RAW Results and Recap: Pride Comes Before a Fall
You can read more about the opening segment of this week’s RAW—in which Becky Lynch was given an ultimatum on the Road to WrestleMania—here.
Nia Jax & Tamina def. Sasha Banks & Bayley (took the pinfall) and The Riott Squad (Sarah Logan & Liv Morgan) in a Triple Threat Tag Team match (Loser Enters Elimination Chamber First)
Liv Morgan begins this match against Nia Jax, which is definitely a choice. It’s a bad choice, and Liv definitely knows it, so she tags Sarah Logan in as soon as possible. That makes it more even, but there’s definitely more of a chance for The Riott Squad once Tamina tags in instead. Then Liv is able to get back into the ring, but she’s still outpowered. Liv finally gets her speed going though—once Nia Jax tags in—but as soon as she gets some momentum, Bayley tags in.
And Ruby Riott, who is of course outside supporting her Squad, attacks Sasha Banks and forces her into the barricade. This allows Sarah Logan to hit Sasha with a running knee strike, an incident that requires medical attention during the commercial break. As Corey Graves notes, for the second week in a row, Sasha can’t help Bayley during the match.
Nia and Tamina dominate the match after that. Honestly, Ruby probably should’ve tried to go after either of them instead, especially as they work their devastation on the Squad the most. But Sarah is at least able to get her knees up when Tamina goes for the splash and then tags in Liv, while Bayley tags herself in for Tamina. Then Bayley is just rolling. She gets the diving elbow on Liv and looks like she’ll win it all before Sarah breaks the pin. Bayley fights back though, hits the Bayley-to-Belly, but Tamina superkicks her after the fact before dragging Liv Morgan to the corner so Nia can tag in. One Samoan Drop later and Nia pins Bayley.
After this match, poor Elias tries to perform and constantly gets interrupted. First by Becky Lynch and Finn Balor backstage, then by a video package for Seth Rollins’ past year in WWE, and then by the Lucha House Party… and a commercial.
Now Elias is really riled up because first his album wasn’t nominated for a Grammy and now this. Kalisto lets Elias know the Lucha House Party wants to walk with Elias, which is why they’re out here in the first place. So they let him sing his song—that he wrote for himself—about how much Grand Rapids sucks, which leads to the crowd chanting “YOU SUCK” at the end. But then we learn about the Lucha House Party’s musical skills: Lince Dorado dances (well), Gran Metalik sings (not well), and Kalisto plays guitar (much better than Elias). Elias even offers to do a duet with Kalisto, and he gets his other guitar… so he can smash Kalisto in the back with it and then run off. “That’ll teach you to interrupt me,” he says.
After that, out comes Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush, of course) to scout Finn Balor—his Elimination Chamber pay-per-view opponent—during his upcoming match against Drew McIntyre.
Finn Balor def. Drew McIntyre via Disqualification
Drew McIntyre starts the match off hot, with the advantage. But even when Finn Balor gets some kind of momentum, Lashley and Rush naturally interfere. At least Balor gets them back for that, and he keeps his momentum to the point that he’s about to hit McIntyre with the Coup de Grace… until Lashley runs up to push him off the top rope. It’s a DQ, and then it’s just a beatdown.
Finn Balor eventually gets some help in the form of Kurt Angle, who evens the odds and wrecks shop… until Baron Corbin attacks him from behind and turns the tide in favor of the damn numbers game.
But then Braun Strowman comes out, destroying McIntyre and Lashley. And once Strowman finally gets to Corbin, McIntyre saves his running buddy from getting these hands.
Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, & Baron Corbin def. Finn Balor, Kurt Angle, & Braun Strowman
During the commercial break, this brawl becomes a six-man tag team match. Balor and McIntyre obviously have things harder as they just had a single match, but they’re still both at their A-game here. As is Kurt Angle, who shows McIntyre what’s up, only not putting him away with an Angle Slam once Corbin breaks up the pin. Then a cheap shot from Lashley puts their team at the advantage. The team dominates Kurt Angle—with McIntyre, of course, trash-talking when he’s in the ring with him—but eventually, Angle gets out and make it to safety.
But the real fireworks begin when the match ends, as Finn Balor clearly has his foot on the bottom rope when Bobby Lashley pins him for a three-count. Referee Chad Patton came out to tell John Cone what happened and have him restart the match. So…
Finn Balor, Kurt Angle, & Braun Strowman def. Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, & Baron Corbin
During this commercial break, Lashley and McIntyre took out Angle and Strowman, with McIntyre hitting two Claymores on Strowman. So this is essentially a three-on-one handicap match, Or it is until Strowman finally comes back to life to help Balor out, tag in, and to give these hands. After he demolishes the opposing team, he allows Balor to get the win he deserved in the first place with a Coup de Grace on Lashley, a big momentum boost heading into their Intercontinental Championship match on Sunday.
Kevin Owens is returning from injury in “one more month or so.” He has no idea if it will be for RAW or SmackDown, but “The Kevin Owens Show” will be back soon.
Ruby Riott def. Nikki Cross
While Ronda Rousey is of course looking far ahead to WrestleMania, Ruby Riott is looking a little closer. At Elimination Chamber on Sunday, she plans to take Ronda’s RAW Women’s Championship and main event WrestleMania herself. So she plans to prove a point by taking on and defeating Nikki Cross tonight. (During this match, Ronda Rousey confronts Becky Lynch backstage, which you can read about here.)
But while Nikki Cross may be new to the main roster, she isn’t some easy competition. And she’s also not sane. Ruby lets Nikki know, “I’m the next champ,” so she shouldn’t try to step to her. But that trash talk doesn’t end up working too well for Ruby, as all it really does is give Nikki enough time to get fired up again. And she doesn’t care who’s champ or going to be champ. She just wants to play.
Ruby’s only able to turn things around when Nikki attempts to go to the top rope, and then she wins it all with a Riott Kick. But this wasn’t the easy fight she expected going into this match.
Seth Rollins comes out to talk about the last 12 months of his career and how he was glad to be able to share it with the WWE Universe. These past 12 months have been a time when he finally, truly felt like “Seth Freaking Rollins,” after all.
The bad news? He took six F-5s, and he’s really hurting after that. He can admit he’s never felt that kind of pain before. But the good news?
“I took six F-5s, and I’m still here. I took six F-5s, and I’m still standing.”
He says that he can still stand, which means he can still fight, which means he can still stomp—so he knows he can beat Brock Lesnar. Seth is ready to get real and honest, so of
But Heyman is here to educate Seth Rollins that all men aren’t created equal. Heyman gives Seth props for his wrestling ability, but he points out, “Brock Lesnar is a beast.” And a “career killer.” He says WrestleMania will be a “suicide mission” for Seth, one where Seth “will be the architect of [his] own demise.” And that’s not a prediction, it’s a “spoiler.” Seth’s response to all of that?
“I don’t care.”
Seth Rollins is tired of Lesnar’s stranglehold on the Universal Championship and holding the division hostage. So he promises that he will “be that martyr.” He’ll “sell his soul to the Devil” just to prevent Brock Lesnar from leaving WrestleMania as champion. That is what Seth considers the spoiler of this scenario.
This clearly shakes Paul Heyman to his core, but that’s not the end of the night for Seth Rollins, as Dean Ambrose comes out next to say something:
“I only got one thing to say to you: Slay The Beast.”
And then he waits for his match,
Dean Ambrose def. EC3
Ambrose is facing EC3 in a rematch from last week’s RAW. EC3 has the easy advantage early on in this match, but all it takes is a crafty small package from Ambrose to put a half to all of that. Ambrose and EC3 are now 1-1, and EC3 looks furious about it.
The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) def. Bobby Roode & Chad Gable (c), for the RAW Tag Team Championship
Prior to this RAW Tag Team Championship match, The Revival had been talking about how Bobby Roode and Chad Gable were just a “makeshift tag team” who didn’t deserve the titles. While they had a point about the origins of the team, during this match, you’d never consider Roode and Gable makeshift. Their tag team chemistry gives them the advantage for the early part of this match.
But The Revival is arguably the best tag team in WWE, and they get the advantage soon enough, beating Chad Gable down in the center (as well as their corner) of the ring. Gable fights to make it to Roode, but The Revival
Gable is finally able to tag in Roode, and he has no problem taking on both Dash and Dawson. And it almost looks like The Revival have the win with a double team Gory Special on Roode, but no. Then it looks like Roode and Gable have it with a top rope Blockbuster/German Suplex combo on Dash, but also no. The Revival with the Doomsday Device on Gable? No. But the WWE Universe definitely thinks “THIS IS AWESOME.” It is, and in the end, it’s a Shatter Machine—that Gable lands in after attempting a crossbody—that ends the match and creates new champs.
Post-match, Charly Caruso interviews the new champs backstage, noting that it’s taken them “quite a while” to get here. The
And now, it’s decision time for “The Man.” You can read all about it—and a certain McMahon’s late-game, main event-changing decision—here.