Cody Rhodes and John Cena Come Face-to-Face, The New Day VS ?
Monday Night Raw kicked off this week with John Cena once again coming out first, except this time, Cody Rhodes was also there straight away! This promo exchange was basically Cena ripping into Cody about how plain and boring he truly is behind the entrance, and that it’s a disgrace to see someone mediocre walk around with something great (the Undisputed WWE Championship)! Rhodes then brought up the fact that John is the most company guy ever, and that despite everything, at least he doesn’t hear chants like “You can’t wrestle”! This angered Cena who tried to take a shot at Rhodes, but this just led to The American Nightmare laying out the 16-time World Champion with a Cross Rhodes! This was another really good segment between these two, I thought what John Cena said was superb, and Cody’s delivery was strong!
Grade: A-
The New Day were out for the first match of the night as their mystery opponents were revealed to be none other than New Catch Republic! It was great to see Tyler Bate back in action after his long time away due to injury, he is a very good Professional Wrestler, and him and Pete Dunne always work well together. However, it was a bit weird seeing them just back together like this when you consider what Dunne’s character has been since Bate’s injury, but it is what it is. Ultimately, this was about putting The New Day over, and that’s exactly what happened as Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods delivered their Tag Team finisher to get the win. After the match, Kofi and Woods called out The War Raiders, saying they want a shot at the World Tag Team Championships!
Grade: B-
Gunther VS Jimmy Uso, Bron Breakker and Penta VS The Judgment Day, AJ Styles and Logan Paul Come Face-to-Face
Jimmy Uso made it clear to Jey Uso that he wants to face Gunther alone, but Jey told Jimmy that he has to be careful! This then led into the next match as Jimmy Uso took on the World Heavyweight Champion! As expected, Gunther wiped the floor with Jimmy, he destroyed him for almost the entire match, but he refused to cover him properly to send a clear message to his WrestleMania opponent! Eventually, Gunther choked Uso out to get the ring before he kept the submission hold going, resulting in Jey Uso running down to make the save! However, that plan failed miserably as Gunther zip-tied Jey’s hand to the ring ropes as he forced Uso to watch The Ring General destroy his Twin brother! It got so bad that Jimmy was eventually bleeding, but Gunther decided to continue the onslaught before he rubbed Big Jim’s blood onto his own body! This was pretty vicious from The Ring General, but this segment couldn’t have gone any other way! It was very effective, and it only adds to their WrestleMania encounter!
Grade: B
After a quick trip into The Judgment Day Clubhouse, Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio were ready to team up to take on the duo of Bron Breakker and Penta! The wrestling here was decent, all four men can go in the ring, and The Judgment Day definitely did more than I would’ve expected! Bron and Penta also worked well as a duo, but I don’t think that’s a surprise given Breakker’s track record when it comes to gelling well with others, but ultimately, Finn managed to avoid Bron who delivered a Spear to Penta, opening the door for Balor to nail the masked superstar with a Coup de Grace to get the shock win! I definitely didn’t expect this, but that’s a good thing!
Grade: B-
Chad Gable handed in another sick note to Adam Pearce, but he then tried to prove that he’s actually feeling better after realising that next week’s show takes place in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota! Pearce said his hands were tied, but he did like the idea of El Grande Americano wrestling instead! Maxxine Dupri then spoke to Pearce about potential Tag Team opportunities for her and Natalya before Bron Breakker and Penta got into it backstage! AJ Styles was then out next as he was ready for his face-to-face confrontation with Logan Paul! Both AJ and Logan started the segment by saying they forgive one another, but it was clear that neither man was being sincere, and Logan basically spent the entire segment trashing the London crowd and calling them poor! Styles had clearly had enough of this, and this led to them agreeing to fight each other at WrestleMania, only for The Maverick to drop The Phenomenal One with the “Paulveriser”! This segment was fine, nothing much else to add, other than Logan delivered his lines well!
Grade: C+
Women’s World Championship: Iyo Sky VS Rhea Ripley
After Lyra Valkyria announced that she’ll be facing Bayley for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship next week, and Liv Morgan seemed interested in getting Dominik Mysterio an Intercontinental Championship match after Finn Balor initially made his intentions clear, it was Main Event time as Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley clashed for the Women’s World Championship in a match where Bianca Belair was the Special Guest Referee! This was alright, the in-ring action between Iyo and Rhea got better as the match went on, but as expected, this was far too focused on Bianca Belair’s involvement! Rhea continuously got angry at Bianca every time she failed to count to 3, and not only did an “accidental” kick potentially cost Ripley the win following a Riptide, but she also then just punched Belair anyway! Iyo also accidentally nailed Belair with a missile dropkick, and this just led to The EST calling for the double DQ finish! This pissed Rhea off who went after both Belair and Sky, leaving them both laying with a pair of Riptide’s!
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