WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 16/03

Linus O'Howell
16 hours ago
5 min read

Seth “Freakin” Rollins Starts the Show, “The Original” El Grande Americano VS El Grande Americano

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with a gang of masked men again, as Seth “Freakin” Rollins finally spoke after months of silent attacks! Seth stated that he was the one who created The Vision, and that’s why he’s going to e the one to burn it to the ground! This brought out Paul Heyman, who was completely dishevelled, but this was all part of Heyman’s plan as Brock Lesnar arrived to a great reaction! Brock destroyed the masked men with some horrific-looking Suplexes, leaving him and Seth Rollins all alone! However, in another shocking twist, the lights went out, and Oba Femi’s music hit! The Ruler then charged down to the ring as Seth smiled, with Rollins then leaving as Oba wrecked Brock with a Fall From Grace! This was a Home Run segment; I’ve felt like Seth VS Brock has made sense for weeks, but setting up Femi-Lesnar in this way was perfect!

Grade: A

After a recap of what went down at Rey de Reyes this past weekend, we headed into the first match of the night as the two El Grande Americanos faced off in singles action! I really expected this match to last about a minute, mostly because it made no sense that it was happening here! This match should either be saved for WrestleMania or a big AAA show, not just on a random episode of Raw! Anyway, the match itself was fine, with the two Americanos putting on a decent showing! I quite liked the idea of the ending, with Bravo placing the metal plate in the mask of “The Real” El Grande Americano, meaning that it knocked out “The Original” El Grande Americano when he attempted a diving headbutt! Unfortunately, he completely missed, but it still resulted in “El Grande Mexicano” getting the victory! All of this was so odd!

Grade: C+

Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee VS Bayley, Penta VS Dragon Lee: Intercontinental Championship

Roman Reigns was met by The Usos when he pulled up to the arena, making it clear that CM Punk is his when it comes to WrestleMania Weekend, before Liv Morgan had a video promo where she explained that it’s always been her plan to kick Finn Balor out of The Judgment Day! The interesting part about all of this was the fact that Liv never mentioned Roxanne Perez once! Anyway, after another backstage interaction between Roman Reigns and The Usos, a dream match was set to take place as Bayley challenged AJ Lee for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship! I feel like this match got better as it went on; it started off slowly, but towards the end it felt like the pace started to pick up! I still feel like there’s a clear gap between the current roster and AJ Lee, something that is holding these matches back right now! I also thought that Bayley was going to win here, but I was wrong, as Lee forced The Role Model to tap out in the Black Widow submission! After the match was over, Becky Lynch returned to attack AJ Lee, standing tall with the Women’s IC Title to end the segment!

Grade: B-

After Penta cut another promo, Dragon Lee answered the Open Challenge for an Intercontinental Championship opportunity! This was such a good match, with both guys really going at each other, and I personally really enjoyed it! Dragon Lee is so good in the ring; yes, he doesn’t get much reaction, but his talent is undeniable! One of the dives that Dragon did to Penta over the announce table was incredible, and Lee came close to winning IC Gold after dropping Penta with Operation Dragon! However, in the end, it was Penta who scored another successful Title retention with a wicked Mexican Destroyer, and like I said before, fair play to both of these men because this was great!

Grade: B+

Maxxine Dupri VS Nattie, Stephanie Vaquer VS Raquel Rodriguez

Austin Theory and Logan Paul wanted to get their hands on Seth “Freakin” Rollins, but Paul Heyman wisely pointed them in the direction of The Usos, stating that The Vision needs Championship Gold in order to have some power again! Nattie then stormed her way down to the ring next as she was ready to go one-on-one with Maxxine Dupri! My one positive about all of this was the fact that this was far better than their last match, but I guess that wasn’t exactly a particularly high bar! As expected, it was Nattie who came out on top in this match, and I’d say that the sooner this feud ends, the better!

Grade: C-

After Randy Orton explained to Michael Cole and the rest of the world that he is a killer, Je’Von Evans rejected Kofi Kingston’s offer to align himself with The New Day! Danhausen then offered his services to The New Day, but when Kofi rejected, Danhausen cursed Grayson Waller! I’m not sure what can go much more wrong for The Arrogant Aussie, but I guess we’re going to find out! Anyway, it was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Raquel Rodriguez tried to take out Stephanie Vaquer on behalf of Liv Morgan! We’ve already seen Stephanie and Raquel face each other a number of times in recent memory, but I guess this sort of worked as the background to the match was far different than when Rodriguez was trying to become Women’s World Champion! Liv Morgan was pacing around ringside to the point where Iyo Sky just showed up and attacked Liv, with no explanation for her actions whatsoever! This opened the door for Vaquer to steal a roll-up victory, and all of this felt quite odd, to be honest! Why was Iyo here?!

Grade: C+

CM Punk and Roman Reigns Come Face-to-Face

After Bayley and Lyra Valkyria agreed to try and get to WrestleMania together (whilst Austin Theory was seen in the background talking to Maxxine Dupri), it was time for the final segment on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw as CM Punk and Roman Reigns once again came face-to-face! Roman was out first, talking about how great he is, before Punk arrived to play some mind games! In fact, that’s all that CM Punk has been doing for weeks now, and yet, Reigns hasn’t cracked once! Roman brought this up, stating that as great as Punk is, The Tribal Chief is on an entirely different level! Reigns then called Punk “old”, and this completely set The Best in the World off, flooring Reigns with a right hand! This actually made Roman Reigns smile, and of course it did; this was all part of his plan! Whilst calling CM Punk “old” isn’t the most outrageous line that I’ve ever heard, the fact that Roman made Punk crack with this line, in comparison to all of the things that Punk has said, tells you everything that you need to know about who’s in whose head right now!