Logan Paul Starts the Show, Penta VS Pete Dunne VS Ludwig Kaiser
Monday Night Raw kicked off this week with Logan Paul coming out in his home state of Ohio as Logan made it crystal clear that he’s going to win the Elimination Chamber on Saturday! This brought out CM Punk who reminded his rival that whilst he’s a legend, Paul is just a nobody! The segment then ended with Logan slapping Punk, and that was an interesting way to go! This wasn’t a particularly long segment, the formula was pretty simple, but I still thought it was decent enough, mainly because both Punk and Paul are similar than they might care to admit!
Grade: C+
It was then time for the first match of the night as Penta, Pete Dunne, and Ludwig Kaiser clashed in a Triple Threat match. There wasn’t anything to this, it was simply made because all 3 men dislike each other, and that’s more than okay! This was completely done to make Penta look as strong as possible, and in my opinion, this was his best performance to date! The dives that the Luchador managed to pull out were particularly impressive, but more than anything, I loved the ending! See, Penta had Pete Dunne in position for the Penta Driver, but Ludwig Kaiser chucked him out of the ring before Kaiser nailed Dunne with a DDT to get the unlikely 1,2,3! That was definitely not what I expected!
Grade: B-
The New Day VS The LWO, Gunther VS Akira Tozawa, Lyra Valkyria VS Dakota Kai: Women’s Intercontinental Championship
After Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley cut their own promos about heading into WrestleMania as the Women’s World Champion, it was time for a Tag Team match as The New Day squared off with The LWO! As expected, the wrestling here was decent, all four men are talented in-ring competitors, but this wasn’t anything more than a way to give The New Day an easy victory! Despite the best efforts of Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods were able to pick up the win with their finisher before Dragon Lee tried and failed to make the post-match save!
Grade: C+
Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were once again at each other in The Judgment Day Clubhouse before Gunther came down to the ring to give the people in attendance a show! See, Gunther was willing to have a match with Akira Tozawa after watching Tozawa dance earlier in the night, and this was just a lot of fun! There was nothing to it, it was just Tozawa being beaten up by the World Heavyweight Champion, but there was something very enjoyable about it! After Gunther got the win, The Ring General also took out Otis, leading to Jey Uso running down to make the save!
Grade: B-
It was then time for another contest as Lyra Valkyria put her Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line against Dakota Kai! This was a good match, both women are really talented, and I thought this was a really even contest throughout! There was parts where Lyra was in control, and there was also moments where Dakota was closing in on a victory. In the end, though, it was Valkyria who managed to retain her Women’s IC Title after nailing Kai with a super Nightwing! After the match, Ivy Nile arrived and floored both Dakota and Lyra!
Grade: B-
Bron Breakker VS Dominik Mysterio, Seth “Freakin” Rollins Interrupts Cody Rhodes
Sami Zayn had a sit-down interview with Jackie Redmond where he talked about the fact that he also went to Kevin Owens’ house last week and ultimately had a chat with his Mom! This made Sami realise that both him and Kevin are unrecognisable right now, and that’s a scary thought come Toronto! Bron Breakker was then out next as he was ready to go one-on-one with Dominik Mysterio! As expected, Bron was far too quick and powerful for Dominik to contain, but Mysterio would still get plenty of offense in thanks to interference from the rest of The Judgment Day! Ultimately, this match ended in a DQ as Finn Balor and Carlito sent Breakker crashing into the steel steps, but the Intercontinental Champion was still able to fight back before Balor reeled away!
Grade: C+
American Made were delighted with themselves backstage before The War Raiders attacked them because they could! Cody Rhodes was then out next to talk about his SmackDown interaction with The Rock, and Cody made an interesting point about how his upcoming decision affects a lot more people than just himself! This is when Seth “Freakin” Rollins interrupted to tell Rhodes that he’s not impressed with how The American Nightmare has handled this situation, and that he’ll start to regret helping Cody become the Undisputed WWE Champion if he decides to take up The Rock’s offer! Rhodes then reminded Rollins of who he is and what he’s done in the past before Seth made it clear that no matter what, he’s coming for the WWE Title at WrestleMania! This was a good segment, Seth Rollins was the perfect person to have this type of segment with Cody Rhodes, and I found it to be quite interesting!
Grade: B
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Bianca Belair and Naomi VS Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
After Jey Uso interacted with A-Town Down Under, it was Main Event time as Bianca Belair and Naomi put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez! This was a good match, it had plenty of drama, particularly towards the end, and it definitely kept us guessing too which is great. I thought Liv had got the win at one point with the ObLIVion, but that got broken up, and I also thought Bianca had gotten the win with a K.O.D., but Raquel was there to break things up too! We did have a bit where Dominik Mysterio put Morgan’s foot on the rope, and there’s no way that the referee didn’t see that, but moving that to one side, after Raquel sent Belair crashing onto the announce table, Rodriguez was able to incidentally slam Naomi’s head onto the ring post, allowing Morgan to just get the cover and the victory to crown The Judgment Day as the brand-new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions! I was very surprised that Bianca and Naomi lost this way, I thought they were certainly going to be “cost” by Jade Cargill, but I am happy to see Liv and Raquel as Champs!
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