I have always found the Raw episode after a pay-per-view exciting so let's dive in.
John Cena has returned and he opened the show. I personally do not enjoy watching him but, love him or hate him, the man knows how to hype up a crowd. He called Roman Reigns an A-hole! Censors may have bleeped Cena but they couldn't silence the live audience. It will be curious what he has to say to the Universal champ this Friday at SmackDown.
The first match of the evening is the team of Matt Riddle and The Viking Raiders verses AJ Styles, Omos and John Morrison. Styles and Riddle start the contest. Great action but my favorite part was watching Morrison get sandwiched by the Vikings on the outside. Back inside the ring, AJ and Erik go at it with a phenomenal blitz of strikes. I can hear, and subliminally feel, just how powerful those leg kicks are. Incredibly impressive but after much energy spent, they each catch a reprieve from one of their respective partners. John and Ivar are now trading moves. Ivar is so powerful and agile for a man of his size. John tries to execute Starship Pain off the top rope but misses. Before a winner can be declared in this contest, a predictable event takes place. Morrison's sidekick, The Miz, "kind of "gets involved with his "drip stick".
Riddle, comes around the ring, steals a water filled drip stick from Miz and squirts the giant Omos. When Omos turns around, Riddle is gone and Miz is left holding his stick. The big guy leaves the apron and slowly makes his way to Miz. Morrison gets in-between them only to get thrown back into the ring by an angry giant. AJ then tries to slow his irate partner down which leaves John alone in the ring with the Vikings who pick up the win..
The queen is up next wearing her newly earned championship gold. Yada, yada, yada, "I can beat Rhea Ripley any night of the week..."... here comes Rhea. She issues a challenge for tonight which Charlotte quickly declines. However, Adam Pearce and Sonya DeVille come out and makes a title rematch official.
But before that can happen, it's time for my favorite fella. The United States Champion Sheamus squares up against Humberto Carrillo. It was 2 months ago that Humberto broke the nose of the champ. Carrillo is showing a lot of fiery guts going after Sheamus. The Celtic Warrior turns things around after his opponent tries to take off his protective mask. Sheamus is so powerful. His strikes are just echoing throughout the arena. He goes for a second Dublin smile but his opponent is smart enough to bite the champ's fingers to change the momentum in his favor. It's an illegal but effective move. Carrillo then flies through the ropes to launch Sheamus over the announce table. This would all be short lived because the champ demonstrates why he is the champ. It takes a moment but the fella finds his way back. With one Brogue kick, he scores another victory over Carrillo.
Succeeding this match is a promo by Bobby Lashley and MVP. I tuned out until Bobby asks "Who is it going to be to accept the open challenge?" Keith Lee is back!!!!!!!!! This powerhouse has been out of action since January 2021. And now he is going up against Lashley in a championship contenders match.
Keith is all power and glory and he is a fitting opponent for Bobby. Lashley had trouble muscling up Lee. He does, however, try to go for the Hurt Lock. There was no way he was going to hook it on a man of Lee's frame. It would be with a spear that the champ picks up the win. I'm not mad that Lee lost on his first night back. I'm just happy he is back.
The surprises didn't end there, While the champ is celebrating his win, Goldberg's music hits. The Hall of Famer has returned and he makes a bee line for Bobby Lashley. I am a huge fan of Goldberg. He gets directly in the face of Lashley and delivers a simple and effective message: "I'm next!" This fan is so ready to see these gladiators go at it.
For those of you who follow me regularly, I mentioned in my May 7th post that I would share my disappointment regarding a promoted match between Mahal and Lesner that never happened.
It was 2017 and for the first time ever, I was dating a fellow wrestling fan. As we were driving to dinner, I mentioned that I was excited to see the feud between Jinder and Brock. His response: "It's never going to happen." Shocked, I asked "Why not?" and he just kept saying that is was never going to happen. And sure enough he was right. I don't know how, because he wouldn't explain, but he was right.
Speaking of The Monday Night Maharaja, as I like to call him, he is in the ring flanked by Veer and Shanky. Shanky is singing Happy Birthday to Jinder when Drew McIntyre comes up from behind and attacks Mahal with a steel chair. He then goes after Veer and then Shanky. Poor Shanky, he gets absolutely brutalized with the steel chair across the back while Jinder and Veer have made it up the ramp. This is where the genius of Corey Graves comes into play.
Graves: "Where's Tito and Jermaine?"
The chair is completely mangled. So the Scottish Warrior grabs a fresh chair from the outside and continues the slaughter. Twenty times across the back of Shanky and there is instant bruising.
Now it is time for the Harbinger of Sorrow to make his debut on Raw sans Scarlett. His opponent is Jeff Hardy. The future Hall of Famer comes to the ring rejuvenated with the return of his "No More Words" entrance theme music. Karrion thinks he is going to dominate the veteran in this match but Hardy changes his plans. He sends Kross shoulder first into the ring post. That is enough for him to hit the Twist of Fate and then a power bomb to secure the win. It is inevitable that Karrion is moving up to the main roster. Did the NXT champ pick up a "L" at his Raw debut as a way to set up a losing streak storyline that has him parting with the gold?
To cap off the evening, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley have their championship title re-match. From the bell, both athletes unleash fury on each other. Ripley wants the match over quickly but Flair is a chess player. The champ targets the knee of her opponent. Rhea fights through the agony and the pain. She even gets a the figure four on the champ and hits the Riptide and goes for the pin. The ring awareness of Charlotte allows her to get her foot on the rope to break the count. Flair would retain her title for a few minutes longer after she gets disqualified for hitting Rhea with the belt. After the bell, Nikki Cross runs to the ring to cash in her MITB contract. From the top rope, she flies with a cross body onto Charlotte Flair and just like that, we have a new champion. That was a fun and unexpected way to end Monday Night Raw.
#BringBackBraun
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