Raw - February 25, 2019

I have to be honest, I was BEYOND excited for this Monday Night RAW! Roman Reigns was coming back. Granted I don’t actually know this dude and haven’t seen him wrestle, but they really hyped this up so I became a believer that this was a big deal. It was also Rick Flair’s birthday which I was less excited about but hey better than last week’s horrible showing.

This week was much less about the matches than the storylines for me so I am going to focus much more on the soap opera that is WWE versus the actual athletic portion of this evening.

Roman Reigns

So to start, this Roman dude came back. He left in October due to having Leukemia. It sounds like this was a relapse for him as he said he had it for 11 years so that is very sad. My Aunt passed away from Leukemia a few years ago so I know how absolutely devastating and difficult it can be for someone to fight. He was back only five months later which seems awful soon but I’m no doctor. There is a lot of speculation that this was just a story and not real but that would just be way to mean so let’s just say this is for real. Dude must have a pretty good doctor and immune system! He looked extremely healthy and lost very little muscle mass compared to the video clip of his announcement so that is wonderful! I don’t know this guy so I’m just saying this as a fellow human – way to go!

Apparently, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were friends with him (making up The Shield which looked like maybe some sort of SWAT team?). So after his very emotional speech, Roman was met by Seth at the top of the ramp and there was a very emotional hug. No Dean at this point so I was all “Wait where is Dean??”

Ricochet & Aliester Black vs The Revival

I’m kind of over this whole NXT thing. No strike that, I’m over this Aliester Black guy. Here is the thing, if you are a new guy you get one gimmick. You either get to come out of the floor on this weird board thing, you get some spooky candles, you get smoke, or you get to jump in the ring and sit down. You don’t get all of those things. Less is more. Be more like Ricochet and just have lasers. Lasers are cool. So anyway, this match happened and the whole time I was angry because why are they being so mean to The Revival? Like come on, they are the Tag Team Champs and you have them losing to people like this? Just annoying and I’m not happy. So needless to say, The Revival lost and it makes me think that all of the Tag Teams are either super bad or someone on the writing team hates them. Whatever it is it needs to stop already. I’m over it.

Ronda Rousey & Natalia vs The Riottt Squad

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I’m not even going to talk about this stupid match. The only important thing here is that Ronda has to keep fighting these people all the time and it is getting really old. Becky came out (hooray!) and tried to use her crutch to beat people again but apparently, she then got arrested. Atlanta’s finest apparently were on stand by. Not sure why they couldn’t have taken her ticket away and avoided this whole situation, but you know, logic. So Ronda gets all mad about it and someone thought it would be a good idea to give her a microphone. It is never a good idea to give Ronda a microphone. Like girlfriend is an amazing fighter but speaking is not her talent. Ugh. So she fumbles through this speech about how Vince needs to set up a three way match at WrestleMania and she wants him to come out and talk about it. Not going to happen, so Stephanie comes out and tells her no. Ronda gets all mad and also has issues remembering her lines and then puts the belt down and leaves. Does she quit? Does she forfeit the title? Oh dear the cliffhanger here! So we just kind of are lost as to what that means.

Jinder Mahal vs Kurt Angle

Random that Jinder Mahal shows up in RAW this week because my husband and I were just talking about the fact that we hadn’t seen him since the Royal Rumble. I have a soft spot for Jinder because the dude is massive and imposing and just plan rad. He has these two weird sidekicks that we could do without but I’m glad he has friends. For some reason he has a match with Kurt Angle. Every so often there is this weird rando match that happens and I guess this is one of those. There isn’t really a story to go with this other than I have a lot of fear for dear Kurt because he is kind of old and apparently (thanks Wikipedia) he has a history of breaking his neck. If I broke my neck I would not be getting in the ring with Jinder Mahal but you go Kurt! I don’t remember how this ended to be honest because I was spending a lot of time talking about how we need more Jinder Mahal in our lives. I think Kurt won but I don’t remember because the point of this match wasn’t the winner it was just that Jinder Mahal is still on the payroll and is AWESOME.

Finn Balor

I’m just going to give him his own little section because he is adorable. He came out to chat with Alexa Bliss about his new Intercontinental Championship. It is cute and she talks about his abs (seriously, does he eat carbs?) and then of course that annoying little rat Lio Rush comes out. Ugh why won’t he go away? Finn twists Lio’s weird little rant into a match for the title. I’m super worried because the whole The Revival thing and am worried that something stupid will happen. It was fine though because Finn is amazing and Lio sucks. Okay Lio is a good wrestler I just don’t enjoy him as a person/character. Finn walks away a winner but his knee looks a little sore so that is a sad thing and I hope he is okay. If he isn’t I’ll be coming for you, Lio! Not really, I think they are on the East Coast right now and I’m lazy. Finn was wonderful though, two thumbs up!

Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley

So the story here is that they need to have bad guys and good guys. I think they building up for something so let’s go just with it. Braun is on the good guy team and Bobby is a bad guy. This fight was just to continue on with the whole good vs bad vibe and also was kind of fun because two slow big guys were in the ring. I don’t get how this ended because Braun just sort of walks off without a winner but it also was kind of cool like “I don’t have time for this pointless match. Play my music.” I’m a little over Bobby right now just because I think he has too much time in the show for his acting abilities. I also think we need more Jinder Mahal. Have I said that already? So let’s just have Jinder take over. That guy is cool.

Dean McIntyre vs Dean Ambrose

Another match with Glasgow. So I was a little confused on this match because I wasn’t sure who they wanted me to root for. Dean has been a bit of a malcontent (and isn’t renewing his contract after WrestleMania) and Glasgow is kind of a jerk. I’ll go with Dean just because he has jeans on and that sounds hard to wrestle in! So this was a no disqualification match which means Glasgow will use the stairs (so overplayed) and then Dean will get beat up (again overplayed). This time there was a belt which as my daughter said “wait does he have TWO belts on?” Yes. He had two on for some reason. The point of this match wasn’t the wrestling it was that Roman and Seth could run out and save Dean from the bad guy beat down. The worst part about this was that one of my top five wrestlers, Elias, joined the bag guy club. I gasped when he ran out and also missed out on a bunch of stuff because I was raging about this. Elias is bad all on his own and doesn’t need these other rejects as friends. Ugh. Poor, Elias. So yeah, Seth and Roman run out and there were “Superman Punches” which is I guess Roman’s move. My husband is less than impressed because he thinks it is a move that any yokel can do. I don’t think I could do it but I get his point. Not as cool as Finn’s kicks and stuff. We can’t all be Finn Balor though. The weird part of this whole scene is that Seth and Roman walk away without helping up Dean and then stand and stare at him at the top of the ramp. Like guys, be nice to Dean. He needs friends too. I guess there is some sort of backstory here or whatever but why come out and help if you aren’t going to at least pat him on the back or whatever.

Bayley vs Nia Jax

When I first saw Bayley I was not a fan. The whole “hug” gimmick and the goofy blow up things just did not rub me the right way. Over the past few weeks I actually have totally gotten on board! Like the pony tail never stays in place which is SO ME and I love that she is kind of happy and fun and gives my girls someone to like that isn’t scary. It also helps that her music is so fun! Okay so now that I gave that little moment of truth, this was what I feel like is just a repeat match up. Nia is crazy but has the BEST HAIR ever. Like who is her hairstylist and what shampoo does she use? She is so massive in her ring presence that she strikes fear in you and the match up with giggly little pony girl felt unfair. I think Bayley is a great wrestler and between the two of them it was a great match that showcased both of their abilities. I’m not crazy that there doesn’t appear to be much of a storyline on this one and that all that Nia is known for is being mean. Like I wish we could get a little more on why she is so mean and what is driving her but I can’t complain too much. I mean Jinder’s storyline is worse so there you go! Can we get more Jinder? So Bayley ended up winning which was very exciting and sets up for the Fastlane match up later on for the tag team. I just hope they don’t keep repeating this match up until then. Let’s bring in some other ladies to showcase!

Ric Flair’s Celebration

So I don’t know a lot about Ric Flair but I do know that whenever there is a giant cake in the ring there should be someone that gets table slammed through it. That did not happen and I was very disappointed. So apparently this guy, Batista, came back and knocked out poor old Ric. I don’t know why this happened and I have a really hard time with Batista. He is totally the lovable giant alien guy from Guardians of the Galaxy and that is all I can see him as. I can’t buy his mean buy act, I can’t buy the fact that his body isn’t blue, and I can’t get behind him having hair or facial hair or pretty much any hair at all. Also, where is his little raccoon friend? This is the problem with coming in to wrestling later in life. You have a hard time with these characters when you know them as something else. I don’t believe he is mean so I think the real bad guy must be Triple H based on the weird exchange of it. I find it odd that they set this whole thing up and hope more comes out of it. I also hope that someone went through that cake. The most exciting part of all of this was that Finn Balor was in the front row and didn’t bother to put on pants! Hello there, Mr Balor! So cute.