Monday Night Raw began with WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman standing in the middle of the ring. Paul Heyman delivered a promo and talked about how we live in uncertain times, but the only certainty he could think of was Brock Lesnar. He went on to name a who’s who of Brock’s victims including The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Heyman pivoted to The Scottish Psychopath, Drew McIntyre and talked about their upcoming match. He promised that Brock would add McIntyre’s name to his impressive list of WWE superstars that have been conquered by the Beast Incarnate. What will Randy Orton say as it applies to Edge and his WrestleMania challenge?
**WWE Network Replay of the 2015 Royal Rumble WWE Championship match between Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and Seth Rollins.**
The Phenomenal AJ Styles along with his OC cohorts Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows were out next. He talked about The Undertaker’s wife, Michelle McCool. He also poked fun at a ‘save the tigers’ campaign video that Taker appeared in alongside his wife. Styles claimed that Michelle had stolen his soul; he also referred to him as Mark Calloway, which is The Undertaker’s government name. It all culminated in Styles challenging The Phenom to a ‘Boneyard Match’ at WrestleMania. He didn’t give a description or set any parameters for the match, but the challenge is out (even though the ‘contract’ for this match was signed last week).
United States Champion Andrade and Angel Garza, accompanied by Zelina Vega took on the team of Ricochet and Cedric Alexander. The Street Profits joined the commentary team to get a closer look at their WrestleMania opponents. Garza and Andrade worked over Ricochet pretty well before he was able to make the hot tag to Alexander. He came in on fire but a back elbow from Andrade would turn off the lights for Alexander and lead to a pinfall victory for Andrade and Garza. After the match was over, the Profits brawled with Garza and Andrade. These two teams will face off for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania.
The Raw Tag Team Champions, fresh off their brawl with Andrade and Garza faced off against NXT’s Shayne Thorn and Brendan Vink.
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The Profits wasted little time dispatching their opponents. A spinebuster into a Montez Ford frog splash from the top rope helped earn the victory for The Street Profits.
Charly Caruso tried to interview The Queen of Spades Shayna Baszler but she snatched the mic to address The Man, Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. She promised to beat Becky and take her championship at WrestleMania. Becky apparently did want to wait that long, so she snuck up and nailed Baszler in the back with a steel chair, and then a few more times before making her exit after a resounding statement to her challenger.
Aleister Black destroyed local competitor Leon Ruff in under two minutes with a Black Mass kick. Ruff is known for his time in EVOLVE Wrestling as well.
Kevin Owens asked for The Monday Night Messiah and he got him. With Owens in the ring and Rollins on the ramp. They had a little back and forth about the Performance Center and how Owens felt there’d be a little home-field advantage for him. Rollins countered by saying that if it hadn’t been for him, there would be no WWE Performance Center. Seth also went as far as to say there would be no woman’s revolution had it not been for him. A bold statement for sure. He then went on the talk about his WrestleMania accomplishments while bringing up the fact Kevin didn’t even have a match at last year’s WrestleMania. He promised to beat Kevin on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
**WWE Network replay of Charlotte versus Asuka from WrestleMania 34**
Orton accepted Edge’s challenge to a Last Man Standing match at WrestleMania. He claimed again that what he’d done to Edge a few weeks ago was done out of love. Randy Orton vowed that he was done acting out of love for Edge. Randy Orton said he was ready to put Edge out of his misery at WrestleMania.
