PVRaw: Monday Night RAW Results and Review (2 March)

It was a night of reveals as the Elimination Chamber go-home episode of Monday Night RAW was live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Here are the results and reactions to tonight’s episode.

Fast-Count Results
Street Profits def. Seth Rollins & Murphy to win the Raw Tag Team Championship
Riddick Moss def. Ricochet to retain the 24/7 Championship
Aleister Black def. Karl Anderson
Aleister Black def. Luke Gallows (DQ)

AJ Styles def. Aleister Black
Liv Morgan def. Ruby Riott
Shayna Baszler def. Kairi Sane

Humberto Carrillo and Rey Mysterio def. Andrade and Angel Garza

Rundown
Brock Lesnar Promo
Go out of your way to Watch. Paul Heyman comes out with his typical Heyman-esque vigor and he calls the main event of WrestleMania 36 a sham. Paul says Drew McIntyre is an overhyped fraud and his Rumble performance was the result of Ricochet hoofing Lesnar in the testicles. As he calls Drew a stupid bitch who will get squashed at ‘Mania, Drew’s music hits and McIntyre comes to the ring to stare a hole through Lesnar. Brock slowly retreats, but quickly darts towards Drew causing the most beautiful moment we’ll witness on the Road to WrestleMania: Lesnar is immediately hit with the Claymore, which he sells masterfully. The crowd chants “you deserve it” and “na na na na” as a stunned and dishevelled Lesnar slowly makes his way out of the ring… only to be devastated with two more Claymores at the top of the ramp. It was an absolutely star-making moment. McIntyre is over as hell and that opening segment was magical.

Street Profits vs Seth Rollins & Murphy 
Raw Tag Team Championship
Watch. Rollins and Murphy get the jump on the Street Profits before the match can even start, leading to Ford being smashed spine first into the barricade. Once the match officially got under way, only Dawkins remained as Ford was still splayed to the outside. Dawkins fought off Rollins and Murphy long enough for a recovered Ford to get the hot tag. He comes out flying with his trademark high flying offense, hitting a particularly sweet cross body. Eventually, Rollins calls for the AOP to come down to the ring, but the ref sees them and tosses them before they can put their hands on the Street Profits. While the official is distracted by tossing out the AOP, Kevin Owens comes in to hit a Stunner on Rollins. A Frog Splash by Ford and the Street Profits are your new RAW Tag Team Champions. This was another great segment boosted by an incredibly hot Brooklyn crowd. 

Ricochet vs Riddick Moss
24/7 Championship
Pass. Yikes. This does not bode well for Ricochet. From being squashed by Lesnar at Super ShowDown to a 24/7 Championship match against a guy who the Brooklyn crowd had to chant, “Who are you?” at. Ricochet keeps trying to hype himself and the crowd up, but Moss ends up hitting him with a neck breaker to retain the title. Now, if WWE is in the beginnings of setting up a rock-bottom storyline for Ricochet then this makes sense. If not, this is a major problem for a hell of a wrestler, but one without a tonne of charisma. 

Aleister Black vs AJ Styles
Watch. After a long-winded promo by Styles who laments his Super ShowDown loss to The Undertaker and a video by Mark Wahlberg for some reason, Aleister Black finally meets The OC leader in the ring. Styles informs Black that the contract he signed dictated that Black needed to get through Karl Anderson before being able to face him. A few minutes and a Black Mass later and finally AJ Styles comes in the ring… to of course tell Black he has to fight Luke Gallows as well. After a few more minutes of grappling, Gallows starts laying into an exhausted Black in the corner, ignoring the officials demands to stop and leading to a DQ finish. Finally, AJ Styles comes in and starts picking the bones, hitting a Back-breaker, Brain-buster and eventually a Phenomenal Forearm. As Black lies prone in the middle of the ring, AJ grabs his arms, and mocks The Undertaker’s signature pin for the win. 

Liv Morgan vs Ruby Riott 
Skip. The Riott Squad is back together as Sarah Logan guest officiates the other two feuding former members. The whole match is used to build tension between Riott and Logan which eventually boils over in the finish. After Riott pushes Logan, Morgan rolls Riott up and gets the win via a fast count. Ruby berates her other former teammate for the screw job, which Morgan uses as a chance to hit her with a step-up enziguri. Logan and Morgan smile at each other, until Logan blasts her with a running knee to stand tall at the end of the segment. 

The Big Reveal
Watch. The biggest running mystery on RAW is finally answered. No, not why Randy Orton attacked Edge, you idiot. We finally saw what was in Erick Rowan’s cage! It was a big fake spider. Jesus Christ this was dumb. Just watch it so you can cringe as hard as I did. 

Kairi Sane vs Shayna Baszler
Pass. In a stroke of luck, Asuka is injured for this so she can’t just be squashed by Baszler. The match starts off competitively enough, but Baszler begins to get nasty, stomping on Sane’s leg while staring down Asuka. Shayna continues to twist on Kairi’s knee until Becky Lynch’s music hits and “The Man” appears at the top of the ramp, but only to watch the beatdown on commentary. Lynch seems to heel it up on commentary, coming out wearing a crown and talking about how great she is. Baszler eventually locks on the Kirafuda clutch and chokes out Sane, tossing her limp body to the mat while Becky holds her belt up at her. Unfortunately, this one wasn’t as good as these two competitors can be and the crowd wasn’t feeling it. This one fell limper than the choked-out Kairi Sane. 

Rey Mysterio and Humberto Carrillo vs Angel Garza and Andrade
Watch. This was a Lucha-style showcase between four super talented wrestlers. The team of Andrade and Garza heel it up perfectly, with Andrade faking an injury allowing Garza to sweep Carrillo’s legs behind the ref’s back. The two work on Carrillo until he is finally able to get to Mysterio for the hot tag. The legend comes out flying hitting a seated senton and a round-the-world DDT. There are just too many spots in the match to list them all. Mysterio hitting Garza and Andrade with a simultaneous 619, leads to Carrillo hitting a moonsault on Andrade in the centre of the ring for the win. 

Beth Phoenix Edge Medical Update
Watch. As Beth prepares to give her medical update, Orton’s music kicks in and out slithers “The Viper” to confront Phoenix. Orton comes in and tries to hug Phoenix, which she obviously declines. She calls Randy a son of a bitch, who then sits on the top rope, allowing her to give the update on Edge. As she begins to start berating Randy he jumps off the top rope and grabs a mic. Orton begins to pour his heart out, telling a story about his father, the first time he met Edge, team Rated-RKO and more. 

He says it was Edge who saved his life… so he decided to return the favour. Orton says he did it to save Edge from himself. So that some young wrestler wanting to make a name for himself wouldn’t have been the one to put Edge in a wheel chair. He then turns on Phoenix, calling her an enabler. Saying this was all her fault. Phoenix slaps Orton, who stares her down, calls her a bitch, who then kicks him in the nuts, and then he RKO’s her. This was perfect… except for the Brooklyn crowd who cheered the entire thing, because wrestling fans are awful smarks.
They give Phoenix the stretcher job to end the show on a downer.