United States Championship: Bobby Lashley VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins
Raw started with arguably their two biggest stars as Bobby Lashley put his United States Championship on the line against Seth “Freakin” Rollins. You only had to watch their entrances to realise how over these two are. Rollins got off to a great start and he went for his trademark stomp but, Lashley was too powerful, meaning Rollins couldn’t drop him onto the mat. This was a very unique counter, but I really liked it. Bobby Lashley overpowered Rollins but the Architect attempted to nullify this by attacking the arm of the All Mighty. Rollins the showcased his own feat of strength as he buckle bombed Lashley before he hit his brilliant looking frog splash. Rollins even countered Lashley’s spear into the pedigree, the same spot he did to Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank 2016. In the end though, when Rollins looked like he was in the position to win, Matt Riddle came down and distracted Rollins which allowed the champion to hit the spear and retain. It would have been nice to see a clean finish, but the finish does make total sense. I now just hope that Bobby gets a proper feud as that would elevate the title so much more than just having one-off matches. Still, this was all good.
Grade: B+
Damage Control’s Championship Celebration, Kevin Owens VS Austin Theory
Damage Control came down to the ring on a custom vehicle of some sort, I think it was a golf cart. Anyway, Bayley was singing the groups theme song whilst she was driving which was pretty funny. Then, the hometown girl asked the crowd to show some respect to the brand-new Women’s tag team champions Dakota Kai and IYO SKY. After running their mouth, Bianca Belair, Asuka and Alexa Bliss all came out to confront before Bayley rightly asked were had the old Alexa gone. Bliss claimed she’s still here now and this set up their match for the main event. This was fine but the Babyfaces are so unlikeable. Overall, though, Bayley was great as per usual and Kai got more time on the mic which was cool to see.
Grade: C+
After this, Mr Money in the Bank Austin Theory walked down to the ring for his match with Kevin Owens. KO then had his always great entrance but this time, the camera man followed him walking out to the crowd which made it even better. Before Owens could get in the ring, Theory attacked him, a measure of revenge for making him bleed last week. Theory is a hell of a talent given his age and about midway through the match, he hit a manoeuvre that I have never seen before. It just shows that he isn’t close to hitting his peak ability inside the ropes. Kevin Owens tried to hit a moonsault but Theory got out the way. KO’s athleticism is really impressive because he isn’t small. In the end, when Theory was frustrated, he went to get his MITB briefcase, but his “Dad” Johnny Gargano grabbed it to Theory’s anger. The youngest United States Champion turned around and got met with a super kick before Owens hit the cannonball and then the Pop-Up Powerbomb to get the win. The Prizefighter is on form at the minute and is easily one of the best in the business right now. Theory losing again isn’t great, but this match showcased his ability whilst also furthering his feud with Johnny Wrestling. This was good.
Grade: B
Lots of promos, The Brawling Brutes take on the Street Profits
Matt Riddle was interviewed by Kevin Patrick and the Original Bro stated that he wouldn’t stop until he got a rematch with Seth Rollins. His focus for the rest of the night, however, was on his match with the Judgement Day which takes place later tonight. The Brawling Brutes’ Ridge Holland and Butch then arrived on Raw to cut a promo about how they aim to take the Undisputed Tag Team titles off The Usos. The Street Profits then interrupted and congratulated them on winning the number 1 contenders match on last week's SmackDown before saying “you’ve never beaten us”. This set up a tag match. The whole point of this was simple, the Brawling Brutes needed to get an important victory heading into their championship match and the Street Profits were the team to do that for them. They are a very established team and are also incredibly talented. Montez Ford once again showcased that he is a future singles champion whilst Angelo Dawkins improvement over the last 12 months has been incredible. The Profits hit their big blockbuster manoeuvre, but the pinfall was broken up and then, the Brawling Brutes hit their tag team finish to get the win. A good win for the Englishmen but, I don’t know who keeps coming up with the tag team finishers as some of the ones that the SmackDown teams hit are terrible.
Grade: C
Rey Mysterio cut a backstage promo talking about the attack on Edge and how he still won’t fight his son Dominik. Riddle then came in and they both vowed to make the Judgement Day pay. After this, the Alpha Academy were not very happy with Johnny Shoosh interfering in their “good friend” Theory’s matchup. Kevin Owens then came in and Chad challenged the two to a tag team match on next week’s Raw. Unfortunately for Master Gable, he had forgotten that next week’s Raw was taking place in Canada, a place both Owens and Gargano have had pretty recent success in. Gable even tried to change the match to the following week, but it didn’t work. Gable, Owens and Gargano are all very good in comedy roles, just a shame they don’t give Otis more to say as he is incredibly funny.
The Judgement Day VS Rey Mysterio and Riddle
The Judgement Day came out to the ring and cut a promo. They got booed out of the building before they decided to take a family photo. The JD are easily one of the best acts on Raw; Balor is great, Priest is genuinely funny, Ripley is excelling in this role and Dominik is way more likeable as a heel then he is a face. Matthew Riddle then came down to the ring with Rey Mysterio as their tag team match got underway. Riddle was worked over for a lot of this match by both the Prince and the Archer of Infamy. At one point, Ripley even hit a back suplex onto Riddle onto the floor which was really cool. If anyone can appear in the Men’s Royal Rumble, it should be her. The ending of the match saw Seth Rollins attack Riddle before his old foe Rey Mysterio chased him off with a chair. Evil Mysterio then asked his father to hit him with a chair, but Rey couldn’t. In the end, this whole sequence cost the masked legend as Damian Priest was able to hit a chokeslam before Finn hit his trademark Coup De Grace to get the win. Once again, the Judgement Day stand tall as the leading faction on the Red Brand.
Grade: B
Miz TV with Dexter Lumis, backstage segments
When we came back from the Ad break, Matt Riddle and Seth “Freakin” Rollins were involved in another backstage brawl. Rollins was so angry, he agreed to face Riddle in a rematch before Matthew challenged him to a Fight pit match which stupidly, the Visionary accepted. The match was always pretty decent in NXT so I’m alright with this being the stipulation. It also means that a Riddle win isn’t going to hurt Rollins to much. Miz TV then took place and The Miz called out Dexter Lumis. The A-Lister said that no one goes into his house without an invite. Then, quite creepily, Dexter Lumis cut open the ring and tried to drag down the Hollywood star with him. Ciampa then pulled him out and hit him with a microphone. This was fine but my only issue is Ciampa can also be a psychopath if he wants to be. His nickname in NXT used to be the “Psycho Killer” so I do really hope that that version comes out soon. Finally, the Judgement Day told everyone that they were going out to party. Then, in a really cool segment, Finn Balor asked AJ Styles why he had been ignoring him. Styles said he wants no part of this Finn or the Judgement Day before Balor said that the door is always open for the Phenomenal One. This was really cool as it shows that past storylines aren’t being forgotten.
Alexa Bliss VS Bayley
In the main event, Alexa Bliss took on Bayley. Before the match, a video package was shown highlighting the success of Alexa Bliss. This was kind of sad to watch because the current Bliss is nowhere near as good as her character from 2016-18. The match was fine, Bliss was made to look good whilst still giving Bayley the opportunity to get more used to competing in big matches again. In the end, the four women on the outside (Belair, Asuka, Kai, SKY) all started to brawl and after Damage CTRL came out on top, SKY pushed Bliss off the top rope whilst the ref was distracted which allowed Bayley to hit the Rose Plant and get the win. After the match, the Role Model challenged Belair to a Raw Women’s Championship match at Extreme Rules which should be really good. This was all fine but the thing that was in my head the most is how different Bayley and Bliss’ career trajectory has gone. In the same building in 2017, Alexa Bliss beat Bayley to become the Raw Women’s Champion. 5 years later, Bayley is one of the biggest stars in the wrestling world whilst Alexa, is nothing more than a Midcard wrestler which is quite sad.
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