One night after Fastlane, WWE made a quick switch to WrestleMania 37 mode complete with an episode of Raw that focused on making several major fights for the company’s biggest weekend of the year. Four fights were made official on Monday night with at least one other provoked by WrestleMania, which is 19 days away.
Drew McIntyre managed to win a handicap match to remove a potential complication from the equation for his match with WWE champion Bobby Lashley in one of the card’s biggest matches. In addition, Asuka finally figured out who would fight for her Raw women’s championship when Rhea Ripley made her long-awaited Raw debut.
CBS Sports was with you all night, bringing recaps and highlights of all the action from within the ThunderDome.
Bobby Lashley launches success on Drew McIntyre
Bobby Lashley defeated. Sheamus via submission with The Hurt Lock. This was the expected fight of a great man. The fact that Sheamus and Lashley are doing some of the best jobs in their careers certainly raised expectations, which were largely met. The Hurt Business was finished with Lashley and Cedric Alexander caused a little distraction for Lashley, allowing Sheamus to take control for a while. Alexander made up for it in the end, causing a second distraction, this time affecting Sheamus and allowing Lashley to hit a spinebuster to prepare for the submission. After the fight, The Hurt Business invaded Sheamus, defeating him until Drew McIntyre made his way to the ring to separate things and run away from Shelton Benjamin and Alexander, leaving Lashley and MVP alone in the ring with McIntyre. McIntyre put his hands behind his back and begged Lashley to throw the first punch, while MVP begged him to go out screaming that it was business, not emotions. Backstage, Lashley and MVP warned Alexander and Benjamin for making it look like the champion needed their help to win, calling it embarrassment.
Drew McIntyre def. Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin in a handicap match. McIntyre was challenged to a handicap match against Alexander and Benjamin, but told Adam Pearce that there had to be the right bets for the match before saying he would accept the match if The Hurt Business was banned from the ring at WrestleMania if he won the match. After battling the numbers handicap, McIntyre managed to hit the two men with Claymores to score the win and get Benjamin and Alexander out of the equation at WrestleMania. Behind the scenes, MVP and Lashley again blew up Alexander and Benjamin before Lashley broke into a locker room and offered members of the lower card an opportunity to dispute the title to eliminate McIntyre.
This was probably the smallest change on the WrestleMania card as a whole for the night, but it is clear that Lashley’s challenge to the locker room to remove McIntyre will be a story that will span for weeks. Wrestling has a history of great reward situations, and watching men like Drew Gulak try for glory can be a lot of fun. Sheamus seems to be stuck on a WrestleMania show with Riddle (see below) and he deserves at least that for a tremendous run in the past few months. Note: B +
What else happened at WWE Raw?
- Asuka def. Peyton Royce by shipment with Asuka Lock. Royce fought very well, almost winning several times, but Asuka won with the submission. After the fight, Rhea Ripley made her debut as a member of Raw. Ripley entered the ring and challenged Asuka to a fight at WrestleMania. Asuka said to Ripley, “You are not ready for Asuka,” before officially accepting the challenge.
- The Miz challenged Bad Bunny to a WrestleMania fight on Miz TV. Miz and Morrison said they would debut a video for “Hey Hey, Hop Hop” next week on Raw, a “sneaky track” that would end Bunny’s career. Miz then presented the official challenge to Mania.
- The Miz def. Jeff Hardy via pinfall after reaching the Skull Crush Final. While Miz was celebrating after the fight, Bad Bunny slipped into the ring and hit Miz with a guitar and accepted the challenge for a fight at WrestleMania.
- Kofi Kingston def. AJ Styles via pinfall with SOS Before the match, New Day angered Styles by trying to convince Omos not to join him at WrestleMania.
- Sheamus hit Riddle with a scooter. Riddle interrupted an interview, asking Sheamus questions about Ireland, annoying Sheamus until he took Riddle’s scooter and hit him.4
- Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated. Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose via pinfall when Jax hit Brooke with a Samoa crash. Reginald was at the side of the ring and helped provide distractions that helped the women’s doubles champions to win.
- Braun Strowman won. Elias via pinfall after a powerslam is running. After the fight, Shane McMahon hit Strowman with his crutch, without affecting the big guy. McMahon then ran from the ring, prompting Strowman to point out that McMahon’s knee looked fine and opened the challenge for WrestleMania, which McMahon accepted for “any fight” that Strowman wanted.
- In the final segment of the show, Randy Orton promised to end The Fiend before the night was over, bringing Alexa Bliss, who told Orton to be careful what he wanted before the lights went out. The fire went off from the ring posts and The Fiend was in the ring behind Orton. Orton took a gas can out of a bag he carried into the ring and threw gas at The Fiend, which was not moving. Instead of lighting a match, Orton hit an RKO. After Bliss entered the ring, The Fiend stood up, caught Orton in the jaw and hit Sister Abigail before Bliss pointed to the WrestleMania signal. The show ended with the official announcement of a fight between Orton and The Fiend at WrestleMania.