-
raw
- First Show:
- 1993-01-11
- Start Time:
- 8 PM EST, 1 AM UK
- Channel:
- USA Network (USA), BT Sport (UK)
This week’s Monday Night Raw emanated from Columbus, Ohio and there were two championships on the line. A Women’s Battle Royal would determine the new Women’s World Champion, while the World Tag Team Titles were defended by Awesome Truth against DIY. Also on the show, Gunther returned and declared himself an entrant into The King of the Ring, New Day took on Imperiium with a twist, and Judgment Day had some communication issues. Chad Gable showed his true colors and Drew McIntyre had a serious conversation with Sheamus.
Here are your winners and losers for Raw, on April 22, 2024:
The opening of Raw was an in-ring promo featuring Jey Uso and Damian Priest. Unfortunately for Priest, Uso stood out as the star while the current champion seemed to have trouble engaging the crowd and building emotion. Priest is incredible, but early on, it appears like he’s a bit overwhelmed with the task of being the champion. Maybe with reps, he’ll find his groove. Priest was much better backstage during his segment with Judgment Day.
Uso was electric and had the fans in the palm of his hand. He’s the real deal.
Winner/Loser: DIY Turning Heel?
After a hard-fought tag team title match, Awesome Truth retained over DIY. They landed a new finisher called the Truth Crushing Finale to successfully defend their titles. The most intriguing part of the match was the end as the competitors went to shake hands but Tommaso Ciampa wanted no part of it. Is this a tease that there’s trouble brewing with DIY, or will they both turn heel?
Considering it looks like Imperium is going in a different direction, it would be odd to see WWE break up two tag teams in the same show. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell are likely going the heel route so maybe DIY will join them. Ciampa got a big round of boos when he chose not to be a good sport.
Winner: Ludwig Kaiser
Kaiser took a big turn in his singles career, taking out Giovani Vinci after Imperium lost to New Day. Gunther was watching the match and after the loss, glared at Kaiser which was likely a signal to take matters into his own hands. Gunther departed, leaving Kaiser to handle business. He did so in a major way. Kaiser played friend of Vinci until they got outside the ring and the opportunity to take out Vinci presented itself. The beating was ruthless, resulting in a “holy sh–” chant from the fans.
WWE did a call back to when Kaiser took out Kofi Kingston. They essentially reproduced the attack and Gunther smiled when Kaiser came backstage. Where this goes will be intriguing. Is Imperium going to continue without Vinci? Does everyone go their separate ways?
Winner: Sheamus and Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre came out for a promo and was quickly interrupted by his friend Sheamus. Looking like he’d lost a couple of pounds since last week when the Internet chewed up Sheamus for gaining weight, WWE and the two men in the ring used the comments to craft a smart and engaging back and forth.
Sheamus tried to appeal to McIntyre to get CM Pun and his stupid vendetta out of his head, McIntyre took a shot at Sheamus’ weight gain. Sheamus said, “I can lose the weight. You can’t lose stupid.” McIntyre said this kind of bickering wasn’t the kind of issue he wanted so he was going to hang out at ringside and have Sheamus’ back during his match with Shinsuke Nakamura.
A physical bout between Sheamus and Nakamura ended as a Brouge Kick came out of nowhere. McIntyre looked impressed.
Gable and Alpha Academy came out to the ring and Gable talked about how Sami Zayn stole his moment last week on Raw. Saying he tried to be the bigger man when Zayn beat him and Gable lost his shot at the belt, it was the rubbing it in that Gable didn’t appreciate. Celebrating with his family while Gable watched on, Zayn knew that was Gable’s moment and that he should have been more courteous after Gable trained him to a victory. Gable then said he shouldn’t have had to train such a loser and it should have been himself at WrestleMania versus Gunther. In fact, he shouldn’t have to train all of the losers he does, speaking about his Academy students.
Gable then went through each member of the group and tore them down. Saying it was time the group focused on Gable getting title no matter what, he made the group swear their allegiance. When they did, he walked out on them.
And with that, we know the new direction Gable is going to go in. He’s going to treat his friends like garbage until they eventually leave or he dumps them. For the first promo since his heel turn, this was solid. It was easy to feel sorry for Alpha Academy which means Gable did his job well.
Winner: Andrade and Ricochet vs. Escobar and McDonagh
There might not have been a ton of hype for this match, but it was solid. All four of these competitors know how to work and their chemistry was excellent. It was Ricochet and Andrade who picked up the win when McDonagh accidentally hit a Hurricanrana into his own partner. Andrade hit his shadow finisher for the win.
Winner: Becky Lynch
The main event was the Women’s World Championship Battle Royal. Becky Lynch took home the win when she was one of the final three in the ring with Liv Morgan and Nia Jax. Jax looked dominant for much of the match and Lynch looked like she’d been taken out of the action when put through a table on the outside.
Morgan and Lynch fought back as a tandem to eliminate Jax. Lynch and Morgan then fought on the apron, Lynch hitting a Manhandle Slam to win the match. Lynch is the new Women’s World Champion!
