A Room with a Review: Raw 1/13/20

Lexington, KY is the site of the latest episode of Monday Night Raw. Can WWE continue its streak of enjoyable episodes of Raw? Can they avoid any and all Kentucky Derby puns? Is the grass really blue?

• Raw kicks off with the Viper, sans crutches. He invites AJ Styles to the ring. Nothing’s bound to happen here. Randy and AJ are scheduled to have a match, but Drew McIntyre interrupts and says he’s joining the match. While Orton is distracted, Gallows and Anderson jump him from behind. All of this confusion leads to a commercial break.

• Back from commercial and the match is underway, without Gallows and Anderson at ringside. AJ keeps trying to give Randy an RKO, but Orton reverses it. Orton responds by giving AJ the Styles Clash. AJ kicks out and Randy hits the RKO, but Drew takes him out with a Claymore kick and pins Styles for the victory. The match was a little slow at first but really picked up during the second half.

• Next is a video package from last week’s Raw, featuring the return of Big Show, which leads to a vintage AOP bilingual discussion in the locker room. Seth joins them and says that they are unstoppable and that if you aren’t with them, you are against them. Also, he’s the Monday Night Messiah, if you haven’t heard.

• Note: There has been a commercial after each of those bullet points.

• It’s Ricochet vs. Mojo Rawley, aka The Man That Gravity Sometimes Misplaces vs. The Guy Who Sometimes Wanders Away From Catering. Ricochet wins with a 630, which is surprising because they are in his home state of Kentucky. Also, Ricochet is from Kentucky?

• The Street Profits are backstage, trying to convince us that the rest of the show will be entertaining.

• It’s Charlotte Flair vs. Sarah Logan, a rematch of a match that never started last week. This match gets ugly quick and they do a good job making it look like a shoot. Without really any setup, Flair wins with the Figure 8. It’s like a Smackdown match made its way over to Raw.

• Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and Big Show are discussing the Fist Fight match (yep, that’s a thing) and are confident because of Show’s giant ham hands.

• Wow, we get Lesnar for consecutive weeks? It really is a new decade. Heyman starts out by mocking Kentucky, as one does. The fans start booing so loudly that Brock and Heyman walk back up the ramp, but they decide to head back to the ring and try again. The boos are even louder this time, but Heyman finds the strength to soldier on. Heyman keeps talking about truth and he must have said it three times because he summons R-Truth. Truth says his childhood hero, John Cena, says to never give up, so he’s going to enter the Royal Rumble and take out the favorite, Paul Heyman? Once Heyman explains that Truth would not be facing him, but Brock, Truth officially undeclares from the Rumble. Lesnar gets a kick out of R-Truth, then kicks the crap out of Truth. Fun segment and R-Truth is an absolute delight.

• After the commercial, some officials are helping Truth to the back. Mojo takes advantage of the situation and lays Truth out, pinning him to win the 24/7 title. Surprisingly smart move by Mojo, who declares that he’s not running and hiding. He will accept all challengers for the 24/7 championship.

• Earlier in the day, Charly Caruso catches Lashley and Lana when they arrive at the building. Lana whines and they make us relive the wedding one more time. But we finally get Lashley vs. Rusev, after the commercial break, of course.

• No smiles from Rusev this week as the Bulgarian Brute has returned. I’m not a big fan of how this match started. These guys supposedly hate each other, but it doesn’t look any different from any other match. Rusev eventually starts punching Lashley so much that the ref has to intervene, but that’s how it should have started. Rusev’s hatred did help him no-sell a German suplex, though, but a distraction from Lana keeps him from taking advantage. Liv Morgan comes down to the ring and stares Lana down, daring Lana to hit her. Lana steals a drink from a “fan” and throws it in Liv’s face. During the confusion, Lashley hits a spear and pins Rusev for the victory. We’re getting a mixed tag match at the Rumble, aren’t we?

• Back from commercial and Charly has breaking news, but first, Lana interrupts and challenges Liv and Rusev to a *drumroll* mixed tag match for next week. Lashley is pissed and Charly is speechless.

• It’s the Viking Raiders, who are issuing an open challenge to the locker room. What exciting team is going to step up? Why, The Singh Brothers, of course. While the brothers dance on the outside, the Raiders lawn dart them into each other. The Viking Raiders win with The Viking Experience, but we quickly switch to Liv Morgan and Rusev, who accept Lana’s challenge. 

• Back to the ring and it looks like we are about to have a contract signing. Jerry Lawler is already in the ring, stumbling over his words. Becky comes down, still rocking her Kill Bill half-cosplay. Asuka comes to the ring, accompanied by Kairi Sane. Asuka signs the contract, but Becky hesitates before signing. Once she does, Asuka sprays her with the green mist. Becky sells it like no one I’ve ever seen and demands a microphone. She cuts a killer promo and says that if she’s going down, she’s taking Asuka with her.

• Coming back from commercial with a recap of Andrade’s heinous actions from last week. Mysterio will face Andrade in a ladder match for the US title next week. 

• Now it’s a video package to prepare for Black/Murphy III. Which we are getting after another commercial.

• Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy. Now this is the kind of hard-hitting action that I wanted from Rusev and Lashley. Murphy tries to use Aleister’s tights to win, but the referee catches him. Black kicks Murphy off the top turnbuckle and Buddy goes flying into the barricade. Murphy hits Murphy’s Law, but Black gets his foot on the rope. Murphy accidentally gets to be the first person to kick out of the Black Mass on the main roster after the ref botches the finish. Black hits another one for the win. 

• Time for Erick Rowan’s weekly walk to the ring with his mystery pet. Murphy is still sulking at ringside as Rowan squashes the local talent. Interesting.

• Main event time: Seth Rollins and AOP vs. Joe, Show, and KO. The heels jump Big Show during his entrance. Joe and KO come to the rescue with kendo sticks. Things devolve quickly and AOP fights Joe and KO up to the stage. KO uses the LED screen like the American Ninja Warrior Warped Wall and dives onto AOP. Big Show throws Rollins out of the ring and Rollins asks Buddy Murphy, who’s still sulking ringside, for help. Murphy does and the bad guys win. Rollins opens his arms to Murphy and Buddy accepts the hug. Looks like Murphy is moving up. 

• Another entertaining episode of Raw, if you overlook the absurdity of a “Fist Fight” match, which is just a street fight where all of the participants from one team have to be incapacitated. What have you been enjoying most about this recent run of Raw? Let me know in the comment section below.

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