Welcome one and all to the RAW RECAP presented by THE REVELLEUTION! We are weeks away from WrestleMania are many women are looking for a path to the grandest stage of them all. But after Becky Lynch posted on Instagram that she was ‘injured’ after a house show match involving Bianca Belair, will things be cloudy on the Road to WrestleMania? Let’s get into it, and find out…
WWE 24/7 Championship Match
DANA BROOKE w/h Reggie Vs TAMINA w/h Akira Tozawa
An ‘earlier today’ video showed that the FriendZone gimmick has been dropped for full on smooching between Brooke and Reggie. Tamina was far more forceful with her ‘good luck’ kiss to Tozawa. Brooke was instantly decked with a Clothesline then roughed up with punches. Moments later Brooke hit her Handspring Elbow but was decked again with a Clothesline. Tamina locked in a Boston Crab for a long time with Brooke unable to crawl to the ropes, but eventually Brooke countered to flip out and get a Rana pin hold for the win to retain.
Tozawa claimed on the mic that Brooke cheated, but seemingly got a cold shoulder from Tamina as she left but blew (aggressively) a kiss to him.
SARAH SCHREIBER handled interview duties.
Non-Title Women’s Tag Team Match
LIV MORGAN & RHEA RIPLEY defeated Women’s Tag Team Champions CARMELLA & QUEEN ZELINA
It was suddenly announced before the match that if Morgan and Ripley won they’d be added to the Women’s Tag Title match at WrestleMania. Carmella and Morgan started off as Carmella used a hair grab to force Morgan into a corner to hit a Knee Strike. Morgan soon coming back, hitting her Jumping Back Elbow. Ripley was tagged in as Morgan hit an STO that set up Ripley’s Running Basement Dropkick for barely a count of one. Ripley hit her Cravate-held Knee Strikes which forced Carmella to tag out.
Ripley was handling things well as she held Zelina up for a Delayed Suplex and even booted down Carmella when she came in, but Zelina escaped to hit a Tornado DDT. That sent Ripley to the floor where Carmella hit a Low Sidekick to send Ripley (just) into the ring steps. Back from commercial Zelina was in control of Ripley with a modified Muta Lock turned into a Japanese Stranglehold. Carmella was tagged in to do the regularly seen kick spot to send Ripley into the ring post but Morgan broke up the pin attempt.
After a rest hold, Carmella hit a Reverse X-Factor to Ripley but took too long mouthing off at Morgan as Ripley hit a Head Kick from off the canvas. Tags on both sides as Morgan hit the Step-Up Enzigiri then a Dropkick to Zelina’s back to set up things for the Corner Knee Strike. Carmella was being attended to by her IRL boyfriend Corey Graves at commentary (the match was full of commentary about their upcoming wedding) while Morgan hit the Double Springboard Dropkick for a near fall. Zelina was free to try for a tag moments later but just stared in disgust as Carmella was too busy with Graves. That left Zelina open to be hit by Morgan’s Side Codebreaker then tagging Ripley to hit The Riptide and pin Zelina. Punching the sudden duo’s ticket straight to WrestleMania.
BIANCA BELAIR had an interview which was just more of the bland same from her.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
They still have a few weeks to build, but they instead just threw together Morgan and Ripley into a match with no prior build or true announcement of the stipulation. That’s the bad part, but at least it’s good news that Ripley especially along with Morgan are getting a Mania match. It also adds in some unexpected spice to what had appeared to be a clear outcome between Carmella and Zelina against Naomi and Sasha Banks. The match itself was fine aside from commentary dominated by Carmella and Graves who have a YouTube show that isn’t even doing outstanding numbers compared to other WWE clips and so on. Elsewhere the 24/7 title stuff is doing no one any favours but at least Brook avoided the usual hometown loss curse which is something.
That’s your lot for this week! Be sure to stop by in seven days time for the next edition of the RAW RECAP! See you then!