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WWE Monday Night Raw recap, grades and review: AJ Styles vs. Ricochet


WWE Monday Night Raw recap
AJ Styles vs Ricochet on Monday Night Raw. Pic credit: WWE

This week, WWE Monday Night Raw follows up a good Stomping Grounds PPV and prepares for their next PPV in just three weeks with Extreme Rules.

Here is a look at the WWE Monday Night Raw recap, grades, and review.

Seth Rollins opens the show by coming to the ring with his title after winning last night at Stomping Grounds. Following him next is Becky Lynch.

Lacey Evans ends up attacking Lynch because she doesn’t seem to understand that Lynch has beaten her at two PPVs already. Baron Corbin then runs in. Lynch and Rollins clear the ring.

That is when Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans challenge Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch to a match at Extreme Rules. If they lose, they will not get any more matches against the champions, but if they win, they take both titles.

The Usos and New Day vs. Daniel Bryan, Rowan and The Revival

The two tag team champions team up to battle their top contenders. This is also an elimination match. This is one way WWE has decided to stop matches from continuing through commercials.

The Revival betrayed Daniel Bryan, and he was pinned, and they then pinned Xavier Woods. With two teams eliminated, this turned into a regular tag team match, which meant they could go to commercial and then continue the match.

After that, The Usos beat The Revival to win the match.

Winners: Usos and New Day (***)

24/7 Championship: R-Truth vs. Drake Maverick

Yep, they are having a real match for the 24/7 Championship. R-Truth and Carmela were out for Miz TV and then Drake Maverick decided to come out and complain about the loss at his wedding.

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The match was made and no one else can try to cash in until it ends.

R-Truth won in a few seconds with the Flatliner.

Then, everyone ran down.

Heath Slater pinned R-Truth and won the title. Cedric Alexander pinned Heath Slater after that. EC3 then got the win and became the next champion. R-Truth finally pinned EC3 and ran off with the title — an eight-time champ.

After this, Drake Maverick looked defeated and walked out with fans chanting “hey hey hey goodbye.”

Winner: R-Truth (**)

Roman Reigns vs. Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre

This match is a two-on-one, no tags, handicap match. McMahon and McIntyre then proceed to beat the hell out of Reigns.

This happens for a long time and they are just killing Roman.

Then the lights go out and there are two gongs.

When the lights come back on, Undertaker is in the ring. He then chokeslams Shane and beats down Drew. This will lead to an Extreme Rules tag team match with Undertaker and Roman Reigns battling Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre.

Winner: None (**)

Tug Of War: Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley

Yeah — this is actually a tug of war between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley in the ring.

Lashley attacks Braun when he starts to lose and then uses the rope on the face and eyes of Strowman.

Winner: None (*)

Viking Raiders vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

Before the match, AJ Styles tells Gallows and Anderson to stop messing around and calls them out for goofing off and becoming losers.

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They set out to prove him wrong and look good early before the Viking Raiders beat them without much problem.

Winners: Viking Raiders (* 1/2)

Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn

Kofi Kingston takes on Sami Zayn in a match after Zayn came out with Kevin Owens and told Kofi to go back to SmackDown Live cause no one wants to see him here.

The two put on a decent match and Kofi wins with a roll up.

After that match, Kevin Owens said that he wants to fight Kofi Kingston as well.

Winner: Kofi Kingston (**)

Kofi Kingston vs. Kevin Owens

The two fight after the commercial break (cause no wrestling during commercials) and the match ended up super quick when Kofi hit the SOS on Owens outside the ring and KO was counted out.

On a side note, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn beat New Day at Stomping Grounds and Kofi just beat both of them by himself, which means that Kofi is better than Big E and Xavier Woods combined, right?

Winner: Kofi Kingston (DUD)

After that match, Samoa Joe ran down and attacked Kofi Kingston. He then choked out Kofi and left him lying to move Joe up to a main event feud after dominating with the U.S. title.

Alexa Bliss vs. Naomi

Alexa Bliss was backstage talking with Nikki Cross earlier on Raw. A bit later, Natalya and Naomi came up and warned Nikki to beware of Bliss.

Nikki told them Bliss was nothing but nice to her and then Bliss showed back up and was pissed they were talking about her. That led to this match.

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The end came when Naomi tried to kick Bliss but hit Nikki by accident. This led to Bliss hitting a DDT for the win.

Winner: Alexa Bliss (**)

Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs. Naomi and Natalya

Back from commercial, since they don’t have wrestling during commercials, there is now a tag team match.

The good thing here is that, after Bliss won the first match, Nikki Cross just went nuts and dominated much of this match. The end came when Bliss blind tagged in, Nikki hit the swinging neckbreaker on Natalya and then Bliss came in for the pin.

Winners: Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss (**)

Ricochet vs. AJ Styles

AJ Styles challenged Ricochet to this match last night after Ricochet won the U.S. title. Funny that Ricochet goes from one TNA original (Samoa Joe) to another (AJ Styles).

The two were going good when Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson came down. Karl tried to interfere so AJ got a mic and said that the match would not continue unless they left.

This allowed them to go to a commercial and then restart the match after that since “no wrestling during commercials.” This will get old FAST.

Anyway, the two turned in an amazing match and Styles won cleanly with the Phenomenal Forearm. He didn’t even turn heel after the match and just raised Ricochet’s hand, showing respect.

It will be awesome to see these two get a long match that isn’t interrupted by a stoppage to run a commercial.

Winner: AJ Styles (*** 1/2)

Shawn S. Lealos has been a freelance writer for 25 years, starting...read more

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