The WWE RAW after the Royal Rumble is one of the biggest Mondays of the wrestling calendar, and the first show on the official ‘road to WrestleMania. With Roman Reigns winning the men’s Rumble and Liv Morgan winning the women’s, it will be interesting to see which direction creative takes both superstars.
The next major event on the schedule will be Elimination Chamber on February 28, an event that will crown a number one contender for the ‘other’ Mania title match. With Roman scheduled for tonight, the hope is that we get a real direction on tonight’s episode—that assumes creative knows where this ‘road’ is heading.
Liv is scheduled to appear, which means we could get at least an inkling of her GPS coordinates as they relate to her WrestleMania destination.
ROMAN REIGNS
Roman reminded the Philadelphia fans that tonight’s show was at Xfinity Mobile Arena, that he won his first Rumble in ‘The City of Brotherly Love,’ acknowledging that he was not cheered on that night. However, Roman was celebrated following his win on Saturday, marking his second win in the 30-man battle royal.
After Roman weighed his options and had the fans react to who they wanted him to choose, CM Punk came out with the title around his waist. Punk pulled the same schtick, burying Drew McIntyre in the process, as the fans booed the idea of Roman facing the world champion while the crowd chanted for a Punk-Reigns showdown.
They had a tremendous promo battle with both guys taking shots. Punk picked apart Roman’s controversial interview on Pat McAfee’s show ahead of the Rumble while Roman reminded Punk that he was the reason that Punk had a ‘company to come back to.’ Punk said Roman’s choices were simple, claiming that choosing him was ‘climbing Mount Everest without shoes’ as he poked at Roman’s schedule.
Roman responded by asserting that Punk only had a busy schedule because he had been out for so long and needed to dust off the rust. Then, Roman went for Punk’s throat by bringing up the infamous Colt Cabana podcast when he dumped on the company and its medical staff.
In the end, Roman picked Punk out of spite, literally saying that he picks Punk for how much he “hates him.” It was the kind of Raw-after-Rumble promo battle that sets the anticipation bar for Mania into the outer atmosphere.
LIV MORGAN WEIGHS OPTIONS AS DOMINIK MYSTERIO RETURNS TO TV
We saw Dominik Mysterio on RAW for the first time since his injury diagnosis following his December 20 appearance for AAA, but he was mostly scenery for Liv’s post-Rumble promo following her winning effort. It was Liv’s first Rumble win after coming up just short in several prior Rumbles.
She teased a potential decision between RAW’s women’s champion, Stephanie Vaquer (defending title on this program), and SmackDown’s Jade Cargill by claiming she’ll be on SmackDown this Friday. Raquel Rodriguez came out before her title match and questioned why Liv eliminated her from the Rumble.
Liv said she knew that Raquel would not be selfish, and because she already had a title shot, she took her opportunity to advance her own title aspirations. They did not appear on the same page, and it felt as though the seeds were being set for a potential turn.
STEPHANIE VAQUER(c) VS RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ—Women’s World Title (Street Fight)
The Philly crowd was fed their usual dose of violence in the form of an excellent street fight between the champ and Rodriguez—sparking the question as to why Rodriguez was in the Royal Rumble in the first place.
After the chairs and the tables (both the one that broke and the one that did not), the finish saw Liv interfere in a manner that could further complicate her relationship with Rodriguez, and despite Roxxanne Perez’s interference at the end, the champ was able to retain.
BRONSON REED VS PENTA
This was a very physical match that had one intention—push the mid-card feuds further. LA Knight made his TV return and interfered in the match to help Penta win via countout. Penta fended off Logan Paul and Austin Theory, who chased away LA Knight, and the entire segment shifted The Vision’s fortunes.
Paul Heyman demanded a match between Bron Breakker and LA Knight earlier in the night, but was instead informed of this match. We will likely see the feud between Heyman and GM Pearce grow following this match.
OTHER TIDBITS
- The El Grande Americano VS OG Americano feud continued to boil over following their showdown at The Royal Rumble. The OG (Original Gable?) El Grande Americano came out to help Je’Von Evans pick up the victory over the Ludwig Kaiser version of the character.
- The Bella Twins came out following Brie’s return at the Rumble. They cut a promo claiming they “want in” when it comes to the women’s tag division, explicitly calling for the titles. The Bellas left WWE before the belts were created, so this would be their first opportunity at the titles.
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