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WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
ONTARIO, CA. AT THE TOYOTA ARENA
FEBRUARY 10, 2020
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST
Announcers: Tom Phillips, Jerry “The King” Lawler
Arena, Top 10 Moments from Last Week, and Items Advertised by WWE
WWE Raw heads to the west coast and drops into the Toyota Arena in Ontario, CA. It’s been a while since WWE has appeared in this venue especially with Raw as its last appearance was in September of 2017. Smackdown appeared in the summer or 2018.
Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s Raw:
The picture for Super Showdown in Saudi Arabia started to take shape this past Friday on Smackdown with matches announced between Goldberg and Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship (isn’t that nice?), Roman Reigns and King Corbin in a steel cage (you know, because that feud needed another match), and New Day vs. Miz & Morrison for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship. We’ll likely start seeing matches set up from Raw as we head towards the Saudi show which is 17 days away. Here’s what’s on tap for tonight thus far:
- Seth Rollins & Murphy & AOP to battle Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe & The Viking Raiders
- Becky and Asuka set for Raw Women’s Title rematch
WrestleMania Goes Hollywood
WWE announced that WrestleMania 37 in 2021 will take place at Sofi Stadium and Hollywood Park Premiere Center in Los Angeles, CA. Considering they’re in Ontario tonight, which is about an hour or so east of Los Angeles, I would suspect heavy promotion of this event. Here are some tweets from WWE:
BREAKING: #WrestleMania 37 is going Hollywood!
Next year's Showcase of the Immortals is set to take place at @SoFiStadium, and @mckenzienmitch is here with everything you need to know. pic.twitter.com/pRazrrIVhm
— WWE (@WWE) February 10, 2020
https://twitter.com/WrestleMania/status/1226877273166557184?s=20
#WrestleMania 37 will go Hollywood when it emanates from @SoFiStadium in Los Angeles on March 28, 2021! pic.twitter.com/r3OWRNYddl
— WWE (@WWE) February 10, 2020
Eight-Man Tag: Seth Rollins & Murphy & AOP vs. Kevin Owens & Samoa Joe & The Viking Raiders
He ain’t your Buddy anymore. He’s just Murphy now. He joins Cesaro, Elias, Andrade, and Rusev before him in getting his name shortened. With that said……
Last week, AOP (Akam & Rezar) and Murphy defeated Kevin Owens and the Viking Raiders in a six-man elimination match (essentially Survivor Series-style). At one point it was down to Owens vs. the entire opposition. He eliminated Murphy and Akam but came up short disposing of Rezar when Seth Rollins got involved. Owens stood up to the crowd cheering his efforts.
Later in the evening, Rollins attempted to punch his ticket to Super Showdown in a triple threat against Bobby Lashley and Ricochet and have another go with Brock Lesnar this time for the WWE Championship. His “disciples” Murphy and AOP tried to get involved but were thwarted by Erik of the Viking Raiders as well as Owens. Ricochet won and will go at with Lesnar at Super Showdown.
Tonight, another chapter unfolds in this feud which has gone on for quite some time going back to before Christmas. Raw Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Murphy (not your Buddy), and AOP take on Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens and the Viking Raiders. If you’re interesting, Seth Rollins sat down for an interview with SI:
We haven’t come this far just to come this far. It’s time to push the industry forward. https://t.co/9kEud1QYmV
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) February 8, 2020
Frank’s Analysis: This feud has been fun to watch. Unlike Roman Reigns and King Corbin on Smackdown, I don’t mind that this has gone on for a while. They probably set something up for Super Showdown; maybe Rollins & Murphy defends against the Viking Raiders or maybe Joe & Owens get a rematch after Joe had to leave due to injury a few weeks ago?
Raw Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (champ) vs. Asuka
Last week Asuka, one half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Kabuki Warriors, defeated Natalya in about 12 minutes with her signature Asuka Lock. Following the match, she declared she wanted another opportunity at Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship. Becky (on cue), strutted out with sunglasses on to accept the challenge. She said beating her at the Royal Rumble “damn near gave her superpowers,” and she wanted to “drink from that fountain again.” She thwarted an attack from behind by Kairi Sane, Asuka’s partner. Later in the evening, the announcers told us the match was on for next week (tonight).
It’s not a primer by me unless there’s some Becky trash talk:
In a business filled with noise and bloat. You, ladies and gentlemen, are looking at the #GOAT pic.twitter.com/0nlyy8fpBk
— The Man (@BeckyLynchWWE) February 5, 2020
Becky puts up the gold tonight against Asuka. By the way, Asuka & Kairi Sane are the longest reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions as touted by WWE:
The #KabukiWarriors are now your longest-reigning @WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions!
Congratulations, @KairiSaneWWE & @WWEAsuka! pic.twitter.com/nG5NC2ykt1
— WWE (@WWEIndia) February 7, 2020
Frank’s Analysis: The longest reigning champs aren’t the Jumping Bomb Angels? It’s not the IIconics? Anyway, I don’t mind another Becky vs. Asuka match but I wonder if this is to set up something else such as Shayna Baszler arriving to possibly challenge Becky at WrestleMania. I don’t like how Becky has been acting lately. The “superpowers” and “drink from that fountain” lines just kind of made her seem like a bitch rather than the confident, cocky woman that got over towards the end of 2018. I don’t … think … this is the beginning of a heel turn, but it’s not off the table.
WWE Exclusives
There were a bunch of WWE.com exclusive videos following last week’s show. 2020 Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair was challenged by NXT Champion Rhea Ripley for her title at WrestleMania. The challenge went unanswered on the NXT show Wednesday. Here’s Rhea before that show took place:
Here’s Angel Garza with Zelina Vega, who made his Raw debut last week taking on Rey Mysterio. This happened after Garza came out to confront his cousin, Humberto Carrillo. Carrillo had taken out Andrade a week before and would be out indefinitely (in actuality, Andrade was suspended for 30 days for violating WWE’s wellness policy). After Garza gave Carrillo his signature Wing Clipper, Mysterio came out. After checking on Carrillo, he took on Garza and defeated him via DQ when Garza DDT’d him onto the concrete floor:
Ruby Riott returned from injury and attacked her former Riott Squad friend Liv Morgan. Liv had just defeated Lana, again, in a compelling two-minute rematch:
Other Matches and Issues from Last Week:
Drew McIntyre defeated Mojo Rawley in about five seconds. Actually, wasn’t it three…two…one?
Aleister Black defeated Eric Young and then cut a weird promo. I still don’t understand what he said.
After Ricochet defeated Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins to earn a WWE Championship match, champ Brock Lesnar showed up to treat him to an F5 to close out the show.
Final Thoughts
I look forward to Raw overall as the stories have been told well and the characters have been enjoyable to watch. I’m ready for something more substantial though for people like Aleister Black and Erick Rowan. I’m intrigued where things are going with Becky Lynch since it’s an all-but certainty than Charlotte Flair is going against Rhea Ripley come WrestleMania. I like everything involving Rollins and his crew going against Kevin Owens and company. I don’t know where it’s headed, but I kind of like that. It’s ok that we can’t predict every match for WrestleMania. Like Jason Powell said on the Flagship show with Wade Keller, it’s still three hours of television. At least it’s a good three hours, but I really wish it went back to two.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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