Roman Reigns sends an order, The Judgement Day VS The Street Profits, Rhea Ripley VS Akira Tozawa!
Raw kicked off with the Tribal Chief and Paul Heyman. Roman made it clear to Kevin Owens that he is going to need the entire Raw locker room to take out him and the Bloodline. We then cut to live pictures where the Usos, Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa were beating down Mustafa Ali. We never saw Ali again. It was then time to get into our first match of the night as the Street Profits battled the Judgement Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest. This was a pretty even contest between two very talented teams and the difference maker happened to be Akira Tozawa on the outside. Tozawa attempted to throw a drink into Rhea Ripley’s eyes but she moved and it went into Dominik Mysterio’s eyes. This distracted Finn Balor and this allowed Montez Ford to get the win with the roll-up. This was a solid match and afterwards, Rhea Ripley punched Tozawa right in the face before she challenged him to a match! Rhea dominated most of the match but Tozawa was able to get a bit of offense in. In the end, Rhea picked up the win with the Rip Tide. I hope they do more of these types of matches.
Grade: B- for the tag team match, C for Ripley VS Tozawa
Alpha Academy VS The O.C, Alexa Bliss and Bianca Belair’s sit-down interview
During the Judgement Day VS Street Profits match, we saw that The Bloodline had attacked Elias and none other than NXT’s Andre Chase. They weren’t done with their attacks though as after a quick interview with Adam Pearce: Dolph Ziggler, Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin were all laid out on the floor. We then cut back to the ring for a match between the O.C. and the Alpha Academy. This was an alright match that saw the Good Brothers control most of the offense. It was sort of a shame to see the Alpha Academy being uncompetitive, but what I will say is the crowd were well into Otis. In the end, the O.C. were able to pick up the win with the Magic Killer.
Grade: C
After the match, they joined the list of people to fall victim to an attack from the Bloodline. What was interesting to note is Solo Sikoa was nowhere to be seen. Adam Pearce and lots of security came down to get rid of them, but that didn’t stop the Bloodline from talking about how they run WWE. They then walked down the entrance ramp before AJ Styles attacked them. Backstage, Styles demanded a match with Sami Zayn which Adam Pearce made official. We then cut to Byron Saxton who was ready to conduct an interview with Bianca Belair and Alexa Bliss. Belair made it clear that she doesn’t trust Alexa anymore whilst the Goddess talked about how Bray Wyatt changed her life. After it looked like a pretty civil conversation, Bray Wyatt’s logo popped up on the screen and then all of a sudden, Bliss wrecked Bianca Belair with a Glass Vase. I would love to see Alexa win, but it just isn’t going to happen.
Grade: B- all round
The Miz VS Dexter Lumis, AJ Styles VS Sami Zayn
The Miz battled Dexter Lumis in a Winner Takes All Ladder Match. Johnny Gargano was on the outside cheering his “Son-in-law”; they missed an opportunity to have him on commentary. I thought the match started off quite slow but it definitely picked up after a bit. The Miz trapped Dexter Lumis under ladders like he was Tommaso Ciampa (2018) or Roman Reigns (2022) whilst Dexter jumped off of a ladder and went crashing through the table. In the end, Lumis had the match won before he was stopped by former NXT North American Champion Bronson Reed. Reed destroyed Lumis before he hit the Tsunami to take him out. The Miz then climbed the ladder and won back his money to the delight of Corey Graves and the USA Network. I think Bronson Reed is pretty good and he has history with both Gargano and Lumis which if told right, this could be a really interesting storyline.
Grade: C+
The Phenomenal One came down to the ring as AJ Styles was ready to take on Sami Zayn in singles action. AJ was hot out of the gates as he wanted to get revenge for the attack from Zayn and the Bloodline earlier on. The two had a very good encounter, is that really a surprise? Both men brought out their big moves but neither of them were able to hit their trademark finishers. In the end, Solo Sikoa came walking through the crowd and after Zayn distracted the ref, Sikoa hit Styles with the Samoan Spike. Sami Zayn then hit the Blue Thunder Bomb and picked up the victory. Sami Zayn winning with the Blue Thunder Bomb, that’s a lovely surprise. Overall, this was all really good.
Grade: B+
Iowa’s own, Becky Lynch VS Bayley
The Crowd were delighted when Seth “Freakin” Rollins returned home. He made it clear that he was happy to be back before he called out Roman Reigns and told him that he runs this show. Austin Theory came out and objected to this claim before he said that “the Champ is here”. We’d better get Theory VS Cena at Mania 39. These two had a good back-and-forth promo and the best part of this was when Austin Theory called Seth Rollins the “third most successful member of the Shield”. Rollins then fired back at the US Champ before The Usos were once again back. Seth made it clear to Austin that they should work together to take out the Usos but Theory didn’t agree and he just left. This was actually pretty smart as it allowed the Usos to take out Seth Rollins. However, Seth had some backup in the form of his old buddy Kevin Owens. KO laid out Jimmy Uso before the two worked together to take out Jey. More security ran down to stop the Usos before Owens and Rollins made it clear that they wanted a match with the Usos later on tonight. This was all really good.
Grade: A-
Becky Lynch cut a backstage promo about how she and Bayley are pretty similar before the Man went one-on-one with the Role Model. Becky Lynch and Bayley have been two of the 3 biggest Female Stars in the past 4 years and it’s crazy to think that their paths haven’t really crossed over in that time. All this meant was the two wanted to put on a great show and to be fair, they did. Becky Lynch is so good at getting the crowd to cheer along whilst Bayley is so good at winding up the crowd. In the end, the referee threw Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky out after they tried to get involved, but whilst the referee was sorting the tag team champions out, Bayley whacked Lynch with a monitor before she got the victory with the Rose Plant. Even though this was done to have a rematch down the line, it was really nice to see Bayley pick up the big win.
Grade: B
The Usos VS Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Kevin Owens
Backstage, Seth Rollins asked Kevin Owens why they stopped teaming together. Owens told Rollins that the reason for that was because he tried to steal his WrestleMania idea. I forgot just how much I enjoyed this team. We then went straight into the battle between my tag team of the year, my wrestler of the year and a guy that is just flipping awesome. Seth and Kevin work so well as a team and it definitely helps that they are battling a team that doesn’t really have bad matches. Near the end of the match, Solo Sikoa was back again (how crap is the security in Iowa) but he was attacked by the Good Brothers. Jey Uso took them out before Seth Rollins threw Sikoa into the ring post and stomped the Right Hand Man. However, Seth was then blindsided by an attack from the United States Champion, Austin Theory. This left Kevin Owens to fight on his own but this didn’t phase the Prizefighter as he managed to pick up the win after hitting the Pop-Up Powerbomb onto Jimmy Uso. After the match, Sami Zayn rolled into the ring, but he quickly backed off after KO realised he was there. Overall, this was a pretty good main event. Could Owens and Rollins be the ones to take the tag team titles off of the Usos?
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