The lastWWE Rawof the decade is taking place at the XL Center in Hartford, CT, and it may go a long way in shaping Raw’s Royal Rumble 2020 card. We learned on SmackDown this past week that"The Fiend" Bray Wyattwill be defending his Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan at the pay-per-view, but it hasn’t been made clear yet which matches will be representing Raw on next month’s big show.
It’s unclear if Royal Rumble matches will be made onWWE Rawtonight, but there are a few segments that we do know are in the pipeline. Tonight’s episode of Raw is headlined by the long-awaited wedding between Lana and Bobby Lashley. The controversial couple got engaged on the 11-08-2025 episode of Raw, and while Rusev has expressed that he is “happy” for them, expect the wedding to get interrupted by the Bulgarian Brute.
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Meanwhile,Randy Ortonsuffered an apparent leg injury at a WWE house show last night. The extent of the injury is unknown at this point, but Orton will be on-hand on Raw to address the crowd.
As far as matches go, only one has been announced in advance for tonight’s Raw, and it’s a TLC 2019 rematch. Fans will get to see Aleister Black face off with Buddy Murphy once again, and since these two had one of the best matches at TLC, it should make for an exciting bout. Fans have all of this to look forward to tonight plus the fallout from Rey Mysterio dropping the United States Championship to Andrade at a house show and much more.
1. Kevin Owens Calls Out Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain
Kevin Owens blames Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain for costing Rey Mysterio the United States Championship, arguing that their assault on him on the12/23/2019 edition of Rawplayed a role in his loss to Andrade at Madison Square Garden. Rollins didn’t waste much time coming out to confront Owens, leading to a beat-down on Owens by the Authors of Pain. Samoa Joe then stormed the ring, taking out the Authors of Pain and locking Rollins in a Coquina Clutch. Eventually, Rollins and The AOP got the advantage back over Joe, but then Owens evened the odds with a steel chair.
Security came out to separate the fight. Backstage, Owens and Joe continued threatening Rollins and The AOP, only to get kicked out of the arena. This segment was a pretty high-energy way to kick off Raw, and thankfully the opening promos weren’t nearly as lengthy as they tend to be on this show.
2. Aleister Black vs. Buddy Murphy
Winner:Aleister Black. Black and Murphy went all out, putting on a match that was arguably better than their TLC 2019 bout. Murphy especially looked great, even in defeat, landing some very impressive maneuvers like a sunset flip into a powerbomb. The match was fast-paced, but more importantly, it was hard-hitting and also had a great deal of psychology behind it. Logic wasn’t thrown out of the window to have a “work-rate” match, and it was a lot better for it. Murphy selling his leg was brilliantly done, and he didn’t forget to do so even when fighting back in an offensive flurry late in the match.
Eventually, Black hit Murphy with the Black Mass, and then caught his head with his foot to keep him from collapsing to the ground. Black then finished Murphy off with a second Black Mass for good measure, getting both competitors over. If this match had just a little more time and wasn’t interrupted by a commercial break, it could have been a true classic. As it stands, it’s still one of the better matches that has been on Raw all year long, and the crowd was hot for the whole thing.
Grade:A
3. Erick Rowan vs. Local Competitor
Winner:Erick Rowan. Prior to this match,Seth Rollinsand The AOP willingly left the arena, and Erick Rowan congratulated Lana on her upcoming marriage to Bobby Lashley. The match itself was a typical Rowan squash match. The jobber attempted to see what Rowan is hiding in his cage, failed, and Rowan made short work of them. Rowan scored the pinfall victory by taking out the jobber with his faceslam finishing move, which is now being called the Iron Claw.
Grade:C
4. Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya
Winner:Charlotte Flair. Prior to the match,Charlotte Flairdeclared herself for the women’s Royal Rumble match at the pay-per-view next month. She then had a pretty great match with Natalya, with Charlotte working over Natalya’s leg throughout the match to set her up for the Figure Eight. Midway through the match, R-Truth was chased through the arena by Shelton Benjamin and Eric Young, who were after his 24/7 Championship. This saw Young take a picture-perfect big boot from Charlotte. It’s too bad that WWE can’t seem to figure out anything to do with Young, as he was a great talent for a time in TNA.
The match continued through some commercial breaks, with Flair landing a Spear only for Natalya to barely kick out at two. There was one moment where Flair had Natalya in a top rope Boston Crab that looked pretty painful, and kept the focus on Natalya’s legs. The finish came when Charlotte forced Natalya to tap to the Figure Eight.
Grade:A-
5. Street Profits vs. The OC w/ AJ Styles
Winners:Street Profits. Prior to this match, we got another Liv Morgan vignette and Becky Lynch revealed that she was going to defend her title against Asuka at the Royal Rumble. This match came about because The OC was bragging about they are the best tag team in the world. The crowd wasn’t super-into this promo, though it’s hard to say whether the Street Profits or The OC are to blame. The match itself was actually pretty good, with The OC getting good heat on the Street Profits for the first-half of the match.AJ Stylestried to cheat for The OC, and he wound up ejected to the backstage for his efforts. This allowed the Street Profits to lay out The OC and get the pinfall victory.
Grade:B
6. Handicap Match: Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder vs. Drew McIntyre
Winner:Drew McIntyre. Ryder and Hawkins got the jump on McIntyre, but he still made short work of them. This match was brought down a bit by some awkward placement, with Hawkins climbing to the top rope and then just casually climbing down and standing on the apron so McIntyre could trip him. McIntyre won the match with the Future Shock DDT.
Grade:C-
7. Randy Orton Addresses Injury
Randy Orton supposedly injured his leg at a house show, but the dirtsheets had reported that it was a work. As it turns out, the dirtsheets were right on the money, with Orton doing a faux-retirement speech to bait AJ Styles into the ring and hit him with an RKO. Orton didn’t deliver the promo in a very convincing way, so it was obvious that the fix was in almost right off the bat. At that point, it became a bit of a chore waiting for Orton to just hit the RKO and get the segment over with.
8. Andrade w/ Zelina Vega vs. Ricochet
Winner:Andrade. Andrade first fought a jobber and attempted to DDT him on exposed concrete like he did to Humberto Carillo a few weeks back. However, Ricochet made the save and then a match was set between the two of them. Andrade is clearly WWE’s workhorse right now, constantly put in extra-long matches like this one. It was a solid match, though, with one particularly vicious elbow from Andrade that looked like a much more devastating version ofChris Jericho’s Judas Effect finisher. Zelina cheated for Andrade throughout the match and allowed him to pick up the victory. Ricochet took a nasty back body drop on the exposed concrete, which was one of the more memorable spots.
Grade:B+
9. Lashley and Lana Wedding
This segment was honestly hilarious and genuinely entertaining. The wedding was interrupted first by Lana’s first husband, then Lashley’s first wife, and then by Liv Morgan. Some may be upset that the Liv Morgan segments seem to have just amounted to a storyline with Lana, but it was a nice surprise for this segment. The obvious thing of Rusev being in the cake finally happened near the end of the segment and he laid waste to Lana and Lashley with some help from Liv. So it seems this storyline will be continuing, with Rusev getting some help from Liv in his fight against Lashley and Lana.
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