SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
EVERETT, WA. AT THE ANGEL OF THE WINDS ARENA
JUNE 24, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Renee Young
LAST WEEK’S RAW RATING: 1.66 (.12 INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS WEEK)
Arena, Stomping Grounds Results, Items Advertised by WWE, and Show Start Time
WWE Raw finds itself in the Angel of the Winds Arena tonight in Everett, WA. for the first time in nearly four years. WWE is not a stranger to the arena as Smackdown found a home here back in February this year in the runup to WrestleMania. In was on that night that a suspended Becky Lynch had a confrontation with Triple H in regard to her knee injury which led to Becky slapping him. Also, on that night, Triple H advised then-WWE Champion Daniel Bryan he would be competing in the Elimination Chamber match putting his title on the line. We all know this eventually led to Kofi Kingston capturing the championship from Bryan at WrestleMania.
That was then and this is now, and here are the results from Stomping Grounds last night:
- Becky Lynch defeated Lacey Evans to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
- Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn defeated Big E & Xavier Woods of New Day
- Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe to win the U.S. Championship
- Daniel Bryan & Rowan defeated Heavy Machinery (Otis & Tucker) to retain the Smackdown (& Planet’s) Tag Team Championship
- Bayley defeated Alexa Bliss to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship
- Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre
- Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler in a steel cage match to retain the WWE Championship
- Seth Rollins defeated Baron Corbin in what eventually became a No DQ/No Countout match with Lacey Evans as the special guest referee to retain the Universal Championship
Here’s what advertised for Raw as of this writing according to WWE.com. Look for amendments and additions later in the day as we get closer to the show:
Matches & Segments:
- Reigns to battle McMahon & McIntyre in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match
- U.S. Champion Ricochet to battle A.J. Styles
Storyline Follow-Up
- Seth Rollins’ Universal challenges
- The Man might not be finished with The Lady in the aftermath of WWE Stomping Grounds
The arena website shows a start time of 4:30 p.m. local time with doors opening at 3:00 p.m. They show two matches that several websites have shown recently:
- Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin
- Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans in a street fight
Handicap Match: Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon
Last night, Roman Reigns got a measure of retribution in his recent feud with Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon as he scored a pin fall victory over Drew McIntyre. This is Roman’s second pin fall win over Drew in the last few months as he also defeated him at WrestleMania in his comeback single’s match after returning from leukemia treatment.
This match was not wrought without interference. Shane, who was in Drew’s corner, got involved on a number of occasions. He pulled the referee after an attempted pin after a spear, even though it appeared Drew was kicking out. He also did his signature coast-to-coast on Roman with a downed referee. None of this was enough as Roman eventually overcame the odds, scoring a pin following hitting Drew with his signature spear.
It looks like the situation is not over between these gentlemen, as tonight, Roman comes to Raw via the wild card to take on Drew McIntyre & Shane McMahon in a handicap match. Prior to the show last night, Drew put up this tweet:
Roman is the only man who’s straight up beat me like a man since my return to @WWE & I’ll admit that. We’re both a rare breed in wrestling but he’s not my kryptonite. @ShaneMcmahon has shown me my purpose & at #StompingGrounds I’m not gonna beat Roman, I’m going to brutalize him pic.twitter.com/91wq6SCADy
— Drew McIntyre (@DMcIntyreWWE) June 22, 2019
Frank’s Analysis: The tweet did come off as a sign of respect for Roman on Drew’s part, so you wonder if a babyface turn is in the offing in the near future. Nonetheless I get why Roman won this match, but they continue to job out McIntyre. You wonder if this alliance with Shane long-term is to eventually get him to that babyface slot. Perhaps Roman is the top guy on Smackdown and Drew is tops on Raw at some point?
Non-Title Match: U.S. Champion Ricochet vs. A.J. Styles
Last week on Raw, Ricochet won a fatal five-way elimination match over Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Cesaro, and the Miz to earn the #1 contender-ship. Last night at Stomping Grounds, Ricochet capitalized on that win by capturing his first championship on the main roster. He defeated Samoa Joe for the U.S. Championship.
Following the match, he was greeted by a contingent of wrestlers in Gorilla, and later was doing a photo shoot with his newly won title. The Good Brothers (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) and their long-time New Japan Pro Wrestling & Bullet Club friend A.J. Styles interrupted and got in a few photos with Ricochet. They even tried to get Ricochet to do the signature Bullet Club “two sweet” gesture, which Ricochet was not buying. A.J. then congratulated him and told him he’d see him tomorrow night (tonight).
Ricochet did spend time in New Japan Pro Wrestling from 2013-2017 but was not a member of the famous Bullet Club faction. A.J was a member and even a leader until his arrival in WWE in January of 2016. I did some digging and found a match between them in 2014 for House of Glory:
Ricochet’s celebration of winning his U.S. Championship looks to be short-lived, as he goes up against A.J. tonight in a non-title match. A.J. in his own right is a former two-time U.S. Champion as well as a two-time WWE Champion.
Frank’s Analysis: This should be a great match, and a great feud if there are long-term plans for it. The downside to this is it appears they’re going to it a bit soon, as a match between these two should have a longer build. The title isn’t on the line though, and it appears A.J. is turning heel along with Gallows & Anderson. You could certainly see a match with the title on the line, most likely at Extreme Rules. The use of Gallows & Anderson alongside A.J. is smart, but we’ll see how long WWE sticks with it.
Next Up for Seth Rollins
Next Up for Becky Lynch & Lacey Evans
We’ll look at these items together as they are tied into each other.
In the opening match of Stomping Grounds last night, Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women’s Championship over Lacey Evans seemingly ending their feud. Lacey had come up short for the title against Becky at Money in the Bank but cost her the Smackdown Women’s Championship later in the evening.
In last night’s main event, Baron Corbin challenged Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship with a special guest referee to be named by Corbin. That turned out to be Lacey herself, no doubt playing into the fact that Seth is currently in a romantic relationship with Becky. As the match rolled on, Lacey tapped into her inner Danny Davis and now Nick Patrick (hit the Google machine if you don’t know whom they are) and was a completely biased official favoring Corbin. At one point, with Corbin laid out on the floor, she counted to eight only to make the match no count-out. Later on, when Corbin was attacking Seth with chairs, she made it no-DQ. At one point she refused to count a pin after Seth hit Corbin with a Falcon Arrow. This led to a confrontation with Seth and Lacey which eventually led to Corbin hitting Seth with his signature End of Days. Before Lacey could count, Becky came out and attacked Lacey. Senior official John Cone, whom had been the referee in the match between Corbin and Seth at Super Showdown, took over the referee duties. Seth would hit Corbin with his signature Stomp and score the pin. Seth and Becky would celebrate the victory to close the show.
Extreme Rules is around the corner, and thus with WWE advertising follow-up on these two situations, we can expect more to come between all four individuals. Here’s a little trash talk between Lacey and Becky on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LaceyEvansWWE/status/1143025709314527237?s=20
Frank’s Analysis: I can envision a mixed tag team match brewing for Extreme Rules if they decide to continue everyone feuding. It wouldn’t make sense for Lacey and/or Corbin to get more title matches, although stranger things have happened in the booking world of WWE. As far as the decision to have Lacey be the referee, I could see why they did it, as you wouldn’t expect Seth to take a chair to Lacey as he had been doing to everyone else recently. It did fit with the story, but the crooked referee gag has run its course to me. The crowd was already not into the match between Seth and Corbin, and you can tell they didn’t appreciate what was going on with Lacey. They paid it off correctly in the end, thankfully, but hopefully we don’t see that for a while.
Not Advertised for Follow Up
- The Viking Raiders (Erick & Ivar) got back on TV last week winning a squash match.
- R-Truth regained the 24/7 Championship from Drake Maverick by crashing his wedding:
- Before losing to Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn last night, Big E & Xavier Woods teamed with their New Day partner
- WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and defeated Baron Corbin & Owens & Zayn in a two-out-of-three falls match.
- Paul Heyman teased again the possibility of Brock Lesnar appearing with the Money in the Bank contract. He heeled on the L.A. crowd, one of many to do so last week.
- The Usos defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. A.J. Styles had given Gallows & Anderson a pep talk prior to the match.
- Before coming up short against Bayley last night, Alexa Bliss teamed with Nikki Cross to unsuccessfully challenge the IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce) for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
- We had the latest episode of Bray Wyatt’s Firefly Fun House
- Universal Champion Seth Rollins defeated Daniel Bryan via DQ and then via pin after the match was restarted as a result of outside interference.
Overall Thoughts on Tonight’s Show
We have a short turnaround to Extreme Rules, so WWE will no doubt start getting ready for that show if they don’t have a few matches in mind already. I could see the mixed tag between Seth & Becky vs. Corbin & Lacey. The handicap match between Roman and Drew & Shane suggests that feud isn’t over, and you would think they’d want to get Roman a win back over Shane. Perhaps this leads to something between them at the PPV. Ricochet and A.J. is a feud into which people will have a lot of interest. The Firefly Funhouse seems to be reaching its payoff, and thus we’ll see if that happens tonight. Overall look for WWE to transition from Stomping Grounds and try to impress tonight especially coming off a night where the main event title matches were underwhelming at best.
Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.
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