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The final WWE RAW episode of 2019 and the decade was filled with a lot of action, interesting segments, and surprises that kept fans on the edge of their seats.
The night started with an interesting segment involving some of the biggest names in the industry and ended with a surprise return by a Superstar who was largely overlooked earlier on.
Apart from that, a new chapter in Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy’s rivalry was written, while Randy Orton and AJ Styles were also not too far behind in pushing their rivalry forward.
In this article, we'll look a the 5 things Paul Heyman and his crew got right on the final episode of RAW this year.
#5 Kevin Owens finds some help
It’s never a dull moment when Kevin Owens kicks off RAW. He opened up the final RAW of the decade, voicing his displeasure about the attacks by Seth Rollins and AOP. It was interesting to watch him blame Rey Mysterio’s loss at the Madison Square Garden on the beatdown by Rollins and AOP last week.
This brought out Rollins, Akam, and Rezar who addressed the WWE Universe. This did not work well with The Prizefighter who left the ring to take on the three heels himself.
As the numbers game proved too much for the former Universal Champion, Samoa Joe’s music hit and he took down Akam and Rezar before applying the Coquina Clutch to Rollins.
This was an incredible opening segment that gave fans something big to look forward to in the coming weeks. With the WWE Champion away from television for extended periods, it will be great to watch Rollins, Owens, and Joe along with the AOP work together to give fans some good hard-hitting content without any titles on the line.
KO mentioning Mysterio earlier could signal towards The Master of 619 joining the two babyfaces to even out the numbers game.
#4 The Viper plays The Phenomenal One
Randy Orton is one of the most experienced and cunning men in the industry today. Late last week, fans got the terrible news that he suffered an injury to his knee during a Live Event.
This week, he came out to address the WWE Universe regarding his injury. He informed his concerned fans that MRIs revealed the injury to be much more significant than he’d imagined and that he would do everything possible to make sure someone ate an RKO at WrestleMania.
This brought out his rival Styles who taunted him. He kept on delivering lines to make fun of The Viper, even putting his hands behind his back and closing his eyes to make a mockery of Orton’s injury.
The Viper fittingly replied to The Phenomenal One by saying “You know what the difference is between you and I? You’re patient, I’m not”, before delivering an RKO to the former WWE Champion.
This showed that Orton was just playing Styles and wasn’t injured, and it was a good segment to further this rivalry without much action on RAW this week.
While The Viper employed a pure heel tactic while playing a babyface, it was interesting to watch the two veterans play this segment out to perfection. Styles, on the other hand, performed the role he has been assigned very well and allowed the segment to get the impact that was desired by WWE creative.
#3 Buddy Murphy vs Aleister Black
It was a good mid-card match which could have main-evented the show!
Aleister Black and Buddy Murphy wrote the first chapter in their rivalry at TLC 2019. Black managed to go one up over Murphy, and a rematch was scheduled for this week’s broadcast. The latest chapter saw the two men battle it out in style once again, with The Best Kept Secret trying to get the upper hand earlier on.
The match saw the two men deliver an epic performance which drew chants of ‘this is awesome!’ from the crowd. While The Aussie managed to do very well in the match, Black took the weight off Murphy’s shoulders once again with a Black Mass from out of nowhere to score his second victory.
This allowed Black to retain his winning streak and pose as a potential threat to the top of the roster while taking nothing away from Murphy. The Aussie delivered a grand performance of his own, which makes him a dangerous prospect for the mid-card.
Fans will now be hoping that WWE books these two men in more matches so they can watch them give more of such great performances.
#2 The Street Profits’ victory
Before we begin with this point, it’s important to note that The O.C. have proven to be the only team that has defeated The Viking Raiders more than once.
This week, The O.C. battled The Street Profits in tag team action after Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford pointed out that they defeated the best tag team in the world on their RAW debut.
This allowed the babyfaces to take control of the match early, with the official ejecting AJ Styles from ringside. After the heels picked up the pace, it seemed like The O.C. would easily win the match and go on to battle The Viking Raiders for the RAW Tag Team Championships.
However, Ford managed to escape the Magic Killer, and the duo finished Gallows off with a Sky High and Frog Splash combo to pick up the win.
This allowed RAW to shuffle up the wins in the tag team division and make the competition greater and much more unpredictable. Ejecting Styles from ringside also showed the heels need their leader to help them pick up victories at times.
The Street Profits benefit a lot from the win and are now part of a Triple Threat Match involving the Champions and The O.C. for the RAW Tag Team Champions. This will be a great momentum builder for them.
#1 Liv Morgan’s return
Fans had been waiting for Liv Morgan to return with a new character for a long time, but they weren’t sure when she’d return and who she’d side up with.
Many fans were hoping that she’d join ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt and become a part of his Firefly Fun House in the process. However, Morgan returned this week after several vignettes and interrupted Lana and Bobby Lashley’s wedding.
Not only did she interrupt the two lovebirds, but she also revealed that Lana had helped her a lot backstage and was her lover.
This was another bizarre segment in the Rusev-Lana-Lashley storyline which has been met with mostly negative reviews. However, the inclusion of Morgan to the storyline could turn things around and help creative to bring it back on track.
It will be interesting to see whether Morgan will join Rusev going forward or not, but the unexpected return was a nice touch to end 2019 on a high in the final segment of RAW.
While fans were expecting Rusev to ruin the wedding, it was good to watch Morgan get such a huge push in the main event of the final RAW of the year, coming out to deliver a huge twist to this storyline.
