Becky Lynch opens the show, The Judgment Day VS The Street Profits
Raw kicked off this week with the Man Becky Lynch. Becky talked about how she’s been so focused on Damage CTRL, she forgot to forge her path to WrestleMania. She then asked Adam Pearce to let her earn her way into this weekend's Women’s Elimination Chamber match. Bayley came out and said this was ridiculous before both women traded shots back at one another. Bianca Belair’s music then hit and she told Adam Pearce that she wants to face both women. Adam Pearce then decided to book a triple threat match for tonight where if either Becky or Bayley win, they would be added to the Elimination Chamber match, but if Bianca wins, neither of them are going. This was a solid start to Raw and it created an intriguing main event.
Grade: C+
The Judgment Day cut a backstage promo where they made it clear that they are going to have a great weekend in Montreal. Dominik Mysterio then said that Rhea Ripley is still traveling the world doing media calls, but he has something big planned for Valentine’s Day. This then lead into a match as the Judgment Day battled the Street Profits. All four men are good at what they do, but it does feel like I’ve seen this match too many times now. This match did feel important for Angelo Dawkins though as he was the one person in this match who isn’t competing on the Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event. Even though Montez Ford was able to take out Damian Priest with one of his crazy dives, Finn Balor picked up the victory with the Coup de Grace on Dawkins. After the match, the JD continued to beat down their opponents before Edge and Beth Phoenix made the save. However, Rhea Ripley came out of nowhere and hit the Rip Tide onto Beth to stand tall. Please, please let this be the last time that we see these people interact on Monday Night Raw (or any other show).
Grade: C+
Brock and Bobby sign the Contract, Mia Yim VS Piper Niven
Brock Lesnar was out next for his contract signing with Bobby Lashley. Brock told Pearce that he’d already signed the contract last week before he called Bobby out and told him to come down to the ring. Lashley’s music then hit and a bunch of security guards came out and stood in the rampway whilst the All Mighty set himself up at the top of the ramp. Bobby told Brock that he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to sign the contract and this annoyed Brock so the Beast beat up the security guards. Lashley took advantage of this by dropping Brock before he delivered a spear to his rival. He then signed the contract and dropped it on top of the laid-out Beast. As far as contract signings go, this was totally fine.
Grade: C+
WWE was not messing around tonight as we then went into our next match between “Michin” Mia Yim and Piper Niven. Mia Yim is usually a powerhouse, but it was almost impossible for her to use her power against Niven. Piper was mostly in control of this match, but Yim was able to get a few runs in including a really nice-looking tornado DDT (Ali taught her that). However, it wasn’t to be for Michin as Piper picked up the victory with her new finishing move. I like Piper Niven so I’m glad she won.
Grade: C
Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes, Rhodes VS Baron Corbin
We then got ourselves a recap of what happened on last week’s SmackDown and this was clever as when Baron Corbin was about to be interviewed by Cathy Kelley, they cut to the ring to see Sami Zayn standing in the center. In a move that I was quite surprised about, Sami Zayn asked Cody Rhodes to come down to the ring. Rhodes came down to the ring (his entrance was really cool this week) and the two men had a heart-to-heart conversation. Sami asked Cody if he meant what he said last week about believing that he could beat Roman Reigns. Cody replied by saying “the real question is whether you believe you can beat Roman Reigns”. Sami then cut a passionate promo about how he believes in himself, but he doesn’t know if he can beat Roman Reigns as he’s seen just how good he is. The promo segment ended with Cody Rhodes telling Sami that he doesn’t want to see him on Raw next week because he would much rather see him at WrestleMania. This was brilliant. Cody Rhodes is such a good promo whilst Sami Zayn is the biggest face in the world. He’s that over, the crowd were singing “ola, ola” like they used to do for Zayn back in NXT. This was the perfect segment to prove why both Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes deserve to be in the main event of WrestleMania with the biggest star the company has had in a long time.
Grade: A
Carmella was backstage and she seemed quite concerned at the fact that she had to team up with both Nikki Cross and Asuka tonight. Cross seemed quite excited by the Empress before Candice LeRae came up to her and asked her why she’s been stalking her the past week. Nikki just laughed and ran off. Someone needs to tell the Poison Pixie that this has been going on for about 3 months now. Baron Corbin then got his interview time and he made it clear that he doesn’t need JBL before he told the WWE Universe that Roman Reigns is going to destroy both Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes. I have to be honest, I do think WWE have missed an opportunity to do Reigns VS Corbin. It might sound strange, but you could do a good story with the fact that Corbin was the last person to pin Roman Reigns. Cody Rhodes then walked through the curtain and after Corbin disrespected both his brother and his father, Rhodes had had enough and he brawled with Corbin back to the ring. We then had a pretty short match which saw the American Nightmare pick up the victory. I’m hoping WWE has a good plan with this whole Baron Corbin storyline.
Grade: C
Raw VS SmackDown, Bronson Reed VS Mustafa Ali
We then got ourselves a Raw VS SmackDown six-woman tag team match between the competitors of this weekend’s Elimination Chamber match. Asuka, Nikki Cross and Carmella were on one side of the ring whilst Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and Natalya were on the other. Some of these women I think are really good whilst others I don’t rate very highly, but I did think this match was alright. I particularly liked the ending of the match which saw Asuka beat up her teammates. She then made Liv Morgan tap with a quite horrific submission move. Asuka needs to be made to look unstoppable and that’s exactly what happened here. Even though I wasn’t a big fan of Morgan being the one to lose, it hopefully means she might have quite a good Elimination Chamber showing.
Grade: C+
The Alpha Academy were backstage and Chad was telling Gable how the hotdog that Otis was eating isn’t good for him. He then threw the food and it went straight into Mansoor’s face before Maxxine Dupri introduced herself. Maxxine then asked if he’d done any modeling before which Chad Gable replied saying that he’s more interested in being a role model. Dupri then said that she was actually talking to Otis before she said that she’s thinking of changing his name to “Otese” (that’s how it sounds). She then gave him their business card. Realistically, this has no right to be good. It’s a wrestling company and they’ve got people acting as models. However, it’s bloody amazing. Adding in Otis who is such a brilliant comedy character and Chad Gable, who was rating the business card, is just perfection. I’d let these guys be the host of WrestleMania 39! We then got a match between Bronson Reed and Mustafa Ali. Bronson Reed can officially add Mustafa Ali to his list of “Killing Cruiserweights”. He wrecked Ali here and the Heart of 205 Live did a great job selling for him. The one spot that saw Bronson send Ali crashing through chairs by the timekeepers' area was legitimately scary. Ali did get a bit of offense in though, including his fantastic-looking Tornado DDT, but he only got a one count for it. Bronson then decapitated Ali with a clothesline before he picked up the win with the Tsunami. It literally looked like he was squashing a bug! On the plus side for Ali, it looks like he’s going to get his match with Dolph Ziggler next week should be really fun.
Grade: B-
Miz TV, The Miz VS Rick Boogs
Edge and Beth Phoenix cut a quick promo backstage where Edge said he is fed up with this continuous feud with the Judgment Day. I couldn’t agree more. It was then time for an episode of Miz TV as the Miz welcomed his guest, Seth “Freakin” Rollins. The Miz asked Seth why he doesn’t want to talk about Logan Paul and Seth made it clear that Paul doesn’t deserve to be talked about in WWE. Seth went on to cut a passionate promo about how Logan Paul took away his dream to main event WrestleMania before the Miz laughed at him as that is something that the A-Lister has accomplished. This pissed off the visionary so he started to attack the Miz. However, Austin Theory appeared and he tried to drop Rollins. However, Seth avoided this before he delivered a stomp to the Miz. Theory then reappeared and he dropped his former mentor with the A-Town Down. I thought this was one of the better editions of Miz TV that I’ve seen in a long time and it was also an effective way to get both Theory and Rollins on the show.
Grade: B-
Rick Boogs was then getting hyped up backstage before Elias came up to him and told him that he respects a fellow musician like Boogs. I’m not sure if WWE are thinking about making them a tag team in the future. If they are, I don’t know how I’d feel about it. Rick Boogs then came out to the ring to have his match with the Miz, but the Hollywood star clearly wasn’t in the best condition to compete. He tried and failed to get the match canceled and Rick Boogs just chucked him around for a minute before he picked up the win with his Press Slam. I miss the old Rick Boogs character. Also, where’s Shinsuke?
Grade: C-
Chelsea Green was in Adam Pearce’s office and she made it clear that she’d sent “strongly worded” emails to Pearce’s boss. She then asked Adam to put her in tonight’s main event and when Pearce said no, Chelsea told Adam that she wouldn’t leave till she gets what she wants. Pearce said ok and then left. That was actually both an effective and funny way to get out of the situation. The Judgment Day then cut another promo backstage and they said that nobody’s going to stop them at the Elimination Chamber and Charlotte Flair has got no chance against Rhea Ripley. We then got a pretty cool video showcasing previous Elimination Chamber moments.
Bianca Belair VS Becky Lynch VS Bayley
The main event of Raw saw the Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair battle Becky Lynch and Bayley. This is a match that could main event WrestleMania so the crowd were fully into it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. The reason for that is a lot of the match felt like it was stalling for whatever reason. I thought all 3 women did well though and I genuinely thought Becky was going to win so she would be added to the Elimination Chamber match. However, Damage CTRL kept trying to get involved and this led to the six women competing in the Chamber match running down and beating up Iyo Sky. Bless Raquel, she told Dakota to get out of the way (what a face actually should do). Bianca then took out the six women by throwing Sky onto them before Becky thought she had the win after hitting the Man-Handle Slam onto Bayley. However, Belair picked up Lynch and delivered the K.O.D to Becky, onto Bayley before she pinned the Role Model to get the win. It’s a shame that neither Bayley nor Becky are going to be in the Elimination Chamber as that only could’ve made it better.
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