The Viper, Randy Orton opens Monday Night Raw by saying that he was supposed to come out and enthusiastically welcome everyone to Raw but enthusiasm isn’t his style. He then talked about entering the Royal Rumble and from there, called out AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One talked about how Randy has gotten the best of him the last few weeks; he also put over the RKO he delivered to Randy Orton last week. As he is naming the superstars he’s going to eliminate from the Royal Rumble, Drew McIntyre comes out and challenges both Randy and AJ to a triple threat match. The fist fight is the scheduled main event.
Randy Orton, AJ Styles and Drew McIntyre faced off against each other in a triple threat match to start the night’s competition. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson tried to interfere early in the match but were promptly dismissed by Orton and McIntyre. The finish saw Randy hit AJ with a devastating RKO only to turn around and get leveled by McIntyre’s Claymore Kick, as the Scottish Psychopath picked up the victory.
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Ricochet took on Mojo Rawley in a one-on-one matchup as they both prepare for the upcoming Royal Rumble. Ricochet picked up the win after connecting first with a Recoil and then a 450 bomb from the top rope.
The Street Profits were backstage and helped to promote the rest of the night’s matches.
Charlotte Flair came down to ringside for her match against Sarah Logan, with whom she’s had some issues lately. They showed the video of their brawl last week before the match got under way. Charlotte picked up the victory with the Figure Eight. As the referee attempted to raise her arm in victory, she instructed him to grab her rob and put it on her while Logan lay there looking on. Charlotte turned to leave the ring, only to double back and grab Logan and toss her symbolically over the top rope.
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman hit the ring next to talk about the Royal Rumble. Heyman made fun of the Kentucky crowd, but as they turned up the heat, he and Lesnar acted like they were about to leave the ring and go up the ramp. They returned to the ring and were interrupted by WWE 24/7 Champion R-Truth. He declared for the Rumble and said that he was going to eliminate Paul Heyman (NOT Brock Lesnar). When he found out that Heyman wasn’t in the Rumble, Truth became the first WWE superstar to undeclare for the Royal Rumble. He ate an F-5 from Brock for his trouble.
While R-Truth was being helped up the ramp, Mojo Rawley appeared out of nowhere and pinned him to become the new 24/7 Champion.
Bobby Lashley along with Lana took on Rusev in there ongoing feud. Lana tried to get involved in the match, which brought out Liv Morgan. Morgan tried to confront Lana but the Ravishing Russian grabbed a drink from a member of the audience and threw it in her face. She then threw Morgan into the barricade outside the ring. The distraction allowed Lashely to nail Rusev with a spear to secure the victory. Next week, it’ll be a mixed match tag with Lashely and Lana taking on Rusev and Liv Morgan.
The Raw Tag Team Champions, the Viking Raiders issued an open challenge for their tag team titles. That challenge was answered (and demolished in short time) by the Singh Bros.
Jerry Lawler conducted the contract signing for the Raw Women’s Championship at the Royal Rumble between The Man, Becky Lynch and Asuka. Both ladies signed the contract with few words exchanged. After it was signed, Asuka sprayed green mist into Becky’s face. Becky writhed in pain outside the ring before grabbing a microphone. She struggled to keep her composure with the green mist all over but she made it clear to Asuka that it was going to take more than that to take her Raw Women’s Championship.
Aleister Black took on Buddy Murphy in the third of what has been an intense series of matches. Having already lost to Black twice, Murphy looked to at least scratch the win column against his new rival. It was not to be, even though he gave Aleister Black all he could handle, it just wasn’t enough as two Black Mass kicks put Buddy Murphy down for the third time in this rivalry. A distraught Buddy Murphy would camp out at ringside, leaned up against the barricade for the rest of the show.
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Erick Rowan and his “I wonder what’s in there” cage defeated another jobber with an Iron Claw slam.
The main event of the night was billed as a fist fight pitting Seth Rollins and AOP against Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and the Big Show. The fist fight was basically a no holds barred affair. The superstars fought up the ramp; Kevin Owens ran up the halfpipe Raw sign and hit AOP with a dive that would have made Ricochet jealous. It didn’t help too much as the AOP would send both he and Joe crashing through the announcer’s table. Inside the ring, Big Show worked over Seth Rollins, who tried to appeal to Buddy Murphy for help.
Murphy thought about it and shortly thereafter, slid into the ring and hit Show with a low blow. He and Seth then put Big Show through a table ending the fist fight. A Curb Stomp to the Big Show was the coup de grace as Rollins, the AOP and a newly welcomed Buddy Murphy stood tall in the ring.
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