Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins Will Give Their Answer On Smackdown

Monday Night RAW was live from San Antonio, Texas, as WWE tours the Lone Star state with a scheduled stopover in Dallas this Friday for SmackDown before RAW returns next Monday from Houston. Tonight’s episode had big implications as fans were promised to hear from Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins following The Rock’s challenge for a tag team match at WrestleMania Night One.

Cody Rhodes opened RAW and commented on The Rock’s now infamous +20-minute IG post before Friday Night SmackDown. He masterfully reminded the crowd that The Rock ultimately refused to fight Cody and accused the “People’s Champ” of using the tag match as a decoy for not wanting to fight one one-on-one.

Seth Rollins was eventually brought out and clearly in a good mood. We would later find out that his good mood was based on the good news that he has been medically cleared to compete as of tonight. He also mentioned The Rock’s IG post, specifically the part where The Rock threatened to, as Seth’s boss, make his title disappear. This hit a nerve for Rollins, but it is great storytelling that hits on Seth’s focus on The Bloodline and the accusations from McIntyre that Seth is not focused on his own World title defense at Mania.

Seth ended his promo by asking if Cody Rhodes will ‘have his back’ against The Bloodline.

“I guess I also have a message for The Rock. I am coming to SmackDown with Seth “Freakin’” Rollins. I am going to stand across from you, Roman Reigns [and] the whole Bloodline in the great state of Texas. And this Friday, I will give you face-to-face my very clear and obvious answer for what’s happening at WrestleMania.” This will be the first time the four men will share a spotlight since the WrestleMania presser, making SmackDown a must-watch.

Main Event: Drew McIntyre vs Jey Uso

Drew McIntyre looked dominant early in the match, and it was clear Jey Uso would have to survive the early onslaught if he was going to have a chance in this one. Jey was able to reverse momentum by escaping a McIntyre set up from the middle turnbuckle that the Yeet Man turned into a powerbomb.

Drew took the momentum back quickly, a theme in the match, but Jey kept fighting back—a theme of Jey Uso, the character. Jey lined up McIntyre for a top rope move before Solo entered the scene, but that only brought out Cody Rhodes to even the odds and continue his vow to ‘hunt The Bloodline.’ With the odds evened, Jey had McIntyre’s mat on the back on his way to the top when Jimmy Uso caused a distraction, which led to a Claymore from McIntyre for the win.

This storytelling is off the charts amazing, and the writing room or ‘bookers’ were already hitting the right notes when Seth Rollins came storming out to the ring to take out Jimmy Uso. But in doing so, he bypassed McIntyre on his way, which was a beautifully placed metaphor to represent Seth’s tunnel vision for The Bloodline, leaving him vulnerable against his WrestleMania opponent McIntyre.

The layers of storytelling are working on so many levels that it is impossible to distinguish between the best of them because each one plays into the other. Without a stupid brand war, WWE could connect the two championship storylines without them actually competing, allowing both matches to elevate the other.

The Madman Enters The Hall of Fame

Paul Heyman will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. It was announced tonight that the mastermind behind hardcore and the brain trust behind ECW, Heyman, was the first announced earlier in the day, and the commentating confirmed it after the second hour of RAW.

Gunther vs Dominik Mysterio

Dominik Mysterio received his shot at Gunther tonight but was unsuccessful. Even with interference from JD, Gunther delivered a devastating powerbomb and then made Dom submit to his Boston Crab submission hold.

One interesting thing happened early in the match’s commentary when Michael Cole congratulated Sting on his final match, to which Pat McAfee added his own appreciation before calling it a ‘great match.’

Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark vs Kayden Carter and Katana Chance

Former Champs Carter and Chance received the only entrance of the two teams, and they were even given a short pre-taped interview which played before the match. Despite this, the team of Baszler and Stark got the victory, though the former champs faired well in the match—even landing a double Spanish-fly on Stark and a 450 splash from Chance.

After the match, Dakota Kai, who was seated ringside with the women’s tag team champs, The Kabuki Warriors, grabbed the mic to assure Baszler and Stark would receive their tag team title match next Monday, assuming The Kabuki Warriors successfully defend their titles at NXT Road Block tomorrow night.

Becky Lynch vs Nia Jax

The worst thing that could have happened to Nia Jax is that she was given the showcase, which is a main event on a Premium Live Event. Since her unsuccessful title challenge against Rhea Ripley at Elimination Chamber, social media has been ruthless in their criticism of Nia, and in all fairness, she botched more than a couple of spots and no sold like crazy.

This match with Becky Lynch has been building for some time, and this was supposed to be the payoff with Becky’s title shot against Ripley coming up in a few short weeks at WrestleMania. Becky hit some big spots, including a suplex from the top rope, but the true momentum shift came after Nia hit a Samoan Drop only to miss an Annihilator, which led to a Disarmer that was eventually broken up by the ropes.

However, Liv Morgan entered the match soon after and caused a DQ victory for Becky when she attacked Nia on the outside mat. Becky interfered in Liv Morgan’s match against Nia last week, and the two shared a heated moment in the back after that incident where Morgan heatedly expressed her displeasure.

Once again, Becky and Liv had another heated argument backstage, where a challenge by Becky to Liv for a match next week was immediately accepted. Rhea was seen standing just out of frame before she was in center frame standing next to Becky. Rhea must be enjoying all the obstacles in Becky’s road to WrestleMania.

Intercontinental Title Mania Mary-Go-Round

RAW General Manager Adam Pierce announced that next week on Monday Night RAW, it will be a gauntlet match where the survivor/winner will go on to face Gunther for his Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania.

The following wrestlers were announced to be part of the match:

Sami Zayne

Ricochet

Bronson Reed

JD McDonagh

Chad Gable

Andrade vs Apollo Crews

Andrade made his re-debut on RAW this week after brief appearances over the past few weeks. He brought with him roughly the same move set we’ve come to expect from him, but it was the homage paid to the late Eddie Guerrero, where he performed the Three Amigos, a move he used in his first WWE run.

However, at least four other current WWE superstars use the same move to pay homage, complete with the Latin Heat’s shimmy. The love for Eddie across the board is understood, but the move feels overused at this point.

Andrade delivered La Sombra – a modified DDT—and got the win over a superstar we have not seen on RAW in recent memory.

Imperium’s Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci vs The Judgement Day’s Finn Balor & Damian Priest

The two factions have been circling each other on their road to supremacy on RAW, but it culminated a week ago when they faced off in a Gunther promo.

Imperium defeated New Day in a street fight a few weeks ago, and they have put together some momentum heading into WrestleMania. A win could secure a shot at the tag titles, but Imperium was already 1-0 on the night following Gunther’s defeat of ‘Dirty’ Dom.

Priest worked strong in the match, but the better team was Imperium. Still, the dominating run that Priest has been on was sent into overdrive when he got the hot tag from Balor. Priest got the pin in the match for a clean Judgment Day victory. One small takeaway: Pat McAfee used some cool 90’s style football graphics, Madden Style, for the replay of the match’s finish.

Sami Zayne vs Ivar

After it was announced that Zayne would be part of a 6-man gauntlet match next week on RAW to determine the number one contender for the Intercontinental championship, Ivar and Zayne got into it backstage, which led to a match between the two. The match was fairly even, but Zayne got the win to keep the momentum from his victory over Nakamura. After the match, Bronson Reed, another superstar announced for next week’s gauntlet match, attacked Zayne.

Chad Gable gave a promo following the match, indicating he is primed to win next week and defeat Gunther ‘to put a smile on his daughter’s face.’

Mario Mungia

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