We received a card that was chock-full of title fight’s on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw with one ending in a surprise twist.
Image credit: thesportster.com
Punk Out For Blood
CM Punk kicked off the show by dropping one of his infamous pipe bombs on the likes of The Rock, John Cena, and Seth “Freakin” Rollins.
Naturally, this promo was a banger. That’s just what we expect from CM Punk at this point. However, what came out of it all was even better than the promo itself.
While Punk massacred his victims on the mic, he was interrupted by Seth Rollins after mentioning Rollins’ wife, Becky Lynch. They brawled for a while and even again later on in the show. It was later announced that CM Punk and Seth will be maineventing next week’s episode of Raw inside a steel cage at Madison Square Garden.
I have a couple of predictions for this match. First of all, Seth has to win this one, but I don’t think he’ll do it cleanly. My prediction is that Roman Reigns will return and attempt to put Rollins down for what he did at the Royal Rumble. However, I believe he will spear CM Punk inadvertently, giving Rollins the victory and setting up a triple-threat match at WrestleMania.
I’m super excited about this feud and match. All three of these guys are top 5 in the business both in the ring and on the mic. Not to mention the history that each of them has with one another. I can totally see this stealing the night one main event away from Gunther and Jey Uso.
What’s With Judgement Day?
For weeks now, the members of Judgement Day, primarily Dirty Dom and Pinn Balor, have been at each other’s throats about adding this new member to the group. Personally, I’m on Finn’s side. They don’t need a new member, they need to break up, or at least drop Finn Balor. All they do is lose matches even with a numbers advantage. The entire group looks weak. They get beat up seemingly every single week by whoever the flavor of the night baby-face happens to be.
Tonight it was Bron Breakker, and as you can imagine, that didn’t go too well for Judgement Day. They seem to be setting up a feud for the IC title with Balor, but hopefully, this happens before WrestleMania. We all know how this is going to end already, and this would be such a waste of Bron Breakker’s time. Many fans were hoping to see a match between him and AJ Styles for the title, but it seems that they are going the Logan Paul route with Styles for Mania.
Somehow, Karrion Kross is now involved too. I have liked Kross’ recent work with Sami Zayn, but it never seems to lead anywhere big. I feel like Sami would’ve had a brutal match with KO regardless of had Kross been in his ear or not. Hopefully, they can find a way to tie him in effectively this time.
Gunther Backs Up His Smack Talk
For the past two weeks, Gunther has had a micro feud going on between himself and The Alpha Babes, formerly The Alpha Academy. Last week he decimated Tozawa on the mic and in the ring, but tonight was Otis’ turn.
Gunther delivered daggers toward Otis, essentially body-shaming him the entire time. It was mean. Schoolyard bully levels of mean. For as awful as it was to watch a crowd favorite get fat-shamed on live television, I think that this feud is benefiting everyone.
Every week Gunther becomes more and more of an unlikeable scumbag that people love to hate. Meanwhile, The Alpha Babes aren’t getting absolutely squashed by the World Champion either. They have had pretty entertaining matches. Gunther would defeat Otis and choke him out after the match ended as he did to Tozawa last week. Jey Uso made the save but also ended up unconscious after it all.
Later in the night, Jey Uso delivered an emotional promo, talking about how everyone doubting him has him doubting himself as well. He said it was time to lock in as he left the building shirtless into the frigid Buffalo weather.
I have faith in this feud. We have seen Jey Uso vs Gunther a number of times already so it doesn’t seem as interesting to online fans as WWE had hoped. You can’t tell me the arena isn’t going to explode when Uso wins the title though. This isn’t a feud for IWC fans, it’s for the people in attendance. The people who pay money to go to the shows. This match is meant to be a heartwarming WrestleMania moment about an underdog who finally gets the job done. Just sit back and enjoy it.
Back-To-Back Wins for Valkyria
This was the second week in a row that Women’s IC Champion Lyra Valkyria defended and retained her title. It’s nice to see her getting the championship treatment she deserves after however many days of not winning a match.
This match was pretty good. Nothing eye-popping, but it was a good first bout between her and Ivy Nile. I see them coming back to this feud at some point down the line, maybe even for WrestleMania.
Kaiser’s Time Killer
Mid way through the show Ludwig Kaiser graced the audience with his annoying presence to deliver the same promo he gives every time he is handed a microphone. “I am Ludwig Kaiser and I am the best wrestler in the business,” was basically the gist of it.
Thankfully he was interrupted by Penta, one of the fastest-rising stars that Monday Night Raw has on its stacked roster. I love Penta, but I’ve seen that he has been getting hate online for spamming his catchphrase a little too much.
First of all, I don’t think he is overusing it. The crowd loves it. If it were getting no reaction each time that’s one thing, but he has the entire arena behind him every single time.
Second of all, the guy just achieved his lifelong dream. You can tell how much he loves being a WWE superstar every time he steps foot into that ring, whether it’s for a match or not. Let him have his fun.
The Quest Continues
We finally have some answers as to where my guy Chad Gable has been the past few weeks. If you don’t recall, he went on an “epic quest” to familiarize himself with the “dark arts” of Lucha Libre. When I first saw this, I thought it was hilarious, but I am glad to see he will be returning soon.
As to what was in the box, it has got to be a luchador mask right?
Raw Is War In The Tag Team Division
The second of our three title matches tonight was between the War Raiders and American Made for the World Tag Team Championships. This match started with no hype at all. Neither of the two teams got any form of reaction from the crowd during their entrances or as the match started. However, this quickly changed as the match went on. We had awesome high-flying action from both teams that you wouldn’t expect from such big dudes. Ivar attempted a moonsault, Brutus Creed hit a 450 splash, and Julius Creed hit a damn shooting star press from out of nowhere!
This was an awesome showcase for the tag teams of Raw that have been struggling compared to their Smackdown counterparts. If it weren’t for what came next, this would’ve been the match of the night.
Triple H Takes “Predictable” Allegations Seriously
To the surprise of absolutely everyone on planet Earth, Iyo Sky defeated Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship in the main event of the show. She will go on to defend her newly won title against Bianca Belair at WrestleMania.
I can’t put into words how spectacular this match was. For a match that everyone ” already knew the results of,” it was suspenseful from start to finish. The acrobatic style of Iyo Sky and the brutality of Rhea Ripley worked so well when paired against each other.
I have one serious question though that nobody seems to be asking. Why didn’t Iyo get disqualified when Bianca put her hands on Rhea? I mean, they clearly weren’t just arguing. Bianca shoved Rhea multiple times to the point where Jessica Carr left the ring to split them up. Doesn’t that typically call for a DQ? In my book it does, and it kinda killed the match for me from that point going forward.
Even with the shock ending, I still didn’t believe it should have ended like that. I felt that Rhea was screwed out of her title in a way and that Iyo Sky defeated her uncleanly.
I do forsee Rhea Ripley getting inserted into this match at WrestleMania somehow. We have already seen Bianca Belair and Iyo Sky go head-to-head for a world championship. We haven’t seen Bianca and Rhea face off yet however, and to most fans that was the money match. I’d put money on it that this ends up a triple-threat match.