WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 5/24: Women’s Tag Team Championship, Original Bro vs. Woods

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
MAY 24, 2021
TAMPA, FL. AT THUNDERDOME IN YUENGLING CENTER
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Adnan Virk, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves

Match Results & Key Segments from Last Week

• WWE Champion Bobby Lashley (w/MVP) celebrated Bobby’s victory with five women in the ring. On behalf of Bobby, MVP issued an open challenge which Drew McIntyre answered. MVP clarified it was for anyone except Drew and Braun Strowman. Drew attacked Bobby and the women screamed.
• A.J. Styles (w/Omos) defeated Elias (w/Jaxson Ryker) via DQ when Ryker got involved in the match.

• Alexa Bliss had new Women’s Tag Team Champions Natalya & Tamina in Alexa’s Playground.
• Angel Garza defeated Drew Gulak.
• Akira Tozawa defeated R-Truth backstage to win the 24/7 Championship.

• New Day’s Kofi Kingston (w/Xavier Woods) defeated Randy Orton (w/Riddle) when Woods distracted Randy by playing his trombone. Kofi rolled up Randy for a leverage pin. The match was set up earlier backstage when Riddle tried to make peace between Randy and New Day but ended in Kofi challenging Randy. He referenced their feuds in 2009 and 2019. Riddle shoved Xavier Woods to the ground after the match.
• Natalya & Tamina defeated Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (w/Reginald) to retain the Women’s Tag Team Championship. Alexa Bliss got involved and pyro went off in the corner where Reginald was located.
• U.S. Champion Sheamus defeated Ricochet in a non-title match.
• Asuka defeated Charlotte Flair with Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley on guest commentary.

• Damian Priest defeated John Morrison in a Lumberjack match which featured real wrestlers including Nikki Cross.
• Shelton Benjamin punched out Cedric Alexander in a backstage segment.
• Kofi Kingston (w/Xavier Woods) answered WWE Champion Bobby Lashley’s open challenge, which turned out to not be for the title, and defeated him when Drew McIntyre hit Bobby with a cane when the referee was preoccupied with Xavier Woods.

Intro

We continue towards Hell in a Cell which comes to us on Sunday, June 20 from the Thunderdome setting in the Yuengling Center. It will be the last PPV before live crowds return for Money in the Bank in July, as WWE announced this past Friday. Two matches have been advertised thus far for tonight.

Women’s Tag Team Championship: Natalya & Tamina (champs) vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler

Natalya & Tamina will once again defend the Women’s Tag Team Championship against former champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler as they did last week. Natalya & Tamina won the titles on the edition of Smackdown just prior to WrestleMania Backlash, and retained the titles during last week’s show as mentioned earlier. This past Friday on Smackdown, Shayna Baszler tapped Natalya to her signature Kirafuda Clutch in a six-woman tag match involving her and Nia and former Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley. They defeated Natalya & Tamina and current champion Bianca Belair.

WWE has indicated on their website that because of the six-woman tag, Shayna & Nia earned another championship match tonight.

Frank’s Analysis: Having seen this match repeatedly, it’s hard to get excited about it. On the other hand, it was encouraging to see Natalya tap to the Kirafuda Clutch on Friday. I’m not holding out hope that Shayna will suddenly get the better push I believe she deserves, but it was a sliver of hope.

Riddle (of RK-Bro) vs. Xavier Woods (New Day)

As was reported yesterday here at PWTorch.com, Riddle of RK-Bro will go one-on-one with Xavier Woods of New Day.

Aside from the happenings of last week, things between RK-Bro and New Day started to heat up two weeks ago when the two teams teamed up to defeat Elias & Jaxson Ryker and Raw Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles & Omos. After the match, Randy Orton gave RKOs to both Kofi Kingston and Woods.

Frank’s Analysis: I wouldn’t have had Riddle turning heel, and I still don’t, but when you see something like this it’s hard to imagine them not going in this direction especially pairing him with Randy Orton. The other thing I wouldn’t sleep on is New Day turning heel. Woods distracted Randy in the match with Kofi and got involved in Kofi’s match with Bobby Lashley. They have dropped little breadcrumbs from time to time since moving to Raw, and they’ve been babyfaces for a long time. Could they potentially fill out the Hurt Business? I’m not saying it’s likely, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

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