WWE rolled into Kansas City, Missouri for Monday Night RAW to kick off the final week of John Cena’s career.
Let’s get into the results:
IYO SKY def. Kairi Sane
WWE Tag Team title match: AJ Styles and Dragon Lee def. The War Raiders
Roxanne Perez def. Lyra Valkyria
Logan Paul def. LA Knight
Notes:
Gunther opened the show to hype his showdown with John Cena this Saturday. The Austrian said he will force Cena to do something he has promised he would never do – give up.
Logan Paul tells his Vision stable-mates he needs them to take care of this Rey Mysterio situation and they agree to help. Paul pulls Heyman aside and says he wants them to know that while they are backup for him, he wants to be backup for them, too.
Mysterio was to face Finn Balor but Paul attacked him during his entrance. Not very well, we should add, that is until that masked man from War Games showed up and Curb Stomped the WWE Hall of Famer. That gave Paul the chance to get up and hit him with the brass knuckles.
Then LA Knight hit the ring to chase Paul off, a bit of a throwback to their United States title feud. Knight demanded a match with the YouTube star.
The botch in the tag team title match was so painful to watch. Dragon Lee just could not get the fireman carry to happen in three genuine attempts. Ivar proved too heavy, but he didn’t seem to greatly help either.
New Day confronted the champions after they retained, but then The Usos made a surprise entrance. They declared they are back in the tag division and setting their sights on the titles.
Stephanie Vaquer did an in-ring interview with Jackie Redmond. She was interrupted by Nikki Bella and just as she was in the middle of demanding a rematch, Raquel Rodriguez knocked her out and asked for a title match herself.
Liv Morgan played a key role in Roxanne Perez getting the win.
Another video airs of Maxxine training in the dungeon and tapping out multiple wrestlers. Natalya, sporting her Bloodsport gimmick, tells her to tap her out. And after a tough scrap, Maxxine does.
The Vision decimates LA Knight. A Spear from Bron Breakker and two Tsunamis from Bronson Reed left The Megastar broken. After Bron Breakker cut a top-tier promo inciting CM Punk – even threatening to take his wife, AJ Lee – the camera cut to Knight trying to get back up and fight backstage.
Paul and Reed met him. They put him through a table and then Reed hit the Tsunami on him on top of a car.
Analysis:
Bron Breakker is really shining in his first shot at world title gold. He’s showing new, entertaining layers in the spotlight and even if he has been jettisoned here because of Seth Rollins’ injury a little early, he’s making the timing seem perfect.
Then you’ve got Logan Paul. His addition to The Vision has added to much more so his character and the sheer association with Paul Heyman is working on so many levels. Giving Paul matches on TV and having him appear every week – they’re prepping him to be a world champion in the not too distant future, too.
The destruction of LA Knight is intriguing. Like Jey Uso, he had a plateau in WWE where his character needs the world title and he’s popular enough to have it, but he can’t break in with the names in front of him right now. Sami Zayn falls into that category too.
Writing interesting TV for the talents that sit in that main event limbo is a task. Uso has gone back into the tag team with his brother Jimmy, what will this injury write off mean for Knight? If The Vision has the title soon, he would make for a good foe when he returns. But, he either wins the title as a babyface in the next six months or so, or, he turns. He’s running out of options.
Felt very sorry for Dragon Lee and his botch in the tag title match. That can happen. And I’d imagine Ivar would be the first to admit he didn’t cover himself in glory either.
Very subtle dynamic shift tonight where Raquel Rodriguez went after the women’s title on her own accord. Last week, the show finished with us assuming Morgan would hunt down Vaquer while Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez try to reclaim the tag titles.
Well, apparently not. Morgan and Rodriguez have switched places and clearly, Rodriguez does not take orders from Morgan anymore. There’s zero chance Morgan lets that lie, it’s just how long does she wait.
Also, Vaquer as champion just isn’t hitting its stride like one would hope. It’s her first time at the top and she no doubt has the talent, but even her promo on this show – and I’m always wary of criticising someone’s promo skills where English is not their first language because her English is a hell of a lot better than my Spanish – but the delivery was just a bit flat.
She’s an elite worker and there’s plenty of great matches for her to have, but I do not see her carrying the title into WrestleMania season with the vast array of options WWE have.
Finally, who is the masked man? I have a theory – pun kinda intended – that it’s more than one person. Austin Theory makes a lot of logical sense to me in joining the mostly young, muscle-bound Vision. But the way the masked man moves and his body type… he kind of looks like Montez Ford.
WWE has a history of having mystery sagas like this without the actual answer in mind until the last-minute. But I suspect with Paul Heyman close to the story, that’s not the case this time around.
