The 4/11/19 edition of Raw came to us live from Uniondale, New York, at the Nassau Coliseum.
The first high of this week’s Raw, came at the top of the show,
The show kicked off with WWE Champion Brock Lesnar & his advocate Paul Heyman making their way to the ring. Heyman stated that Lesnar is now a Raw superstar, after quitting SmackDown last week, Heyman brought up that Brock can essentially do as he pleases, as WWE has too much invested in him, and that Brock is that each and every one of us, and the “bitches in the back”. Brock Lesnar has come to Raw, to hunt down Rey Mysterio.
Brock & Heyman stormed to the back in search of Rey Mysterio, attacking innocent backstage crew and wrecking equipment in the process. It was a fantastic and thrilling way to kick off this week’s Raw and set the tone for the whole night, it’s always great when The Beast is in a foul mood.
After that great segment, came another high, in the first match of the evening, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, The Kabuki Warriors, faced off in a non-Title match against Charlotte Flair & Natalya. This was a lengthy match, at almost 20mins, back and forth action from all competitors, Natalya picked up the win for her team when she locked in the Sharpshooter on Asuka, forcing her to tap out. It was great work, presumably, if history is any indication, a Title match may occur down the road, which would be pretty great. Some may think Asuka rapping out makes her look weak as one half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, but Asuka isn’t the dominant force that she once was. She isn’t the first Champion to be defeated, she won’t be the last, and sometimes a loss is needed to set up for the future.
Following that match, was the third high. Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman made their way out again, this time to the commentary desk, Heyman threatened Jerry “The King” Lawler. This prompted Dio to stand up to Brock, who gave him an F5, sending him crashing through the announce desk for his troubles. It was a brilliant moment, added a lot to the dynamic of the broadcast.
Our first low this week, was Buddy Murphy picking up a win against Cedric Alexander in a quick match, it was good for what it was, but they’ve had much better matches together, and it was something of a disservice, hopefully it’s setting up for a feud on the prime time red brand this time, as opposed to the WWE Network exclusive brand that is 205 Live.
High number 4, was the segment featuring former WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Triple H. As always, fantastic mic work and story progression from 2 of the best. Triple H bringing up his past with Seth Rollins, as Seth questioned his future was great. Trips attempting to entice Rollins to join the NXT brand,
What happened after this segment, backstage was great to, Seth Rollins approached Hunter, telling him that he has no problem visiting NXT, but if he’s going, he’s a top guy. Seth tells Triple H that he wants an NXT Title match against Adam Cole. Triple H simply says “Welcome back” and grants the match.
A second low point during the night came when the Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders, made very quick work (40secs) of the Polo Boys. The Viking Raiders are Raw’s Tag Team Champions and should be competing in actual, high caliber matches, not beating up enhancement talent in a very quick segment.
Our fifth high, came when Rusev made his way to the ring, to talk about his relationship status with Lana, saying that his soon to be ex-wife, can have Bobby Lashley, but that Lashley’s ass is his. This prompts Lashley and Lana to arrive, Lashley is on crutches, claiming that he is not medically cleared to compete, due to a torn groin, which occurred when doing things in bed with Lana. Lana brings up that her and Lashley’s life is filled with love and sex, then proclaims that someone has agreed to face Rusev.
This brings out Drew McIntyre, he and Rusev face off and go just under 10 minutes in a match that doesn’t really show off their talents. It ended when Lashley attacked Rusev. Rusev managed to fight off Lashley, but is hit with an RKO out of nowhere, from an interfering Randy Orton. The post-match action was easily better than the actual match, as Ricochet made the save, throwing Orton out, then dropkicking Lashley into Lana.
In another high, we saw Rey Mysterio cut a fiery promo backstage on Brock Lesnar, challenging him to a match at Survivor Series for Brock’s WWE Championship. The match was made official for the PPV.
High number 7, and for many, segment of the night, was the interview segment featuring Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, it’s announced that at Survivor Series, it’ll be Champion vs Champion vs Champion. Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley, vs NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler. Becky states that she’s well aware that she is the target in the match.
Baszler arrives, and says that she’s been waiting to meet face to face with Lynch for a long time, knows what Lynch is capable of, after defeating Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania, but Shayna warns Lynch, and lets her know that she’s not Ronda Rousey, and that Lynch’s worry now, is wondering about which limb will belong to Shayna. It was a segment that’ll be talked about, probably for quite some time in terms of storytelling, and building anticipation heading into the Survivor Series PPV.
In what was both a low and a high, The Street Profits and Humberto Carrillo, faced off against The O.C. Prior to the match, The Street Profits brought Carrillo out, and together they bragged that The Street Profits beat The O.C just two weeks ago. The Street Profits then mentioned that mothers love to swipe right on Humberto’s dimples, it was a funny line, and a memorable moment, even if it was a silly segment before the match.
The match itself was fairly good, as we saw The O.C get the better of The Street Profits and Carrillo. It seems like they’re building Carrillo up to be a worthy opponent, so having him lose was a bit of a deflation in his momentum.
Our final high of the night, was the main event, Adam Cole defending his NXT Championship against Seth Rollins. It was a match that while solid, due to the talent, and some of the spots, felt like it was pre-heating throughout, and never truly got cooking.
The ending saw The Undisputed Era interfere and attack Seth Rollins, giving Rollins the DQ win. After the match, we saw Undisputed Era beat down Rollins, bringing out The OC to make the save. A flurry of NXT sand Raw stars rush out in a huge brawl. We see Raw’s Ricochet nail a Shooting Star Press onto a pile of superstars, we then see NXT’s Keith Lee hit a tope over the ropes, as the show goes off the air.
Overall, while not without flaw, it was an enjoyable edition of Monday Night Raw.
Highs – 9
Lows – 3