WWE Raw - March 18, 2019: Highlights and Review
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman open the show This week WWE Raw got opened with a promoas usual. What wasn't usual though, was that Brock Lesnar made an appearance on Raw after god knows how long. He got booed by the Chicago crowd as he made his way down the ring. Heyman starts the promo with his usual schtick introducing Brock Lesnar to us. He challenged the statements made by Rollins the previous week. He said Brock Lesnar defeated all the man that Rollins said he had a hard time with. In the end, he was the victor against Styles, Bryan and Balor. He hyped the main event of the show saying that what was Rollins thinking challenging a career killer like Drew McIntyre for a match days before his match with Brock Lesnar. This brings out McIntyre who is happy that he is finally getting the respect that he deserves. McIntyre suggests to Heyman that he must find another opponent for Brock because after McIntyre is done brutalizing Rollins, he won't make it to WrestleMania. Seth Rollins comes from behind and hit McIntyre with chair shots on the back. He looks at Brock and heads towards the ring with the chair in his hands. Lesnar just jumps out and leaves. This was a fine segment. It is always nice to see both the competitors hyping up their match instead of the same promo by only one of them. Also did a decent job to hype the audience for the main event of the show. Rating: 3.5/5 Finn Balor is out next. He will be in a tag team match with a mystery partner against Lashley and Rush. Blair grabs a mic and said that he wasn't a lucky Irish last week when he lost his Intercontinental championship match to Bobby Lashley. He said he wouldn't be a former champion for too long though. Lashley and Rush interrupt. Lashley poses with the title. Balor said he will get his hands on the title very soon. And his partner will get his hands on both them. Brain Strowman us revealed as Balor's tag team partner Finn Balor and Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush Lashley and Rush dominate Balor. Balor gets very little offence in the match. The heels tried to avoid Baloe tagging in Strowman into the match. Strowman finally gets in the ring with Rush. He throws Rush across the ring before stomping him on the chest. Rush almost made a comeback when Lashley hit a spear on Strowman. But Braun kicks out after a frog splash attempt from Lio. Rush tried to run away but he is caught by Balor. Balor got shoulder tackled by Lashley, who got run over by Braun. Braun throws Rush into the ring for a chokeslam and then a running powerslam for the win. Winner: Finn Balor and Braun Strowman I am not that much invested in the IC title storyline. The match was fine. They are still booking Lashley to be strong. Balor barely got any offence in the match which is not great. Rating: 2/5 Backstage, Ronda Rousey is walking into the arena with her husband, Travis Browne. They walk into the referee John Cone who told Ronda that she is late. He also told her that in addition to the fine on Ronda, they have also increased security. Rousey just ignores and walks away. A Moment of Bliss w/ Elias Bliss hyped herself up as a great talk show host. She said she has inspired Lily Singh to be a talk show host before she introduces Elias. Elias comes out playing his guitar. He announces that he will be the headlining musical act at WrestleMania. He made some field goal reference which I didn't get. But the Chicago crowd did who booed him. He is talking about how if someone interrupts him at Mania he will... But before he can say anything else he is interrupted by the No way Jose's conga line led by Otus and Tucker. One of the members hit Elias and it was revealed that No way Jose was an intruder in his own conga line. Okay... No way Jose gets into the ring for a match with Elias. Elias vs No Way Jose Some back and forth action in the match. The crowd was dead for this one. The conga line tried to rally the crowd chanting his name but no one else made a sound in the arena. The finish came when Elias hit Jose with an elbow drop led by the drift away. Winner: Elias I guess this is a feud now. No one is interested in it but it is a feud. The match in itself was nothing special. Rating: 1/5 Kurt Angle announces his WrestleMania opponent Kurt Angle reminded us that he will have his farewell match at WrestleMania. He also said that his farewell tour will continue tonight. A "Thank You Kurt" chants by the crowd to which Kurt thanked the crowd back. He went on to thank the McMahon family to allow him to choose his WrestleMania opponent. And he announced that he will face the man who made his life living hell when he was WWE Raw General Manager. And that man is... BARON CORBIN. The crowd booed hearing his name. He said he will make Corbin tap out at Mania. Oh it's true... It's damn true. I will give this announcement and the following match separate rating. With all the dream matches that you could have had, with the roster depth that you had to choose an opponent for Kurt for his last match. They seriously went for Baron Corbin?! This is furious. The crowd booed not because he is a great heel but because we don't want to see this match. When Kurt said those line, that felt so scripted and badly acted too. Rating: 0.5/5 Kurt Angle vs Chad Gable Gable shaped Angle's hand and said that Angle is his hero. They did some technical wrestling in the ring. Kurt delivered a belly to belly suplex to Gable. Angle tried to go for the Angle Lock but Gable gets out and rolls him up for two. Kurt tried to hit three German suplexes but Gable got out of the second one and locks in Angle lock which got booed by the crowd. Angle gets out and tried to go for Angle Slam, Gable countered with a DDT. Gable went on the top rope for a moonsault. Angle moved out if the way and applies Angle Lock. Gable tries to fight but taps out. Winner via submission: Kurt Angle I will take this match over Angle vs Corbin at any damn time. This was not a great match. Just an average match with some spots. But still, Gable is a great wrestler and deserves much better. Rating: 2.5/5 Corbin comes out in a sea of boos by the crowd after the match. He said he will humiliate him in his last match. The crowd chanted for Cena. And I also wanted Cena to come out, but he is nowhere to be seen. In-ring interview with WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Boss & Hug connection Before the segment, Baron Corbin is talking to The Revival backstage. He is interrupted by Apollo Crews who challenged him for a match later tonight. He said that no one likes him to which he replied that The revival likes him. Revival just walked off saying "Hell no!" Carly Caruso is in the ring to interview Boss & Hug. She mentions that IIconics think that Banks and Bayley are ducking them by not appearing on SmackDown. Bailey announces that they will fight anyone. That's why they will appear on SmackDown tomorrow night and It'll be iconic, mocking the IIconic's pose. Natalya and Beth Phoenix interrupts them and gets in the ring. Beth said that Nia and Tamina ignited the fire inside her and now she is ready to step out of retirement to fight for the one thing that she has never held - The women's tag titles. Bailey and Banks cut a bit heelish promo on their opponents. They said that Competition is now evolved and Beth should take more time to prepare. This got heated and led to a mild brawl between the teams. Sasha Banks w/ Bayley vs Natalya w/ Beth Phoenix This was a short match. Both the women hit some of their signature moves. Banks is out recovering after a discus clothesline from Natalya. Nia Jac comes out on the stage. Nia mocks Beth and said she had accomplished more in her 3 years than Beth ever did in her career.. This was all a distraction as Tamina comes out from the crowd and throws Beth to the post before super-kicking Baykey and Banks to end the match. Winner by Disqualification: Sasha Banks Tamina ran away from Natalya back to Nia. They both laughed on top of the stage. Fine segment Beth Phoenix stepping out of retirement didn't feel like a big thing as we all saw it coming. The match was nothing. This was just to build a multi-team match at Mania, I believe. Rating: 2/5 Mojo Rawley is talking with himself in the mirror. I can't recall what he said. But I don't think it matters either. Ricochet vs Jinder Mahal w/ Singh Brothers Mahal dominated some of the match with chin locks and with the help of Singh Brothers. Ricochet made a comeback later he hit a running shooting star press. Mahal was pulled out by the Singhs. Ricochet got everyone with a dive on the outside. He throws Mahal in the ring and hit 630 for the win. Winner: Ricochet I hope this is not a feud. If it is it will be a lacking one. You can't even say it was a squash match as Mahal did get some offence in it. It was just there to showcase Ricochet's moves. Rating: 2/5 It was announced that Sue Aitchison will receive the warrior award at the Hall of Fame Ceremony. WWE Raw Women's Championship Match: Ronda Rousey (c) vs Dana Brooke Brooke had a backstage interview with Charly, who said that Ronda beat the likes of Becky and Charlotte and she is... Dana get what she meant and said that she might not be better but she needs to be better than Ronda for three seconds. The match starts. Dana blocked on a kick from Ronda but she caught Brooke with a jumping knee. She hit some more knees before applying an armbar for the win. Winner via Submission and still Raw Women's Champion: Ronda Rousey Rousey didn't let go of the armbar even after the bell rang. Dana was shouting in pain. She finally let go as a ref ran down the ring. She pushed him away and more security ran down. Ronda went to kiss her husband in the front row and slapped a security guy down. Travis pulled her in the crowd and calmed her down to walk away with her. This was more of a segment after the match than the match itself. I didn't mind the badass Ronda it is always good. I hope she just does it without reminding us that wrestling us scripted off TV. Loved how she just squashed Dana too. Rating: 3/5 Baron Corbin vs Apollo Crews Apollo dodged a slide out clothesline from Corbin. Corbin did his deadly move - the chin lock. He also hit his secondary moves like Deep Six but Crews kicked out. The crowd was chanting for Cena. Corbin went for end of days but Crews countered into a roll up for the win. Winner: Apollo Crews Not bothered by this match if they are working as they are doing a great job as I was bored by this match and hated them for this. Angle joined Crews on top of the ramp. Rating: 1/5 Interview with Batista via Satellite Michael Cole is conducting the interview with Batista who is live from Tampa, Florida. Barista said that he just doesn't like Triple H and he never did. Cole asks if it goes back to their Evolution days. He said it goes way beyond than that. He said Triple H just uses people to make him look good. Whether it was DX or Evolution. Cole asked why he quit in 2010. Barista replies he didn't quit. He was not getting opportunities that he deserved by his Boss Triple H. That's why he quit. He made a huge name for himself outside of WWE after that and become famous. He just hopes that Vince McMahon fires Triple H and end his professional career. At WrestleMania, he will end his in-ring career. He announced the interview to be over and demanded that camera crew got out. This was a great promo by Batista. He has just one goal and that is to end Triple H's career at Mania Rating: 3.5/5 Brain Strowman announced that he will be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in a backstage interview. Drew McIntyre comes out to cut a promo before his match against Rollins. He said that he wants to talk to Joe the man, not Roman Reign. Joe, the father and the husband. He challenged him for a match at WrestleMania and said he may have been able to beat leukaemia but he won't be able to beat him. Rollins and McIntyre brawls midway in through the ramp as the match is going to start next. Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins There was action all around. Rollins avoided getting thrown to the steel steps and hits a moonsault, but Drew moved out if the way. McIntyre was going for a powerbomb in tge ring but Rollins countered with a hurricanrana. Rollins tried to go for a suicide dive on Drew but Drew caught him and throw him into the barricade. Later Rollins did two consecutive suicide dives on McIntyre and even hit him with his Superplex into a falcon arrow for a near fall. Rollins stomps his feet on the ring calling for the curb stomp. Before he could hit it Lesnar music hits and he comes out with Heyman to distract Rollins. As Rollins turns around to take care of Drew he ran straight into a Claymore. Winner: Drew McIntyre This was by far the best match on the show storyline wise as well as wrestling wise. I didn't like the booking though. You could have had Lesnar just laying out Rollins to end it a DQ or some way. I know you want to build Drew up for Reigns but you gotta build Rollins up as well. Rating: 3.5/5 This week's WWE Raw was very boring and frustrating tbh. It felt like a lot of fillers and boring matches. The bits I liked were the opening segment, Batista's promo and the main event. The rest was very poor. WWE Raw Rating: 2/5 Do let us know what you thought if WWE Raw this week. 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