Monday Night Raw Review: 20/03

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens challenge The Usos, Austin Theory VS Montez Ford

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens came out to start this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw and the two men were happy to be back fighting alongside one another. KO said that he has been and always will be Sami Zayn’s biggest fan which is why he was so annoyed with his decision to be in the Bloodline. They both then said that they know what they have to do before they looked at the WrestleMania sign. The Usos then came out and Jimmy Uso made it clear that there isn’t going to be any match between the two sides at the showcase of the Immortals. However, Jey Uso had different plans and accepted the babyfaces’ challenge. The two teams then started to brawl before officials came out and separated them. The segment ended with Solo Sikoa pulling up to the show before Roman Reigns got out of the car. The tag team match at WrestleMania should be pretty fun and I thought this segment was solid.

Grade: C+

Austin Theory then made his way down to the ring as he was about to go one-on-one with the Street Profits’ Montez Ford. Both men are extremely talented individuals and they put on an entertaining showcase. The height Montez Ford gets on his dives is absolutely ridiculous whilst Austin Theory is so good at getting the crowd to boo him and cheer his opponent. In the end, Montez Ford made one mistake and Austin Theory, being the clever heel that he is, was able to take advantage and pick up the win with the A-Town Down.

Grade: B-

Omos VS Mustafa Ali, ImPaulsive TV

The Bloodline were all sitting in the back and when it looked like Jimmy Uso was about to get angry at Roman Reigns, he flipped it and said he’s angry with Sami Zayn. Roman then told the rest of the Bloodline to leave, but not Jey. We then came back from an ad break and Roman asked Jey whether he was a part of the Bloodline anymore or not. Jey said he is and before the Right Hand Man could leave, the Tribal Chief told Jey that he loves him. These two are just so good at telling stories together. It was then announced that the Street Profits, the Alpha Academy, the Viking Raiders and Braun Stroman and Ricochet will be the four men’s teams competing in the WrestleMania showcase match (what happened to the qualifiers)? Chelsea Green then walked into Adam Pearce’s office and demanded to be in the women’s one before she said that Carmella is unavailable tonight. However, Chelsea has found a replacement partner and that woman is Piper Niven. Omos then made his way down to the ring as he was about to go one-on-one with Mustafa Ali. A few weeks ago, Omos decimated Dolph Ziggler in a minute and it was horrendous. This week, Omos decimated Ali in under a minute and it was horrendous. What makes it even worse is Ali didn’t even hit one single move on Omos, not even one kick/punch. Dolph Ziggler was watching on a screen in the back during the match and after the match was over, MVP said that Brock Lesnar will fear Omos. Omos is genuinely one of the worst acts in all of WWE right now, but I’m not sure if that’s his fault.

Grade: D-

Logan Paul was walking backstage and The Miz asked him if he wants a guest on his ImPaulsive podcast. Logan said no before the Maverick made his way down to the ring. Logan Paul is very good at making the crowd know that he doesn’t care what they think and I also appreciate that you can tell that he is genuinely enjoying being in the WWE. Near the end of his promo, his mic cut out and it was revealed to be done by Seth “Freakin” Rollins who was playing around in the production truck. The Visionary then pressed a button to play his own music before he came down to the ring and started a brawl with the “Social Media Megastar”. After officials and Paul’s security broke the two up, Paul landed another “Lucky Punch” onto Rollins to leave his WrestleMania opponent laying once again. Out of all the matches to be taking place at WrestleMania, this is definitely in my top 3 matches that I’m looking forward to.

Grade: B-

Johnny Gargano VS Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley VS Bayley

We then went straight into a match between Johnny Gargano and Dominik Mysterio. Something I really liked about this contest was Johnny Gargano was wearing tape around his ribs, selling the impact of the attack from Grayson Waller last week. That’s a really big positive as NXT should be featured/mentioned more on both Raw and SmackDown. It’s pretty obvious that I think Johnny Gargano is one of the best professional wrestlers/sports entertainers in the world, but I also think that Dominik Mysterio has massively improved since joining the Judgment Day at Clash at the Castle. Mysterio was clever enough to damage Gargano in the ribs enough so he was able to get the victory when he delivered the Frog Splash to the back of the Rebel Heart.

Grade: B-

The Bloodline were waiting outside Roman Reigns’ locker room and Paul Heyman came out and told Jimmy and Jey that the Tribal Chief wants them to take the rest of the night off and eat some nice food in the private jet. However, Roman still wanted Solo with him. Edge then cut a creepy video promo where he was standing in the dark with some lit candles around him. He told Finn Balor that he wants him to leave Finn at home so he can bring the Demon to WrestleMania to face the Devil. Half the stuff the Rated-R Superstar said went over my head, but I thought that was a cool line. Rhea Ripley, who was nowhere to be seen in the last segment, came out on her own. She cut a promo about how she’s going to beat Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania before Damage CTRL’s music hit which was a nice surprise. Bayley said she was surprised that the Role Model’s name wasn’t mentioned as she knows a thing or two about beating Charlotte Flair in her first WrestleMania match. This resulted in Rhea Ripley challenging a member of Damage Control to match which the leader happily accepted. It was really nice to see WWE doing a “heel vs heel” match whilst also building two WrestleMania storylines. Rhea Ripley looked great against the measuring stick of the women’s division and when Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai tried to get involved, Becky Lynch, Lita and Trish Stratus came down to “even the odds”. However, it’s very much worth noting that even though the good guys took out Sky and Kai, Rhea didn’t need any help to beat Bayley and that showed when she planted her opponent with the Riptide. I hope we get to see a proper feud between Bayley and Ripley down the line.

Grade: B-

Ricochet VS Chad Gable, Bianca Belair and Asuka VS Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

Chad Gable was walking around looking for Otis before he saw his number 1 guy doing some sort of modeling treatment. The Master told his prized pupil that he’d got them a match at WrestleMania and he wanted his friend to give him some backup with his match against Ricochet. Maxxine Dupri then walked in and said that she’d got Otise another modeling shoot. However, Otis decided to go to the ring with Master Gable instead. This went straight into the match between Gable and Ricochet and it was pretty decent. Both guys are so good at what they do and I’m really glad that they’re going to be on WrestleMania this year, even if I still don’t understand what the point of this match is. It was a pretty even match until Maxxine Dupri came down to the ring and took Otis to the back. You could tell that the former Money in the Bank winner was conflicted over this and this signaled the beginning of the end for Chad Gable in this match as quickly after this, Ricochet picked up the win with his Shooting Star Press.

Grade: B-

We then went straight into another match as Bianca Belair and Asuka teamed together to take on Chelsea Green and Piper Niven. This was alright for what it was, but it was a proper one-sided contest. Piper Niven also felt really odd in this match, I know they needed someone to replace Carmella, but I don’t think Niven was the right choice. Bianca ended up getting the victory after hitting the K.O.D. onto Piper and even though it’s really impressive, I’ve seen Belair do that countless times on Niven both on tv and live so I don’t get why the commentary team were losing their minds. After the match, Asuka kicked Belair in the head to assert the fact that she is the heel in this story. This feud needed Asuka to start beating Belair up, but it almost feels too late. Despite this segment, I’m still not at all looking forward to their match even though it will probably be really good.

Grade: C-

Roman Reigns returns to Raw

The ending of this week’s Raw saw Roman Reigns come down to the ring accompanied by his Special Counsel Paul Heyman and the Enforcer Solo Sikoa. Before Roman could really say anything at all, Cody Rhodes’ music hit and the American Nightmare made his way down to the ring. Roman told a great story that Cody Rhodes always runs away when it gets too hard for him. He didn’t like the Stardust character so he ran away and when he was away, he started his own company that he couldn’t get over in so he ran away from there too. Cody Rhodes then fired back saying when Roman loses at WrestleMania, Jey Uso’s going to leave him. When Jey Uso leaves him, Jimmy’s going to follow. When the Usos are gone, Solo’s going to leave too and when all of them are going to go, Paul Heyman’s going to turn back into an advocate. He then finished his promo off by saying that after WrestleMania, Roman’s going to be a “Chief with no Tribe”. This clearly hit Reigns hard as he dropped his microphone and left. However, Solo Sikoa didn’t and he stood face-to-face with the American Nightmare. After Cody said that Solo isn’t ready to be a “Solo star”, Sikoa went to attack Rhodes, but Cody booted him in the face. He then tried again, but this time, Roman Reigns stopped him. I thought this was easily the best segment when it comes to building this feud for WrestleMania. Why, because both men were correct and it felt real. Cody is a terrific promo whilst Roman’s delivery of his lines and his selling of what Cody is saying just showcases why he’s been the number 1 guy for so long. This promo segment has made me so much more excited for their WrestleMania match now.

Grade: A-