Saxton backstage and Becky made it clear to Bayley that she should’ve never gotten her family involved. Also, she said that she had something up her sleeve that she hasn’t utilised yet. Interesting. Brock Lesnar’s music then hit as it was time for the Beast to make his first appearance since the Royal Rumble. Brock delivered an interesting and sometimes funny promo about how he couldn’t stop thinking about Bobby Lashley. He then said he had a contract for a third match with the All Mighty at the Elimination Chamber before Bobby Lashley came out and reminded Brock that every time they’ve been fairly face-to-face, he’s left the Beast laying. Lashley then said that he will let his manager and his lawyers go over the contract before Brock had had enough and he F5’d Lashley. He then did it again after the crowd requested it. I’ll be honest, I was not expecting the contract to be for the Elimination Chamber. If the match does happen at the chamber, it probably means that WWE has other plans for both men at WrestleMania.
Grade: B-
Fatal 4-Way Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match, Alpha Academy VS Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander
Johnny Gargano went up to Candice LeRae to wish his wife good luck in her Elimination Chamber qualifying match before Dexter Lumis gave her a picture. The picture consisted of the entire Gargano household (real life) and Nikki Cross. For the first time in about 2-3 months, Candice actually noticed Nikki peeking out from behind something. We then got said Elimination Chamber Qualifying match as Candice LeRae took on Mia Yim, Piper Niven and the returning Carmella. Piper Niven was really dominant in this match, but Candice LeRae was able to show her immense talent. Mia Yim was also able to get some of her moves in and she came close with the Eat-De-Feet. In the end though, Niven took out LeRae with a massive cannonball before Carmella superkicked the Scot out of the ring and pinned Candice to get the win. In my opinion, Carmella was the third-best choice to win this match. However, I understand her winning in her first match back.
Grade: C+
Baron Corbin walked up to JBL and asked him where they were going for dinner. JBL told Corbin that there isn’t a we anymore as Corbin is ruining JBL’s reputation. The whole point of this was to split these two up so I’m guessing we won’t see JBL again for a while. Surely Corbin has to go on a massive winning streak now to prove that Layfield was the problem. Candice LeRae was then clearly hurting backstage and it looked like Piper Niven was going to destroy her, but Mia Yim stopped her. Niven will most likely destroy both women in the next couple of weeks. We then got a tag team match between the Alpha Academy, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander. Both teams are former Raw Tag Team Champions and I actually think this was the match of the night. The Alpha Academy are clearly becoming more and more like good guys whilst Shelton and Cedric’s story is intriguing, particularly given the fact that MVP was ringside. The action was good, particularly from Chad and Cedric and the ending of the match saw Alexander pick up the win after he hit the Lumbar Check onto the Master.
Grade: B-
Asuka VS Chelsea Green, Montez Ford VS Elias
The Miz was complaining about Adam Pearce backstage before Rick Boogs walked out to him. This whole segment ended up with Adam Pearce announcing a rematch between the two superstars for next week’s show. Chelsea Green then reminded Adam Pearce that she was about to go out to the ring for her match. That match happened and it was against Asuka. Every woman who is going to enter this year’s Elimination Chamber match was on the outside and Chelsea was actually in control of this match. However, she started to trash-talk all of the other women that were on the outside and this allowed Asuka to recover and win with a submission. After the match, Bianca Belair came out and she wished all 6 women good luck before she made a good point that she won the Elimination Chamber match last year to earn a shot at the Raw Women’s Championship. I didn’t like any of this. I won’t include Belair’s promo in my overall grade, but it wasn’t great. As for the match, Asuka looked really weak against Green and Chelsea just looked stupid.
Grade: D
Cody Rhodes came out to the ring and he talked about Sami Zayn. He talked about how Sami Zayn might be the one he comes across the ring from at WrestleMania before Paul Heyman walked down to the ring. The two men then told stories about each other and the American Dream Dusty Rhodes and it looked like this was going to be a peaceful conversation. However, Paul Heyman said that Roman Reigns was the son that Dusty always wanted and Cody had now had enough. I thought this was a nice segment for both guys to be in and that line at the end from Paul was amazing. However, it should’ve been shorter. We then got the final Elimination Chamber qualifying match of the year as Montez Ford and Elias fought for the opportunity to battle for the United States Championship. Austin Theory was on commentary which I’m always a fan of and both Ford and Elias put on a decent showing. I still don’t understand how Elias earned this opportunity over someone like Finn Balor, but it is what it is. Montez Ford ended up picking up the win with his Frog Splash and I have to say, the United States Championship Elimination Chamber line-up is amazing.
Grade: B for the promo segment, C+ for the match
Steel Cage Match: Becky Lynch VS Bayley
The main event of Raw was the highly anticipated Steel Cage match between Becky Lynch and Bayley. Unlike last time, the match did get underway and it followed the normal steel cage pattern. Bayley pulled out a Bayley-to-Belly from the top rope whilst Becky Lynch locked in the Dis-Arm-Her onto the Role Model on the top of the cage. Iyo Sky then climbed up the cage and pushed Lynch back into the ring before Lita’s music hit. Lita then took out Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai (seemed quite mean given the fact that Dakota was on crutches) before she slammed the door onto Bayley’s face and this allowed the Man to get the victory with the Man-Handle Slam. The show ended with Becky and Lita hugging in the ring. I thought both Lynch and Bayley worked really hard in this match and you can tell why these are two of the top superstars in the whole company, male or female. Unfortunately, I just don’t enjoy Steel Cage matches. I didn’t enjoy the one on NXT Vengeance Day between Bron Breakker and Grayson Waller and I just couldn’t get into this match. On the positive side, this match was better than the one in Charlotte.
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