The nation’s capital, Washington D.C., houses the Monday Night Raw ‘Mania go-home show live from the Capitol One Arena on 4/1/19.
Six days away from Wrestlemania, Stephanie McMahon has an April Fools Joke where she is adding herself to the Women’s title match. Bad jokes aside, Ronda Rousey will face Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in the main event at Wrestlemania, all titles will be on the line.
Whomever wins the match will walk away with all the championships. It’s all they could do to keep interest up after what they did to Asuka on Smackdown last week by giving Charlotte Flair the belt.
A six women tag team match takes place later and if any of the Rousey team betrays the other, they are out at ‘Mania.
McMahon’s announcement is quick and it gives way to the force of destruction known as “The Beast”. Brock lesnar, flanked by the “Advocate” Paul Heyman, is out and he’s got some words for his opponent, Seth Rollins, to continue the broadcast.
“Suplex City” has come to the Capital, and Heyman quotes Stephanie McMahon saying Lesnar will “take all” in his match as he will take all Rollins has to offer. He’ll take his best shot, he’ll take everything he has and it won’t be enough.
Heyman says Lesnar took everything from the Undertaker and Roman Reigns, and they’ll do the same to Rollins.
Rollins is out to “burn it down” and he says that he will make sure that Lesnar is gone. He’s had a hell of a career, but he will do the fans a favor and make Lesnar disappear for good. He says beating him might be improbable, but not impossible.
When he beats him, there is nothing that Lesnar can do about it. Lesnar grins and shoulders past him and Rollins executes a low blow. Lesnar hits a german suplex and looks for the F-5, but Rollins hits a low blow, a superkick and the stomp to grab the momentum heading towards the “Granddaddy Of Them All” this coming Sunday.
An eight women tag team match, featuring all the teams competing for the Women’s tag team titles at Wrestlemania, is up next after the break.
Beth Phoenix/Natalya/Sasha Banks/Bayley defeat The Iiconics/Tamina/Nia Jax via pin fall after a Glam Slam from Phoenix on Royce.
This was a botch fest in the early part of the match, but leave it to the veteran Phoenix to turn this into an exciting match at the end of it.
After putting Tamina through the barrier and hurting herself in the process in an impressive fashion, Peyton Royce tried to capitalize and lost the match after eating a Glam Slam.
Sasha Banks and Bayley grabbed their titles at the end of the match and had a stare down with Phoenix and Natalya.
Batista pulls up outside the arena to a massive reaction in front of his hometown and he’s got words for Triple H after a commercial.
“The Animal” introduces a great video package where it’s stated several times that Triple H has done everything in his career, except beat him. Batista simply takes the mic and he tells Hunter to kiss his rear end, and not in the PG fashion. He drops the mic and leaves. That was so well done to be honest.
Elias is outside of MetLife Stadium, where ‘Mania takes place Sunday and he’s excited for everyone to “Walk With Elias” this weekend.
Apollo Crews defeats Jinder Mahal via pin fall with a frogsplash.
A short match here with everyone involved from the Raw side in the Andre The Giant battle royale at ringside sans Strowman, Che and Jost.
Crews won and then cleaned house once again at the end of it as a brawl broke out, as expected.
Kurt Angle is backstage with Rey Mysterio, talking about his farewell address on Raw up next.
An absolutely outstanding video package highlighting the career of Kurt Angle is shown as the “Olympic Gold Medalist” sheds tears after it ends. Baron Corbin interrupts heartfelt words saying the package should have been in black and white. That was pretty funny.
Angle suggests an exhibition match tonight before they battle at the big one, but Corbin is against that. Mysterio hits the ring for a challenge to Corbin and Corbin cheap-shots him. Angle and Mysterio eventually clean house and we find out that we’ll see Mysterio and Corbin later on this evening in a singles bout.
Charlotte Flair hypes the ‘Mania main event and cuts a great promo, albeit quick, about besting Asuka and what she’ll do this weekend. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see “the fed” have her leave the victor Sunday. They can’t be that foolish, but it might happen.
The tag titles are on the line up next. Will Ricochet and Black come away with the gold and take it to NXT: Takeover this coming Friday Night?
The Revival defeat Ricochet/Aleister Black via count-out to retain the Raw tag team titles.
This was a quality piece of business to say the least. Dawson worked over Black’s elbow and hand the whole match and Black sold it beautifully. After a hot tag, Ricochet cleaned house, hitting many of his signature spots.
In the end, it was the high IQ of “Top Guys” that allowed Wilder to grab Ricochet’s ankle and hold it in place on the outside, so he couldn’t make the ten count. This was a needed win for the Revival and it doesn’t hurt Black and Ricochet in the least.
They face War Raiders on Friday Night’s NXT PPV for the tag titles as The Revival will do something at ‘Mania, maybe?
Ronda Rousey doesn’t feel like talking backstage, instead she wants to take out the Riott Squad herself while Charlotte and Becky Lynch watch. If they provoke her, judgement day might be tonight.
“The Big Dog” Roman Reigns is having a water backstage as he gets ready to head down to the ring to speak about her ‘Mania match with Drew McIntyre, and it’s up next.
The Hall Of Fame Class is shown for Saturday with the final inductee, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. We all loved the Zodiac. Congratulations to “Brother Bruti” and “The Bootyman”. Ed Leslie did a lot.
They recap Jost and Che of SNL introducing themselves into the Andre the Giant Battle Royale last week.
Alexa Bliss is backstage with Ec3, who says nothing, and Tyler Breeze. She thanks herself for everything happening at Wrestlemania. Ec3 finally speaks and he plugs SNL’s weekend update. Oh boy. Braun Strowman happens upon the scene and it gets quiet. He proceeds to do Strowman things and threaten a few nobodies.
Roman reigns is backstage talking about eating two Claymore Kicks last week, when McIntyre beats the breaks off of him once again, telling him he should have said no as it relates to accepting the match at ‘Mania. Reigns pulls himself up and takes a moment to reflect.
The six women tag match is up next.
Becky Lynch is backstage before the match and she states that she had Rousey beats months ago. She says despite the “god complex” that Rousey has, she’s wise to their games, including the booking tonight. She’s still gotten this far and the only way that she can’t be sunk after ‘Mania, is to take home all the gold.
Ronda Rousey/Becky Lynch/Charlotte defeat The Riott Squad via submission after a Rousey armbar on Morgan.
Look, the match was nothing special. Tempers were high, the situation was combustible and it was just an excuse to celebrate the main event at the expense of a young team.
Rousey tagged herself in, tapped Morgan and then that’s where things got interesting.
Rousey attacked Charlotte and all hell broke loose. Security guards were knocked out, police came down and it devolved to the point where all three women were handcuffed and arrested. In the backstage area, they kept attacking each other.
Lynch and Rousey kicked at each other in the back of an unmarked squad car and Rousey kicked a window out. Rousey got in the driver’s seat and drove that car into the back of another.
The best segment was Rousey yelling at Lynch and Charlotte at the end and a cuffed Charlotte kneed her in the face. I laughed. You’ve got to watch this segment. This is up there with the McMahon/Austin hospital scene as far as absurdity turned into beauty.
Heavy Machinery defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable via pin fall with the Compactor.
This was filler and nothing more. Lacey Evans did her thing mid-match and nobody cared and Otis was on display before they won a meaningless match against the former champs. Roode eyed Gable after the match. A heel turn, perhaps?
Braun Strowman defeated two jobbers via pin fall in a squash.
I’m not even gonna waste time recapping this. He pretended the no-namers were Che and Jost and did Strowman things. He won with a powerslam.
IC Champ, Bobby Lashley, and the hype man, Lio Rush, are out to talk about their match at ‘Mania with Finn Balor. It’s a rematch for the IC Title and Lashley says he fears no man, nor demon.
Yes! The rumors were true! Finn Balor appears on the video wall and introduced Lashley to his alter ego. Pencil in Balor regaining the IC Title at “Mania. The Demon vs. Bobby Lashley piques much of our interest, I’m sure and it should be a quality bout. The main event is up next.
Baron Corbin defeats Rey Mysterio via pin fall with the Deep Six.
This wasn’t a bad match by any standards, but what a weird way to end your ‘Mania go home show. They should have had this before the segment with the main event earlier.
Mysterio put on a show for the crowd and Corbin was pretty solid as well. He dodged a frog splash attempt and after some Mysterio offense, he caught him with a brilliant Deep Six for the victory.
After the match ended, Angle attacked Corbin from behind, applying the ankle lock, tapping Corbin out on the entryway ramp to end the broadcast.
