From this Scrum writer’s own backyard, WWE presented the go-home show for the 2019 Royal Rumble.
The Chesapeake Energy Arena, home to the Oklahoma City Thunder, presented this week’s Raw broadcast from Oklahoma City, OK on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, on 1/21/19.
The show began with a rare appearance from Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar, accompanied by his “Advocate” Paul Heyman. Heyman spoke at length about Finn Balor, and how he respects Balor, but he believes he’ll be martyred for the fans faith in him.
This brings out Mr. McMahon, who informs us that he hasn’t exactly been to Sunday School as of late, recanting a horrid version of the biblical David and Goliath story that he morphed into a pairing with Jack and The Beanstalk.
This brings out Braun Strowman, who tells Lesnar to keep the title warm, because he’ll be coming for him.
Finally, Finn Balor is out and he challenges Mr. McMahon’s belief in him and he tells Braun Strowman that he doesn’t need any help and that he should stop interfering in everyone’s affairs. He does take a slight shot at Raw wasting fifteen minutes of air time each week with mindless promo’s to hype title matches. This leads to Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman taking a ringside seat as Mr. McMahon books Balor and Strowman after the break.
Finn Balor defeats Braun Strowman via DQ after interference from Brock Lesnar.
Balor had a great showing in the contest. I’m confused here, because I thought Strowman was removed from the match Sunday because he was hurt? He worked a pretty good pace against Balor.
Lesnar got involved and Balor removed him from the equation early with a delayed dropkick and a somersault plancha.
Strowman posted himself later in the match and Balor hit the corner dropkick before the Coup De Grace. Before he could score the pin fall, Lesnar climbed into the ring and nailed a massive F5, causing the DQ. The DQ should have been called earlier, when Strowman tossed Balor out of the ring, and Lesnar caught him before hitting an overhead suplex.
Perhaps the WWE hired the refs from the Rams/Saints game this weekend because that was an odd no-call. Either way, Balor and Lesnar look strong heading into what should be a fine title match this week.
After the break, the new Intercontinental Champion, “The Almighty” Bobby Lashley will have his coronation ceremony.
Lio Rush is out with the champ and he’s magnificent on the mic. He brags about Lashley winning the title and being better than Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.
Enter Apollo Crews, who heard that Lashley wasn’t issuing an open challenge, but he wants to compete. This leads to Crews winning a pose off against Lashley and the match begins.
Bobby Lashley defeats Apollo Crews via pin fall after interference from Lio Rush.
Lashley doesn’t fall victim to fifty/fifty booking in the non-title match against the rising star, Apollo Crews.
Crews gives a great performance and he took Lashley to the limit, but a well-timed distraction Rush was enough to allow Lashley to secure the pin fall and come away with momentum heading into this weekend’s Royal Rumble broadcast.
We “burn it down” next as Seth Rollins is out before his match with Drew McIntyre. Both men stoke the fires for the Rumble match this week, laying claim to victory, and both believe that they will headline Wrestlemania after punching their ticket Sunday.
Matter of factly, either of these two is very well-deserving and OKC gets the pleasure of seeing the two in singles action next!
Seth Rollins defeats Drew McIntyre via pin fall with a rollup.
These two did what these two do and that’s steal the show.
This was an incredible match in front of the OKC fans and these two put on a clinic heading into the Rumble.
We find out midway through the Rollins/McIntyre match that John Cena is questionable for the Royal Rumble match with a nagging ankle injury.
We saw both men try to get their signature maneuvers in, and the end came when Rollins snatched the victory away from McIntyre after a surprise rollup to carry the momentum into Sunday’s show.
Dean Ambrose cuts a promo quoting the late Dr. King as he promotes himself for the Rumble and vows to get revenge against both Rollins and Lashley.
Lucha House Party defeats Jinder Mahal and the Singh Brothers via pin fall after Gran Metallik pins Sunil Singh with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.
Metallik, another under-utilized talent, comes away with the victory here. The former NJPW and CMLL staple is another name that fans have been clamoring for and he had his opportunity to shine here.
It was great to see the Singh brothers in action with Mahal and if they are allowed to team regularly, it’s another veteran team for the Raw tag division.
Ec3 is backstage with Dana Brooke and she is asking about his workout regimen. He ignores her as Elias heads to the ring to let the fans “walk with him”.
Elias is interrupted by Baron Corbin and after a “You Got Fired” chant, it leads to singles action.
Baron Corbin defeats Elias via pin fall with End Of Days.
Corbin actually kicked out of Drift Away, which was surprising, but Corbin gets a sorely needed win after being the punching bag for bad writing and sagging ratings before he returned to simply competing in the ring.
It was a rather short match, but after a punch to the throat after the referee interceded during an Elias assault, Corbin cheated and won. He gets momentum heading into Sunday, which he desperately needed.
“A Moment of Bliss” sees Alexa Bliss announce her in-ring return this Sunday after multiple concussions, which is great news and way overdue. Her workload will probably be kept light as she continues to recover.
Lacey Evans made her presence felt as she announced herself for the Rumble as well before trashing Bliss. A little heel on heel fun? Nothing wrong with that.
Alexa’s guest was actually Nia Jax but that devolved quickly as many of the Raw Women came out and laid their own claims to victory Sunday. Alicia Fox was especially great, and after a brawl ensued, that’s when we saw the Bliss/Evans exchange.
Heavy Machinery is headed to the ring and they’ll make their debut in the ring next.
Heavy Machinery defeats The Ascension via pin fall with the Compactor.
The Raw audience got their first taste of “steaks and weights” as the commentary team gives us a recap of what they did in NXT.
Poor Konnor and Viktor do the favors as they often do after eating tandem tag maneuvers and a “caterpillar” from Dozivic. It was fun for those in attendance and a quick display of what they bring to the tag division.
Earlier in the night, we found out that we’d get a tag team title rematch between Roode and Gable and the Revival. Mr. McMahon books Curt Hawkins of all people as the guest referee, denying him an opportunity to compete with his horrendous losing streak.
The Revival has made no bones about being unhappy with their spot on the card and booking treatment, so we’ll see how this ends next.
Bobby Roode and Chad Gable defeat The Revival via pin fall after a sunset flip from Gable.
Curt Hawkins was a perfect official in the match and that was the undoing of the Revival here. There were tights used, feet on the ropes and tag team chicanery that almost saw new champs, but Hawkins called it right down the middle.
After Hawkins called The Revival out again, Dawson pushed Hawkins and it allowed Gable to score the pin fall.
As expected, the Revival came unglued after the match and put the beat-down on Hawkins when out of nowhere, like an RKO, Zack Ryder surged down to the ring to save his old tag team partner!
Ryder got a massive reaction and helped Hawkins up, and perhaps now we’ll add a veteran tag team to a floundering Raw tag division. Good call here!
The war of words between Rousey and Banks has been great. The main event tag match is up next.
Sasha Banks and Bayley defeat Ronda Rousey and Natalya via submission after a Banks Statement on Natalya.
You read that right. Rousey suffers her first loss in the WWE in a tag team match. She didn’t tap out, Natalya did, but the tag team efforts from Bayley and Banks were superb and they have to be the odds on favorite to become the first ever Women’s tag team champions if Banks doesn’t capture the Women’s title at the Rumble.
Banks played the heel throughout the match, baiting Rousey on multiple occasions and even when Rousey tagged in and got started, she was often cut short by Bayley and Banks. This was a really good tag match and a shocking way to end the go-home show.
It certainly elevates interest in the Women’s title match Sunday and for the first time since her debut, makes Rousey look vulnerable. This was an incredible Raw tonight.
