Highs and Lows of Monday Night Raw – Seth Rollins is a Champion, Andrade and Rey battle it out and more

Posted on 26 January 2020
By Khyle Deen
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The 20/1/20 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw was a pretty decent episode all around.

Here are some of the highs and lows from the episode.

The opening segment had Seth Rollins, AOP and their new recruit, Buddy Murphy make their way to the ring.

Seth put his arm around Murphy and said that he opened his eyes and embraced his fate last week. Rollins said Murphy now stands on the right side of history.

Rollins introduced Murphy as his newest disciple and then gave him a big hug. Seth said it was a crucial time, and that the fans need to choose what type of people they will be. Rollins mentioned that the battle lines were drawn and everyone in the locker room needed to decide which side they are on because “you’re either with us or you’re against us.”

Kevin Owens’ music interrupted Rollins. Owens walked onto the stage with a mic, then Samoa Joe’s music played and he joined Owens. Owens told Joe that Rollins talks too much. Owens said that taking out Big Show was no easy task. He said Show would be back to deal with Rollins at some point and that the bigger problem for Rollins, was the fact that he didn’t get rid of him or Joe.

Kevin makes a suggestion for less talking and more fighting. Owens threw his mic aside. Seth said that if Owens wanted a fight then they could fight, but it wouldn’t happen on the spot. Rollins said they needed to decide on a proper time and place. Joe said he thought he saw a Monday Night Messiah, but his ears heard another typical lame, lawyered up ass-hat…

Rollins said he’s a forgiving man, but not so much for AOP. Rollins said that if the two of them were hellbent on fighting the four of them then they could “come on down and dance with destiny.” Joe said that one of the side effects of being an ass-hat is that your listening skills aren’t very good. Joe pointed out that they never said they were alone. “Come on out, boys,” Joe said.

The Viking Raiders joined Owens and Joe on the stage, they all headed to the ring and brawled with Rollins and his crew. Rollins fled the ring. AOP were cleared out of the ring. Joe attacked Murphy to end the segment – This whole segment gets a big high. As mentioned in previous editions, Rollins is doing some fantastic work right now, with Lesnar’s reduced role, Rollins has been carrying Raw for the last few years essentially, and he’s on top form as we kick off 2020.

Backstage, we see Rollins telling AOP and Murphy that they’re going to “fix this”. We see Kayla show up with a mic and tell Rollins that they appear to be caught off guard. Rollins says that this is not the case, and that he and Murphy are challenging the Viking Raiders tonight, for their Raw Tag Team Titles. – This segment gets a high, although it did seem a bit out of character for the AOP to just stand there and accept it…

The first match of the evening was Andrade vs Rey Mysterio in a Ladder Match for the US Title. It was a PPV quality, fantastic match, a few of the spots were perhaps a bit too ambitious, but it didn’t take away from the brilliance of watching these 2 stars compete and put on an incredible match. The finish saw Andrade hit a Hammerlock DDT sending Rey crashing through a ladder, before climbing up to retrieve his US Title and retain.

Following the match, Zelina Vega pulled up the mats outside the ring exposing the concrete, Andrade dragged Rey to the floor to hit another DDT, a man dressed in a Mysterio mask showed up at ringside. He unmasked, revealing himself to be Humberto Carrillo, he and Andrade briefly fought. Andrade and Vega retreated to the stage while Carrillo checked on Mysterio. – All in all, a great post match segment, great continuity there, setting up for Andrade’s next feud, it gets Carrillo over big with a return, everything worked out pretty well. Another great post match segment, another high.

Charly Caruso interviewed Randy Orton backstage, Caruso asked Orton about what he says to people who say his opponent Drew McIntyre is on par with him as a favorite to win the Rumble match. Orton said that McIntyre is a hell of a guy, with a hell of a future and a hell of a chop, but that he’s not on par with him. Orton pointed out that he can strike at anytime with the three most dangerous letters in sports entertainment… – Great promo work from Orton as always, arguably the greatest wrestler in the industry today. This segment gets a high.

Randy Orton vs Drew McIntyre was our next match, it was a hard hitting match, it was all going great, until the ending saw The OC hit the ring and take out McIntyre, kind of ruining the great work we were all watching… The finish of the match gets a low. Orton re-enters the ring with a chair, which makes The OC scurry out, Orton then quickly drops McIntyre with an RKO.

Post-match, McIntyre grabs a mic, telling Orton that he should have hit him with a Claymore Kick. Drew says that if he and Orton are in the ring together at the Royal Rumble, he will kick Orton’s head off his shoulders, then win the Royal Rumble match, finally main eventing WrestleMania. – Hopefully this is true, Drew McIntyre’s time should be now, he would be an excellent choice to win the Royal Rumble match.

The Viking Raiders vs Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy for the Raw Tag Team Titles is next, this was a pretty quick match, good for what it was, Rollins stomps Erik, and Murphy pins him, to win the Titles. Seth wins the Titles with a 5th partner. Pretty good little tally Seth is counting up here.

AOP came out afterwards and hugged the new Champs. – The match gets a high, good stuff, it’ll be fun and interesting to see where this all leads next. For now though, new Tag Team Champions!

Now for the lows of the evening…

The Street Profits hosted their Monday After the Weekend Update, in a spoof of the SNL segment, the less said about this the better, it seemed like The Strreet Profits were going to be built up, now it seems like they’re weak comedy attempts, give us something more with them WWE!?

Erik Rowan defeated Matt Hardy in 2mins, there are rumours that Hardy is basically finishing up his contract and is on his way out of the WWE, perhaps this is the case, this quick loss may be proof, WWE should utilise Hardy in the best way possible, give him a creative role behind the scenes or something, we’ll see what happens. This match was a low though.

Rusev and Liv Morgan lost to Lashley and Lana when Rusev was setting up for a Machka Kick and Lana grabbed his foot, allowing Lashley to spear him for the 1,2,3… Rusev losing yet again, not too sure where they’re going with this, but they need to get there fast…

Highs – 5

Lows – 3

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