Ibrahim Oladamola
The WWE roster finally seems to be forming some connections in an attempt to deal with The Bloodline’s dominance. That continued on Monday night, with Sami Zayn and Matt Riddle helping Kevin Owens chase off The Usos and Solo Sikoa after the main event of Raw, but not before Sikoa had already scored a one-on-one victory over Owens.
The whole show felt disjointed because of the travel issues and what felt like a lot of time padding. Still, having Heyman and Owens on the mic and a solid main event doesn’t hurt. Yes, it’s a bit exhausting that The Bloodline uses “the numbers game” as often as they do, making everything feel very similar all the time. But the story continues and it’s likely we’re heading toward The Usos and Sikoa vs. Owens, Zayn and Riddle at Backlash.
Solo Sikoa def. Kevin Owens via pinfall after a Samoan Spike. Owens seemed to have the match in hand multiple times, but each time, The Usos interfered. That led to the final interference, which allowed Sikoa to hit the Spike for the finish. After the match, The Bloodline continued attacking Owens but Zayn and Riddle arrived at the building and ran to the ring to make the save, chasing Sikoa and The Usos off.
Finn Balor def. Rey Mysterio via pinfall after a Coup de Grace. The match came about after Rey opened the show with a promo, which was interrupted by Dominik Mysterio. After a truly bad bit of work on the microphone by Dominik, Rey issued a challenge for a rematch, which Dominik declined. This brought out Balor for the match, which he won after Dominik hit Rey with a chain.
Women’s Tag Team Championship – Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan def. Becky Lynch & Trish Stratus (c) via pinfall to win the titles. Lita was mysteriously attacked backstage, taking her out of the bout and leading Stratus to fill in. The challengers won a clunky match after a Stratus Chick Kick was countered into a pin by Morgan for a roll-up. Stratus then attacked Lynch after the match. Stratus refused to address her actions when asked backstage.
Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed ended in a double count out. The two big men battled for a bit until the action spilled to the floor with a brawl that continued until the referee’s count reached 10. The brawl continued after the bell, with Lashley clearly getting the better of things.
Cody Rhodes challenged Brock Lesnar to a match at Backlash. Rhodes cut a promo talking about having multiple areas of focus between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar after Lesnar attacked him. He then admitted he is scared of Lesnar, but said that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to fight him.
The Usos def. Alpha Academy via pinfall after hitting Chad Gable with the 1-D.
IYO SKY def. Piper Niven and Michin via pinfall with a moonsault to pin Michin.
