Days before WWE touches down in Perth, Australia, for the Crown Jewel premium live event (PLE) on Saturday (8 a.m. ET, ESPN Unlimited), “Raw” created new questions about the state and future of the World Heavyweight Championship. Three wrestlers — Jey Uso, CM Punk and LA Knight — are not-so-patiently waiting for a title shot, while the current champion, Seth Rollins, is focused on bringing home Crown Jewel hardware against a man he has yet to beat in WWE, Cody Rhodes.
Monday’s ‘Raw’ results
• Maxxine Dupri def. Becky Lynch by countout
• Roxanne Perez def. Lyra Valkyria
• Kairi Sane def. Iyo Sky
• Penta, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee def. Dominik Mystero, JD McDonagh and Finn Balor
• CM Punk and LA Knight def. The Usos
There’s a logjam topping the list of World Championship challengers, and we love it
When Punk, Knight and Uso all jumped into the ring and began arguing over who is most deserving of the next shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, the importance of the championship was instantly elevated. Rollins wasn’t even in the ring, as the three top-tier superstars jousted verbally over what seemed to be the most important thing to all of them.
Later, the tag team main event between Punk and Knight vs. Jey and Jimmy Uso reminded everyone that there is beef at every corner in WWE. It’s like the Spiderman pointing meme.
The match between Rollins and Rhodes at Crown Jewel has all the makings to be highly entertaining, but we know that both champions have their own paths following the event. (For Rollins, it involves a minimum of three forks in the road.) So it will be fun to see how the title picture beyond those two shakes out post-Crown Jewel.
More ‘Raw’ takeaways
• “Raw” set up an Australian Street Fight match at Crown Jewel between Roman Reigns and Bronson Reed. What are the differences between an Australian Street Fight and other WWE street fights? We’re not sure. It seems like the rules are very close to the same.
• Lynch vs. Dupri was a fun match with a creative finish that saw Lynch lose track and get counted out by a referee’s 10-count that escalated in speed (particularly at 8, 9, 10). Lynch brought it back up later, calling referee Jessika Carr “crooked.”
• Bayley, who was in Valkyria’s corner for her match with Perez, continued to show the duality of her persona, bringing out her aggressive, mean side minutes after being the charming, huggy version with Valkyria. This storyline feels like an implosion waiting to happen, and Valkyria will be the eventual victim, but not before Bayley and Valkyria team up for a tag match with Perez and Raquel Rodriguez, who Bayley and Valkyria jumped backstage.
• Rollins pressed his manager, Paul Heyman, on what Heyman’s next move would be, should Rollins lose to Rhodes again at Crown Jewel. To which Heyman responded “I would have to ask myself why I picked you over Roman Reigns.” Whether Rollins uses that as motivation or it becomes a crack in The Vision’s armor, so much of the focus of this match has been on Rollins’ self doubt and need to win, which makes the possibility of him losing again even more interesting.
• At the end of last week’s “Raw,” it seemed we might be seeing the reformation of the original Bloodline, but this week cast doubt on that notion, with Roman Reigns, Jey and Jimmy Uso simply unable to get on the same page.
• After Styles picked up the pin for his team in the six-man tag match, he grabbed the mic, jumped on the announcers’ table and said the story for his upcoming match with John Cena at Crown Jewel “writes itself,” and I agree. All I really want out of the remainder of the Cena retirement tour is a few fun matches and a stunt cast here and there.
