WWE Monday Night Raw recap: Even the undead are sick of Shane McMahon

A dead man appears to save a big dog, Corbin-Rollins-Evans-Lynch is approaching the end and everything else from this week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw.

Monday Night Raw boasts a Triple Main Event for this week: Roman Reigns will take on Drew McIntyre and … ugh … Shane McMahon in a two-on-one handicap match, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston will face Sami Zayn and United States Champion Ricochet faces AJ Styles (!!!). Let’s get into it.

The Champ-Champs are here

As WWE has been warning us all day, The Man and The Man’s Man (hashtag, trademark) opened up Raw this week, as means to set up a mixed tag team match pitting Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch against Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin.

This, of course, serves as fallout from Sunday’s Stomping Grounds pay-per-view, in which Corbin selected Lynch’s rival, Evans, as the special guest referee in his match against the Universal Champion, Rollins. This, unsurprisingly, led to Lynch’s involvement after Evans slapped Rollins and hit him with a low blow. And thus: Here we are.

Rollins refers to Lynch as “the best backup on the planet,” as evinced by her save of Rollins’ championship on Sunday. Corbin’s music hits, serving as a distraction, and Evans attacks Lynch from behind. Rollins tries to break it up, but Lynch is ready to fight. Corbin finally hits the ring and the champions ultimately dispatch their attackers.

Corbin and Evans emasculate Rollins, saying that Lynch is handling Rollins’ championship business for him. Corbin and Evans challenge the couple to a mixed tag match at Extreme Rules, as expected, and Lynch demands that her feud with Evans and Rollins’ with Corbin will come to a complete and utter end should she and Rollins prevail. Corbin then stipulates that it will be a winner-take-all matchup; if Corbin and Evans win, they get both the Universal and Raw Women’s Championships, respectively. And the match is set.

Eight-man elimination tag match

A heel everywhere else but his home state of Washington, suddenly-conquering hero Daniel Bryan with his SmackDown Tag Team Championship partner Rowan, are the first team to hit the ring in what is apparently and eight-man (four-team, two per corner) elimination tag match. Bryan and Rowan are paired with The Revival (Raw Tag Team Champions and heels to boot) to face The New Day (Xavier Woods and Big E) and The Usos.

Woods eliminated Bryan, while Woods himself was eliminated by The Revival’s Dash Wilder seconds later. A commercial break then served to re-establish the match as a traditional tag team contest (no more elimination stipulation), with The Usos facing off against The Revival.

The Usos picked up the win even though it seemed that The Revival were seconds from earning the pinfall. The Usos, though, capitalized with a splash following a superplex.

Making R-Truth’s night Miz-erable

First, a little something spooky is looming:

This week’s Miz TV segment features 24/7 Champion R-Truth, fresh off of defeating Drake Maverick for the belt at Maverick’s own wedding over the weekend, and Carmella, who is wearing some epic, thigh-high money print boots.

The Miz is agog that Truth would take the 24/7 Championship fight to a man’s wedding (or the “48/7 European TV Championship,” per Truth). But Truth maintains that being the champion under these circumstances is extraordinarily stressful — something that, again, is very believable. Truth is living with constant paranoia.

Maverick comes to the ring — still in his wedding attire — claiming that his wife won’t speak with him (among other things) and that Truth has ruined his life. There’s a bit of “constipation/consummation” wordplay that, naturally, goes over well. Anyway, Maverick wants a straight-up, one-on-one match for Truth’s belt in order to win back “the love of his life,” the 24/7 Championship.

R-Truth (c) vs. Drake Maverick for the 24/7 Championship

Everyone else (who may have interest in said title) will be banned from ringside and Truth accepts. Truth retains the championship in seconds, but the bell ringing sends out the numerous Superstars pursuing Truth’s title. These include the Lucha House Party, Cedric Alexander and No Way Jose.

They all get concerned with one another, however, allowing Truth and Carmella to escape, while a tearful Maverick is left to pick up the pieces of his life.

Roman Reigns vs. Shame … er, Shane … McMahon and Drew McIntyre

Roman Reigns has been placed in a two-on-one handicap match against Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre for reasons that stretch back to WrestleMania 35 and through to Sunday’s Stomping Grounds. This old, tired feud that does nothing good for either McIntyre or Reigns appears to keep rolling on interminably.

This match is literally two-on-one; McMahon and McIntyre will be facing Reigns at the same time, rather than McMahon and McIntyre serving as a tag team. And Reigns looks stupid by even agreeing to come to the ring and take part in whatever it was he thought would happen.

McMahon and McIntyre simply beat Reigns down. Reigns is thrown into the stairs, hit with a few Claymore Kicks and spears and McMahon readies his coast-to-coast.

Gong.

What?

The Undertaker — of all people — hits the ring to make … the save … for Reigns?

Huh. Well, that was a surprise. And while the last thing we really need is another 50-plus year old part-timer struggling his way around the ring, if the Dead Man wants to chokeslam McMahon, no one is going to be complaining. Rest in peace, Shane.

Tug of war contest (?) between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley

The feats of strengths contests between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley continued, following Strowman’s arm-wrestling defeat of Lashley last week. This time, it’s a tug of war in the ring, which again Strowman wins. Lashley delivers a beating and the two men brawl outside of the ring.

After the match, we head to a backstage interview with AJ Styles, which is then interrupted by No Way Jose’s conga line, which is being led by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Styles, again, is unhappy with Gallows and Anderson’s lack of seriousness (they face The Viking Raiders tonight). They vow to prove Styles wrong.

Gallows and Anderson vs. The Viking Raiders

The Good Brothers (or The Club) appeared to have taken Styles’ words to heart, opening the match in dominant fashion over The Viking Raiders. Showboating, though, turned the momentum in Raiders’ favor and Erik and Ivar ultimately hit Karl Anderson with The Viking Experience for the win.

Oh, will The Club ever learn their lesson and finally recapture the toughness that made them one of the world’s top tag teams? This story has potential but it also feels like it could get tossed aside at a moment’s notice, as well. Building up both Raw and SmackDown tag team divisions needs to become a priority. And there’s no reason to book The Good Brothers as hapless jokes. Let’s stick with the story and rehabilitate these two’s kayfabe images, yes?

Backstage, Nikki Cross receives counsel from Natalya and Naomi and the two warn her about Alexa Bliss’ reputation as a manipulator. Bliss interjects herself and for her disrespect, will get a tag match pairing her with Cross against Natalya and Naomi.

24/7 Championship, continued

What was set to be a match between Mojo Rawley and Heath Slater devolved into a pursuit of R-Truth’s 24/7 Championship after Truth appeared ringside. Slater snagged a pinfall over Truth, winning the championship, but Truth quickly regained the title. Truth was then pinned by Cedric Alexander following a lumbar check, making Alexander the new champion.

EC3 then spikes Alexander outside of the ring, thus becoming the new-new-new-new 24/7 Champion. Carmella snagged the belt from EC3, distracting him and allowing Truth to get a roll-up win, making Truth now the nine-time 24/7 Champion.

It was a chaotic segment befitting the purpose of the 24/7 Championship and even got gold on EC3 for a couple of blinks. Congratulations, again, to R-Truth, who has turned this gimmick belt into something fresh and fun. Like he does.

Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn

Ahead of Kofi Kingston’s match with Sami Zayn, Charly Caruso has an interview with Kingston that is then interrupted by Zayn and Kevin Owens, who bring us an “impromptu” episode of the Kevina and Sami Show. Zayn and Owens have a litany of questions for Kingston, mostly centered around their belief that Kingston isn’t a legitimate WWE Champion and that he uses his friends in The New Day.

Kingston disproves the heels’ claims, the trio continue their banter and that leads into Kingston and Zayn’s scheduled match (with Owens naturally at ringside).

Kingston picked up the win but after the match, Owens challenged Kingston to a one-on-one matchup to start immediately. Kingston agrees, being properly goaded by Owens and Zayn’s claims that Kingston can’t win alone.

Kingston hits Owens with an SOS on the steel stairs and he cannot beat the referee’s 10-count, giving Kingston the win. Zayn attempts to attack, but Kingston dives outside of the ring onto both Zayn and Owens. Thus, in 24 hours, Kingston has successfully defended his WWE Championship and avenged Xavier Woods and Big E’s loss to Zayn and Owens.

Samoa Joe then attacks Kingston on the ramp, and it looks like we have a new, very intriguing feud building. Kingston vs. Joe? Yes, please!

Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss (with Nikki Cross)

Alexa Bliss picked up the win after Naomi was distracted by Nikki Cross to whom Naomi hit with a baseball slide. Bliss attacked Naomi after the match. This drew Natalya out to the ring and the match restarted after the break as a tag team affair.

Bliss was the legal competitor for her team but chose to sic Cross on Natalya. Cross hit Natalya with a swinging neck breaker, but Bliss was still legal and slipped in to get the pin for her team.

Clearly, this didn’t do much good for either Natalya or Naomi, who have been circling the very outer perimeter of the women’s division for months. But it did help build more of a foundation around the “Bliss-is-just-using-Cross” storyline that will ultimately lead to their split and a rivalry. At the very least, Cross continues to get featured, which can’t quite be said for Naomi or Natalya that much of late.

Ricochet vs. AJ Styles

This week’s Raw main event pitted United States Champion Ricochet against AJ Styles in a non-title match. After a wonderful match on Sunday in which Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe for the US title, it’s fantastic to see him follow that up with another of WWE’s top Superstars in Styles.

Gallows and Anderson came down to ringside, apparently to provide support to Styles. Styles doesn’t want the duo to “ruin” the match with Ricochet and forced them to leave.

After the (yet another shoehorned-in) commercial break, Styles and Ricochet resumes, presumably without distraction. The two then proceed to have a fantastic match, unsurprising given the skill and experience of both men. Highlights in .gif form tell the tale best:

The match ends when Styles evades a 630 from Ricochet and hits him with a regular forearm and then a Phenomenal Forearm for the win. While it’s disappointing — it follows that “so-and-so has pinned the champion in a non-title match” — formula WWE loves so much, it also sets up future, higher-stakes matches between the two. And no wrestling fan who truly loves the sport could ever be unhappy with the prospect of a series of meetings between these two.

And that’s Monday Night Raw for this week. There was no Firefly Fun House segment, but Bray Wyatt’s puppets were lurking throughout the show, hinting that Wyatt (and/or The Fiend) is going to be showing up to live television and perhaps in-ring action soon. And we also saw some action picking up, given that there’s less than three weeks until Extreme Rules. Soon, the more stale of WWE’s feuds should be wiped from the chalkboard to make way for the big reset that is SummerSlam.

Is business looking up on Monday nights? Or were you disappointed by tonight’s show. Let us know in the comments below.