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RAW has quietly experienced something of a renaissance since the draft in October and the Red brand is heating up at the right time with the Royal Rumble less than two weeks away. Monday night was a solid showing of action from the RAW roster and crew, with a lot of standouts and some of the usual WWE nonsense, but we'll get into all of that. Who got the most and least out of the show last night?
Winner: Drew McIntyre
If you beat AJ Styles and Randy Orton in a triple threat match, pinning the latter cleanly after your finisher, you must be doing something right. McIntyre has been showing a different side of himself in the past few weeks, and while he won't be a favorite to win the Royal Rumble or eliminate Brock Lesnar there at the outset, the possibility isn't zero, either.
Lesnar lacks any challenger on the horizon at the moment. The field is wide open here, wider than it has been for many years in the Royal Rumble match. Might this be the time McIntyre, beneath the radar, surprises everybody?
All we can say for sure is that the possibility is higher after last night than it was before.
Loser: Charlotte Flair
Charlotte Flair hasn't been this directionless since 2017. For the third week in a row, she engaged in a random match with a lower tiered competitor. She won, but to what end?
Always a favorite to win the women's Royal Rumble, this year, she enters the contest at a low ebb in her fortunes. You can never count her out, but it's starting to look like she indeed might not be in the running to win the match this time around.
Where does that leave her on the road to WrestleMania?
Loser: Rusev
This feud has been a giant humiliation for Rusev. He never even got a chance of revenge against Bobby Lashley, who has defeated him at every turn when they've gotten to the ring. The last time was no different.
With all the rumors swirling around Rusev and his future, this sure does look like a burial on the way out. It's hard to come to any other conclusion. Of course, people have stuck around after being treated in a similar way. Mike Kanellis comes to mind.
If he sticks around, Rusev's future on the road to WrestleMania certainly doesn't look bright.
Winner: Aleister Black
Would anyone mind if we got 10 more matches between these two? I doubt it, because this was yet another fantastic showing. As you would expect, these two hit each other hard until Aleister Black emerged victorious yet again with another Black Mass, his superiority clearly established by now.
It's refreshing that WWE hasn't taken the 50/50 route here and is making an effort to put over Black huge. He might be a sleeper favorite to eliminate Brock Lesnar from or, less likely, win the Royal Rumble. Again, the field is wide open.
Either way, this match did a lot to establish Black as one of the key performers on Raw, the effort of which appears to be ongoing.
Winner: Buddy Murphy
Despite his loss, Buddy Murphy's night wasn't over.
Instead, he came out during the six-man tag team match between Seth Rollins, AOP, and Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and the Big Show. He joined the hostilities in favor of the former team, becoming the fourth member of the faction in the process.
His ring acumen having been established, Buddy Murphy has now become a bigger priority for the red brand's crew, which is great news for him. Despite a rocky start after being called up last April, when he couldn't get on television, it's surprising how quickly his star has risen since the late summer.
We still don't know the wider purpose of Rollins' faction, but from Buddy Murphy's perspective, joining it is a win regardless of what it does. It shows that he's not just going to be used to put Aleister Black over and get summarily dismissed afterward. He has a more settled place on the show and we can continue to see him in the kind of matches we've come to expect from him. We win, too.
