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This week's WWE Monday Night RAW started off on the controversial note as the show is headed straight on the Road to WrestleMania. The red brand show has started shaping all its ongoing feuds for the Greatest Stage of Them All. Here's what unfolded on RAW this week.
#1 Ronda Rousey destroys Stephanie McMahon and Triple H with the help of Kurt Angle
WWE RAW General Manager Kurt Angle came out to start the show and challenged Triple H to a fight. Instead, he got Stephanie McMahon. She said that Triple H wasn't in the building and looked to talk Angle off the ledge. However, Ronda Rousey then made her way to the ring and, after some cringe-worthy goading, announced her WrestleMania opponent: Stephanie McMahon.
Triple H came out to voice his dissent with proceedings and a brawl broke out which ended with Angle putting "the Game" in an Ankle Lock and Rousey crushing McMahon with a Samoa drop.
Rousey destroyed Stephanie McMahon inside the ring whilst Triple H laid low trying to recover from the ankle lock in which he was trapped a little while ago.
Thus, the opening segment confirmed Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
#2 Asuka takes on Nia Jax
Asuka and Nia Jax were ready for the next match of the night. Jax dominated the match initially and continued with last week's momentum. Meanwhile, rooting for her friend, the RAW Women's Champion, Alexa Bliss, stated that Jax would not only end Asuka's streak but also the latter's career.
For a while, Asuka was seen struggling against Jax and her streak looked to be in jeopardy. But this situation didn't prevail for long.
Asuka soon had Nia Jax in the Asuka lock and that seemed to mark the end of the match. After struggling for long, Jax finally gave in and tapped out. Asuka, once again, walked out of the ring as the winner.
After the match, Jax remained in the ring and took her time before leaving the squared circle, trying to accept the match result. She walked back on the ramp and proceeded to move backstage amidst a loud cheer from the audience.
Result: Asuka def. Nia Jax
#3 The Bar vs the Revival
Cesaro and Sheamus were clearly the better team inside the ring tonight. One could hardly see them struggle against The Revival. Although the latter started gaining momentum after a few mins into the match, it wasn't the case for long.
The Revival eventually understood that they could only get an upper hand if they take the Bar member one by one. They tried to take down Sheamus followed by Cesaro. However, when Cesaro was tagged in, he was able to deal with both opponents and establish an upper hand in this feud.
After multiple tags, The Revival once again tried to pin Cesaro but that was their last attempt at the win. Post that, Cesaro greeted his opponent with a neutralizer and successfully pinned him down to win the match.
Result: The Bar def. The Revival
#4 John Cena makes his WrestleMania intentions quite clear
John Cena made his way to the ring as a video footage from the past week showed how he defeated AJ Styles on SmackDown Live and earned his spot in a 6-man match for the WWE Championship at Fastlane on Sunday.
Cena stated that he intended to talk about SmackDown. He was unsure if he could make this announcement on SmackDown without being interrupted by his opponents from the six-pack challenge.
Cena was confident that he will win the WWE Championship for the seventeenth time and broke the 20-year-old record for the most number of Championships won by any WWE wrestler.
He went on to say that he wishes to face AJ Styles at the Grandest Stage of Them All. However, he was interrupted by an attitude era legend, Goldust. He was quite sure that he can stop Cena on his road to WrestleMania and ended his conversation by punching The Champ.
However, Cena wasn't going to lay low and take it all and soon, he started fighting back. The two were then involved in an uninteresting match.
The two didn't struggle for too long. After struggling initially, Cena gained back his momentum and quickly reversed Goldust's next few moves. Following that, Cena pinned Goldust to walk out of the ring as the winner.
Result: John Cena def. Goldust
#5 Elias demands a brand new match
A backstage segment showed RAW GM Kurt Angle was speaking to someone on call when he was interrupted by Elias. He demanded Angle to add a symphony destruction match in which there would be musical instruments lying all around the ring.
Angle grabbed the opportunity and allowed for that special match to take place later in the night.
#6 Bayley fights Mandy Rose, meets Banks on the way
Before Bayley could face Mandy Rose, she was being interviewed inside the ring. The Hugger was in the middle of explaining the relationship she shares with Sasha Banks and how she felt about being ditched by The Boss. However, she was interrupted by Paige as the Absolution made their way towards the ring.
Paige called out Bayley and expressed that it was indeed incredible on Bayley's part to "stop letting Banks change her diapers as she's a big girl". This immediately irked Bayley who started landing continuous blows on Rose as the other two members of Absolution stood on the ringside.
Soon Bayley decided to take over the situation. She was no longer in the mood to let anyone else walk over her. The Hugger made good use of a small window of opportunity and took Rose by surprise.
After punching her a couple of times, Bayley was finally successful in pinning her opponent. The Absolution, however, didn't take the loss so gracefully and ganged up against Bayley to take her down.
However, Bayley's best friend, Sasha Banks, ran to her rescue and made sure that none could harm Bayley. She even helped Bayley and the latter denied a hug and walked out of the ring leaving The Boss alone inside the ring.
Result: Bayley def. Mandy Rose
#7 Alexa Bliss consoles Nia Jax backstage
In another backstage segment, Alexa Bliss met Nia Jax and consoled her best friend. She asked Jax not to be upset only because she is not apart of the WrestleMania match card.
Nia Jax could not control her emotions and she burst into tears when the realisation struck that she might not be a part of WrestleMania 34 at all. Luckily, she had Little Miss Bliss consoling her but who knows what this might lead to?
#8 Braun Strowman creates the 'Symphony of Destruction'
The next segment saw Elias initiating the Symphony of Destruction match. He played the guitar, a piano and drums before the match in order to convince the crowd that he can make better use of those musical instruments as compared to Braun Strowman.
After he was done with his song, he demanded to be properly introduced. His name was announced in the usual manner but the spotlight fell on an empty stool kept in the centre of the squared circle.
Elias was seen escaping the arena. He got into the car and was trying to get away but he couldn't get the car to move. It was then made clear that Strowman was holding the car from behind.
Elias realised that there is no escape from here. He got out of the car and ran back into the arena as he was being chased by the Monster Amongst Men. Inside the ring, Elias tried to put up a fight and attacked Strowman with a Guitar.
Although Strowman's back started bleeding, he had no intention to stop. He played piano in order to mock Elias before burying the latter beneath the instrument. Soon after that, he was able to pin Elias and walk away from the arena as the winner while Elias remained on the ramp till he received medical help.
Result: Braun Strowman def. Elias
#9 Bray Wyatt calls out his old enemy
Bray Wyatt walked inside the ring to face Rhyno and defeated him instantly after pinning down the latter in less than five minutes.
After winning the match, Bray decided to call out the 'Woken' Matt Hardy. In a video package that was shown to the audience, Matt was seen unwinding his intentions to carry out the Ultimate deletion of Bray Wyatt.
Result: Bray Wyatt def. Rhyno
#10 It's Mizzie time!
The Miz's favourite award show finally returned to Raw after one year. The third annual Mizzie award kick-started with the MIz singing chants about his awesomeness and calling out Hollywood and the Oscars.
His first category was the Superstars who are best at patting themselves on the back. The nominees included Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Kurt Angle. For the first Mizzie of the evening, Rollins and Balor had a tie.
The second Mizzie was the worst decision made by the RAW GM and the winner was undoubted, Kurt Angle.
However, the segment was interrupted by Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. Miz called them out for their futile achievements as they couldn't make anything big with the opportunities that were handed to them. As a result, both Rollins and Balor were convinced that it was now time for them to let the Miz know what he is up against.
How did it end? The Demon King and The Architect teamed up to face the Miztourage in a 3-on-2 handicap match. Rollins started demolishing the Miztourage whilst Miz allowed his teammates to take the blow first.
Balor and Rollins shared an excellent chemistry as they took on the Miz and his teammates. However, a conflict between the two was unavoidable. Balor tagged himself him and launched himself on the Miztourage to take them out.
He finally walked into the ring and was ready to land a Coup de Grace when Rollins tagged himself in and pinned the Miz.
Both Balor and Rollins were exchanging wicked looks when Kurt Angle walked in and announced that The Miz will face both Finn Balor and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match at WrestleMania.
Result: Seth Rollins and Finn Balor def. The Miztourage
#10 Paul Heyman takes a dig at Roman Reigns
Paul Heyman walked inside the ring with Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship Title and kept it inside the ring. He mentioned that if required he can bring back the Universal Championship as well as the UFC Championship of the "Beast Incarnate" if they need a reason to fight Lesnar.
He also stated that he will bring Lesnar on the show next week and if Roman Reigns had any intentions to challenge Lesnar for his title he should be ready to face the music. He called out the Big Dog for insulting Lesnar on the previous week.
He also mentioned that Reigns wants to win the Championship only because of his family and their history with wrestling. However, Heyman cleared that the title belongs to the best.
Not only did Heyman suggest that Reigns should refrain from challenging Lesnar inside the ring but also warned the former about trying to pick a battle of words with him.
Reigns decided to come to the ring and confront Heyman once again. He mentioned that he still stands by the words that he used to describe Lesnar in the previous episode. He, once again, extended his challenge for the "Beast Incarnate' and hoped that Heyman would pass on his message.
That marked the end of today's Monday Night RAW.
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