Nikki ASH is our new Raw women’s champion.
How did we get here?
Charlotte Flair came out and cut a promo earlier in the night, and said that she is the “creator of the book” and that Rhea Ripley won’t ever be able to measure up to her. Flair got so much outpouring of emails and texts and then she got a Becky chant and shut it down nicely saying Becky Lynch was home breast-feeding.
She listed off her championship wins and announced she’s the only 11 time champion in WWE. Congrats, Queen!
She was about to say that she didn’t have to face Ripley again, but Ripley interrupted that sentence. She challenged Flair for another match, but declined. Flair said she could beat her any day of the week and Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville decided to take her word for it and make the match.
Ripley hit Flair with a nice German suplex and dropkick for a two count but Flair went right back to the injured left leg. The referee had to hold Flair back so she could get checked on. I love this version of Charlotte.
Ripley was able to do a good Northern Lights suplex but Flair just kept at her. Ripley got her legs up on a moonsault attempt and then executed a Figure Four.
And then she hit Ripley in the face with the Raw women’s title for win.
And then Ripley attacked her, leading Money in the Bank winner Nikki ASH to take advantage. She cashed in and pinned Charlotte for the championship.
So, as I’ve been saying, I am not into this almost a superhero gimmick of Nikki’s but from all accounts, it was her idea and they ran with it. For that reason, I’m happy for her. I’ve said in the past about Alexa Bliss that a wrestler should be able to have some of their own ideas for themselves followed through.
Wh8ile I am not a fan of the current Alexa stuff, or the current Nikki stuff, it’s their idea and I support wrestlers being able to do their own thing.
I’ve been a big fan of Nikki’s throughout her WWE career. My favorite run of hers was funnily enough with Alexa when they teamed up. Their friendship was really great and I was sad when it was over, but at that time I liked how it ended because Alexa was still in the psychological mind games phase.
So now that Nikki is champion, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that Charlotte and/or Rhea will be coming after her for SummerSlam. Perhaps Becky Lynch makes a return to take Charlotte out of the title picture? Maybe Charlotte just wins the title back next week?
It can go in multiple directions. Let’s see what happens! Congratulations, Nikki!
Let’s get to the rest of the show. For a full rundown of Raw, check out the live blog by Claire Elizabeth!
Limitless challenger and a new SummerSlam opponent.
Keith Lee has returned!
Bobby Lashley and MVP were in the ring, and MVP acknowledged Kofi Kingston’s remarks about Lashley being soft were true. The women and the champagne were distractions, and he apologized.
Lashley asked who would be coming out, and myself, and the people in attendance, were expecting Goldberg. I had Goldberg’s music going in my head, and then this music I wasn’t familiar with played.
Keith Lee!
Byron Saxton said it perfectly during the match – Lee has cruiserweight like ability. It’s incredible.
The crowd was very much on his side, too. He almost landed on the front row when Lashley lifted him up by the barricade. Lashley speared him and like Kingston’s match, shushed the crowd because they were starting to anger him.
Lashley attempted the Hurt Lock and Lee was able to block it and flip Lashley over his shoulders. Lashley just immediately launched Lee onto the mat and speared him for the win.
And then those sneaky jerks brought him out.
We were all swerved! Bamboozled!
Goldberg’s entered the ring and screamed “I’m next!”
Yeah… sure. Keith Lee mattered more to me here. I have no interest in Goldberg returning for another title match, and Bobby deserves better.
John Cena’s back to tell us he’s leaving for another brand.
After hyping up the crowd, John Cena went through the questions of why he returned.
Look at the end of this it was pretty clear what Cena’s role here was – pop a rating.
A good part from this segment, Cena called Roman Reigns an asshole (bleep machine went to work) and said he’ll be going to SummerSlam to face him for the Universal Championship. This was really the best part of the whole segment.
Cena’s presence here was helpful to get the crowd lively, but I don’t know if he was expecting the “What?” chants.
So he came here to Raw to tell us that he’ll be appearing on SmackDown this Friday, and he’ll be fighting for the main SmackDown title.
And then Riddle came out to Bro chants. Cena stopped him after he kicked off the slides and said that he gets the whole Bro thing now. A Bro-off commenced.
Welcome back, John. Please be more serious. That’s when you’re excellent.
The Rest
Riddle and the Viking Raiders defeated John Morrison, AJ Styles, and Omos
A bunch of great parkour craziness from Riddle and Morrison happened after Styles took a nasty bump on his ass. Erik lifted Ivar onto Morrison and owww man wrestling is real. Omos and Styles did that same cool spot from Money in the Bank where Omos lifts him over the top rope. Ivar went to the top rope and the crowd was into that, but he missed Morrison. The funniest moment here was Riddle spraying Omos and Omos got too mad to care about the match. As a result, Morrison got pinned by Erik. Not even Styles at first could keep Omos from chasing poor wheelchair Miz. This was a nice crowd pleaser. Weird that there was no Randy Orton mention or even an RKO from Riddle like last night.
Natalya and Tamina defeated Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler
Jax and Baszler were aggressive towards the champions. The challengers were getting some boos, but when Tamina tagged in Reginald got involved. Still doing the Reginald distraction leads to Baszler getting pinned, and they were all surprised about it like it’s not the 80th time. But Nia finally realized that it’s Reginald’s fault and kicked him to the curb. He immediately became the next entrant into the 24/7 title scene and won the title. He’s finally where he will thrive.
Sheamus defeated Humberto Carrillo
Carrillo was aggressive and on Sheamus from the start. Saw Sheamus try and do the immediate Brogue Kick win like last time but Carrillo was smart. Carrillo pulled at Sheamus’ protective face mask. That was good stuff. Carrillo also bit his finger without the referee seeing it. Hell yes that’s the stuff I want to see from Carrillo. Sheamus ended up giving the Brogue Kick though. Sad because this was a great version of Humberto I thought would win and get the championship match he deserved.
Alexa’s Playground
Lilly’s back. Great. Eva-Lution came in to interrupt Lilly’s grand return and Bliss tried to get Eva Marie to have a one on one match with her, but Eva declined and tripped as she walked out. She said that she would trash Lilly so now she’s tripping on fake grass. Cool.
Jeff Hardy defeated Karrion Kross
Kross debuted from NXT and Hardy finally came out to No More Words and looked great. And Hardy’s Swanton didn’t hit, but the feet on the ropes during a pin did and Jeff won in a quick match. Totally did not expect that, and they’ve already made Kross look dumb with the catchphrase and without Scarlett. Go get murked by Samoa Joe, loser. By the way, this was apparently Kross’ first loss in WWE. HAAAA. Also it’s his birthday! HAAAA.
Jinder Mahal likes replays
Mahal got some cheers by saying Drew McIntyre isn’t the Money in the Bank winner. Mahal was here to recap the last few weeks of boring shit between them. Drew Mac got tired of it and hit Shanky with a bunch of chair shots we all were able to witness and get nauseated by. (Thanks, Dunn!) The crowd enjoyed counting the chair shots so good for them.
Jaxson Ryker defeated Elias
They gave Jaxson Ryker a gimmick match to try and get him over and yeah that didn’t work out very well. Without a doubt there was piped in crowd noise. Will give credit for the superplex through the tables. That got the loudest reaction of the whole thing. That’s what happens, Vince!
This was a newsworthy Raw, with a cash in, returns, and a debut. But it was a weird one. A few odd decisions and even more rematches are coming. It’s a bit frustrating, but seeing and hearing real reactions is helpful. Let’s see what happens next week.
Grade: C
What were your thoughts, Cagesiders?