WWE Monday Night Raw: The 10 for February 18, 2019

4. A wild Ricochet appears

New Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor heads to the ring to make it clear that he will be an honorable, fighting champion during his reign and essentially hits all the babyface points necessary for a promo following the acquisition of gold. He is then interrupted by Lio Rush, who, since taking a beating from Bobby Lashley for taking the pin in the previous night’s handicap match, thus costing Lashley the Intercontinental title, has mended fences with The Almighty.

Unsurprisingly, Rush’s interruption serves as a distraction, with Lashley attacking Bálor from behind. Ricochet makes the save, we head to commercial and when we resume — surprise! — the four men are now embroiled in a tag team match. This is easily some of the best in-ring work of the night, but the Lafayette crowd failed to engage throughout most of it, only coming alive near the end when Ricochet tagged in, ultimately defeating Rush with a 630.

This was probably the best way to hide Lashley’s biggest weakness, his lack of charisma, and gave him a role among three speedy high-fliers. His size allowed him to slow things down and overpower the smaller Bálor and Ricochet and the contrast between styles made the work of the other three men in the match stand out in further relief.

Either the WWE had planned the bait-and-switch of Lashley and Rush breaking up or realized at some point between Elimination Chamber and Raw that separating the two wouldn’t be good for either of them moving forward. Lashley certainly needs the bit of charisma that Rush affords him, and at some point WWE can tell the story of Rush no longer wanting to be Lashley’s lackey (and likely someone who is going to take more and more beatings in Lashley’s stead).

First, though, we have to care. And we just haven’t gotten there yet. This match was about Bálor and Ricochet; who they faced doesn’t really matter.