In two weeks, barriers are broken and the Raw Women’s Title match will headline this year’s Wrestlemania.
Why waste time? The boos rain down on the current champion, “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey and she’s out for a “Beat The Clock” challenge to kick off tonight show’s in Boston, MA at the TD Garden on 3/25/19.
She waits for a moment to get going as a massive “We Want Becky” chant breaks out. She continues, hyping the announcement made at the start of the show. She has only one thing to say, you’re welcome. She drops the mic and immediately picks it back up and promises to tap out Charlotte and Lynch at the exact same time.
She then goes to leave and lifts a finger, apparently not done. This is so heel and it’s great. She has no idea what a beat the clock challenge is, so let’s get this gimmick and this farce over with.
Becky Lynch and Charlotte both make their presence known with comments on the match before this finally gets underway.
Ronda Rousey defeats Sarah Logan via submission in 1:25 with the arm bar in a “Beat The Clock” challenge.
Logan ran around the outside of the ring for about thirty seconds before grounding Rousey with a dropkick. Rousey eventually hits a jumping elbow and slaps on the arm bar.
Charlotte and Ruby Riott are up next.
Charlotte and Riott are up next and long story short, Charlotte does not beat the clock. She has Riott in the Figure Eight, but Riott doesn’t tap. A frustrated Charlotte boots Lynch on her way into the ring as Liv Morgan and Lynch are the final match.
Becky Lynch defeats Liv Morgan via pin fall with a Jacknife Cover to win the Beat The Clock challenge.
This was gimmicky as heck, but after Morgan escaped a Disarmer, Lynch rolled through with a Jacknife cover to win the match. Charlotte and Rousey weren’t pleased, but this was what it was. It was a way to feature all three talents heading towards the big show.
There is trash talking after the match, but that’s about it.
Finn Balor has a 1 on 2 handicap match up next and if he wins, he’ll compete for the IC Title against Bobby Lashley at ‘Mania.
Rush hypes the match after a break and says when it’s all said and done tonight’s, Balor will retire a hot, piece of garbage like Rob Gronkowski. The crowd goes nuts. Rush isn’t medically able to go tonight after what happened with Braun Strowman last week. It’ll be Jinder Mahal and Lashley instead.
Rush probably had better odds than Mahal did!
Finn Balor defeats Jinder Mahal and Bobby Lashley via pin fall in a handicap match after a Coup De Grace on Mahal.
Balor had to deal with all the exterior components involved in the match. He had Rush and the Singh brothers on the outside, but he was able to overcome the odds after a somersault plancha on the outside.
He dragged Mahal into the ring and went up top for the finish. After the match, Lashley flipped out and destroyed both Singh brothers and Mahal as well. It’ll be Lashley and Balor at ‘Mania.
Kurt Angle will compete against Smackdown’s US Champion, Samoa Joe, later this evening on his farewell tour.
Elias is the musical guest at Wrestlemania and he’s out in Times Square where everyone is there to “Walk With Elias”. Some local cat plays the guitar well and sings as well before Elias calls him out, getting ready for the big show.
Finally, Aleister Black is back on Raw and the crowd is going crazy. He’s up next and after the break, he is joined by the “One and Only” Ricochet for tag team action. They look to have their eyes set on the tag titles held by the Revival at Wrestlemania. Tonight, it’ll be the Revival themselves. Well, okay then.
Aleister Black and Ricochet defeat The Revival in a non-title match via pin fall with a 630 Splash from Ricochet to Wilder.
No offense, and I’m a huge fan of the Revival in the ring, but they were sloppy tonight. There were two occasions quite frankly where they were out of place for tag team offense from Ricochet and Black and when Ricochet hit the moonsault DDT, it barely connected as a result of such.
Nonetheless, the action got back on track and “Top Guys” got back to doing “top guy” things. The match picked up steam after a commercial break and The Revival were in charge before a hot tag to Black.
Black had the crowd behind him and he successfully executed a moonsault strike before destroying Dawson with a combo flurry for a two count. Dawson dodged a kick and nailed a beautiful implant DDT.
This got good quick. This went from sloppy to superb. A Black Mass took Dawson out of the ring and Ricochet hit the 630 on Wilder for the pin fall. They seem to be headed to ‘Mania.
Drew McIntyre is out and he runs down Roman Reigns and his battle with Leukemia once again. He implores him to take his ‘Mania challenge and then he makes it even more personal by mentioning his family.
“The Big Dog” is out to a raucous reaction and he accepts. He also takes offense to the comments and fires off rights and lefts. He destroys McIntyre until a low blow and a Claymore Kick end his night prematurely as McIntyre states that he should have said “no”.
Dean Ambrose is back from his own beating at the hands of McIntyre and our main event will be a Last Man Standing match between “The Lunatic Fringe” and “The Scottish Psychopath”. This might be the last appearance of Ambrose if this goes down as it should.
“It’s Boss Time” as Michael Cole tells us every week and Sasha Banks is out to compete against Natalya. Nattie is flanked by “The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix and Bayley is with Banks.
Sasha Banks defeats Natalya via DQ after interference from Tamina and Nia Jax.
This went for a while and was back and forth with Natalya nearing getting the submission victory with the Sharpshooter twice in Banks hometown. Tamina finally interfered and caused the DQ, but as Jax and Tamina made their presence felt, so too did Phoenix.
We saw her bring back the Glam Slam, which Tamina sold poorly, shocker. It seems like we’re heading towards a fatal fourway with these three teams and the Iiconics as well.
The Hart Foundation is inducted into the Hall of Fame which makes Natalya quite emotional after she and Phoenix clear the ring. I appreciate Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, and I certainly understand why Owen Hart isn’t there, but Brian Pillman and the British Bulldog? Come now, that should be a thing.
Kurt Angle hypes his final match in Boston against Samoa Joe, a storied feud that occurred in their days in TNA. Baron Corbin interrupts and calls Angle a shell of himself and says the night after ‘Mania, the headlines will talk about his failures.
Alexa Bliss has a “Moment Of Bliss” segment with Braun Strowman and SNL’s Michael Che and Colin Jost. It was only midly cringe-worthy and it leads to Che and Jost being entered into the Andre The Giant Battle Royale. Who knows? That might have a showing akin to that of Drew Carey in 2001’s Royal Rumble. We shall see.
Baron Corbin defeats Apollo Crews via pin fall with the End of Days.
After being upset by Crews last week, Corbin gets back to his winning ways after another hard-fought battle against Crews. Crews nearly had it, but Corbin caught him with the End Of Days and that was that.
After the match, Corbin hit a Deep Six on Crews to send a message to Kurt Angle.
Next week, The Riott Squad will compete against Ronda Rousey, Charlotte and Becky Lynch. That could be volatile.
Seth Rollins is out to “Burn it down” and he talks about carrying the burden of besting the Beast into ‘Mania. He talks about heroes like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. He says Brock Lesnar is a hero to no man and he’s just a man. He states that fans pleaded for him to beat Lesnar at a local autograph signing.
He states that he feels like he doesn’t have a choice, he has to beat Lesnar in a few weeks. He can’t let Lesnar define the future of this industry and in thirteen days, he’s gonna best the bully that has cast a shadow over the industry.
Paul Heyman, “The Advocate” is out and he thanks Rollins for letting him know that the title match at ‘Mania is a handicap match because of Rollins’ referencing his ties to the entire WWE Universe. Great stuff as always from Heyman. Heyman likes the odds, because he assures Rollins his chances of winning are zero.
Heyman mocks the modern “thoughts and prayers” usage and it leads to Rollins eventually cornering Heyman, who trips on the entryway ramp out of fear. Rollins doesn’t attack, and he makes an emphatic statement about victory.
As Heyman sits there, Kurt Angle’s music hits and he’s out to compete against Samoa Joe. He stands over Heyman before hand, mocking his fear.
Joe is out and he talks about his storied history with Angle, but he doesn’t care about any of it. He is here to tap Angle out and embarass him as he looks to his own future.
Kurt Angle defeats Samoa Joe via pin fall with a counter roll.
Angle came to compete tonight. This was a great match between two men who have tremendous chemistry. Joe sold like a dead man for Angle and after Joe locked in the Coquina Clutch, Angle countered into a pinning situation, to continue to ride his wave of momentum into his final match. Kudos to Angle for coming away with the victory.
Dean Ambrose is pacing and forth backstage as he readies himself for the main event.
It’s time to play the game however as “The Cerebral Assassin” Triple H is out to respond to Batista’s comments from last week.
Triple H cuts one heck of a promo here. He runs down Batista’s history including his debut as “The Deacon” for D-Von Dudley years back. He talks about Batista quitting and he even mocks the crowd “cheering” for him during the commercial break. I get the feeling he is ready to take over to alleviate some of these nonsensical things they still do.
Triple H informs us that he was sent a note from Batista’s lawyer and the long and short of it? He has to put his career up against Batista at ‘Mania or the match won’t happen. Hunter states that if he can’t beat Batista at this stage of his career as it is, he doesn’t deserve to compete any longer. Go find this promo and watch it, it’s terrific.
Last Man Standing, and it’s up next. It’s time for the main event.
Drew McIntyre defeats Dean Ambrose in a Last Man Standing match with a Claymore Kick.
McIntyre railed Ambrose early in the match, beating him pillar to post with a kendo stick. Brutal stuff, and at one point, it looked like Ambrose might have legitimately broken his pinky. Ouch.
Ambrose wore a welt across his chest for a good portion of the match too and even though it was a great piece of in-ring business, it came to a conclusion without much pomp and circumstance. Claymore, ten count. Ballgame. McIntyre stands tall and he’s focus on Reigns at ‘Mania.
