WWE is winding down their road to Clash in Italy tonight.
WWE Raw is live at 8/7c on Netflix this evening from Columbus, OH.
Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar & Oba Femi Kicks Things Off
‘WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together.’ kicks things off as always. We then shoot into the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, OH., where Paul Heyman is standing live in the middle of the ring. He kicks off this week’s show by introducing himself, as always.
Heyman says he has to get this part out of the way and says, “Welcome to Monday Night Raw.” He is here tonight to hype them on a match that needs no hype. This Sunday, the biggest rematch not just in WWE history but in all of professional wrestling… Heyman is cut off by an “Oba” chant.
Heyman says when he has a microphone in his hands, they have to shut the hell up. This Sunday, at Clash in Italy, Oba Femi steps into the ring to be conquered by Brock Lesnar. A video airs. Brock Lesnar says he didn’t get to congratulate Oba Femi on beating him at WrestleMania, but that victory will cost him more than he can imagine.
Lesnar has had his share of ass-whoopings through the years, but the one he got from Femi made him think that he’s done. That doesn’t sit well with Lesnar. It’s not going to end that way. Brock Lesnar can take an ass-whooping, but can Femi? Highlights are shown of Lesnar’s surprise return and attack on Oba Femi last week on Raw.
Femi will get his ass kicked by a humble, retired beast. Brock Lesnar will conquer Oba Femi. Lesnar says, “I am gonna rule over Oba Femi.” Heyman says the good news is that everyone watching will have a chance this Sunday to see history play out in real time in front of their very eyes.
The bad news for everyone who worships Oba Femi is that he has awakened The Beast. Heyman shouts that three times. That means one thing. Oba Femi’s music hits. “The Ruler” Oba Femi comes out to the stage and stares down at the ring. Femi then starts his strut and heads to the ring.
Femi grabs a microphone, and Heyman looks nervous. Femi intimidates him into the corner. Femi asks Heyman what he thinks Brock Lesnar has awoken in himself. What does he think four F5S have awoken in Oba Femi? Heyman begs him off and says he’s just an advocate.
Femi says he needs Heyman alive and well to tell the tale of Brock Lesnar. When he tells the story, he’ll fast forward to the end, which is Femi’s favorite part, where he retires Lesnar a second time. Heyman will tell him it’s just business and not personal, but four F5S seemed very personal to him.
While Heyman tells that story, this is the final chapter. Femi holds up the contract for their match at Clash in Italy and presses it against Heyman’s chest to sign it. Femi says the last time he fought Lesnar, he was trying to beat him. This time, he’s fighting to kill him. Femi walks off as Heyman looks terrified. The opener wraps up there.
WWE Intercontinental Championship
Penta (c) vs. Je’Von Evans
Now we see the usual show-starting Superstar arrival shots. Back inside the arena after a Saturday Night’s Main Event recap package, and we get ready for our opening contest. The WWE Intercontinental Championship will be on-the-line, as Penta defends against Je’Von Evans.
The bell sounds and off we go. Evans goes for the cutter early, Penta blocks but there’s a rana. Evans flips out of a Penta rana. Penta chops Evans, Evans & Penta both trip each other before a standoff. They do a strut before Evans dropkicks him, then gets bouncy and dives onto Penta outside.
Evans springboards into a superkick. Penta goes for the handstand dropkick in the corner and hits it for two. Evans avoids the Penta driver and hits a kick that ends Penta outside. Evans tries another dive, but this time Penta sends him into the corner of the announce table.
On that note, the show shifts gears and settles into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. When the show returns, we see things still in progress.
Evans picks up a two-count over Penta. Replays are shown of the devastating counter to the suicide dive. During the commercial, Evans hit Penta with a dive into the timekeeper’s area.
Moments before coming back, Evans hit a springboard clothesline. They trade chops, and Penta floors Evans. Evans slowly gets up and hits a Busaiku Knee, followed by the OG Cutter, but Penta kicks out.
Evans goes for a springboard head-scissor, but Penta counters with a powerbomb into a double-knee backbreaker for a near fall! Penta gets the crowd going and signals for the Mexican Destroyer. Evans superkicks Penta, knocking him to the apron.
The crowd chants, “This is awesome.” Evans grabs Penta and punches him. Evans backs up and hits an OG Cutter on the apron! Evans holds his injured back in pain before getting Penta into the ring for a cover, but Penta kicks out.
Evans gets to his feet and gets the crowd going. Evans goes for a springboard maneuver, but Penta grabs him and hits a Penta Driver for a near fall! Penta slowly heads to the top rope, but Evans cuts him off with a right hand.
Evans climbs the ropes, but Penta punches him down. Evans scales the ropes, and they’re standing there for a moment. Evans hits a wild super hurricanrana! Evans sizes him up and goes for an OG Cutter, but Penta superkicks him out of mid-air.
Penta sets up for a Mexican Destroyer, but Evans hits a Busaiku Knee! Evans goes for an OG Cutter, but Penta hits a backstabber! Penta gets to his feet and hits a Mexican Destroyer for the pin and the victory to retain his WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Winner and STILL WWE Intercontinental Champion: Penta
Logan Paul Suffers Torn Triceps
Michael Cole tells us that Logan Paul suffered a torn triceps and will be out multiple months. We see a replay of the moment of the injury. Austin Theory is backstage with Heyman, and he tries to hand him the Tag Team Championship belt since Logan is hurt.
Heyman informs him that “The Vision” are the Tag Team Champions, and Bron Breakker will be joining him. Theory hugs Heyman and Heyman tells him he did it for him. Theory wants to take out everybody involved with hurting Logan.
Heyman says that he knows what he needs to do tonight, and to whom. Man, if there was ever a group I wouldn’t want to be part of, it’s The Vision. Everybody involved in it ends up missing time due to some type of injury.
Austin Theory Attacks Joe Hendry
Joe Hendry leads the audience in “Can We Fire Logan Paul?” until Theory attacks him from behind with a steel chair. He wears Hendry out with the chair and tells him to keep his name out of his mouth. Then he smacks a kneeling Hendry in the face with the chair, which frankly seems a bit over the top.
Backstage With Seth Rollins & The Street Profits
Seth Rollins tells Angelo Dawkins he stayed out of their business on Saturday, he’s sorry and he knows how it is to deal with the Vision. They’re the most dangerous they’ve ever been, but if they come together they can finish the Vision for good.
Montez Ford says nothing good happens when Rollins is around. Rollins replies that if he was around on Saturday the Street Profits would be champions right now. They don’t have to be friends, they just need to work together a little bit.
One of them in the circle has main evented WrestleMania and has been a multi-time World Champion, and it isn’t Montez. Montez says he’s never turned his back on his brothers. Montez suggests they can wrestle tonight, and Seth is ok with that. Dawkins isn’t thrilled with any of this.
WWE Raw Live From Italy Next Monday
WWE Raw will be live during the afternoon hours from Italy next week. A Video package airs promoting El Grande Americano vs. OG El Grande Americano narrated by new AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio. We see some footage of famous mask matches from the past and clips of the Americanos fighting.
Je’Von Evans Apologizes For Losing His Cool
Backstage, Je’Von apologizes to Penta about being unprofessional out there in his brief unsportsmanlike moment after his loss in their Intercontinental title tilt at the start of the show. Penta’s cool, and says he’s proud of him and Evans says he’ll see him again real soon.
Rey appears and puts Penta’s performance as IC Champion over. Penta congratulates Rey for being the new AAA General Manager, and wants to face Rey for the IC title to help cement his legacy by facing the very best. Rey is down with that idea.
Bayley & Lyra Valkyria vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Roxanne Perez
The action returns inside the arena, where we head down to ringside for our next match of the evening. This time we’ve got women’s tag-team action on deck. After the respective ring entrances, we see The Judgment Day duo of Raquel and Roxanne attack before the bell.
Bayley and Lyra fight back. The bell finally rings and Lyra slams Roxanne. Bayley tags in for the double team, Roxanne gets smashed in the corner. Roxanne tags Raquel after hitting Lyra. Roxanne now gets worked over in the Bayley and Lyra corner.
Raquel hits a running cross-body on both of them. Raquel works Lyra’s arm. Raquel with some elbows to Lyra in the corner. Lyra with a dropkick, but Raquel hits snake eyes in the corner. Raquel distracts the referee while Roxanne gets a cheap shot in.
Raquel hits a Vader bomb elbow in the corner and on that note, the show shifts gears and settles into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. The show returns, and we see Raquel flies over the top rope, but yanks Lyra out onto the floor.
Raquel tries to drive Lyra into the ring post and they stumble into it. Bayley tags in and hits a tope suicida on Raquel. In the ring, an elbow off the second rope gets two. Bayley goes for the sunset flip, Raquel blocks with a clothesline. Roxanne tags in, gets back suplexed by Bayley.
Bayley hits that sunset flip into the turnbuckle and tags Lyra. Samoan drop and neck-breaker combo gets two, Roxanne is too close to the ropes and Liv helps her anyway. The referee ejects Liv, Bayley hits her & Raquel runs her over. Lyra jumps on Raquel.
Roxanne rolls Lyra up in the ring for two, goes for Pop Rox but gets kicked. Dom distracts the ref while Raquel attacks Bayley. Lyra ranas Raquel over the top. Dom back on the apron, he puts his AAA title in the ring. Bayley & Roxanne fight over it, Bayley lets go and Roxanne stumbles into Dom. Bayley rolls Roxanne up for the win.
Winners: Bayley & Lyra Valkyria
Latest On Road To Tribal Combat At Clash In Italy
Video footage is shown from last week of Jacob Fatu getting beat up by Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso. Raw G.M. Adam Pearce tells Roman Reigns that Jacob Fatu shouldn’t even be employed right now. Roman doesn’t want to go back to his old ways, but he needs to show the stroke they have.
As the Tribal Chief, he can’t ever back down. There need to be consequences in the contract. If Jacob loses, he has to serve him. If Roman loses, good luck, because they’re all screwed. With that said, we see “The Megastar” himself, LA Knight walking backstage. A Memorial Day video package airs as we head to a break.
LA Knight Wants A Shot At “The OTC”
The show returns and after a Bayley and Lyra Valkyria traveling the city video package wraps up, we return inside the arena. LA Knight makes his way down to the ring. It’s been a minute since he’s been here to speak to us, in fact it’s been since WrestleMania. He wants to wish us a happy Memorial Day and thank folks for their service.
He put the Vision in the rear view mirror and had the Usos standing beside him. They’ve been doing things differently lately. He throws his name in the hat for the King of the Ring tournament, which means he’ll get a shot at Roman Reigns’s World Championship.
Roman’s the most corrupt Champion he’s ever seen and is trying to stir some old things up, making Jimmy & Jey different than the Jimmy & Jey he knew. Jimmy Uso makes his way to the ring. Jimmy says he has a lot of respect for LA. They fought side by side at WrestleMania.
LA’s not a fan of them working 3 on 1 with Roman, it rubs him the wrong way. Jimmy understands why he & everybody else has issues with the Bloodline. They did what they had to do, it’s not like that anymore. Jimmy approves of LA going for the King of the Ring, and if he wins he’ll get a fair shot at Roman.
LA asks if Jimmy’s being honest with himself. LA saw what they did to Jacob last week, he says Jimmy is coming out as third fiddle and he doesn’t want Jimmy to be Roman’s errand boy. Jimmy says this is LA’s warning shot, and he’s lucky Jey isn’t here tonight. Jacob has nothing to do with LA, it’s family business.
If LA keeps disrespecting the OTC, their family will become his business. LA says Jimmy is the one he likes. Jey is ok, Roman is the one he didn’t like then and doesn’t like now. He needed Jimmy & Jey because he couldn’t get it done on his own. If the family business becomes his business, he’ll put them out of business.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Update
Backstage, we see Adam Pearce and Rey Mysterio shake hands as fellow GMs. Pearce likes the idea of Penta vs. Rey, Ethan Page interjects and says he wants a rematch.
Pearce says Page is butting into a conversation he doesn’t belong in. Rusev joins in as well and Page insists Rey is trying to jump the line on him. This leads to Rey & Rusev getting booked into a match for tonight for a future title shot.
Seth Rollins vs. Montez Ford
Back to the ring we go for our next match of the evening, which was set up earlier in the show. Angelo Dawkins is shown backstage and letting things play out per the request given to him. The fans sing Seth Rollins’ song as the match is about to get going.
The two lock up. They work around the ropes into the corner. Some shoving, Ford & Rollins run the ropes, Rollins with a shoulder block. Ford with one of his own, then a shove by Rollins. Some punches from Ford, Rollins boots him outside and hits the tope suicida.
Rollins goes for another one, Ford sends him outside and does one of his own. Both men go for a cross-body and they’re both down and out as the crowd roars in the background. On that note, the show shifts gears and settles into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues.
When the show returns, we see the match still in progress. Rollins chops Ford. Ford with one of his own. Punches exchanged. Rollins’ Pedigree is blocked, but he hits a forearm. Ford with a clothesline, misses the standing moonsault but hits the step-up enziguri. Ford lands on the apron and tries to go up top.
Rollins joins him and hits the superplex into the Falcon Arrow for two. Ford blocks the Pedigree, that turns into a series of near-falls. Ford with a kick, Rollins with one. Ford gets Rollins in a torture rack, Rollins flips out and hits a Pedigree for two. Rollins talks to Ford about working together, they want the same thing.
He’s trying to change! Ford slaps Rollins when he asks if he’s hearing him. Buckle bombs to Ford. Ford avoids the third and ranas Rollins out of the ring. Ford flies over the ring post and onto Rollins! Ford up top, Rollins joins him and gets knocked off. Big frog splash gets two for Ford.
Ford kicks Rollins from the apron, goes up top and misses a 450 splash! Rollins stomps Ford and gets the win. Theory attacks Dawkins with a chair on the stage! Dawkins is out and Pearce & the referees are out to check on him. We see a replay of Dawkins getting attacked.
Pearce talks to Ford, Rollins comes up and Ford accepts his help in future Vision-related endeavors. Ford goes to check on Dawkins, and Rollins tells Pearce that he wants Bron Breakker as soon as possible. The show moves on from there.
Winner: Seth Rollins
WWE Clash In Italy Hour 1 On ESPN
The first hour of Clash in Italy will air on ESPN, and it’ll feature Cody Rhodes vs. Gunther for the Undisputed WWE Championship and Rhea Ripley vs. Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Championship. With that said, Michael Cole and Corey Graves run down the rest of the card.
Backstage With Becky Lynch
Cathy Kelly is backstage with Becky Lynch, she notes that Becky has the upper hand now with Sol being injured. Becky says that Sol got punched in the face and realizes that she’s in over her head now.
Some might be impressed with her tricks and flips, but she hasn’t won a match fairly yet and her time is running out. Becky hopes that Sol can come around to Italy, so she can see there’s a difference between striving for greatness and being greatness.
Rey Mysterio vs. Rusev
Back to the ring we go for our next match of the evening. Ethan Page joins Cole and Graves on commentary for this one. Rusev wins the tieup, obviously. Rey with a shot to the back. Rusev chases Rey and he ends up outside the ring. Rey with a slap to Rusev.
Rey with a flying head-scissors, Rusev cuts off the 619 attempt with a back elbow. Vertical suplexes by Rusev. Rusev lifts Rey on his shoulders, Rey fights out, kicks Rusev to the floor, then sunset flips him into the barricade with vicious authority.
Rusev catches Rey on the rana attempt and flings him into said barricade. On that note, the show shifts gears and settles into a mid-match commercial break as the action continues. When the show returns, we see things begin to pick up as the crowd comes to life in the background.
Mysterio is in control of the action, but not for long. Rey is placed on the top turnbuckle. Rusev goes for the superplex, Rey blocks and hits a seated senton. A heads-cissors by Rey, he lands ten punches in the corner but Rusev walks him to the middle of the ring.
Rey avoids an Earthquake splash and hits a senton then a Lionsault for two. Rey with the bulldog, he gets caught on a crossbody and slammed down by Rusev. Machka kick gets two. Rey slides away from an Accolade attempt, then kicks Rusev in the gut.
Rusev catches Rey on the 619 attempt, then goes for the Accolade, but Rey schoolboys him for the three count. Rusev stomps Rey down until Dragon Lee’s music hits. Page runs in but gets suplexed and super-kicked. Lee hits a dive onto him on the floor. Rey hits Rusev with 6-1-9 and Lee hits Rusev with Operation Dragon.
Winner: Rey Mysterio
Backstage With The Vision & Maxxine Dupri
Pearce tells Theory to go home since his night is over. Theory says he’s a tag team champion and asks if it wasn’t enough for what happened to his friends. Heyman takes Theory away and they walk by the Alpha Academy. Otis says it smells like bad news, Maxxine says he’s just in a bad mood and walks off, leaving Otis and Tozawa.
Tribal Combat Contract Signing For Clash In Italy
It’s main event (segment) time!
But first, we see a video package looking back at the chaos involving Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi from last week’s show. Their match at Clash in Italy is promoted. We then learn that the King of the Ring and Queen of the Ring tournaments will begin next week on Raw in Italy, which kicks off live at 2/1c on Netflix.
Live inside the arena, we head to ringside again. Raw G.M. Adam Pearce is in the ring, which is filled up with a table, chairs and microphones, along with the contracts and paper work to make Roman Reigns vs. Jacob Fatu in a Tribal Combat showdown for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Clash in Italy official.
The familiar sounds of Jacob Fatu’s theme hits the house speakers and out comes “The Samoan Werewolf.” Pearce says two signatures make Tribal Combat official. Fatu takes the contract and signs it. An “OTC” chant fires up. Fatu is infuriated and throws chairs at the big security force standing in the aisleway.
Fatu then throws the table at them. The security force steps into the ring and stops Fatu from causing further damage. With that said, the familiar sounds of “The OTC” hits and the crowd erupts as WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns heads to the ring to handle his side of things.
Roman signs and the match is official. They stand across the ring from each other with 20 members of security in between them. Roman tells everyone to leave them. Pearce if Roman wants them to do their jobs. Roman says Fatu signed the contract and he cannot touch Roman until Italy.
Roman wants some acknowledging. Roman asks Fatu if he saw how simple that was. That was all you had to do. He beat him at Backlash and all you had to do was acknowledge him and they could move on to the next mission. Fatu says acknowledge him like everyone else in here? Hell Na. He ain’t like everybody else. Fatu says Roman is the reason why their family and the Bloodline is living the life they have.
He is the reason why their family is on top of the mountain. You elevated the whole family to the promised land. You could only take us so far. It is time for change, another direction, and another destination. You talk about ackowleging you and the code. Did you live by the code of the Bloodline at Backlash or did you bend the rules so you could win? You had to do what you had to do by any means necessary.
He points out how anything goes in Tribal Combat. He vows to “dog walk his ass.” Everyone will have consequences after he wins. Roman says he will talk about consequences. If you win, you become “The Head of the Table.” You lead and he follows. If you can’t dog walk him, it looks like he will be walking you like a dog.
He says he will domesticate Fatu and make him love his Tribal Chief. Fatu vows to make Reigns acknowledge him. They do the Tribal Combat hand shake to finalize things and make their showdown official for Clash in Italy. That’s how this week’s show wraps up. Thanks for joining us!