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The new WWE Champion, Bobby Lashley, opened this week's RAW. The Almighty had a match scheduled against the man he defeated to win the title last week, The Miz.
United States Champion Riddle also had a non-title match this week against Slapjack, which didn't help anyone involved too much. However, it will lead to a United States Championship match between Riddle and Mustafa Ali soon.
Reginald helped Nia Jax and Shayna Bazler retain their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on RAW this week. Apart from that, Shane McMahon and Braun Strowman appeared in a couple of awkward segments on the show.
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One of the biggest matches of the night saw Drew McIntyre and Sheamus take each other to the limits. Let’s take a look at the five things WWE got right on RAW this week.
#5 Bobby Lashley kicked off his WWE Championship reign on RAW
At the beginning of this week's WWE RAW, The Hurt Business members were shown walking into the arena. Lashley was interviewed backstage about his 16-year long journey to becoming a world champion.
The Miz then came into the ring and cut a promo in which he accepted that he didn't expect to leave the ThunderDome as the WWE Champion last week. The Miz then claimed that he was not well, and that’s what led to his defeat at the hands of The Almighty.
The Miz said that he deliberately got counted-out to ensure that the match took place and there was an outcome, however, WWE forced him into another match later in the night.
Soon after, Lashley and The Miz locked horns once again with the WWE Championship on the line. Miz proved to be much more effective in this match and even outsmarted the WWE Champion a few times in the contest.
Lashley shook off a collision with the ring post and continued to target The A-Lister as Drew McIntyre watched from the backstage area. After toying around with The Miz for a little longer, Lashley locked in the Hurt Lock and made his opponent tap out to retain the title.
It was good to see Lashley getting a successful defense so soon after his world title win. The Almighty deserved a WWE Championship victory, and now WWE creative needs to ensure that he has a memorable reign, just like McIntyre did.
The Miz was brilliant once again, both on the mic and in the ring. He has helped make Lashley’s title victory more valuable.
#4 Xavier Woods defeated Shelton Benjamin on WWE RAW
The New Day will take on The Hurt Business for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championships next week. This week on RAW, Xavier Woods from The New Day took on Shelton Benjamin from Hurt Business in a one-on-one match.
Woods and Kofi Kingston came out in Mortal Kombat's Scorpion and Sub-Zero-inspired gear for the match. Benjamin grounded Woods early as Kingston watched on from outside and taunted Benjamin’s move set.
Benjamin continued to impress with his in-ring work, while Woods tried to counter his big moves and delivered some of his own. A Sunset Flip nearly helped Woods pick up the victory, but Benjamin kicked out right in time.
Benjamin then got into a scuffle with Kingston who was outside the ring, and the distraction allowed Woods to roll him up to pick up the victory.
Woods has picked up a few roll-up victories on RAW recently. But the Superstar is just too good to be restricted to roll-up wins at this point. However, the victory will allow The New Day to go in with some momentum next week and have a chance to break The Hurt Business’ dominance on RAW.
#3 Shane McMahon worked hard to make himself despicable on WWE RAW
Braun Strowman demanded an apology from Shane McMahon after what happened on WWE RAW last week. McMahon had booked a tag team match with Strowman and Adam Pearce against The Hurt Business. However, McMahon’s interference cost Strowman the match on RAW.
This week, McMahon came out and simply apologized to Strowman before heading backstage. This was odd, considering that The Monster Among Men had a lot to say about him.
Later in the night, the two men once again met in the ring as Shane wanted to get something off his chest.
Shane mocked Strowman’s intelligence and woke up the beast inside The Monster Among Men once again. Strowman decided to chase McMahon into the backstage area.
However, Shane returned once again to call Strowman "stupid".
While both the segments weren’t too great, it seemed like WWE was just trying to build Shane up as a heel on RAW. The segment did well enough to build heel heat for Shane-O-Mac. With WrestleMania 37 approaching, the two men will likely compete on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
#2 Drew McIntyre and Sheamus took their grudge match to the limits on WWE RAW
Two of Europe’s toughest men battled it out on WWE RAW once again this week. Sheamus attacked Drew McIntyre backstage early on RAW as they geared up for a No Disqualification match soon after.
McIntyre took some revenge by attacking The Celtic Warrior as the latter made his entrance. He threw Sheamus into the ring steps and got hold of a kendo stick to do more damage to the Irishman.
Sheamus delivered a low blow to McIntyre and took control of the match from that point onwards. Both men delivered some big strikes and The Scottish Warrior unloaded with kendo strikes to the Irishman’s back.
The two men continued to counter each other’s moves, and Sheamus delivered the White Noise to the former WWE Champion. McIntyre soon responded with the Future Shock DDT, but could not put The Celtic Warrior away.
Sheamus ruined McIntyre’s Clamore attempt by striking him with a steel chair. Both men then took the fight to the floor, hoisting the steel steps from the two ends and charging at each other. A collision took both of them out, and the referee had to call off the match and signal for the medical team.
This was a hard-hitting match between two of the biggest stars on RAW. Both men sold each other’s attacks perfectly as well. Hopefully, fans will get to witness a big match between the two RAW Superstars at Fastlane with a WWE title opportunity on the line.
#1 Randy Orton and AJ Styles wrestled each other in the main event of WWE RAW
Once again, a backstage segment led to the main event of WWE RAW. AJ Styles was seen mocking Randy Orton and his issues with Alexa Bliss. This led to a match being booked between the two veterans.
RAW already had a couple of big matches this week and it was up to Styles and Orton to end things on a high note. The two heels locked horns in the middle of the ring as Orton tried to take control and make Styles pay for his comments.
Omos helped Styles obtain some control in the match and take the fight back to The Viper. Orton managed to stop Styles from hitting The Phenomenal Forearm but soon fell for the Calf Crusher. The Viper fought his way out of the submission hold and hit Styles with a draping DDT.
Orton set up for an RKO, but Omos pulled The Phenomenal One out of the ring. Just then, the lights turned pink and Bliss appeared on the big screen. She lit a match and blew it out herself. This led to three ring posts being set on fire. Additionally, Orton began to vomit the black liquid once again.
The Phenomenal One saw an opening and hit the Phenomenal Forearm to pick up the victory on RAW.
The match was good and allowed Orton to further build upon his rivalry with Alexa Bliss and Bray Wyatt. Styles got a chance to pick up a big victory, which would help him start working towards his plans for WrestleMania this year.
Ex WWE writer blasts Liv Morgan HERE
