We began Monday Night RAW with Tom Phillips, Bryon Saxton, and Samoa Joe breaking the news that Bobby Lashley will defend his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre at Wrestlemania.
Tonight on RAW there will be two Championship matches: the Tag Team Titles and the United States Championship will be up for grabs.
Then Lashley made his entrance to the ring with MVP. MVP spoke first and made an official announcement from The Hurt Business: We have entered The All-Mighty Era. He then went on to speak highly of Lashley and his journey to the WWE Championship.
Then Lashley jumped in. He said he has had to fight for every opportunity and wasn’t handed anything. Lashley proved to everyone that he could be WWE Champion by destroying Drew McIntyre at Elimination Chamber. Then he promised he would destroy McIntyre once again in the main event of Wrestlemania. After he beats McIntyre, Lashley said he would continue his destruction with the rest of the locker room.
Enter in Miz and Morrison.
Miz said he should be preparing to face Drew McIntyre later in the night, but they had to come out to congratulate him. According to Miz, they are all in on The All Mighty Era. Of course this didn’t mean Miz wanted their rivalry to end.
With it being 3:16 week, The Miz put on his best Stone Cold voice to ask the Thunderdome if they wanted to see him and Lashley face each other one on one. He tried to plead with Lashley, but was interrupted by the music of Drew McIntyre.
McIntyre said he hadn’t had the opportunity to formally congratulate Lashley on becoming WWE Champion. Then he went on to speak on their similar long journeys to becoming champion (Lashley 16 years, McIntyre 17). MVP tried to interrupt McIntyre by reminding him of his rivalry with Sheamus. McIntyre asked why MVP was even there because Lashley can speak for himself, he is champion after all.
Lashley spoke up and told McIntyre to forget about MVP and worry about him. This of course gave opportunity for Miz to pipe back up. McIntyre said he would give Miz two options: turn around and run for his life or attack him when he turns around to finish his conversation with Lashley.
McIntyre focused back on Lashley. He said they would put on a clash for the ages at Wrestlemania and McIntyre would walk out with the WWE Championship. As things became tense between them, Miz spoke up which allowed Lashley an opportunity to attack McIntyre.
As Lashley left, Miz took advantage of the situation and began his own attack on McIntyre. We saw that Lashley got attacked by Sheamus on the entrance ramp before we went to commercial break!
When we returned from commercial break, Sheamus was being interviewed. He said he wants McIntyre at 100% this Sunday when he beats him at Fastlane. Sheamus doesn’t want to listen to his excuses anymore. According to Sheamus, Lashley has stuck his nose in his business. Sheamus wants a match with Lashley so he can show what McIntyre won’t be able to achieve at Wrestlemania: beating Lashley.
Drew McIntyre defeated The Miz via Submission (The Hurt Lock)
Yes, I promise you are reading the outcome of this match correctly. Although Miz began the match with an advantage after attacking McIntyre, McIntyre just seemed to use that to fuel his fire. McIntyre was angry and he let Miz know it. He did hit the Claymore, but decided that wasn’t enough. McIntyre pointed to the Wrestlemania sign before putting Miz in The Hurt Lock.
After the match, McIntyre did not let go of the hold right away and tossed Miz to the side like a rag doll. Message sent.
Then commentary congratulated Bad Bunny on his Grammy win last night. We saw Damian Priest and Bad Bunny walking backstage after.
A replay of what happened with Shane McMahon and Braun Strowman last week was shown. Then we saw Strowman walking backstage before we went to commercial break.
Returning from break, Strowman called Shane McMahon out. Surprisingly Shane O did come out to ringside, but kept a decent distant away from Strowman.
Shane O said he doesn’t know what Strowman’s problem is. Strowman then brought up that he has been bullied his whole life and guys like Shane aren’t better than him or smarter. Of course Shane denied ever making fun of another human being.
Strowman believes that Shane wanted to confront him last week, but got scared. After a bit more back and forth, Strowman laid out the challenge for a match, TONIGHT! Shane accepted!
Backstage, we saw Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke, Lana, and Naomi talking backstage. They were interrupted by R-Truth dressed and acting like Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Then the Women’s Tag Team Champions, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, made their entrance and we went to another commercial break.
Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose defeated Lana and Naomi via Pinfall (Swinging Neckbreaker)
As the women’s tag team champions looked on, Rose and Brooke made a good showing! Naomi began the match off well, but Rose and Brooke were able to keep her isolated from tagging Lana in for a good portion of the match. Once Lana got into the match, she was able to get her team back in control of the match.
A bit of chaos then occurred as Asuka’s music hit and she made her way out! Baszler decided to met Asuka halfway and they began to brawl. This caused a distraction, where Lana didn’t realize Brooke tagged herself into the match.
Then backstage we saw The New Day. They were surprised by the appearance of Riddle, who spoke to them about this new trick he did on his scooter. Then he wished them luck in their championship opportunity.
While they were talking The New Day’s music hit! Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods made their entrance as we went to commercial break.
The New Day defeated The Hurt Business via Pinfall (Daybreak)
AND NEEEEEWWWW! The New Day once again are at the top of the tag team mountain. This was just a fun match to watch, as the to teams really put on a clinic. The Hurt Business did look to have a good plan at the beginning of the match; they tried to take Woods completely out of the match. It did look like it was going to work for a bit because Benjamin threw Woods into the steel steps. Woods was able to get back on the ring apron through for Kingston to tag in.
After the match AJ Styles and Omos made their entrance. Styles congratulated The New Day on their win and then started talking about. how there’s very few things left on his bucket list, its getting low. Omos apparently came up with an idea! They should be the RAW Tag Team Champions.
We heard Woods say they aren’t even a tag team, which I mean true. Styles and Omos still challenged The New Day for a championship match at Wrestlemania. Woods and Kingston eventually accepted the challenge.
Backstage Miz and Morrison ran into Damian Priest and Bad Bunny. Priest said even since Miz lost the WWE Championship he has been looking awful. Things began to get tense between the four men, but Miz and Morrison eventually walked away.
R-Truth then came up behind Bad Bunny! When Priest caught him, he promised he wasn’t there to sneak up and get the 24/7 Championship, in fact he had gifts for Bad Bunny! Truth gave him a bunch of Stone Cold merch! When Bad Bunny asked what Truth wanted in return, Truth pointed at the 24/7 Championship.
After talking it over with Priest, Bad Bunny told Truth he respected him and the business. Because of this, Bad Bunny said Truth deserved his baby back!
We went to commercial as Truth was being chased backstage by the locker room.
Returning from break, Tom Phillips informed us that Wrestlemania ticket sales will be pushed back.
Damian Priest defeated Jaxson Ryker via Pinfall (Hit The Lights)
A rather quick match for Priest.
After the match, Elias attacked Priest and then tried to bring his guitar into the mix. Bad Bunny though stopped Elias from using the guitar on Priest. Elias then picked up Bad Bunny and looked to drop him, but Bad Bunny escaped! After escaping he hit Elias with a huge right hand! Then Priest came in and got Elias with Hit The Lights.
John Morrison then came down the entrance ramp, clapping for them and saying they looked like a real team. This served to be a distraction because Miz came up from behind and hit Bad Bunny with a steel chair!!
We went to commercial as Priest and the referee checked on Bad Bunny. Of course as we returned from commercial break, we got a recap of what happened to Bad Bunny less then five minutes ago.
Then MVP and Bobby Lashley were interviewed backstage. MVP was not happy about Sheamus blindsiding Lashley earlier in the night. He said there is no guarantee that Sheamus will walk into Fastlane 100%. Then MVP said what happens to Sheamus tonight will be the same outcome for Drew McIntyre at Wrestlemania.
Shane McMahon versus Braun Strowman
Well folks, the match never officially began. Shane O wanted a moment before the bell rang because he needed a warm up. Ya know its not everyday Shane is in the ring. Strowman was getting ticked in the ring waiting, while Shane did push ups and hopscotch. He got fed up and chased Shane around the ring.
After taking a few shots from Strowman, Shane got hold of a camera from one of the crew members and hit Strowman with it. He eventually got Strowman on top of the announcers table and well, you can guess what he did next right? Of course Shane O jumped off the top rope and did a diving elbow, putting Strowman through the table!
Shane didn’t stop there. He grabbed green paint, or maybe it was green slime (Universal Studios isn’t that far away), and dumped two buckets on to Strowman.
Then we got a recap of what has been going on between Alexa Bliss and Randy Orton. After, we saw Bliss at her playground. She told Orton that if he wants her out of his life, he’ll have to take her out. Then she said he would have the chance at Fastlane.
We saw Asuka make her entrance to the ring before we went to commercial break.
Returning from break we saw footage of Molly Holly’s Hall of Fame announcement!
Then as Shayna Baszler made her entrance, she got an inset promo video. In the video Baszler said she meant to kick Asuka’s teeth out a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. This time, she’ll enjoy it even more.
Asuka attacked Baszler before the bell rang! Nia Jax attempted to get involved, but Asuka took care of her!
Asuka defeated Shayna Baszler via Pinfall
Jax tried to get involved multiple times, but Asuka didn’t let her be a factor. The match was a brawl for sure. Although, Baszler lost because Asuka reversed the Kirifuda Clutch she kept hold of the submission.
After the match though, we got a different side of Asuka! Asuka was out for revenge. She removed Baszler’s mouthguard and put her face into the exposed turnbuckle. More specifically she made Baszler bite the exposed steel. The referee was able to stop Asuka from doing more damage, but the statement was made.
Backstage Mustafa Ali was yelling at Retribution about righting their wrongs tonight. Then we went to commercial break.
Riddle defeated Mustafa Ali via Pinfall (Bro-Derek)
Ali was not able to turn Retribution’s luck around. Even with the rest of Retribution surrounding the ring, Riddle was able to retain the championship. T-Bar had the referee when Riddle had a pin attempt, but while he did that Ali was able to counter into his own pin attempt. Unfortunately for Ali the referee didn’t see the pin.
Backstage Randy Orton was interviewed. He said if Bliss wants him to kick her out of his life… he will.
Drew McIntyre made his entrance to the ring as we went to commercial break.
When we returned from break, McIntyre said he has been hanging back watching the show. He heard MVP make his guarantee earlier, so he has one of his own. McIntyre guaranteed that Sheamus and him will bring a level of physicality rarely seen and then McIntyre will go on to Mania and win back his title. Then McIntyre said he was back out to the ring to watch Lashley versus Sheamus up close.
Bobby Lashley defeated Sheamus via Pinfall (Spear)
Definitely a physical battle between the two. It did look as though Sheamus was going to be able to defeat Lashley a few times, but to no avail. Lashley was able to duck a Brogue Kick and when Sheamus turned around… SPEAR.
After the match, Lashley put Sheamus into The Hurt Lock and choked him out. McIntyre then got into the ring and hit Lashley with a Claymore Kick. We ended RAW with McIntyre and Sheamus in a staredown, as Lashley and MVP left.