This Week’s Monday Night RAW Review

The Man Kicks Off RAW

The show started out with Becky Lynch cutting a promo, the night after she found out her WrestleMania opponent: Shayna Baszler. The Cage Fighter decimated five other opponents inside the Elimination Chamber on Sunday, setting up a date with the Man at the show of immortals. 

Just over a month ago, Baszler took a bite out of Lynch’s neck. The Man was irate and said that she would be rooting for Baszler at Elimination Chamber. Well, Lynch got her wish.

After winning the chamber match, the former MMA fighter had an interview and said that there is nothing The Man can do when she takes the RAW Women’s Championship away from her in Tampa. During her promo, Lynch mentioned Ronda Rousey, a good friend of Baszler. Lynch took a look back at WrestleMania 35 when she pinned Rousey to unify the RAW and Smackdown Women’s titles. The Man talked about her experience squaring off with former cage fighters, while also implying that she’s been running this entire Women’s division since last year’s WrestleMania.

The Queen and the Nightmare Go Face-to-Face

Charlotte Flair made an appearance on RAW last night. Yes, Charlotte Flair is still a member of the Monday Night Raw roster. Flair will challenge NXT Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley for her title at WrestleMania.

This is the first time ever that an NXT champion will put a title on the line at WrestleMania and the first time Flair will challenge for the NXT Title in five years. 

A video package before Flair’s promo showed Ripley’s journey to becoming the first person to defend an NXT title at WrestleMania. When Ripley first started competing in WWE, she was touted as the next Charlotte Flair. The Queen completely crushed that comparison. Flair said that Ripley will never compare to her and that she will “humble” Ripley at WrestleMania. 

The Nightmare interrupted Flair and when Charlotte said that she didn’t belong on Monday Night Raw, Ripley threw a right hand, knocking the Queen down. 

AJ Styles Calls Out the Undertaker

AJ Styles cut one of his best promos since he’s been a part of the WWE when he challenged the Undertaker to a match at WrestleMania. This comes after Undertaker cost Styles two chances to win matches.

Styles started it off by talking about how the Deadman should’ve retired while he was in his prime and how he is now just a broken-down old man named Mark Callaway.

The Phenomenal One criticized Undertaker’s wife, former Diva’s Champion, Michelle McCool. Styles said that she is running ‘Taker into the ground, and “he’s going to help her do it.” Styles directed a message to the Deadman saying “I am literally going to put the nail in your coffin.”

Next week, Undertaker and Styles will make it official in a contract signing.

Edge Returns

The Rated-R Superstar returned to RAW. Edge was going to make a statement after his wife, Beth Phoenix was RKO’d by Randy Orton last week.

MVP was in the ring, saying that he wanted to guide Edge back to championship status. When Edge arrived and his music hit, he took the microphone away from MVP and called out the Viper.

After a few seconds, MVP brought up Orton’s attack on Phoenix and asked how she was doing. Edge turned around and speared MVP. Orton then entered the ring and was firing punches at Edge before the Master Manipulator hit Orton with an RKO out of nowhere. 

After the Royal Rumble, the Viper destroyed Edge with a con-chair-to. Edge wanted to do the same to Orton, however, the Viper slithered out of the ring. Instead, Edge RKO’d MVP on a chair and proceeded to hit him with a con-chair-to twice. Edge screamed at Orton, “This is you Randy.”

This is implying what we’ve known for a long time and that is were going to see Orton and Edge square off at WrestleMania. The big question is, will there be a stipulation?

The Main Event

The main event featured Seth Rollins taking on Aleister Black. Earlier in the show, Rollins knocked on Black’s door, asking him to join his movement. Black declined and accepted Rollins’ fighting words as a signal to fight. 

As the match went on, Murphy and the AOP interfered, causing a disqualification. The Viking Raiders and the Street Profits came out to help Black. A challenge was then laid down to have an eight-man tag team match and was made official. 

Rollins, Murphy and AOP won off a stomp by Rollins, pinning Montez Ford. Kevin Owens, who has been feuding with Rollins since November, came out and hit stunners on Murphy and the AOP. However, the Monday Night Messiah had the last laugh, stomping Owens’ head into the mat three times. 

Rollins and Owens are likely to have a WrestleMania match and I expect that match to become official next week. 

This Week’s Grade: A-

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