WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 10/25: Season Premiere with New Rosters Taking Effect, Raw Tag Team Championship

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
OCTOBER 25, 2021
HOUSTON, TX. AT THE TOYOTA CENTER
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Jimmy Smith, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves

Match Results from Last Week and Exclusives

• Xavier Woods defeated Jinder Mahal to advance to the King of the Ring finals.
• Austin Theory defeated Jeff Hardy. Jeff, now a member of the Smackdown roster, attacked Austin after the match and took a selfie with Austin laid out like what Austin did to him previously.
• WWE Champion Big E & Drew McIntyre defeated the Dirty Dawgs (Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode).
• Mansoor defeated Cedric Alexander. Mustafa Ali confronted Mansoor afterwards, but Mansoor backed him down.
• Goldberg and Bobby Lashley did a split screen interview ahead of their match at Crown Jewel.
• Raw Tag Team Champions Randy Orton & Riddle wrestled the Street Profits in a non-title match. No decision was announced after Omos caused a distraction and A.J. Styles hit a Phenominal Forearm on Orton. Omos choke-slammed Riddle.
• Doudrop defeated Shayna Baszler to advance to the Queen’s Crown finals.
• Finn Balor defeated Mace.
• John Morrison and the Viking Raiders did some meditation segment.
• Bianca Belair defeated Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair via DQ when Charlotte hit her with a chair. The title did not change hands because of the DQ.

Please put in perspective that these exclusives were filmed before Crown Jewel:

Crown Jewel Results Pertinent to Raw

• Edge defeated Seth Rollins in a Hell in a Cell match. Both men begin their Raw tenures tonight.
• Zelina Vega defeated Doudrop to win the Queen’s Crown tournament. Vega begins her Raw tenure tonight and Doudrop remains here.
• Goldberg defeated Bobby Lashley in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
• RKBro (Randy Orton & Riddle) defeated A.J. Styles & Omos to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship. All four men are remaining on Raw.
• Big E defeated Drew McIntyre to retain the WWE Championship. Drew began his Smackdown tenure on Friday while Big E remains on Raw.
• Becky Lynch defeated Sasha Banks (Smackdown) and Bianca Belair to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship. Becky and Bianca are now members of the Raw roster, and after Friday Becky is now recognized as the Raw Women’s Championship via a title exchange with now-Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.

Arena

WWE returns to the Toyota Center in Houston, TX for the second time this year. The July 16 edition of Smackdown emanated from this building and was the first Smackdown to have fans back in the building this year as we continue to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic. It is home to the NBA’s Houston Rockets and has been hosting WWE events since it opened for business back in October of 2003. Multiple PPVs have called the arena home including TLC from 2010 and 2013, and a two-night stint back in 2017 when NXT had their WarGames event followed by Survivor Series.

WWE is billing tonight as the season premiere with the new rosters taking effect. They’ve advertised one match and have emphasized a “new era” in their preview.

Raw Tag Team Championship: RKBro (Randy Orton & Riddle) vs. A.J. Styles & Omos

RKBro will put the Raw Tag Team Championship on the line tonight against the men they defeated at Crown Jewel, A.J. Styles and Omos.

RKBro became the Raw champs at SummerSlam when they defeated Styles and Omos, but they have not stopped pursuing regaining the titles. As I mentioned earlier, they intervened in the non-title match last week between RKBro and the Street Profits. Before the match the Profits were talking up the match when Styles and Omos walked in. They said Omos was doing all the work in their matches and Styles takes advantage of him. Styles said it was their house, the Profits didn’t know what was going to happen next, and they have a dumb name.

Frank’s Analysis: I’m not sure why Styles and Omos get another title match after losing on Thursday but discussing that is like beating a dead horse. There’s certainly something to the Profits saying Omos does all the work, which is ironic because it’s Styles that does, but nonetheless seeds were planted for something to happen with the team. I’m not sure it’s wise to have Omos go on his own at this point, but I wouldn’t mind a singles run for Styles. I suppose they can just have Omos as his heavy the way he was when they first aligned, but I have a feeling Vince wants him on his own as soon as feasible.

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