WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 3/8: Lashley Celebrates Championship, Braun Demands Apology

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
MARCH 8, 2021
TAMPA, FL. AT THE AWARD WINNING & CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED THUNDERDOME CREATED JUST FOR THE WWE UNIVERSE IN TROPICANA FIELD
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, and Samoa Joe

Match Results and Exclusives from Last Week

• Drew McIntyre defeated Sheamus.
• Nia Jax, co-holder of the Women’s Tag Team Championship, defeated Naomi.
• Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin defeated Adam (in) Pearce and Braun Strowman to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship.
• Damian Priest (w/Bad Bunny) defeated Elias (w/Jaxson Ryker).
• Charlotte defeated Shayna Baszler, co-holder of the Women’s Tag Team Championship.
• Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado) and U.S. Champion Riddle defeated Retribution (T-Bar, Mace, and Slapjack). Mustafa Ali defeated Riddle in a non-title match after lashing out at Retribution.
• Bobby Lashley (w/MVP) defeated The Miz (w/John Morrison) in a lumberjack match to win the WWE Championship. Earlier in the evening Miz got out of the match by having stomach cramps. On hour later, he got himself counted out.

Here are the Hurt Business and Adam Pearce in WWE exclusives:

Items Advertised by WWE

We’re headed towards Fastlane as we continue the “road to WrestleMania” as WWE likes to fancy things this time of year. Fastlane will come to us less than two weeks from tonight on Sunday March 21 on the WWE Network and Peacock. Here’s a hype video WWE has used to advertise tonight’s show:

WWE also announced a few days ago that Braun Strowman will be demanding an apology from Shane McMahon.

New WWE Champion Bobby Lashley Celebrates Victory

Nearly 16 years after his debut on WWE television in September of 2005, Bobby Lashley now sits as the WWE Champion.

His original journey was short lived as he was released less than three years later in February of 2008. He did challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship at one point, which ironically turned out to be his last big match for WWE. Lashley would wrestle for various promotions including TNA (Impact Wrestling) and win their world title on four different occasions including once from Drew Galloway (Drew McIntyre’s real name which he went by during his tenure for that promotion). He also spent some time in MMA before making his way back to WWE in early 2018. He was a babyface as he was during his first tenure but turned heel later than year under the guise of Lio Rush (remember LASHLEY! LASHLEY! LASHLEY!). He had a few runs as Intercontinental Champion and lost the title to Finn Balor at WrestleMania in 2019.

While he had some chances at the Universal Championship early on, it wasn’t until aligning with MVP and the formation of the Hurt Business last year that Lashley began finding his groove. After a run as U.S. Champion, he got his chance last week and won the title after a long and circuitous route to get to an actual match. Tonight, he celebrates his victory. Here are some tweets from Lashley:

You and @NaomiWWE are next!! https://t.co/6A4ANLWf4g

— Bobby Lashley (@fightbobby) March 2, 2021

https://twitter.com/fightbobby/status/1367548960638988289?s=20

If you’ve been following me, you know who I want at #WrestleMania. Check me out on @AfterTheBellWWE with @WWEGraves & @VicJosephWWE NOW! https://t.co/ond6Szp5IG pic.twitter.com/DtVICCHyX9

— Bobby Lashley (@fightbobby) March 3, 2021

You and so many others paved the way for us to do what we do. Without The Great One, there might not be an All Mighty. https://t.co/b1WhKdtt0Q

— Bobby Lashley (@fightbobby) March 4, 2021

https://twitter.com/fightbobby/status/1368248558076497932?s=20

Frank’s Analysis: These tweets are all nice and good, but let’s not forget that Lashley cut a deal with the Miz where he would attack Drew McIntyre and enable Miz to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and beat him for the WWE Championship. Lashley would get a championship match for this, of which weaselly Miz tried to get out of last week. That’s not a babyface, and the way everyone is celebrating Lashley’s win on social media you’d think he’s a hero. Don’t get me wrong in that I’m happy for Lashley, but he beat a stiff and used heel tactics along the way. I’m really curious to see if he defends the title at Fastlane and if he retains, what happens at WrestleMania since fans will be in attendance. There’s no way Lashley could face a babyface Drew McIntyre and Drew get any kind of positive reaction since everyone is gushing over Lashley winning the title. There are a lot of balls in the air, and I won’t get into them here since we talked about it on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling post show last week where I was the cohost. Check that out if you haven’t listened to it yet. I discussed it as well on my VIP show WWE Then and Now with PWTorch.com contributor Bruce Hazelwood of which a portion of it was made free by Wade on last week’s wild card Tuesday.

Braun Strowman Wants an Apology from Shane McMahon

As I mentioned earlier, Braun Strowman and Adam Pearce lost an impromptu chance to win the Raw Tag Team Championship from Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin. Braun had hit a powerslam on Shelton and then Shane demand that Braun tag in Pearce. Braun reluctantly complied, but Shelton ended up pinning Pearce to retain the championship.

Prior to the match, Braun voiced his displeasure at Shane and Pearce for not being in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. Shane said he was pursuing his MBA (why?) and learned conflict management. He said Braun’s problem was with Pearce, who did not put him in the match. This led to suggesting the tag match which Braun and Pearce would lose.

Tonight, Braun will ask for an apology from Shane for keeping him out of the chamber match and for what happened last week.

Frank’s Analysis: Wade and I spent a good part of the post show discussing this situation. Nobody came off likable, but I think the idea is for us to like Braun and be made at Shane. If so, it’s a misfire by WWE. In all likelihood, Braun will be tabbed as Shane’s opponent at WrestleMania. If you want to have a Shane match, it’s probably the one that makes sense although that’s no endorsement by me.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!