Ric Flair’s birthday party: the one night a year when Raw’s faces and heels go head-to-head in direct competition to determine who can ignore Batista assaulting the ‘Nature Boy’ the longest. If that doesn’t tell all you need to know about this week’s edition of Raw, I don’t know what will.
This was a madcap, high-octane, relentless episode. If I had to channel my inner Jonathan Coachman and pick one word to describe Raw, it would be “celebration”. Between Ric Flair’s birthday, rare appearances from the likes of Sting, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat, and a possible Shield reunion, Raw was all about giving the good guys their moment. Kurt Angle got a win over former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, Finn pinned Lio Rush, Strowman ran through Bobby Lashley (and presumably won), and the law beat Becky. In fact, it was only during the last half hour of the show that a heel finally triumphed.
Even Nikki Bella won an award for outstanding stereotype in a reality show breaking actresses. Or something. Admittedly I wasn’t listening to this part.
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Remember when you were a kid and you couldn’t decide on which flavor ice cream you wanted? So you took a scoop of each and dumped it into a bowl? Well, last night’s Raw was just like that. It was an absolutely overindulgent, stomach-churning mess of sugary goodness, in which any bad was quickly covered up by the good.
Of course the highpoint of the episode was clearly the return of Roman Reigns. It’s uncommon for WWE to stage a truly heartfelt narrative. In striving for emotion, the company too often falls into melodrama and contradiction. The Miz’s attempts to impress his father being the most recent example.
But Roman Reigns returning to Monday nights is one such moment – a genuine expression of a man overcoming a potentially life-threatening illness and coming back with a mission to reclaim his place in the business.
For his part, Roman handled it perfectly. Taking his time to shake every fan’s hand at ringside (including a rogue David Arquette for some reason), before embracing his wife and his mother. Once in the ring, Roman had two messages: his cancer was in remission, and the Raw ring was “our Yard now”.
From the moment his music hit to his walk back up the ramp to be greeted by Seth Rollins, the crowd was phenomenally hot. Reigns’ polarising past has become little more than an afterthought, as every fan in attendance and watching the broadcast embraced Roman. His return is a major, heartwarming event that set the tone for the remainder of Raw.
Thank you to @RobinRoberts and everyone from @GMA. Thank you for the support and the platform to raise awareness for leukemia research. Now, it’s time to get ready to go back to work!! 🤙🏽@WWE
— Roman Reigns (@WWERomanReigns) February 26, 2019
Also, Alexa Bliss is a horny garden fairy who books title matches now. And Ronda Rousey relinquished the Raw Women’s Title in protest over Becky’s removal from the WrestleMania main event. Like I said, there was A LOT going on during this Raw.
Read on to find out our WrestleTalk team’s thoughts on Raw, as well as their rating of the show overall.
What was your favourite moment from Raw?
Kyle Payne
How could you not like that opening segment, even if you were one of the ones who hated Roman Reigns? I didn’t, and it was nice to see him again. Truth of the matter is that the show has suffered since he’s been gone and with the great news the cancer is in remission, hopefully this means we’ll see Reigns again soon on weekly television. From there we had a fun tag match between Ricochet & Black and the Revival.
Then there was that pull apart brawl between Rousey and Lynch. I don’t know who is writing the segments between those two but they need a raise and to be working on the entire show because, once again, the Becky stuff was fantastic. Chaos, assaults, and security coming with management to separate the two. I was into it, the fans are into it, and the eventual meeting between the two is going to be so worth it. Then we got that promo between Rousey and Stephanie McMahon and it was absolutely perfect, Ronda nailed it and showed that destroying Lynch means more than the title, which she called an accessory and threw on the floor! I’m so ready for this match, I love pro wrestling.
Bálor and Rush had a great match, with the latter looking good. The stuff going around with the Shield reuniting makes me sad that Ambrose is leaving. Another highlight of the night was Batista standing over Flair’s corpse and setting up his match with HHH at WrestleMania. I’m so glad he’s a heel and I can’t wait to see them go at it.
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Emma Heeley
Welcome back Roman Reigns. A small tear may have been shed at the ‘Big Dog’s expense during his little speech and I’m over the moon that he’s back. I also marked out just a small tiny bit when he and Seth came to the aid of Ambrose after his match. The Shield will always hold a special place in my heart. I suppose that tells us where the MCU heroes go after being snapped away by Thanos – looks like they return to wherever they came from originally.
While I’m not normally a fan of these big ‘Celebration’ angles, and I do feel that WWE rely too heavily on their ‘Hall of Famers’, I LOVED the ending of Raw. Batista is back and as a heel… Yes please!
JP Wood
The pop Roman Reigns got when he was introduced last night was amazing. Watching him take a very long walk to the ring, I had goosebumps and could feel the emotion coming out of my screen. It might not have been a wrestling moment per se, but it was by far the best part of what turned out to be a pretty great Raw.
Steven Lugo
Roman Reigns returning to a welcoming crowd. The real moments are the best. Although it took an extremely long time, and the road took fans through some frightening territory, this is everything WWE could want. Roman Reigns has returned to thunderous cheers. What that means for WWE is obvious, but what I liked about it was that Roman did not appear to be scripted, and really connected with his audience. The best news, of course, is that Reigns is on the road to recovery, because at the end of the day this actually is real life.
What was the worst part of last night’s episode?
Kyle Payne
Even though the tag team match between Ricochet & Black and The Revival was a fun match, there is no reason the Raw tag team champions should be losing every week to the new NXT additions. This is another sign that The Revival is being mistreated and misused because they didn’t do this to the Usos last week on SmackDown.
Raw has made me not care for Strowman to be honest and I don’t really want to see him face Lashley. Although it’s great that it’s looking like we may see a Shield match at Fastlane, it completely makes the entire Ambrose / Rollins stuff pointless.
Emma Heeley
What are they doing with the women’s division on Raw at the moment? Alexa Bliss has gone from being a spiteful, mean badass to some flirty, giggly, ‘you show me yours, I’ll show you mine’ babyface. (Still with a terrible talk show premise). Lacey Evans is still rocking her walk on/walk off gimmick. The Women’s Tag titles are getting the same level of credibility as the men’s. The Riott Squad are nothing by this point (which is an absolute travesty!) and Natalya’s gimmick is getting hurt whenever she’s alongside Ronda Rousey.
I don’t get why the WWE have such a tough time booking women? The only one holding any credence is Becky and she’s meant to be on SmackDown. I’m also annoyed nobody went through that giant birthday cake. What a waste.
Who's ready for some 🎂🎂🎂🎂?! #RAW pic.twitter.com/PH2eoO3L6p
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) February 26, 2019
JP Wood
I hate to give this to Nia Jax again… but I’m giving this to Nia Jax again. There’s something about her that I just find to be the opposite of entertaining and she didn’t change my mind last night in her match against Bayley. Every time the woman goes for a move, I cringe and wonder who’s going to get hurt next. Is it a fair judgment? I’m not sure, but I’m goin’ with it.
CRUSHED like @SashaBanksWWE & @itsBayleyWWE's #WomensTagTitles reign in 2️⃣ WEEKS at #WWEFastlane? #RAW pic.twitter.com/2xgjYG2QAc
— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) February 26, 2019
Steven Lugo
I can see this choice being debated, but I didn’t like the surprise return of Batista. It was a genuine surprise, and set up for a big WrestleMania match, but that doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do. For starters, this was Ric Flair’s birthday bash, and the whole segment was Triple H talking. I didn’t come to listen to Triple H talk; I came to see Ric do – or say – something. It was not enjoyable for me to watch an entire Raw build to see what Triple H was going to be up to at WrestleMania.
Batista did a good job in his return, but I hate to see a huge angle go to a celebrity. If you’re going to lay out Flair, at least have Becky do it. With the Charlotte connection, it seems so completely obvious.
How would you rate the show overall? (From best to worst: RawSome, Cor, AvRAWge, Poor and RawFul)
Kyle Payne
I give the show a Cor! We had good wrestling but even better segments that pushed along WrestleMania storylines. The Ronda and Becky stuff was absolutely spectacular; extremely well done. We got to see the ‘Big Dog’ return with good news and even Kurt Angle got a win. Bayley and Jax had a good match, McIntyre and Ambrose had a good match, and Bálor versus Rush was a good match.
Batista came back to kill Rick Flair and set up a match with Triple H. Overall a good show with some hiccups, like the Ambrose segment and him being saved, as well as the stuff with Strowman. Also, The Revival should not be losing.
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Emma Heeley
This week’s episode was feel-good from start to finish. Roman’s amazing remission news put the show in good spirits, and the return of Batista ended it with a bang. But sadly that’s where the problem lies. The steady week-to-week stuff is still pretty lackluster, and the fact that we are mere weeks away from WrestleMania – with only one solid storyline heading into the show – says a lot about the overall product right now. Take away the two returns from this week and what was left of the show?
With that being said, you still can’t take away the hype that the two men brought this week and I’m looking forward to see what they do next. Are we seeing another Shield reunion (fourth time’s the charm)? Is this setting up the long awaited Triple H vs Batista feud for WrestleMania? I never thought I’d say this in 2019, but I’m excited for next week’s Raw. This weeks Raw was Cor.
JP Wood
RawSome. I don’t think I’ve ever given one of these out, but this episode, as emotionally charged as it was, certainly deserves to be at the front of the pack. It wasn’t just about the emotion, the pacing was more on point in last night’s episode than it has been in recent memory. And the return of ‘Big Dave’ at the end has me excited for what’s to come.
WHAT HAS @DaveBautista DONE to @RicFlairNatrBoy?! #RAW pic.twitter.com/x3MN7Ahyyk
— WWE (@WWE) February 26, 2019
Steven Lugo
Cor. This was the best Raw I’ve seen in a while. After Roman’s return, and the hot ATL crowd, it would have been tough for things to go sour. The thing about the show was that it really moved. The three hours didn’t seem nearly that long, and compared to other episodes in recent memory, this edition seemed like some thought went into it.
I didn’t care to see the Revival (who are the champions, incidentally) take another loss, and Batista has never been my favorite, but the show had purpose and direction. I was pleasantly surprised by the Bálor versus Rush match, and Dean Ambrose was entertaining in his street fight. After all that transpired, some might find it a perfect night. I won’t go that far, but it definitely was a big night.
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