by WWE Monday Night RAW took place tonight at the Crypto Arena in LA. This was less than 24 hours after WWE shocked the wrestling world by having Cody Rhodes lose one of the biggest title matches, if not the biggest, in WWE WrestleMania history to Roman Reigns. How everyone would respond and where we would go from here was anyone’s guess.
HHH started off the night by thanking the fans, the crew and everyone who makes the WWE special. It was earlier in the day that the story broke about WWE being bought out by Endeavor and merged with the UFC. After 10 minutes of thanking everyone and having the feel good moment, he brought out the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns.
Reigns wasn’t long into his spew until Cody Rhodes cut him off and challenged him to a rematch on this very night. To no one’s shock, the Tribal Chief denied him the shot, but did end up agreeing to a tag match with his cousin Solo Sikoa by his side. His condition was that Cody would have to choose someone who fought on the WrestleMania card, and that same person would have to forfeit ever challenging for the championship as long as Reigns held it.
For a moment, it appeared that Rhodes was completely screwed, but then out of nowhere and to the shock of everyone, the one and only Brock Lesnar made his way down to the ring as the crowd came unglued. Lesnar hadn’t had a match on RAW in two decades, so this was huge!
Following a pointless Omos squash match over Elias that no one cared about, they flashed to a backstage scene with Paul Heyman standing outside of the Bloodlines door. When the Uso’s showed up, Heyman lied and told them that Reigns and Sikoa had left to prepare for their match, and for them to take the night off. Fans knew he was lying because as they walked away, Heyman was heard saying, “ I took care of it. “
Many fans had been calling Austin Theory, the next Randy Orton with his youth, good looks and apparent rocket to the top strapped to his back. This was never more evident as he came out to challenge Rey Mysterio to a match. Theory went on to win which also led to a sneak attack post-match by The Judgement Day.
Dominik then turned his attention to Bad Bunny, who had a role in his loss at WrestleMania. Damien Priest and Dom proceeded to kick the crap out of the artist, going as far as having Priest put him through a table. It was a cool moment as Corey Graves attempted to act shocked and appalled during commentary, going as far as to apologize for the WWE.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn came out to celebrate their big WrestleMania win and were promptly joined by the Street Profits. WWE had flirted with the idea of turning The Street Profits heel several times over the past year, and teased it again tonight as they demanded and were granted a match against the new champs. Not shockingly, Owens and Zayn won in a pretty decent match which will further lead to a Profit heel turn shortly.
Bobby Lashley, still pissed that he didn’t have a match at WrestleMania, decided to take Ali from the backstage area to the ring, and maul him. No other real reason to have that match other then remind everyone that Lashley is still pretty good.
Bianca Belair come out next and did the EXACT SAME THING she has been doing for the third straight year, bopping around and all excited about her most recent win. It wasn’t long before Rhea Ripley joined her and talked about who had the more impressive win, before they teased a match for down the road between the two,
Welp, 2 and a half hours into a show that constantly promotes returns, turns and debuts, we finally got our first of the night as “Riddle” returned fresh out of drug rehab. This gave a moment for all Riddle fans to get up and cheer as Riddle got the best of The Miz, pretty quickly.
The night closed with the dream main event of Roman Reigns and Solo versus Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar. The WWE went “ go big or go home” on their first night under a new banner. Just when it seemed we’d get through the entire episode with no marque moments, or major swerves, we finally got one when Lesnar attacked Rhodes.
Lesnar proceeded to destroy Rhodes for 10 straight minutes. He put Cody through steps, tables, anything he could find. The WWE creative machine was doing everything they could to make Rhodes as beloved as possible, which only leads one to think a world title victory down the line should be a sure thing, but, we’ve thought that before.
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