Tonight was a good crowd. The Cali weed must be good in Ontario, because I need to know what the WWE writers were smoking when they planned out this week’s episode of RAW. This one set the stage for some exciting future developments, but had too many odd moments sprinkled throughout the night. It’s nice to know that RAW has recently set a bar high enough that an episode that had so many surprises, could be considered subpar. Let’s get weird and see what to watch and what to skip from the 9 February 2020 episode of Monday Night RAW.
Fast-Count Results
Becky Lynch def. Asuka to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
Street Profits def. Mojo Rawley and Riddick Moss
Riddick Moss def. Mojo Rawley for the 24/7 championship
Rhea Ripley def. Sarah Logan
Ricochet def. Bobby Lashley
Seth Rollins, Murphy, & The A.O.P. def. Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, & The Viking Raiders
Rundown
Seth Rollins promo
Skip. Seth Rollins looks like such a jackass and I am here for it. A subtle bit of delusional heel work by Rollins when he says he didn’t like when “fans” gave him the name “The Monday Night Messiah” (which it obviously was not) but it’s growing on him.
Kevin Owens comes out and is eventually joined by the Viking Raiders, who start a brawl. While Seth looks on from the ring, he is caught in a suprise Coquina Clutch by a returning Samoa Joe. A moment that would have been so much more impactful if they hadn’t, you know, just plugged the 8-person tag match with him in it later in the night.
The heels flee the ring and for some bizarre reason, Becky Lynch’s music hits and she heads to the ring while the dude who choked out her fiancé is still in there. No explanation, but this leads to…
Becky Lynch vs. Asuka
Watch. The match was pretty good, as you’d expect. It was slower-paced but intense and drama-filled. That is until the end, which was an exciting flurry of roll-ups and submission attempts. However, Becky catches Asuka in what was essentially a Rock Bottom for a quick pin.
What happens next is just surreal. Out comes Shayna Baszler for a beatdown on Becky. After locking Lynch in the Kirafuda Clutch and slamming her to the mat, Shayna removes her mouth guard and LITERALLY BITES BECKY ON THE BACK OF THE FUCKING NECK. Becky is bleeding everywhere at this point and screaming in the middle of the ring. It was shocking, and I haven’t had enough time to digest it and decide how I feel about it. This was strange, horrifying, enthralling and got a ton of heat on Shayna. If Baszler doesn’t come out to “The Broods” music with Gangrel next week, I riot.
Mojo Rawley & Riddick Moss vs. The Street Profits
Watch. Montez Ford is entertaining and pulls off what is likely the highest splash I’ve ever seen. Riddick Moss is immediately pinned for the loss. As Mojo tries to peel him off the canvas, Moss rolls him up and steals the 24/7 Championship from him. It literally took two-weeks for this tag-team to break up. What is going on?
Oh, and in between the segments, Becky Lynch steals an ambulance since she obviously has a strong idea of where the closest hospital is around the Toyota Center.
MVP VIP Lounge with Drew MacIntyre
Skip. MVP has a talk show segment again? I repeat, what is going on?
MVP tries to angle his way into a Paul Heyman role with MacIntyre, and gets kicked in the face for it. Look how cool Drew MacIntyre is everybody.
Angel Garza vs. Cedric Alexander
Watch. Zelina Vega and Angel Garza start the segment by pointing to the video board and showing off their handy work last week against Umberto Carrillo and Rey Mysterio. After the highlight package, Garza is quickly jumped by a fiery Carrillo. After security drags Garza’s cousin away from the ring, a pretty short but decent match takes place. Alexander gets off to the hot start with the advantage gifted to him by Carrillo, but he is eventually caught with a super-kick in mid air, put in the Wing Clipper and pinned. The match does what it needed to by continuing the feud between Garza and Carrillo, just at the expense of Alexander (Vince giveth and Vince taketh away).
Rhea Ripley vs. Sarah Logan
Skip. After a backstage confrontation, Sarah Logan demands Ripley comes out and faces her, to which the NXT Women’s Champion obliges. Charlotte Flair watches from the top of the ramp as Ripley demolishes Logan in about 45 seconds. After a brief back-and-forth with Ripley on the mic, Charlotte questions if Ripley will even be champion after this weekend’s TakeOver: Portland event and refuses to give an answer to Rhea’s WrestleMania challenge.
Ricochet vs. Bobby Lashley
Watch. What Ricochet can do in the ring is probably second to none, what he can do on the mic leaves everything to be desired. The white meat babyface is dead and the WWE can’t keep scripting him like this or he’ll probably be rebranded as “Shorty Chét” soon enough (I’m still angry they did my boy Chad Gable like that). The match was the fun, but standard Ricochet faces bigger opponent type of affair. After Lashley tosses Ricochet around for the better part of the match, the “One and Only” is able to rally, hit the 630 and get the win.
Randy Orton Promo
Watch. A chorus of boos welcomes Orton to the ring. Before “The Viper” can answer for his attack on Edge, out comes Matt Hardy. Hardy tells the audience he needs an explanation for the attack. He tells the story about how there was a time where no one hated Edge more than him (the infamous Lita situation), but even he was able to root for Edge’s miraculous return. Orton tries to hit him with the RKO, which Matt avoids, but his fate was sealed. Randy is able to take him out and hit him with the same one man Con-Chair-To that he gave Edge. “The Legend Killer” is back.
Aleister Black vs. Akira Tazawa
Watch. Given 10 minutes, these guys could probably put on a great TV match. However, this was not. A Black Mass in under a minute puts Tazawa to bed. Jerry Lawler literally says “I don’t get this. Is he (Black) targeting anyone?” The answer is jobbers, King. He’s targeting jobbers.
Black follows it up with an intense promo that helps save the segment. WWE needs to get somewhere with Black soon.
Becky’s Back
Skip. Becky returns to the arena after having driven herself to the hospital and back — still covered in her own blood — in the biggest indictment against the California healthcare system I’ve seen on WWE programing. Unfortunately, her promo doesn’t seem to have the same fire and intensity it usually does and kind of falls flat for me. On a plus side, the seeds for Baszler vs Lynch are officially sewn for WrestleMania 36.
Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, The Viking Raiders vs. Seth Rollins, Murphy, The A.O.P.
Watch. You’ve kind of seen this repeatedly over the last several weeks, but these guys are all talented so it is at the very least watchable. The now “Buddy-less” Murphy can sell a DDT like no other. There’s a real nice moment when Joe goes for the dive on Rollins to the outside but is blocked by the AOP. The Raiders knock Akam and Rezar off the ropes and the three babyfaces dive at the heels in unison. After a couple other big spots, Joe is able to get Murphy in the Coquina Clutch. The ref turns his back as The A.O.P. try to interfere, which allows Rollins to hit Joe with the Curb Stomp. A near-passed out Murphy falls on him to get the pinfall win. It will be interesting to see where this feud goes moving forward. There has been a lot of positives in this storyline with tag teams like The A.O.P. and The Viking Raiders getting built up, Rollins becoming one of the better heels in the company, and KO looking like a main eventer again – but where it ends is still up in the air.