WWE RAW PRIMER 1/27: Royal Rumble Fallout, What’s Next for First-Time Rumble Winners, Becky Collects One Last Debt, Liv vs. Lana

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
SAN ANTONIO, TX. AT THE AT&T CENTER
JANUARY 27, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST

Announcers: Tom Phillips, Jerry “The King” Lawler

Royal Rumble Results Pertinent to Raw

• Andrade defeated Humberto Carrillo to retain the U.S. Championship (kickoff show)
• Charlotte Flair wins the women’s Royal Rumble.
• Becky Lynch defeated Asuka to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
• Drew McIntyre win’s the men’s Royal Rumble.

Arena, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE

WWE Raw returns to the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX., the home of WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels. The arena opened in 2002 as the SBC Arena and is home to the frequent NBA Champion and playoff-appearing San Antonio Spurs. WWE has been a frequent guest with Raw, Smackdown, and PPV events including the September 2018 Hell in a Cell. That night saw the debut of the infamous red cage and featured Braun Strowman unsuccessfully challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship thanks to outside interference by a returning Brock Lesnar.

Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:

The Royal Rumble event is now behind us and we have our winners in Charlotte Flair on the women’s side and Drew McIntyre for the men. We are now on the road to WrestleMania which will feature the traditional stop at Elimination Chamber on March 8, and we have to also pay attention to Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia on February 27 as we learned last night 🙄. Here’s what on tap for tonight, only one advertised match, which is not surprising coming out of the Royal Rumble:

Matches and Segments

Liv Morgan vs. Lana: Lashley and Rusev banned from ringside

Some more chapters in this story have been told as last week on Raw, Lana and Bobby Lashley defeated Rusev and Liv Morgan in the main event. Last night in the Royal Rumble, Lana entered at number five but was eliminated by Liv who entered at number seven. Moments later, an eliminated Lana pulled Liv out to cause her elimination (don’t you love when they pull that nonsense). The two women brawled and were separated. In the men’s rumble, we learned that Rusev and Lashley were unable to compete due to brawling themselves as they arrived at the arena. They were not cleared to participate.

Tonight, Liv takes on Lana with Rusev and Lashley banned from ringside. Now, these people have to really check what they do on social media. Here’s Rusev retweeting Lana from last week where she talks trash. We all know they’re married in real life, but obviously they are feuding on TV:

People have told me, I’m not athletic, I’m not a good wrestler, I’m not a star, I’m ugly, and I proved everyone wrong by main eventing Monday Night Raw and WINNING !!! I am a role model to children to not listen to your naysayers and passionately pursue your dreams !

— CJ “Lana” Perry (@LanaWWE) January 21, 2020

Frank’s Analysis: Why would Rusev retweet that? It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things and it’s likely nobody cares, but this is partly why it’s hard to give this feud any real attention. I’m skeptical overall about the future of Liv coming out of this. I’d like to think she’ll still get a push, but I have my doubts. You would think Rusev would ultimately get a win over Lashley, but I’m skeptical that will happen. As far as Lana goes, she is doing her job as a self-serving heel, but we’ll see if things continue once this story is all said and done.

Royal Rumble Fallout

Charlotte Flair and Drew McIntyre After Their Rumble Wins

Last night two new wrestlers etched their names in Royal Rumble history as Charlotte Flair won the women’s match and Drew McIntyre stood tall in the men’s. Charlotte clocked in at number 17 and is now the third winner for the women joining Asuka and Becky Lynch who won in 2018 and 2019, respectively. She eliminated heavy favorite and former two-time NXT Champion Shayna Baszler. Drew McIntyre, once known as “The Chosen One,” won after checking in at number 16. He never took his eyes off WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, who at the moment was tied up with Ricochet, who talked trash to Brock last week. Ricochet gave Brock a low blow, and Drew kicked him out of the ring. Drew then easily eliminated Ricochet, who had beaten him in the King of the Ring tournament back in September. Ultimately, Roman Reigns eliminated a returning Edge and then Drew eliminated Roman.

Here are WWE.com exclusives with Charlotte and Drew:

It’s likely tonight considering both wrestlers are on Raw, they choose their WrestleMania opponents or at the very least set the stage for how that decision will be made

Frank’s Analysis on Charlotte: I admittedly had Baszler winning, and when my friend got to house yesterday and asked me, I pushed my chips all in on that front. To be fair though, I did give Charlotte a chance to win when I was on Wrestling Night in America last week with Greg Parks. WWE likes their big stars to have resumes and make no mistake Charlotte is one of their big stars. I don’t have a problem with Charlotte winning, and they can figure out a ‘Mania match for her without it being against Becky Lynch. There’s a lot of real estate to cover between now and early April. If Baszler won, they would have been compelled to have her face Becky and would have to have her win. They may not be ready to tell that story just yet. What would you do with Charlotte? I feel like if Baszler won and challenged Becky, they would have wanted Charlotte in the match too and (yawn) made a triple threat. I’m fine with what they did, but let’s see what they do now.

Frank’s Analysis on Drew: I’m ecstatic that Drew won. It is 100 percent the right call, given how the crowd has reacted to him lately. He has everything you want in a top wrestler and is perfectly matched against Brock. I’m glad they made the call to go with him and not Roman, which would have been terrible after he eliminated Edge. (I’d keep that factoid in mind by the way.) It will be interesting to see the interaction with Brock and Paul Heyman going forward. Drew needs no help on the mic, but I’m sure Heyman will put him over even more than he is now.

A Debt Collected: Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defeats Asuka

The year has come full circle for Becky Lynch. Last year at the Royal Rumble, she unsuccessfully challenged then-Smackdown Women’s Champion Asuka. She then convinced Finlay, tending to an injured Lana, to enter the rumble in her place. Becky won, and went on to defeat Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey for both the Smackdown and Raw Women’s Championships. She would become “Becky Two Belts,” but soon thereafter lost the Smackdown title back to Charlotte.

Asuka went on a new path, pairing with Kairi Sane and forming the Kabuki Warriors, and won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship. Becky, looking to become Becky Two Belts again, paired with Charlotte to challenge for the tag titles only to come up short at TLC. Becky then realized that the loss to Asuka was still hanging over her head. She challenged Asuka and defeated her last night with her signature Disarm Her to retain the Raw Women’s Championship.

Here’s Becky in a WWE.com exclusive:

Frank’s Analysis: The story was told the way it needed to be told, and we move forward now. I hope we don’t get Charlotte vs. Becky one-on-one at WrestleMania, but I do worry that they might want to do it considering they haven’t had a match on the “big stage.” I think something else is in mind though, and we’ll see that start to unfold tonight.

Other Matches and Issues from Last Week:

• Seth Rollins & AOP & Buddy Murphy brawled with Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens & the Viking Raiders. Later in the evening, Rollins & Murphy won the Raw Tag Team Championship from the Viking Raiders. Murphy is now the fifth wrester with whom Rollins has won a tag team championship. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Jason Jordan, and Braun Strowman are the others.
• Andrade retained the U.S. Championship over Rey Mysterio in a ladder match with help from Zelina Vega.
• Aleister Black won a quick squash match.
• Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre wrestled to a (no decision announced) when the O.C. got involved in the match.
• Becky Lynch defeated Kairi Sane in a non-title match enroute to her match with Asuka last night.
• Erick Rowan defeated Matt Hardy in about two minutes.
• The Singh Brothers tried to roll up 24/7 Champion Mojo Rawley, but he wouldn’t budge.

Final Thoughts

I am excited overall coming out of what was a very good Royal Rumble PPV. The right person won the men’s event. I’m fine with the women’s as I said, but we’ll see what they do. Storylines were furthered throughout the night, at least on the Raw side, and thus tonight should be an exciting show as we now head towards WrestleMania season. One thing I can’t ignore is the return of Edge. It was emotional for me, as when my wife got into wrestling around 2009, Edge quickly became one of her favorites. We were heartbroken when he retired. To see that look of genuine happiness on his face when came out at number 21 was priceless. I feel like he’s one of the few people that honestly loves what he does. When he’s out there, he wrestles with his heart. Whether he’s a heel or a babyface, he feeds off the fans, and it’s great to watch. We’ll see what kind of role he has going forward.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.