WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 30/03
- Linus O'Howell
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Stephanie McMahon Interrupts Cody Rhodes, The Usos VS The Vision: World Tag Team Championships Street Fight
This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, live from the World’s Most Famous Arena, “Madison Square Garden”, kicked off with Cody Rhodes, as The American Nightmare claimed that every MSG show must have the Undisputed WWE Champion on it! However, before Cody could say anything else, Stephanie McMahon made a surprise appearance, interrupting Rhodes to tell him that as long as he stays true to himself, he has no chance of beating Randy Orton at WrestleMania! See, this current version of Randy Orton is “diabolical”, something this Cody Rhodes can’t handle! Stephanie then brought up the fact that Cody’s father, Dusty Rhodes, was the best at doing whatever it takes to win, but this seemed to annoy Rhodes a lot! However, after a back-and-forth promo, Cody Rhodes eventually said thank you to Stephanie McMahon, which I assume means that we’re going to see a darker version of The American Nightmare! I think the idea for this segment was good, but I’m not sure it was that well executed!
Grade: C
IShowSpeed’s request for Danhausen to reverse the curse was rejected, and to make up for it, Adam Pearce gifted Speed front row tickets for the opening match of the night as The Vision challenged The Usos for the World Tag Team Championships! This was a Street Fight, meaning all four men were legal at all times, and I actually quite liked that! The match itself was pretty decent; many weapons were used, whilst Austin Theory was sent through a table at one point! However, the interesting part then came when Logan Paul asked his mom for brass knuckles, as LA Knight (who was on commentary) tried to stop this, only to accidentally pull IShowSpeed over the barricade! Speed then “accidentally” retaliated, smashing Knight with the brass knuckles, before Logan would do the same to Jimmy Uso! Now, because of everyone being legal, Theory (who was set to lose to Jey Uso) was able to put his hand over Jimmy to get the win, meaning The Vision are now the brand-new World Tag Team Champions! I really liked the finish of this match; it was really cleverly done, and The Vision winning was the right call!
Grade: B-
Liv Morgan Calls Out Stephanie Vaquer, The Irresistible Forces VS Bayley and Lyra Valkyria: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi Come Face-to-Face
After a recap of what went down at the end of last week’s Raw, Liv Morgan made her way down to the ring as she wasn’t at all in the mood to mess around! Liv quickly called out Stephanie Vaquer, stating that she was going to punish her for putting her hands on “Daddy Dom”, which resulted in Stephanie running down to the ring to start a brawl with her WrestleMania challenger! Then, when it looked like Vaquer was going to attack Morgan with a steel chair, Roxanne Perez attacked her from behind, making her return to WWE TV, as The Prodigy and Miss Morgan worked together to leave the Women’s World Champion laying following an ObLIVion onto the steel chair! I’m very glad to see Roxanne back!
Grade: C+
Logan Paul made it clear to IShowSpeed that he needs to stick with them moving forward, as Paul Heyman promised Speed that The Vision would take care of him! Bayley and Lyra Valkyria were then looking to follow in The Vision’s footsteps as they challenged The Irresistible Forces for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! I actually thought that this was a good match, with Bayley and Lyra showcasing that they may just be the saviours to this dying division! However, that all changed when The Bella Twins, plus Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair, showed up, causing a distraction that eventually led to Bliss and Flair attacking Nia Jax to cause yet another DQ finish! It’s the same rubbish every week, and it sucks as this match was actually enjoyable!
Grade: B- for the Match, D for the Finish
After Danhausen confirmed that WWE will be returning to Madison Square Garden in July for a Saturday Night’s Main Event, Brock Lesnar stormed down to the ring as Paul Heyman had some things to say! Paul made excuses for Brock, saying that he hasn’t been ready in either of the two weeks that Oba Femi has attacked him, which is why this week, he’s geared up for combat! However, Adam Pearce then arrived to say that he needs to protect his “Main Event” matches, which is why he’d brought a bunch of security guards down to ringside to make sure that nothing bad happens! As expected, this plan failed miserably, with Oba Femi eventually arriving to single-handedly destroy all of the security! Femi then came face-to-face with Lesnar, but no fists were allowed to be thrown as Triple H (of all people) got in between them, telling them that they needed to wait for WrestleMania! This seemingly worked for now, but to say that Brock was pissed would be an understatement! This and Punk-Reigns are easily the two best feuds heading into Mania 42!
Grade: B
Intercontinental Championship: Penta VS Kofi Kingston, Paul Heyman Segment, Iyo Sky VS Raquel Rodriguez
Finn Balor talked about how he made a lot of mistakes during his time with The Judgment Day, but none more so than believing that he could make a man out of Dominik Mysterio! We were then set for the third Championship match of the night as Penta put his Intercontinental Title on the line against Kofi Kingston! Just like last week, Kofi is starting to act a little bit more like a Babyface, with him consistently telling Grayson Waller not to get involved in his match as he wanted to win by himself! I can’t work out whether Kofi is playing tricks on us right now or not; whether it was Xavier Woods who was the real Heel of The New Day, or if Kingston is just trying his best to win Je’Von Evans over! Anyway, the tactic of “not cheating” didn’t exactly work out for Kofi, as the former WWE Champion was eventually beaten following a Super Mexican Destroyer! After the match was over, Penta announced that he will be defending his Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania in a Ladder Match! That’s going to be very exciting, with Je’Von Evans, Rusev, Dragon Lee, and JD McDonagh all doing enough to qualify!
Grade: B-
After Dominik Mysterio said that he will make Finn Balor pay at WrestleMania, Paul Heyman headed down to the ring to celebrate The Vision becoming the brand-new World Tag Team Champions, whilst also showing his displeasure towards Raw General Manager Adam Pearce! Throughout the night, Adam Pearce had been coming up to Paul to ask him if he’d checked his emails, something Heyman says he doesn’t do! However, Paul claimed that nothing gets past him, meaning he had to put on an act when Pearce confirmed that the Boston PD had dropped all of their charges against Seth “Freakin” Rollins! Despite this, Paul Heyman would keep his act up, up until the point where Adam revealed that Seth Rollins is now officially medically cleared! Seth’s music then hit, with The Visionary once again smashing The Oracle in the back with a steel chair, only for Gunther of all people to choke Rollins out with a sleeper hold! WWE have two weeks to explain to me why Gunther and Seth “Freakin” Rollins are feuding, other than the fact that neither of them have anything to do at WrestleMania! What I will say, though, is that this match could be the best of the entire weekend!
Grade: B
We then headed straight into the Main Event match of the night as Iyo Sky went one-on-one with Raquel Rodriguez! Iyo and Raquel have a good amount of chemistry due to their previous bouts, most notably at the inaugural NXT Stand and Deliver, and I thought that this was a pretty decent match, too! Both women had moments where they were on top, until The Kabuki Warriors showed up, with Asuka forcing Kairi Sane to try and screw over Iyo! Kairi seemed very reluctant to do this, so Sky eventually had enough, wiping out Asuka to try and help out her old friend! However, all this did was cost Iyo Sky the match, with a Tejada Bomb to The Genius of the Sky being enough for Raquel Rodriguez to score the win! I’m fully invested in this Iyo-Kabuki Warriors storyline!
Grade: B-
CM Punk and Roman Reigns Close the Show
After Je’Von Evans celebrated making it onto the WrestleMania card, and Adam Pearce confirmed that it will be Gunther VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins at WrestleMania, it was time for the final segment on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw as CM Punk and Roman Reigns once again closed the show! However, unlike in previous weeks, after Roman said “Acknowledge Me”, Punk just came down to the ring and started a brawl with Reigns, with no Usos around to stop him! Whilst Roman won the initial battle, it was the World Heavyweight Champion who eventually stood tall, sending Reigns crashing through the announce table to end the night standing tall in MSG! It’s very rare that you see Roman Reigns take bumps like this, which means that this was a very effective segment! These two continue to kill it!
Comments