The RAW after Elimination Chamber officially means we’re in ramp up season for WrestleMania. No more PPVs to build for, just the show of shows. Finally, Edge made his return to TV after the assaults by Randy Orton on himself and eventually his wife Beth Phoenix. The RAW Women’s Championship match is set for ‘Mania after Baszler demolished the entire Women’s division in the Chamber on Sunday. It’s now up to the undercard to be set, lets see how RAW did that (and whether it was worth watching) below.
Fast-Count Results
Rey Mysterio def. Angel Garza
Bobby Lashley def. Zach Ryder
Drew MacIntyre def. Erick Rowan
Kabuki Warriors def. Liv Morgan and Natalya
Riddick Moss def. Cedric Alexander
Aleister Black def. Seth Rollins (DQ)
Seth Rollins/AOP/Murphy def. Viking Raiders/Street Profits.
Rundown
Becky Lynch Promo
Watch. Fresh off of Shayna Baszler’s dominant, if uninspiring performance at Elimination Chamber, her Wrestlemania foe comes out to address their future title match. Becky Lynch lists off all of Shayna’s career accolades until tearing her down. She calls Shayna a world-class scumbag and a blackhole of charisma. She says people like here aren’t supposed to beat trained killers like Baszler, but she has (Ronda Rousey) and she will again. It was a good Becky Lynch segment, featuring her usual abundance of cocky charisma, but didn’t reach the obnoxious, meme glasses wearing douchebaggery of recent weeks.
Becky Lynch Promo
Watch. Fresh off of Shayna Baszler’s dominant, if uninspiring performance at Elimination Chamber, her Wrestlemania foe comes out to address their future title match. Becky Lynch lists off all of Shayna’s career accolades until tearing her down. She calls Shayna a world-class scumbag and a blackhole of charisma. She says people like here aren’t supposed to beat trained killers like Baszler, but she has (Ronda Rousey) and she will again. It was a good Becky Lynch segment, featuring her usual abundance of cocky charisma, but didn’t reach the obnoxious, meme glasses wearing douchebaggery of recent weeks.
Rey Mysterio vs Angel Garza
Watch. In a world stricken by Covid-19, where does Angel Garza get off getting random kisses from people in the crowd? Sanitation aside, this was a great match, if not a rehash of a lot of what you’ve seen the last month or so.
Garza takes control early when he delivers a masterful super kick to Rey’s face as the luchador tried to leap over him from the top rope. Garza then goes for the 619 on Mysterio but suffers a devastating kick to the face for his hubris. The last few minutes of this match continue to remind you how good Mysterio still is at his age. He hits senton after senton on Garza until he also goes for the 619. Garza ducks it and nails Rey again with a fantastic super kick. The counter only delayed the inevitable, as Rey eventually hits the 619 to frog splash combo to snag the win and a modicum of revenge.
Kevin Owens Backstage.
Watch. A short segment shows Kevin Owens arriving to the arena, only to be met by the AOP, Murphy and a popcorn eating Seth Rollins. KO chucks his suitcase at one of the members of the AOP and the fists start flying. The numbers catch up to the valiant babyface and the segment ends with a ref calling for a medic for the beaten-up Owens.
Bobby Lashley vs Zach Ryder
Skip. Quick squash. Lashley with the win
Erik Rowan vs Drew MacIntyre
Skip. Since the pay-off for the whole “what’s in Rowan’s cage” angle was so piss poor, you know what time it is? It’s squash time! Literally as MacIntyre uses the ring steps to squash the cage. Two-minutes and a Claymore later and that storyline was put to rest.
Kabuki Warriors vs Natalya and Liv Morgan
Skip. I cannot believe my eyes. The Women’s Tag Team belts being defended on RAW? Basically, it’s a match-up of most of the women choked out by Shayna Baszler in the last week. It shows the state of the women’s tag division that a team that has never wrestled together can challenge for the belts with 0 build.
Anyways, part way through the match, Ruby Riott comes out to keep her eyes on Liv Morgan and the match, she is eventually joined by Sarah Logan. The Kabuki Warriors spend a large amount of the match, working over Natalya’s arm. As Natalya starts looking for the hot tag, the former Riott squad members begin to brawl on the outside. Morgan dives and hits them from the top rope, laying all three out on the outside of the ring and leaving Natalya to fend for herself. She puts San into the figure four, not realizing she had tagged in Asuka, which allows the “Empress of Tomorrow” to punt her in the head to pick up the pin-fall.
The OC promo
Watch. AJ Styles kind of says what we’ve all been thinking. That the Undertaker should have hung up his boots after his Wrestlemania loss. He doesn’t see the mythical monster, or the phenom… he sees a broken-down old man named Mark Calloway. Then, the promo takes a bit of a dark side. Styles tears into Michelle McCool (Undertaker’s wife if you didn’t know) saying she’s conniving and that this is her fault. AJ says, he’s going to make Undertaker die in the ring. It’s nice to see the OC look like bastards rather than annoying dorks, so I was a big fan of this promo.
Riddick Moss vs Cedric Alexander
Skip. Abolish the 24/7 championship. It was nice for a bit when R-Truth and Drake Maverick carried the title on sheer charisma alone. Suspending the rules for a match, literally goes against what the title is for. Anyways, Moss consummates this win with a neck breaker.
MVP promo/Edge
Watch/Skip. MVP says he’s looking for a client as he transitions from his in-ring career to his post wrestling career. He wants Edge to be his client. As he talks, Edge arrives and grabs the mic. He beckons at Randy Orton. Telling him to “grow a pair” and get his ass down to the ring. MVP runs him down for ignoring him, leading to Edge hitting him with a spear. This is when Orton tries to seize the opportunity and jump Edge, but the rated R superstar hits him with the RKO. Randy flees the ring as Edge tosses steel chairs of retribution into the ring, but they are still put to good use. Edge chokes out MVP, RKOs him on a chair and hits him with the con-chair-to twice – all while staring down Orton. This was great, but also strange at the same time. Although MVP invoked his wife, this was not very babyface of Edge. Yes, it’s nice to see the intensity, but the use of chairs on someone either than Orton was unnecessary.
HHH Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Skip. I typically don’t talk about these minor, pre-recorded segments, but HHH said something that resonated with me. In his acceptance speech, he said life is like the gym. The effort you put into it, is the reward you get out of it. Funny, he didn’t mention anything about banging the bosses daughter but I digress…
Seth Rollins vs Aleister Black
Watch. After Seth had tried to recruit Black and was quickly turned down, this match was set-up for the night. The two start off with one of those transitional wrestling, dick measuring contests, where both guys go for their finishers in the first 30-seconds but both guys avoid it and stare each other down respectfully. This was a pretty good match until Murphy breaks up a pin-fall attempt to throw out the match. Afterwards, Rollins calls out the AOP to beat down Black. After a suplex/power-bomb combo, the Viking Raiders and the Street Profits came out for the save. This transitions to…
Seth Rollins, Murphy, the AOP vs Viking Raiders and the Street Profits.
Watch. This was a reminder of how good all these tag teams were in NXT, and what they should be doing on the main roster. Montez Ford is excellent, and I hope he doesn’t have his career relegated to the R-Truth part of the card. There is a nice moment where Erik stares down a member of the AOP outside the ring, but Murphy hits him with a meteora from the apron. The Viking Raider is beat down by all the members of the heel team until he finally hits a hot tag on Montez Ford. He bursts from the corner hitting cross-bodies, drop-kicks and a standing moonsault to the delight of the crowd. The last few minutes of this match are absolute chaos with everyone hitting their big moves, until Rollins finally hits Ford with the stomp. As Seth celebrates, Owens comes out to get revenge from the earlier attack. A couple stunners later and Owens is finally beaten down by the heels, leaving Seth to stand tall at the end of the night.
Watch. In a world stricken by Covid-19, where does Angel Garza get off getting random kisses from people in the crowd? Sanitation aside, this was a great match, if not a rehash of a lot of what you’ve seen the last month or so.
Garza takes control early when he delivers a masterful super kick to Rey’s face as the luchador tried to leap over him from the top rope. Garza then goes for the 619 on Mysterio but suffers a devastating kick to the face for his hubris. The last few minutes of this match continue to remind you how good Mysterio still is at his age. He hits senton after senton on Garza until he also goes for the 619. Garza ducks it and nails Rey again with a fantastic super kick. The counter only delayed the inevitable, as Rey eventually hits the 619 to frog splash combo to snag the win and a modicum of revenge.
Kevin Owens Backstage.
Watch. A short segment shows Kevin Owens arriving to the arena, only to be met by the AOP, Murphy and a popcorn eating Seth Rollins. KO chucks his suitcase at one of the members of the AOP and the fists start flying. The numbers catch up to the valiant babyface and the segment ends with a ref calling for a medic for the beaten-up Owens.
Bobby Lashley vs Zach Ryder
Skip. Quick squash. Lashley with the win
Erik Rowan vs Drew MacIntyre
Skip. Since the pay-off for the whole “what’s in Rowan’s cage” angle was so piss poor, you know what time it is? It’s squash time! Literally as MacIntyre uses the ring steps to squash the cage. Two-minutes and a Claymore later and that storyline was put to rest.
Kabuki Warriors vs Natalya and Liv Morgan
Skip. I cannot believe my eyes. The Women’s Tag Team belts being defended on RAW? Basically, it’s a match-up of most of the women choked out by Shayna Baszler in the last week. It shows the state of the women’s tag division that a team that has never wrestled together can challenge for the belts with 0 build.
Anyways, part way through the match, Ruby Riott comes out to keep her eyes on Liv Morgan and the match, she is eventually joined by Sarah Logan. The Kabuki Warriors spend a large amount of the match, working over Natalya’s arm. As Natalya starts looking for the hot tag, the former Riott squad members begin to brawl on the outside. Morgan dives and hits them from the top rope, laying all three out on the outside of the ring and leaving Natalya to fend for herself. She puts San into the figure four, not realizing she had tagged in Asuka, which allows the “Empress of Tomorrow” to punt her in the head to pick up the pin-fall.
The OC promo
Watch. AJ Styles kind of says what we’ve all been thinking. That the Undertaker should have hung up his boots after his Wrestlemania loss. He doesn’t see the mythical monster, or the phenom… he sees a broken-down old man named Mark Calloway. Then, the promo takes a bit of a dark side. Styles tears into Michelle McCool (Undertaker’s wife if you didn’t know) saying she’s conniving and that this is her fault. AJ says, he’s going to make Undertaker die in the ring. It’s nice to see the OC look like bastards rather than annoying dorks, so I was a big fan of this promo.
Riddick Moss vs Cedric Alexander
Skip. Abolish the 24/7 championship. It was nice for a bit when R-Truth and Drake Maverick carried the title on sheer charisma alone. Suspending the rules for a match, literally goes against what the title is for. Anyways, Moss consummates this win with a neck breaker.
MVP promo/Edge
Watch/Skip. MVP says he’s looking for a client as he transitions from his in-ring career to his post wrestling career. He wants Edge to be his client. As he talks, Edge arrives and grabs the mic. He beckons at Randy Orton. Telling him to “grow a pair” and get his ass down to the ring. MVP runs him down for ignoring him, leading to Edge hitting him with a spear. This is when Orton tries to seize the opportunity and jump Edge, but the rated R superstar hits him with the RKO. Randy flees the ring as Edge tosses steel chairs of retribution into the ring, but they are still put to good use. Edge chokes out MVP, RKOs him on a chair and hits him with the con-chair-to twice – all while staring down Orton. This was great, but also strange at the same time. Although MVP invoked his wife, this was not very babyface of Edge. Yes, it’s nice to see the intensity, but the use of chairs on someone either than Orton was unnecessary.
HHH Award from Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Skip. I typically don’t talk about these minor, pre-recorded segments, but HHH said something that resonated with me. In his acceptance speech, he said life is like the gym. The effort you put into it, is the reward you get out of it. Funny, he didn’t mention anything about banging the bosses daughter but I digress…
Seth Rollins vs Aleister Black
Watch. After Seth had tried to recruit Black and was quickly turned down, this match was set-up for the night. The two start off with one of those transitional wrestling, dick measuring contests, where both guys go for their finishers in the first 30-seconds but both guys avoid it and stare each other down respectfully. This was a pretty good match until Murphy breaks up a pin-fall attempt to throw out the match. Afterwards, Rollins calls out the AOP to beat down Black. After a suplex/power-bomb combo, the Viking Raiders and the Street Profits came out for the save. This transitions to…
Seth Rollins, Murphy, the AOP vs Viking Raiders and the Street Profits.
Watch. This was a reminder of how good all these tag teams were in NXT, and what they should be doing on the main roster. Montez Ford is excellent, and I hope he doesn’t have his career relegated to the R-Truth part of the card. There is a nice moment where Erik stares down a member of the AOP outside the ring, but Murphy hits him with a meteora from the apron. The Viking Raider is beat down by all the members of the heel team until he finally hits a hot tag on Montez Ford. He bursts from the corner hitting cross-bodies, drop-kicks and a standing moonsault to the delight of the crowd. The last few minutes of this match are absolute chaos with everyone hitting their big moves, until Rollins finally hits Ford with the stomp. As Seth celebrates, Owens comes out to get revenge from the earlier attack. A couple stunners later and Owens is finally beaten down by the heels, leaving Seth to stand tall at the end of the night.