WWE Raw results and recap before Stomping Grounds: “Ladies and gentlemen, Elias.” To start off. Looks like it’s going to be one of those shows.
After inflaming the audience in typical heel form, Elias announced Baron Corbin picked him to be the special referee at Stomping Grounds this Sunday (June 23). Seth Rollins interrupted him with a steel chair to the back, then a few more to the downs Elias to drive his point home about what awaits anyone siding with Baron Corbin at Stomping Grounds.
“After everything I’ve been through with Brock Lesner, I am through playing games.” Anyone else notice turning the two heavyweight champions into partially psychos is the current formula to put them over? Kingston needs to stay the good guy, but having Rollins turn even slightly is a step in the right direction.
Throughout the show, we saw,
In an interview backstage, Corbin is informed Elias no longer wants to be the special referee in his match with Seth Rollins at Stomping Grounds, to which he says he already has “someone in mind, and I’ll announce it on a special edition of the Kevin and Sami show.”
Rollins then hit him with a chair and said, “I’d offer you a seat, but it looks like I have more work to do.”
Rollins then knocked out EC-3 when Corbin announced he was his choice on the Owens and Sami Show.
Corbin’s Ongoing Search led him to Eric Young, who, after telling Corbin he’d consider the proposition,saw Rollins and informed him he was going to turn the job down. Rollins told him to take it easy and that he’d “knows you’d never do anything to compromise out friendship.” Rollins then beat him senseless with a steel chair.
Rollins’ heel turn is almost complete when the “good” commentators are shocked by Rollins’ attacks.
Just a thought, but maybe Corbin should name himself referee?
Seth Rollins beat Daniel Bryant by pinfall
The match barely got started when Rollins hit Bryant outside the ring with a suicide dive, then was intercepted by Rowen on his second attempt, and was then claw slammed on the apron, forcing the referee to call for a disqualification.
The New Day came out to help Rollins, followed by Owens and Zayne, The Revival and the Usos.
Officials eventually came down to clear everyone away, and while Bryant and Rollins were in the ring, it was announced the match would continue with no one at ringside.
Rollins managed to escape from three of submission holds before hitting Bryant with a Step Up and the Stomp for the pinfall.
In what ended up being a decent match, we got to see what these two are capable of if they’re allowed to wrestle in a pay-per-view main event.
After the match, Corbin attacked Rollins with a chair from behind, then hit with an End of Days before holding the belt above Rollin’s prone body.
Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match to determine who faces Samoa Joe for the United States title at Stomping Grounds: Ricochet beat The Miz (pinfall), Bobby Lashley, Cesaro, Ricochet, Braun Strowman
The match was slightly delayed as Elias served as the night’s whipping boy following Rollins’ assault as he absorbed the Miz’s Skull Crushing Finale, Lashley’s spear, Cesaro’s Spin, Ricochet’s double knees to the face, and Strowman’s Running Powerslam. Is it wrong this was a hilarious start to the night?
In what was a predictable but the best match of the night, Strowman powerslammed Cesaro, then Lashley onto of Cesaro before eliminating the Swiss Cyborg by pinfall, the powerslammed Lashley for another pinfall.
After a spear from an eliminated Lashley and a Neutralizer by Cesaro, Ricochet hit with a 630 for the pin with Cesaro and Lashley helping to hold Strowman down.
Ricochet and The Miz traded figure-fours and counters before Ricochet hit with a 630 for the pinfall and overall win with Samoa Joe watching from ringside.
Samoa Joe then attacked Ricochet before Ricochet pulled the top rope down, sending Joe over the top rope, then hit with a suicide dive.
Becky Lynch and Lacey Evans exchanged pleasantries.In a promo or their upcoming match for the Raw Women’s Championship at Stomping Grounds, Lynch interrupted Evans by hitting her with her Exploder Suplex, then left the ring.
Daniel Bryant Serves Notice
After proclaiming he and Rowen are the greatest tag team champions in history, Bryant promised to help Los Angeles by exciting them by promising to destroy Seth Rollins.
That was the cue for the Viking Raiders to come out and a stare down ensued before the teams went their separate ways.
Viking Raiders beat Russ Taylor and Randy Taylor by pinfall
In another match involving jobbers (Seriously, can we please bring back Saturday afternoon wrestling shows for these matches?), it ended in the first half minute with the Viking Experience and pinfall.
Next.
Santa Truth and Carmella Chaplin
Following the Viking Raiders’ match, the camera panned the ringside audience, (The fans aren’t enjoying these matches. Go figure, right? Though they may have been put up to it) showing R-Truth dressed as Santa Clause and Carmella as Charlie Chaplin. Carmella recognized their plight and covered Truth’s face before Truth hid under the ring as the 24/7 challengers ran out.
The challengers pulled Titus O’Neil out from under the ring (maybe he hoped to ambush R-Truth?) while Truth slipped out the other side and took off into the crowd.
Shane McMahon’s Party Crashers
The Revival found Shane’s VIP room where he and Drew McIntyre were relaxing before Stomping Grounds. It isn’t long until Heath Slater crashes the party, asking for a raise. Shane denied him.
McIntyre followed Slater out of the “private party” and offered to help him with a few bucks. McIntyre dropped his money, and when Slater bent to pick it up for him, McIntyre attacked. The Revival and Shane came out to break it up so McIntyre could “save his hands for Sunday.” The Revival pocketed McIntyre’s money for themselves. Good little vultures.
To start the last hour of the show, Roman Reigns went to the ring to call Shane McMahon out to face him. Shane responded from his party on the titantron, refusing to accept his offer. McIntyre then took over and informed Reigns about what he intended to do to him at Stomping Grounds. Regins then left through the crowd to go and find McIntyre and Shane.
The Revival tried to stop him, but Reigns tossed them aside, then put McIntyre through a table before chasing Shane back to the ring. Once in the ring, Reigns hit Shane with a Superman Punch and spear before telling him to “crawl to the back and tell Drew I’m going to whup his ass on Sunday.”
6 Man Tag Team Match (2 out of 3 falls): The New Day beat Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, and Kevin Owens 2 falls to 0
The New Day came out at the end of the Kevin and Sami Show to push Kingston’s match with Ziggler and to show Owens is still a threat.
First fall:Woods rolled Zayne up for a pin as a counter to Zayne keeping him from tagging out.
Second Fall:After accidentally hitting Zayne with a right, Corbin was superkicked by Owens, which allowed Kingston to hit with an End of Days for the pinfall.
This was an okay match (though how or why it became best out of three falls remains a mystery) that brought to mind a legitimate thought: Can we please move beyond the Owens/Zayne and New Day rivalry?
Paul Heyman the Advocate is Back (Again)
Guess Brock Lesner has better things to do than show up anymore for a while.
Heyman made sure his stance as not being a special guest referee at Stomping Grounds was clear out of fear from Seth Rollins’ current unhinged attitude.
“What do the Lakers and Seth Rollins have in common? They both traded away their balls,” and, “he traded them in for a steel chair.”
This MITB story is getting a little stale. At least Heyman didn’t say “Brock Lesner” every other word this week.
The Usos beat The Good Brothers by pinfall
After a brief backstage promo where AJ Styles encouraged Gallows and Anderson to get back into the game by winning a match, they agree and got ready to face the Usos.
After dominating most of the match, Gallows and Anderson got cocky and a double superkick secured the pinfall for the Usos.
Raw Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: The Iiconics beat Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross by pinfall
To further cement her friendship, Bliss got a tag team title match with the Iiconics. She then mentioned something Bayley did on social media, but didn’t elaborate.
Later on, we found out when it was pointed out to Bayley that a social media post said she refused a picture with a young fan because she wore a Nikki Cross shirt.
“This has Alexa Bliss written all over it.”
The match was… forgettable as Cross was rolled up for a pin while Bayley and Bliss argued/fought outside.
This was meant as simply a means to enhance Bayley and Bliss’ rivalry going into Stomping Grounds and wasn’t very enjoyable. The promos had more life.
Backstage, Bliss’ efforts to make Bayley the bad guy worked as Cross said, “she crushed my dreams” and promised to be in Bliss’ corner at Stomping Grounds.
Firefly Funhouse
On a lighter Funhouse than last weeks, Bray Wyatt opened the show while gardening, and mentioned how our minds are like gardening in that “Our minds are just like gardens. And all yours needs is a little bit of water, a little sunshine, and it will make your ideas grow.”
Wyatt dove into people lying all the time and how he, “knows what it feels like to not belong. To be different,” as to why he built the Funhouse for us all to be together.
“I want you all to join us here where the fun never has to end.”
All of the puppets said, “Join us” one at a time before saying it in unison with him.
“People worship what they fear. Fear is power. Follow the leader.”
A montage at the end of previous segments with a sing-song version of “follow the leader” being repeated over and over before ending with Wyatt as the Fiend saying in a distorted voice, “Follow the leader,” before disappearing.
Final Thoughts
This was a huge step forward for Raw as we weren’t forced to sit through exposition for the first hour or so, instead, it was spread throughout the show. Hopefully, the WWE will continue along this line. If they do, we could be in for a treat going forward.
