by Heading into Raw on Monday night, the only segment announced was a match between United States Champion Theory and Cody Rhodes with the title on the line. However, the match would not see a clean end, thanks to interference from Seth Rollins.
Rollins was still upset about losing to Rhodes at both WrestleMania and WrestleMania Backlash. The attack concluded with a stomp on the announce table and Rhodes had to deal with the fact that he was cheated out of the championship due to Rollins’ interference leading to disqualification.
CBS Sports was with you all night with recaps and highlights of all the action from the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.
Seth Rollins fucks Cody Rhodes
Theory cut a promo saying that the late notice match with Cody Rhodes for the United States Championship was not a problem for him. Theory said that he didn’t care about Rhodes, the past or respect history because nothing matters except the future. Rhodes, of course, would later describe his own intentions to dethrone Theory and become champion.
United States Championship – Cody Rhodes defeated. Theory (c) via disqualification after interference from Seth Rollins. Rhodes appeared moments before he won the title when Rollins ran in and attacked Rhodes. The disqualification meant that Theory would retain the title from him. Rollins continued his attack after the match and finally hit Rhodes with a stomp on the announce table. Rollins repeatedly yelled that Rhodes would “never take anything away from him.”
A classic case of WWE booking in a corner. Rhodes winning the title here was pointless, but Rhodes couldn’t eat a clean loss. That left WWE needing the obvious cheap finish to the one match they announced before the show. It’s not an ideal situation, by any means. That said, it’s hard to get mad at the classic pro wrestling booking. The biggest problem is that there is no real reason to want Rhodes vs. Rollins continue. His matches have been very good but Rhodes has won them both. Why should anyone care to see him again? That, however, is where we are headed. Grade B-
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- Raw Tag Team Championship – RK-Bro (c) def. The Street Profits via pinfall to retain the titles. RK-Bro was ready to open the show when the Profits entered the scene, taking a shot at RK-Bro for losing his six-man match against The Bloodline at WrestleMania Backlash. This led to an impromptu tag match which was won by the champions when Riddle countered a frog tap from Montez Ford with an RKO.
- Rhea Ripley right. Liv Morgan via submission with an inverted Texas clover leaf. The match came after a promo where Edge, Damian Priest, and Ripley explained that she joined the group, with Edge saying that he told Ripley that she was wasting her potential.
- Finn Balor defeated. Damian Priest by disqualification after Edge’s interference. The match began after Ripley vs. Morgan and Edge will sneak into the ring to hit Balor with a spear. AJ Styles was at ringside and helped Balor fight Edge and Priest before Ripley stopped Edge, knowing he couldn’t hit her, allowing Edge to spear Styles while Priest also hit the leg.
- Bobby Lashley stormed into The VIP Lounge. Lashley attacked MVP, Omos and Cedric Alexander as they celebrated Omos defeating Lashley at Backlash.
- Alexa Bliss def. Sonya Deville via pinfall with Twisted Bliss. Before the very short match, it was announced that Deville had been fired from her position as a WWE official.
- Kevin Owens and Alpha Academy attacked Ezekiel. Owens posed as his brother “Ken Owens” trying to get Ezekiel to admit that he is actually Elias. After Elias attacked, Alpha Academy ran to the ring to help Owens stun him.
- Veer Mahan def. Frank Loman via submission with the cervical clutch.
- Sasha Banks & Naomi def. Doudrop and Nikki ASH via pinfall when Naomi hit Nikki ASH with a facebuster.
- Ciampa def. Mustafa Ali via pinfall with a reverse DDT. The Miz was the special guest referee and gave Ali very slow counts before making the fastest count possible at the final pin to give Ciampa the victory.
- Defeat of Bianca Belair. Asuka by disqualification after interference from Becky Lynch. Lynch, who was on commentary, attacked Belair during the match before attacking Asuka and hitting her with the Manhandle Slam, marking the third of eight matches on the night that ended by disqualification for outside interference.
