We are just 13 nights away from WrestleMania 35, with only two more RAWs to go there’s a lot to unpack. First, we open with the news that WrestleMania 35 will be the first WrestleMania to host a women’s main event for the RAW Women’s Championship.
Ronda comes out first to a chorus of boos along with “we want Becky” chants. Ronda cuts a very quick heel promo where she claims she will make Becky and Charlotte tap out at the same time, which I would love to see by the way. Becky comes out next to the loudest pop I’ve heard for a superstar in recent memory. It is incredible how over Becky is right now, between her and Kofi they are running the company right now. Becky cuts a fantastic promo, as she has been doing for the past several weeks, followed quickly by Charlotte.
The first match is a beat the clock challenge featuring Ronda vs. Sarah Logan, Becky vs. Liv Morgan, and Charlotte vs. Ruby Riott. Ronda and Sarah have a very quick match that only lasts 1:25. It is clear they are trying to build up Ronda’s dominance ahead of the Triple Threat main event at WrestleMania, she handled Sarah very quickly while showcasing her talents during the match ending in an arm bar. Ruby leads for most of the match, Charlotte is able to get Ruby in the figure eight but is unable to beat the clock. Before Becky’s match, Charlotte kicks her in the face hard to give Liv Morgan a huge advantage as she dominates at the start of the match. Becky manages to rally and pin Liv Morgan with 7 seconds to go, winning the beat the clock challenge. I’m so glad Becky won, however, there is a paranoid side of me that thinks WWE is building Becky up to eventually tear her down and have Ronda win at WrestleMania, but we shall see.
The next match is a 2 on 1 handicap match between Finn Balor against Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush, if Balor wins, he gets an Intercontinental Title opportunity at WrestleMania. Lio Rush comes out to cut a promo while Finn is ring side. He sideswipes Rob Gronkowski which really gets the crowd riled up, which for me was pretty funny to see; he al so informs Finn that he is not medically cleared for the match so Jinder Mahal will be taking his place, meaning it will be Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley and Jinder Mahal.
Finn barely gets any momentum as the match starts, Lashley and Mahal tag back and forth to take out Finn. Finn manages to get his rhythm going despite some interference from the Singh brothers. Finn suicide dives and takes out Mahal, Lashley, and the Singh’s, Finn then gets Mahal back in the ring, and gets off a coup de gras for the win. Lashley takes out his frustration by beating up the Singh brothers. The match is very quick, one sign of the shows leading up to WrestleMania is that many of the matches are short to keep everyone fresh for the big day. Nevertheless, Finn always puts on quality matches, I’m looking forward to him against Lashley at WrestleMania, though I’m dubious of his chances of winning.
Next is a quick segment with Elias in time square talking about how great he is and not wanting to be in Boston, it’s over very quick as we move to the next match.
Aleister Black and Ricochet make their way to the ring to face off against The Revival. Before the match begins Black and Ricochet starts beating down on The Revival. As the match starts, Black and Scott Dawson go at it as he and Ricochet trade off to take out Dawson. Ricochet does his patented high flying moves which have become a staple of Monday Night RAW for the past few weeks. Dash Wilder tags in and manages to put a series of submission moves on Ricochet, followed by Dawson who continues to punish Ricochet. Dash tags back in but Ricochet is able to get off a neck breaker as Black and Dawson both tag in. Black pummels Dawson with a series of strikes but Dawson counters with a DDT.
Wilder tags but Black manages to pull of a Black Mass on both members of The Revival, Ricochet then pulls off a 640 on Wilder and pins him for the win. Black and Ricochet have been one of the best things to happen to the main card recently, they’ve been electric and all of their matches have been a pleasure to watch. I’m hoping we get to see them at WrestleMania, it’s probably to early to give them the tag championship, but it would prove to be the biggest (and possibly best) surprise at Mania.
Drew McIntyre comes out next. He continues to call our Roman Reigns, in one of the most diabolical moves in recent heel history. He claims Roman is weak and afraid to take on McIntyre. All of this is an incredible recipe for Roman to have a triumphant victory at WrestleMania which will probably be amazing, and to be fair McIntyre is doing great at being a terrible human to build up this match. He continues to call out “Joe” in a weird work-shoot promo where he pulls out the Samoa Joe move of calling out, not only Roman, but his wife and children; again, he is playing an amazing terrible human being. Eventually the music hits and the crowd goes nuts for Roman. Roman squares up against McIntyre and tells him that he accepts the challenge. He also tells McIntyre to never talk about his family ever again and starts beating up on McIntyre.
This is very reminiscent of the AJ/Samoa Joe storyline of last year, I’m not sure why WWE likes this storyline but it does work. McIntyre gets a low blow on Roman and then Claymore kicks Roman. I think their match at WrestleMania will be a good one, it’s a quick story to put together but it works, and they match up very well against each other, being two large humans.
Dean Ambrose confronts McIntyre and challenges him to a match tonight, for what he said about Dean.
Next out are the Boss-Hug Connection, Sasha and Bayley, I don’t love their tag tame name, especially when they could’ve done something like the Bank Buddies, but I digress. Sasha is going up against Natalya who is accompanied by Beth Phoenix. As with most matches tonight, it starts off slow with Sasha and Natalya trading submission moves. The match is broken up by Nia Jax and Tamina who beat up on Sasha and Natalya. Beth Phoenix comes in and takes out Nia Jax and glams slams Tamina. Beth Phoenix looks great and gets a cheer of “you still got it” chants.
After the match we get the news that The Hart Foundation will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Natalya looks touched by the news and it’s a really sweet moment as she is in the middle of the ring while the crowd cheers for her father. This must be hard for Natalya but there’s something nice about her getting to carry on her dad’s legacy.
Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin have quick moment backstage where Angle basically tells Corbin to screw off. While it makes sense for the storyline to have Angle end his career by finishing off Corbin, it doesn’t feel satisfying, we’ll see what happens over the next two weeks.
There is another quick backstage segment where Sasha and Bayley challenge both Beth Phoenix and Natalya as well as Nia Jax and Tamina for the Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Next is A Moment of Bliss with special guests Michael Che, Colin Jost, and Braun Strowman. Strowman is live with Alexa Bliss while Michael and Colin are joining via satellite. There is a lot of back and forth, but the exchange ends with Michael and Colin joining the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which should prove to be interesting.
The next match is Baron Corbin vs. Apollo Crews. The match is very quick, Apollo tries to take out Corbin early and almost gets the pin fall but Corbin is able to counter with the end of days to get the quick win. I’m not hopefully that the Corbin-Angle match will be a satisfying end but perhaps there will be some addition or surprise over the next two weeks to make the match more exciting.
Seth Rollins comes out next to talk about his match against Brock Lesnar. Paul Heyman comes out to interrupt Seth Rollins. Heyman is very good at building up matches and he does the same thing here. He calls out Rollins for relying on the WWE universe. He cuts an incredibly compelling promo and turns up the heel to 11. I’m not sure how I feel about this match but I’m hoping Seth can win and finally end Lesnar’s reign, but would not be surprised if Brock held onto the title. The best part is as Heyman leaves Seth Rollins chases down Heyman and Heyman beings to cower as he falls to the ground. At the end of his promo Seth drops the mic onto Paul Heyman which proved for some great visual comedy.
Immediately after, Kurt Angle comes out and directs the “you suck” chants to Paul Heyman, a nice touch. The next match is Kurt Angle vs. Samoa Joe.
Samoa Joe comes out and cuts his best Samoa Joe promo, he might have one of the best mic skills in WWE. He dominates early in the match as Angle can’t get anything started. Joe throws Angle out of the ring and follows up with a suicide dive. Angle manages to get in the ring and put some German suplexes on Samoa Joe. Angle tries to follow up with an Angle Slam but can’t get the pin fall. Angle gets a missile dropkick on Joe but Joe counters with a coquina clutch. Angle manages to get into a bridge and pins Joe for the win. The match was okay, this probably would’ve proven a better Mania match than Corbin/Angle but we shall see.
Triple H comes out to the ring, he thanks the crowd for giving him a standing ovation over the commercial break which was fun. He thanks all the women wrestlers for all the work they did to lead up to the Women’s Main Event at WrestleMania. Triple H pulls out a letter from Batista’s lawyer saying that he won’t compete at WrestleMania, unless Triple H puts his career on the line. Triple H agrees while telling everyone that Batista is a self-involved douchebag, which is a pretty strong statement.
The final match of the night is a Last Man Standing match between Dean Ambrose and Drew McIntyre. McIntyre gets Ambrose over the ropes early as beats him down as the ref makes it to the count of 8 before he gets up. McIntyre gets a kendo stick and starts wailing on Dean Ambrose and even stabs Ambrose in the eye. Ambrose gets McIntyre over the ropes and suicide dives onto McIntyre. The fight stays outside of the ring and McIntyre brutalizes Ambrose with the stairs and even launches him onto the bottom steel bar of the ring. McIntyre puts Ambrose back into the ring and sets him up to be rammed by a chair, but Ambrose counters with a Dirty Deeds. Ambrose takes out the table and sets it up in the corner of the ring. McIntyre manages to get up and slams Ambrose into the table, Ambrose gets up but takes a Claymore kick right to the face, which knocks him out for ten count. It was a quick Last Man Standing match but it was very intense.
So that’s it for this week, the WrestleMania card seems to be set on the RAW side except for what exactly is going to happen with the Men’s Tag Team. It is going to be a very interesting, and very long, WrestleMania. With only 13 days to go this was a very good show to set the stage for the penultimate show before WrestleMania.
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