They are going straight for the jugular on tonight’s broadcast live from The Cajundome in Lafayette, LA on 2/18/19!
WWE COO, Triple H, announces that DX is the first inductee for the 2019 Hall of Fame. HHH, HBK, X-Pac, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg and Chyna are all in and it’s fantastic news, but that’s not the bombshell.
Coming off of a very enjoyable Elimination Chamber PPV, where new champions a-plenty were crowned, we’ll see a multitude of top tier, arguably, the upper echelon of NXT, competing on tonight’s Raw show!
NXT World Champion, “The Blackheart” Tomasso Ciampa, the NXT North American Champion, “Johnny Wrestling”, Gargano himself, Ricochet and Aleister Black, will all be featured. Holy cow, that’s how you start a broadcast! We don’t know whether it’ll be singles action of tag team wars, but we’ll see them tonight.
Triple H then says all hell will break loose and we’re getting a rematch from last night as we’ll have a tables match up after the first break where Baron Corbin will take on the “Monster Among Men” Braun Strowman. Here we go!
Braun Strowman defeats Baron Corbin via decision after a powerslam through a table.
Strowman gets the momentum back that was stolen from him in last night’s three man decimation. Only hours after being powerbombed through a stack of tables by Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre and Corbin himself, Strowman rebounds tonight.
Corbin was frantic early and employed his hard-hitting offense before Strowman caught him and slammed him with great force through the table. Strowman celebrated and after the match, and with no interference, Paul Heyman is out and he smiles sadistically. Strowman clutches him by the throat, but let’s go, taking his leave after a big win.
“The Advocate” composes himself during the break and we get a great video package highlighting the rise of the Universal Champion. They are keeping Lesnar fresh in our minds and eyes as Seth Rollins recovers from a nagging injury. This was pretty good. Heyman is interrupted at the end of this by the new Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor.
Balor talks about beating the odds last night in his handicapped match, coming away with the strap. He is interrupted by Lio Rush, who says he doesn’t deserve the title, Bobby Lashley does. “The Almighty” strikes and the two men are apparently back together and they attack Balor with great fervor and hostility.
One and Only. Here comes Ricochet! Ricochet makes the save and the Raw crowd gets their first taste of what this extraordinary talent can and will bring to the roster. We get Balor and Ricochet against Lashley and Rush after the break.
Finn Balor and Ricochet defeat Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush via pin fall after a 620 splash by Ricochet on Rush.
Oh, this was a match, folks, this was a match. You got to see an absolutely insane exchange between Rush and Ricochet early on. Balor got to shine, keeping his momentum going and one of the true stars of the match was Lashley because of the power he was able to display against the lighter stars.
Lashley hit a suplex at one point that looked like he put Ricochet through the apron. Ricochet hit a great many of his signature spots including the unaided moonsault over the ropes. The crowd was going bananas and rightfully so. This was a gift from Triple H for the paying fans tonight.
Rush tagged back in after Balor was in distress for a good piece of the match and finally, Ricochet made the hot tag and got the win. Fantastic stuff here.
Triple H is backstage and he’s having a conversation with Natalya when Drew McIntyre interrupts him. McIntyre lays down a challenge against Seth Rollins to get a shot at main eventing Wrestlemania. Dean Ambrose interrupts and says that he’s free tonight and he slaps the taste out of McIntyre’s match.
Triple H asks if he stills wants Seth or should he change the match? We’ve got McIntyre and Ambrose later. We also found out earlier that the new tag team champions, The Revival, will compete in a non-title match against the reunited D.I.Y.! Ciampa and Gargano against the Revival?! Yes, please!
Lucha House Party is in the ring, ready to compete, but first, they recap Charlotte being inserted into the Wrestlemania main event as well as the attack by Lynch at a house show and then what occurred last night at the Chamber with the kendo stick shots. Rousey will compete against Ruby Riott once again tonight, it is not known if it’s a title match just yet.
Lucha House Party defeats Curt Hawkins/Zack Ryder via pin fall after a Hurricanrana by Dorado on Hawkins.
The construction of a wining formula is still a way’s away for this underdog story and the former Major Brothers failed again tonight on their quest for victory.
Dorado and Metallik were too much too overcome although each team had some great spots. Hawkins was on the wrong end of the Rana to end the match, but Ryder picked him up. They’ve got to get there eventually, the fans want it.
Heavy Machinery get a brief interview segment and it’s strange. I don’t know if their characters will take off like they did in NXT, but we’ll see. Lacey Evans comes out and does the same oddball strut and disappearing act that she pulled at the PPV last night. I understand keeping the talent in front of the people, but utilize them in matches as well as having them do promos.
The former D.I.Y. is backstage and damn, if it isn’t great to see Ciampa and Gargano on a Raw broadcast. Chad Gable and Bobby Roode approach and ask why the “new guys” are getting opportunities considering they only lost their straps last week.
The Revival show up and make some cracks about beating the heels in NXT for the tag straps and ultimately, breaking up the team. Ciampa, excellent as always, says this is about making an example out of the Raw talent, which I love. They have nothing to prove, they are the “bar” so to speak in NXT, this is their playground.
D.I.Y. defeat The Revival via pin fall after “Meet In The Middle” on Dawson.
Ciampa and Gargano carried this match, which is a really weird thing to say because of how great the Revival are. Dash and Dawson were out of place on several spots, but it never really mattered as the teams were able to recover.
Heel vs. heel matches are always fun to watch and this was exceptional for so many reasons, especially if you remember the bouts these two teams had in NXT. It looked as if a Shatter Machine would end this, but Ciampa countered into a near fall.
The match continued, and after Dash was removed from the ring, Gargano hit the apron spear and tagged in Ciampa, superkick and a knee strike and this was over. If this was a one off for all the performers involved tonight, then it was a heck of a way to get eyes on them for their eventual debuts. If this is a regular thing, then you’ve immediately put them in contention for major titles.
Kevin Owens gives us another update on his recovery. After losing a quality match against a Hawaiian pizza last night at the Elimination Chamber, tonight, he’s enjoying popcorn and a soft drink with his kid. He feels robbed by the movie theater, you’re not alone KO, you’re not alone.
The first ever Women’s tag team champions are out to a raucous reaction and a “You deserve it” chant. Bayley and Sasha Banks are quite emotional and they carried msot of the Chamber match last night as expected.
The only thing we can hope is that we’ll see real, true competition for these titles as the Men’s titles have seen better days than in recent memory. I say they unify the Men’s titles as well and let the champs defend on both shows. Bayley and Sasha talk about this being a dream come true and they soak in the deserved accolades.
Banks says that they plan on defending the titles not only on Raw and Smackdown, but in NXT as well! Wow, just the thought of Sane and Shirai against them is money in the bank. They hold up the titles and take one last bow, or so they think, they are interrupted by Nia Jax and Tamina. Jax trashes their celebration and they lay the groundwork for a match hopefully at Fastlane, it’s certainly not ‘Mania worthy.
Jax says Sasha Banks only cares about Sasha Banks and this is as good as it gets for Bayley. Jax says that Banks will lose the title in her first defense. The heels try to attack, but they are quickly thwarted. It looks like that’ll be their first defense as expected.
Drew McIntyre defeats Dean Ambrose via pin fall after two Claymore Kicks.
“The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose is out to do business with Drew McIntyre after the break. Everyone knows he’s on his way out in April, but he came away with a quality win over EC3 last week, so we’ll see what happens this evening. McIntyre needs a key win and quickly. He needs to carry great momentum into ‘Mania season because he’s a ready made challenger for Rollins, if we wins the Universal Title that is.
This seemed like it would be short and sweet. Ambrose had the upper hand early and ate a Claymore Kick, but McIntyre waited and it was only to execute another Claymore. McIntyre annihilated Ambrose and it sucks because Ambrose is leaving, but this was the right guy to hit the kill shot.
The strangest thing happened mid-match too, a piece of the “hardest part of the apron” broke off. Go back and watch that, it was awkward.
We see part two of the Brock Lesnar segment started by Paul Heyman earlier in the broadcast. This was well done.
Seth Rollins is backstage tonight and he’s asked if he has any regrets about what’s happened up to this point. He says that everything that Heyman said is true. However, he has an acceptance of his fate, and not a death-wish. At Wrestlemania, his reign of terror is done, it’s all over for him. As for Seth’s fate? Whether he leaves on his own two feet or leaves on a stretcher, he promises that he’s leaving as champ.
A battered Dean Ambrose is standing beside Rollins. Ambrose asks where Rollins was out there? Rollins asks if he completely lost his mind and Ambrose just has these wild eyes. That was fun.
We are set to “walk with Elias”, and based on time left in the show, it’s safe to say he’s set to walk into a Black Mass. We’ll see if Aleister Black shows up after the break.
Elias begins to trash Lafayette and as expected, we get the greatest entrance, complete with the rising coffin.
Aleister Black defeats Elias via pin fall after Black Mass.
This was excellent. Black performed at the level we’ve grown accustomed too, but damn, if ole’ Elias didn’t grow up tonight. He was on point!
Elias had a great match with Black and this might be a feud to explore if this was just a one off here tonight. Elias countered a top rope move into a jumping knee, but ultimately, Elias turned into the spinning heel kick known as Black Mass, and that was all she wrote. The main event is up next.
They see to be getting short on time, so I’d expect the title match, which is finally was announced as, and nothing else.
Ronda Rousey defeats Ruby Riott via submission with the arm bar.
I understand what happened at the Chamber last night in deference to time and because they had to execute the post match assault, but this was the match that everyone wanted.
It seemed, on several occasions, that Riott might actually leave with the title. She gave Rousey a run for her money, hitting Riott Kicks on several occasions. Rousey went up top and came off with a cross body to eliminate the Riott Squad, and after a reverse Alabama slam into the top turnbuckle, she applied the arm bar for the tap out victory.
From top to bottom tonight, this was a sensational Raw, job well done folks.
