We burn it down at the Talking Stick Resort in Phoenix, AZ on the road to Wrestlemania, the night after the Royal Rumble, on 1/28/19.
Fresh off his rumble victory, “The Kingslayer” Seth Rollins is out in front of a raucous crowd, and he swore he wouldn’t do it, but it’s been a lifelong dream and he points at the Wrestlemania sign.
“The Game” Triple H is out and he calls Rollins “The One” and knew he could do it. They have a great exchange only to be interrupted by the proverbial thorn in Rollins’ side, Dean Ambrose.
Rollins has until the end of the night to declare his ‘Mania intentions as both “The New” Daniel Bryan and “The Beast” Brock Lesnar will be in attendence. “The Man” Becky Lynch will declare her intentions tomorrow night, but after some poking and prodding from Ambrose, we get a singles match booked between the two former friends and allies to start the show.
Seth Rollins defeats Dean Ambrose via pin fall with the Blackout.
These two were ready to roll a night after a seven hour show. Rollins took to the air with multiple suicide dives, and Ambrose was wiley and cunning as he’s apt to be. In the end, Rollins was able to continue riding his wave of momentum with a well-timed Blackout to send his old friend to the wrong sign of the pay window.
Women’s Champion, Ronda Rousey, will issue an open challenge for the title tonight one night after besting Sasha Banks in a classic.
The tournament for the women’s tag team titles begins tonight as well and we’ll how that progresses as well as getting Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre in singles action.
Dean Ambrose is still in the ring after the break and he’s set to bare his soul apparently, but he is interrupted by Nia Jax and Tamina, a night after she entered the men’s rumble and ate a superkick from Dolph Ziggler, a 619 from Rey Mysterio and the classic RKO from “The Viper” Randy Orton.
Jax attacks Ambrose from behind and before Ambrose can respond, he is torn away from the scene by a herd of officials. I suppose they are going the Chyna route with Jax after the reaction she got last night.
Ambrose takes his leave, and Alexa Bliss makes her presence known as Bliss and Mickie James are in tag team action against Jax and Tamina in a qualifying match and it’s next.
Nia Jax and Tamina defeat Mickie James and Alexa Bliss via pin fall after a Samoan Drop from Jax to James to advance in the women’s tag team title tournament.
This was actually shockingly quick, as Jax is keeping her own momentum after her showing in the rumble last night. Bliss is still working back from her injury, so her time was kept short, even as the finish was a stacked Samoan Drop which saw Jax pin James to advance.
Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin is up next, and we see a video package talking about Corbin’s rise to power and subsequent fall after Kurt Angle’s own fall from grace. He is asked if he still has what it takes to compete. He says he is ready.
Baron Corbin defeats Kurt Angle via pin fall after a Deep Six.
It seems we are seeing the Hall Of Famer’s swansong as he struggled to execute the third of his staple german suplexes and was winded early. Corbin was able to kick out of the Angle Slam, and as the match progressed, Corbin ended it with Deep Six.
Corbin continued his assault after the match, planting the Olympic Champion with End Of Days, taking his leave with a sadistic smile as the crowd showered him with boos. The commentary team was great during this, bickering about both men sinking the Raw ratings.
Finn Balor is out after the break to a great reaction and as I thought might happen, he mvoes on from his title match with Brock Lesnar, to a program for the IC Title with Bobby Lashley. Lio Rush insults Balor who retorts with comments about Lashley’s terrible showing in the rumble.
Lashley spikes Balor three times and Rush drapes a short over him, leaving a wounded Balor in the ring, starting their program.
We get a recap of Lashley and Drew McIntyre, along with Baron Corbin, injuring Braun Strowman’s arm several months back, setting up their match later.
The Revival defeat Hawkins and Ryder via pin fall after a Shatter Machine.
The crowd goes bananas for the reunited Major Brothers, but it’s short lived as The Revival are quick to come away with a victory. While we’re all excited for the reunion of the two undercard gems, they were surely take some time to get into the win column and when it happens, it’ll be terrific.
As expected, Hawkins ate the pin fall. He was upset, but consoled by Ryder.
“The New” Daniel Bryan, along with his new associate, Erick Rowan, are walking down a hallway where they are asked about the potential of a Seth Rollins challenge. Bryan says he would have defeated AJ Styles, even without Rowan.
He then runs down Rollins’ wanton disregard for the planet, mocking his “burn it down” catchphrase. Yes, Daniel Bryan is awesome.
Ember Moon was apparently injured and Dana Brooke pleads her case
The Riott Squad defeats Dana Brooke and Natalya via pin fall after a roll-up from Morgan on Natalya.
Dana Brooke foiled Natalya’s attempt to get herself and more importantly, her team, a spot at the Elimination chamber as being a poor teammate, who earlier stated she was “better” than both Ember Moon and Natalya, was a distraction that allowed Liv Morgan to get the victory for her team.
Natalya is rightfully disappointed and she leaves the ring as Dana Brooke pleads her case. The Riott Squad is ecstatic and celebrates before they head to a break.
We “Walk With Elias”, who apparently has turned heel again, as we get a follow-up segment where “Double J” Jeff Jarrett comes out, accompanied by “The Roadie” Jesse James and they both eat guitar shots from Elias. Hopefully we get an under card match at the Chamber between Elias and the veteran Jarrett, that could be fun.
Ronda Rousey comes out, and then for the first time in her career, she gets to experience a crowd turning completely against her. I’ll admit, I was surprised, but this was a very pro-Becky Lynch crowd in Phoenix.
The smart money is to make Rousey the obvious heel going into ‘Mania, because she has a hard time getting through the promo here, not having had to deal with this before. Bayley comes out to accept the open challenge and Rousey accepts. They get after it.
Ronda Rousey defeats Bayley via submission with the arm bar to retain the Raw Women’s title.
This was a heck of a content. Even in defeat, Bayley looked like a million bucks. There was a great counter to a boot attempt into a leg-lock submission and Bayley beat her from pillar to post.
Rousey countered a top rope maneuver and she dropped down into the ring where the armbar was applied and that’s all she wrote. Rousey picks up Bayley after the match and they are about to have a moment, but then…
Why the heck should we wait?! “The Man” is live in Phoenix and the crowd goes bonkers! Becky Lynch shows up after the display of sportsmanship from Rousey to Bayley and it’s a standing ovation for her arrival.
Lynch says she knew she’d make her way back to “Ronnie” and she told her she’d find her. The crowd is coming unglued. Lynch says she knows Rousey heard, but she won last night’s Rumble match. Unlike Seth Rollins, she doesn’t need much time to think. She chooses Rousey and at Wrestlemania, she is going to break her mystique, take her title and kick hear rear end in front of the whole world. The crowd is chanting for Becky to “kick her rear end”, and not the PG version.
Rousey takes the mic, and she wants the whole world to hear this. She asks how Becky’s leg is. She doesn’t just want to beat Lynch, she wants to beat the best version of Becky that ever existed. Rousey says she can re-break her face faster then she could say “Nia Jax”. Rousey says she could legit kill her without breaking a sweat.
Rousey says while Becky was training, she was main-eventing in a sport that didn’t even want women in it. How long have you been “The Man” Becky? While she was on the pre-show, Rousey stole the show in her debut. Wow. Like seriously, wow. This was something special and hopefully by the time I bring this to you on behalf of our beloved Scrum Sports, I will have the clip present for you to enjoy. Here we go, this HAS to be the main event at ‘Mania.
Seth Rollins is backstage, and Braun Strowman tells him he earned it last night. Strowman says that Rollins needs to make the right choice, and go earn it at Wrestlemania. Strowman and McIntrye is up next.
Braun Strowman defeats Drew McIntyre via DQ after interference from Baron Corbin.
So it appears this story will continue, at least until Elimination Chamber or Fastlane. It was a pretty evenly paced match up until the end, where Corbin attacked Strowman from behind for the DQ.
Strowman came back and did that spot where he runs around the ring and shoulder-blocks everyone, but the numbers game was too much for him and the heels left, mocking Strowman’s hands in the air pose before they took their leave.
We see “The New” Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan, as well as “The Advocate” Paul Heyman, knocking on the door of the beast.
They are set to introduce Rollins to end the show, but Lesnar and Heyman are out instead. Heyman implores Rollins to choose Bryan, because it’ll be a technical classic, and great “Sports Entertainment”, but he wants no piece of the beast, because everyone known how that story ends, including Bryan.
Rollins runs out and eats four F-5’s for his efforts. He asks Lesnar if that’s all he’s got and Lesnar drops the Universal Title and gives him another on the belt. That’s how the show ends, the problem is, we get no definitive answer as to Rollins’ decision. One can assume that it’ll be Lesnar after that, but you know what they say about making an assumption. That’s all she wrote for this week though on Monday Night Raw!
