We are here, guys and gals, the final Raw before the Grand-Daddy Of Them All and it kicks off with Stephanie McMahon delivering some breaking news – she tried to cut an April Fools joke about being added to the Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania, but left no room for anyone to react before admitting to April Fools.. terrible comedic timing, Steph. Come on. But her breaking news was pretty juicy by all accounts! It was that in the Triple Threat main event this Sunday at Wrestlemania 35 – All titles will be on the line. “Winner takes all!” – Damn, as if that match wasn’t “must-see” enough!
Paul Heyman & Brrrrrock Llllllesnar promo
Heyman does his usual thing, buries Brock Lesnar’s opponent beneath a flurry of carefully crafted verbal taunting and, up to this point at least, his very much credible “spoilers”. But when Rollins appears, he’s quick to explain why he will win and why no one wants Lesnar around anymore (he’s not wrong, he’s barely ever “around” anyway!), but Lesnar just smiled smugly back at him. Rollins tells Lesnar he won’t win at Wrestlemania because Rollins is fighting for himself and everyone else in the WWE Universe. Buuut Lesnar just laughs at Rollins’ speech and barges past the Beastslayer. I don’t like Lesnar’s booking. I’ve haven’t liked Lesnar’s booking since the 2002 Survivor Series match where Heyman turned on him mid-match, siding with Big Show and costing Brock the Undisputed title. Ahh. Good times. But he’s an absolute ‘Beast’ at selling! – one of the best of all time in my opinion. He is so underated in that regard; I mention that because Rollins turned Lesnar around and the two brawled, Lesnar got Rollins up for an F-5 but couldn’t get it as Rollins dropped behind Brock, crunched down and hit Lesnar right in his balls! “Low blow! Bah gawd! That was a Low Blow!” And into a beautiful superkick and Curb Stomp – this really got the point over that Rollins will do everything it takes to capture the Universal Title and bring it back home to RAW. This match build-up just got a really interesting dynamic! – BUT Seth held the title above his head! He touched it before it was his! This would indicate a spate of bad luck en route for Rollins in terms of Pro Wrestling lore, and as history would show, it’s very bad luck to touch a Championship belt before it is yours.
Boss N Hug Connection, Natalya & Beth Phoenix vs Samoan Slaughterhouse & The IIconics
Love, love, LOVE the IIconics! From NXT to now, they’ve been the most consistently entertaining women’s Tag Team in history I think. – I’ve got them to win at Wrestlemania!
Goodness me, this match was insane! Beth Phoenix kicked everybody’s ass! She drove Tamina through the barricade after Tamina messed up Beth’s move.. this made me happy as I’m no fan of Tamina’s. Beth Phoenix got the win after a monstrous Glam Slam to Peyton Royce. Absolutely awesome showing from everyone, except Nia & Tamina who just stood outside the ring all match and did a little thing here and there to distract.
Batista promo
Big Dave was a hometown hero in Washington, DC. Very mixed reaction from the hometown crowd. The lights went down and he had a spotlight, he showed a video package of his history with HHH and the fact that The Game has never beaten The Animal. After he simply looks directly into the camera and says “Hunter, kiss my ass” and ends with a Mic Drop. – I actually really liked this. Straight to the point, no messin’ about. Batista should win at Wrestlemania in my opinion. A streak against HHH is something befitting of The Animal, I think.
Apollo Crews vs Jinder Mahal in a Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal Lumberjack Match
Um.. why? I’m all for these guys getting TV time, but how random!
Every one outside was forward and touching the ring, all except EC3, who stood back and looked miserable as all Hell. Possibly taking a stand? He’s been let down twice by WWE now. This is just sad. EC3 is a main event player easily. But I digress, Apollo won. Everyone brawled and Apollo was last standing. – bit weird. Nothing special. Bit of a waste of time It in honest. Nothing ever really comes from the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal anyway. The winners of both the Men’s and the Women’s should be guaranteed a title opportunity of their choosing or something along choose lines; like Worlds Collide or a kind of diluted Royal Rumble. That’d hold people’s attention waaay more.
Kurt Angle farewell
We saw a fantastic video package of Kurt’s wonderful career that brought tears to his eyes and a monstrous “Thank you, Kurt” chant broke out. Baron Corbin interferes and says Angle can’t go more than 2 minutes in the ring without wheezing and huffing & puffing, he says he will destroy Angle at Mania and is sick of everyone saying on his Twitter that Angle deserves a better opponent for his final bout and the crowd chants “Cena! Cena!” – Angle invites Corbin to throw down right now.. But Corbin psyched him out and Rey Mysterio interferes and says he wants a match with Corbin so he can teach him some respect!
Ricochet & Aleister Black vs The Revival for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships
Tag Team Wrestling is finally at an all-time high in the WWE thanks to The Revival reviving the division and making it feel important again! These two teams are amazing together and the trade-offs were nothing short of outstanding in this one.
This was the best tag team match on the main roster in forever. Honestly. This was phenomenal! The Revival pick up the win after Dawson hid under the ring and grabbed Ricochet’s leg so he couldn’t beat the 10 count. That’s some decent Heeling right there. – this match saw so many quality moves and spots! A beautifully executed Gory Special/Bomb and an outside Tornado DDT using the barricade, both from Dash Wilder. We also saw a crazy Tope Con Hilo from ricochet over the corner post! That man is ridiculous.
After the match, Black attacked Dash with a Black Mass & then Ricochet and Black took out Dawson with their patented Black Mass 630 Senton combo and then walked away looking angry at being ‘screwed over’ TWICE when it comes to those titles. But really only once.. because The Revival only bent the rules a smidge in this one, so really they just outsmarted the NXT lads this time is all. #TopGuysOut #FTR
Ronda Rousey backstage
Ronda says she will destroy the Riott Squad tonight as Becky and Charlotte watch and she doesn’t care what stipulation they put on the match (in this case, it’s if anyone turns on their partner they forfeit their place in the main event of Wrestlemania) she will bring judgement day upon them if they provoke her. Becky, Charlotte & Ronda vs The Riott Squad coming up later on! – I just love it so much. In my opinion it’s the best story/angle WWE has worked in such a long bloody time!
Backstage
Tyler Breeze, EC3 & Alexa are laughing about SNL stuff, Braun gets mad and they sell their non-TV talent mates down the river by telling Braun it was them who were watching Weekend Update, but this ended up with the two nameless dudes getting a match with Braun later.. That’s right. Tyler Breeze & EC3’s (poet but didn’t know it) pals are getting some hands tonight. The go home before Mania. Right..
Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair & Charlotte vs The Riott Squad
If anyone on the Main Event team turns on the team, they’re out of Wrestlemania. Rousey got a bigger reaction than Becky initially. Becky got thunderous cheers, but man did the boos rain down on Ronda when her music hit!
This match ended fast when Rousey almost broke Liv Morgan’s arm, but what happened next was absolutely bloody mystifying! Ronda attacked Charlotte as soon as the bell rang for the end of the match, Becky Lynch shot back with some offense of her own, but Security came and got beaten up, but this one guy was just walking about in the ring after being hit by Charlotte and no-selling it. It was hilarious. Then the police showed up and separated the ladies, Ronnie accidentally knocks a cop over, l gets put in cuffs, so Becky takes a shot at her and smacks her in the jaw, so then Becky ends up on cuffs, Rousey is being taken away and Charlotte attacks her, the 3 women are all in handcuffs and being dragged off by 10 or so policemen and policewomen just flailing their legs towards eachother and again.. this was hilarious. It looked like the end of a messy drunken night gone wrong!
Then they got loaded into the cars by police, only it must’ve been Sergeant Silly Sausage in charge this evening as they only went and put Rousey and Lynch in the back of the same car didn’t they? Silly.. Sil.. St.. STUPID! They end up kicking eachother, with Lynch yelling “Kiss my foot!” over and over at Rousey, when trying yo kick her in the head.. “Kiss my foot”. Hilarious. Then they kicked the window out.. so they thought “Oops, better separate them!”.. They separated them by going to put Becky in with Charlotte, but as soon as they open the door, Charlotte is out and kicking Becky in the legs which just killed me. Then Rousey somehow got behind the wheel of the undercover Police car and drove it into the back of the Police cruiser so she got put back in the back, Becky got put in the cruiser & whilst Ronda had her head out of the broken window frame, Charlotte hit a flying knee on her! Looked nasty too! I really have no idea how to process or take this. It was so funny but I have no idea if it was meant to be! It was so entertaining and I can’t wait to see what happens at Wrestlemania! Honestly, this segment had me cringing and laughing and 100% paying attention all at the same time. It was perfect.
Heavy Machinery vs Gable & Roode
This match was fast but so entertaining. Otis is so naturally funny; He’s absolutely one of my favourite things on the show. Heavy Machinery crushed Gable in the Compactor and got the win. Roode looked so disappointed. Hopefully we will get the Heel run Roode should always have had out of the gate. If they’d started him as a Heel, I would bet money he’d have been multiple time World champion by now. Once Vince saw how he manipulates a crowd and owns the stage as a bad guy, he’d have pushed him to the moon I think. Fingers crossed it happens.
Braun Strowman vs Jobbers
Hey, it’s 2016 all over again!
He destroyed these guys. He ran and hit a double corner Avalanche attack and totally socked the guy at the back really hard in the mouth by accident.. and then hit a Double Powerslam! Which was pretty cool. The Jobbers kicked out of the Powerslam! Got Braun in a Magic Killer and pinned him!
Nah. That didn’t happen. Braun beat them after that sweet Double Powerslam.. But could you imagine!?
Bobby Lashley promo
Bobby is shown why Balor has a shot at his title when he beat Jinder Mahal last week. Lio said Lashley isn’t concerned, Balor hasn’t pinned Lashley yet! Balor shows up on the tron and says he’s always been a guy who’d had his “demons”. Then he changed into the Demon and roared a little whilst sticking his tongue out.. which wasn’t the most menacing face.. But The Demon vs The Almighty this Sunday! That’s cool!
Rey Mysterio vs Baron Corbin
The first RAW match for Mysterio in 5 years! Versus the best Heel in the business today. Corbin, the expert Heel that he is, gets introduced with all his accolades and Greg Hamilton tops it off with “Washington’s Favourite Son”! Which got a hugely negative reaction! The match was good. Decent back and forth and some cool counter moves that were really inventive.
Corbin won with a Deep Six, which may have moved up into a finisher position. But it was outstanding. Rey is so small in comparison to Corbin that he just spun round like a pocket fan! It could also be an indication that Kurt Angle simply cannot take the End of Days as well as he’d hoped (I’ve always thought it looked equally as hard to take and do) so they wanted to give the Deep Six a legitimate feel before Wrestlemania, where he will emerge victorious and become the most despised man in Professional Wrestling! Kurt Angle did come out and lock the Ankle Lock on Corbin on the ramp and didn’t let go when Corbin tapped.. So there’s a good chance that will wrote Corbin off as “not cleared to compete” and instead have Cena face Angle. I’d be gutted for Corbin if that was the case but from a full-circle point of view, I would 110% get it.
Conclusion
8.5/10 🌟
Really enjoyed this. It hit all the marks for me bar the weird Lumberjack Match & Strowman vs Jobber air time wastage he was doing years ago! But overall it was a great show and I’m left feeling super pumped for Mania, especially my share of the Triple Threat review of Mania is Demon vs Almighty, Rollins vs Brock, Mysterio vs Joe and Buddy Murphy vs Tony Nese. All championship matches and all matches I’m richly invested in now. No word on the tag titles though which is strange
Match of the Night: For me was easily the Revival vs Black and Ricoche match. It was absolutely stunning, I’m concerned there’s no plans for them at Wrestlemania though after this incredible showing. But that 8 Woman Tag though! Every woman elevated the meaning of the belts and I’m so pumped to see their clash.. my bet is that it is going to be “IICONIC!” – but seeing Beth Phoenix whoop everybody was ace!
Annoyance of the Night: just the wasted airtime really. Felt like there could be more done with people like Breeze and EC3 too.
Have a lovely week and here’s wishing you a Merry Mania weekend too! Thanks for stopping by, I’ll catch you next week for the aftermath of mania! Peace! ✌🏻
CB
