Monday Night Raw comes live to us tonight from the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma!
Universal Title Picture
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman kicked off tonight’s edition of Monday Night Raw. Paul does his usual shtick but in doing so, he put Finn Balor over huge. Heyman says Finn is an opponent that Brock has not trained for and that’s why Finn believes. Paul says he will be sacrificed for the sin of believing. This was an amazing promo, a great way to set up the Universal title match at the Royal Rumble with only a weeks notice.
Vince McMahon came out after Heyman’s promo. He told the story of David vs Goliath, saying David was reincarnated into Finn Balor (weird?). Vince says if the fans believe in fairy tales then you believe Finn can beat Brock.
Braun Strowman’s music hits and out comes the Monster Among Men. Braun was taken out of the Universal title match last week by Vince. Strowman says if Brock’s still champ after Sunday, he’s waiting for him. Finn’s music hits now and weird enough, he does his whole entrance (not the time). Finn says he believes and the Balor Club believes. Vince makes Braun Strowman vs Finn Balor up next.
A solid segment not only to kick off the show but to also to build the Universal title match for this weekend on such short notice.
The match was fun and ended when Balor hit Strowman with the coupe de grace. Lesnar came in the ring before Finn could cover him and hit Balor with an F5. Balor wins via DQ. I can’t wait for Balor vs Lesnar. I believe this will be one of, if not the best match on the whole Royal Rumble card.
Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre
Seth came out to cut a promo before his match. He says despite having a broken family (the Shield) and no titles, he will win the Royal Rumble this Sunday. Drew comes out and tells Seth that he’ll be eliminated by him while the ring announcer announces Drew as the winner of the Royal Rumble.
The match started during the commercial break. This match was back and forth with several high spots and solid offense. The match ended when Seth hooked Drew with a deep roll up for the win. Awesome match put right in the middle of Raw. In my somewhat professional opinion, one of these two men will win the Royal Rumble.
A Moment of Bliss
Alexa Bliss’ A Moment of Bliss kicked off with introducing every woman in the Royal Rumble this year. Kind of weird because every woman is going to be in the Rumble because there aren’t 30 women on the main roster. Bliss introduces Nia Jax to the stage but Ember Moon interrupts and says she’ll win the Royal Rumble. This brought out Alicia Fox and then Mickie James and then the Riott Squad (you get the point).
Every woman in the Rumble match came out and then started brawling and everyone ended up fighting backstage. Alexa Bliss then announced that she will enter the Royal Rumble. This is great because no one knew when Alexa would come back so it’s nice to know she’ll return this Sunday. Lacey Evans came out and made her presence felt as well.
Raw Tag Team Titles
The Revival got this match by asking Vince McMahon for a rematch. Curt Hawkins is also the referee in this match. This was an alright match but this story sucks. Give the Revival the titles or let them out of their contracts. Also, Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder are back together.
Ronda Rousey & Natalya vs Sasha Banks & Bayley
This was the night’s main event. Ronda has to be held back from Banks before the match begins. Sasha cuts a promo saying Ronda got handed everything and that she’s in the ring every day and is a worthy opponent. She says she’ll tap out Ronda the same way she did Nia.
Sasha hits Ronda with a cheap shot as the match starts. Banks and Rousey had a good sequence in the match and the finish came when Sasha rolled Natalya up in the bank statement for the submission victory. The show ended with Banks and Rousey being held back from each other in the middle of the ring.
Overall, this was on okay episode of Raw. The opening segment and first match of the show overshadowed everything else tonight, making it drag in certain places. For a go-home episode, I think WWE could have done more in certain areas.
Here’s to a great episode of SmackDown Live tomorrow night!
