Welcome one and all to the RAW RECAP presented by THE REVELLEUTION! We are on the Road to WrestleMania, and last week finally brought a bit of clarity to the plans for the Raw Women’s Championship at the biggest show of the year. Rhea Ripley making a bold challenge to Asuka and the match was accepted, making it two straight years for both Ripley and Asuka being in a title match on the grandest stage. This week however will see an official contract signing for the match, and we all know those always go smoothly! So what will happen? And will we see a clear challenge for the Women’s Tag Team Championships? Let’s get into it, and find out…
SARAH SCHREIBER handled interview duties.
ALEXA BLISS has her Playground backstage with more of the usual creepy stuff to warn Randy Orton about his future with The Fiend.
Non-Title Women’s Tag Team Match
NAOMI w/h LANA defeated Women’s Tag Team Champion & SHAYNA BASZLER w/h Women’s Tag Team Champion NIA JAX w/h Regenald
DANA BROOKE and MANDY ROSE were on commentary for the match. Naomi didn’t get an entrance. Naomi did a bounce off the rope to hit a head kick, but Baszler hit a counter kick to a Naomi vault. Baszler then hit the Arm Stomp, and locked on a top Hammerlock as Rose on commentary said she and Brooke wanted another shot. Naomi came back with kicks and a Perfect Mare, getting a two count off a couple of near falls. They traded counters as Naomi broke free and hit her Splits Legdrop.
Regenald distracted as Naomi went for the Split-Legged Moonsault to allow Baszler to knock her down. Lana tried to take out Regenald but her flipped out of the way. Jax hooked up Lana on the outside, but Lana slipped out the back and shoved Jax into Rose, which set Brooke off to attack Lana (not that you need a reason to do that I suppose). Baszler kicked Lana off the apron, and Naomi took advantage with an European Clutch to steal the win in a short match.
ASUKA was confused by Riddle’s rambling backside as he forgot what he was going to say.
The contract signing between Asuka and RHEA RIPLEY was held in the ring. Trading verbal jabs until Ripley had heard enough and flipped the table so hard it slammed into Asuka’s face. The Women’s Tag Team Champions stormed out as Jax and Baszler complained about the Mania title situation. Challenging the two to a match next week and unfazed Ripley accepted on Asuka’s behalf.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Ripley and Asuka’s contract signing was sharp and to the point. We can complain about the Women’s Tag Champs being yet again involved in a match with the singles champ but it will work to put a quick issue between Asuka and Ripley. Meanwhile it looks like a multi-team match will go down for the tag titles at Mania which works fine for me to give many women a chance to shine. We’ll likely see Smackdown team(s) added to the mix too so we’ll wait and see on that front. A short showing for the women tonight but in all honesty it worked well enough with what little time we have left before WrestleMania.
That’s your lot for this week. Be sure to stop by in seven days time for the pre-WrestleMania edition of the RAW RECAP! See you then!