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WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
UNIONDALE, N.Y. AT THE NYCB LIVE NASSAU VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM
JULY 15, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
LAST WEEK’S RAW RATING: 1.65 (.06 DECREASE FROM PREVIOUS WEEK)
Arena, Extreme Rules Results, Items Advertised by WWE, and Show Start Time
Tonight, WWE returns to a very familiar Uniondale, N.Y., which is just a 20-30-minute drive from my house depending on traffic. Raw returns to the renovated Nassau Coliseum after appearing last May. We all know there have been countless WWF/WWE events here through the years ranging from house shows, Raws & Smackdowns, Saturday Night’s Main Event tapings, a portion of WrestleMania 2 which was the WrestleMania that was split into three locations (N.Y., Chicago, and Los Angeles), SummerSlam 2002 which saw the in-ring return of Shawn Michaels after a four-year absence, and of course the historic Evolution all-women’s PPV that took place last August.
I can’t help but share a personal story as today is my daughter’s sixth birthday, which is the reason my wife and I aren’t going to Raw. We watched Raw in the hospital the night she was born (July 15, 2013), which was the night then-G.M. Brad Maddox (remember that guy?) granted John Cena the opportunity to choose his opponent for the WWE Championship match at that upcoming SummerSlam. He of course chose Daniel Bryan, who had been coming off an uprising of popularity starting at the WrestleMania the previous year when he lost the World Championship to Sheamus in 18 seconds. There are some moments in life where you remember everything about where you were, where you were sitting, who was there, etc. That night was no exception. We asked her if she wanted to go tonight as she does watch WWE with us, but she didn’t want to go. Hey, she’s the boss today.
Here are the results of last night’s Extreme Rules:
Cross-Brand Matches:
- Roman Reigns & The Undertaker defeated Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred match
Aleister Black defeated Cesaro - Bayley defeated Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship
- Kofi Kingston defeated Samoa Joe to retain the WWE Championship
Raw:
- The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) defeated The Usos (Jimmy & Jey) to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
- Braun Strowman defeated Bobby Lashley in a Last Man Standing match
- A.J. Styles defeated Ricochet to win the U.S. Championship with assistance from his Club stablemates The Good Brothers (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)
- Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch defeated Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans to retain the WWE Universal Championship & the Raw Women’s Championship
- Brock Lesnar cashed in Money in the Bank and defeated Seth Rollins to regain the WWE Universal Championship
Smackdown:
- Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Finn Balor to win the Intercontinental Championship (Kickoff show)
- New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) defeated Daniel Bryan & Rowan and Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker) in a Triple Threat Tag Team match to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championship
- Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler
Here is what WWE.com is showing for tonight thus far:
Matches & Segments:
- None at the moment
Storyline Follow-Up
- The Brock Party resumes
- Club house rules
- What friends are for
The arena website shows a start time of 7:30 p.m. local time but doesn’t specify when doors will open. They show two matches, neither of which makes sense now that Brock Lesnar is Universal Champion and A.J. Styles is a heel:
- Seth Rollins vs. Corbin for the WWE Universal Championship
- A.J. Styles & Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre
Brock Party: Brock Lesnar Once Again Universal Champion
For the third time in the last two and a half years, Brock Lesnar once again rules Raw as the WWE Universal Champion.
Paul Heyman and WWE themselves had been teasing Brock cashing in his Money in the Bank contract ever since he won it two months ago. It was advertised to happen on Raw, teased at Super Showdown, and Heyman had mentioned it last week and last night at Extreme Rules. Following Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch retaining the Universal Championship and Raw Women’s Championship over Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans, Brock made good on the cash-in. He defeated Seth with his signature F-5 to begin his third Universal Championship reign.
Here’s Seth and Becky in a WWE.com exclusive following the cash-in and a tweet from Paul Heyman:
— Paul Heyman (@HeymanHustle) July 15, 2019
Frank’s Analysis: I thought Brock was going to cash in on Kofi down the line closer to Smackdown going on FOX, but I’m not at all surprised he did so on Seth. Seth won by kicking him in the jewels, let’s be honest and in storyline you knew Brock wanted to pay Seth back. With ratings on the decline and WWE heading into SummerSlam, I figured they’d want to get the big guns loaded and Lesnar is the biggest gun they have. I would think off the top of my head they go to Seth vs. Brock at SummerSlam with some sort of stipulation, but we’ll see what they do. I’m not 100% in any direction at the moment.
Club House Rules: A.J. Styles Once Again U.S. Champion
In a night of multiple title changes, last night A.J. Styles regained the U.S. Championship. He had assistance on multiple occasions including at the end from his Club members The Good Brothers (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson). The match went around 17 minutes and ended when Gallows interfered with Ricochet and Styles hitting his Styles Clash off the top rope for the pin.
Here’s Styles and his Club buddies in a WWE.com exclusive following the match, as well as Ricochet on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/KingRicochet/status/1150794865665630209?s=20
Styles begins his third reign as U.S. Champion. We’ll see where they go heading into SummerSlam.
Frank’s Analysis: WWE was in a weird spot as you couldn’t really have Styles lose given his reunion with the Club, but Ricochet only began his reign three weeks ago. While it’s tough to make a big deal out of short title reigns as WWE has does this for years, I would have liked to have seen Ricochet have the title a bit longer. Nonetheless, we’ll where this goes with Styles and the Club. I could see a rematch at SummerSlam if not sooner on Raw with Ricochet despite the “no automatic rematches” rule.
What Friends Are For: Next Up for Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross
Alexa Bliss came up short in her second attempt to gain the Smackdown Women’s Championship from Bayley. Last night she teamed with Nikki Cross in a two-on-one handicap match against Bayley. This came about as a result of Nikki defeating Bayley in a Beat the Clock challenge last week and earning the right to name the stipulation for what was originally supposed to be a one-on-one between Alexa and Bayley.
Last night’s match went around 11 minutes and ended when Bayley channeled her inner “Macho Man” Randy Savage and hit Nikki with a flying elbow (well I at least want to think she’s channeling Savage there lol). This was after Alexa failed at Twisted Bliss and tagged Nikki into the match. Bayley would knee her and proceed with the finish. Here’s Bayley in a WWE.com exclusive after the match as well as a tweet from Nikki:
#RAW tonight! don’t judge people on their past, judge them on how they treat you, in the present. No point ever looking back in the rear view mirror. We have to move forward. pic.twitter.com/93LLdU2M9E
— Nikki Cross (@NikkiCrossWWE) July 15, 2019
Frank’s Analysis: Not to be dismissive of this story, but I didn’t know what to expect and I really don’t care they didn’t do anything with the angle. I’m not into this story with Nikki and Alexa, the handicap match was a dumb idea, and it annoyed me that Alexa has been pursuing the Smackdown title while she’s on Raw. I know that doesn’t matter anymore and it’s not even my big issue, but it’s there and I’m going to be honest with myself. The handicap match and Alexa not being on TV much in recent weeks makes me wonder if there are still medical issues lingering.
Not Advertised for Follow Up from Raw Last Week
- R-Truth is still looking for his “baby,” the 24/7 Championship.
- Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch defeated Andrade & Zelina Vega in an idiotic elimination mixed tag team match.
- The Miz & The Usos defeated The Revival & Elias in a two-out-of-three falls match.
- Bobby Lashley defeated a returning Rey Mysterio in one minute.
- Cesaro defeated No Way Jose
- Maria Kanellis wanted pickles and ice cream and accused her husband Mike of suggesting she was fat. Mike don’t EVER ask your wife if she wants low-fat ice cream, especially if you both have a kid already and she’s pregnant. Dude!
- The Viking Raiders won a squash match.
- Ricochet defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in separate matches in the run-up to his title match with A.J. Styles last night.
- Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon defeated Roman Reigns and whom they thought was Gary “The Goat” Garbutt but turned out to be Cedric Alexander.
Overall Thoughts on Tonight’s Show
We head now towards SummerSlam which is just under four weeks away. As I mentioned earlier getting the Universal Championship on Brock Lesnar doesn’t surprise me as they wanted to have him on the card for sure and not just teasing cashing in Money in the Bank. I’m certain we’ll see an angle setting up whom he will defend the title against. I expect the same for A.J. Style and the U.S. Championship as WWE put titles on their “big names.” As far as everything else I’m in a wait-and-see because it really depends on what Vince McMahon decides he wants to see. The Alexa and Nikki story should get cleaned up at some point and I’m sure more will happen with Seth and Becky outside of Seth trying to regain the Universal title. As far as everything else, I’ll say what I say often at my regular job. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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