Just the two matches on the preview for tonight’s RAW. AJ Styles faces Damian Priest. And Cody Rhodes has his first match on RAW since his return, against The Miz. Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan’s tag title shot was supposed to be tonight as well, but it’s not on the preview.
I’m Amanda and this is the RAW review.
Match Results
Veer Mahaan def. Dominik Mysterio
Dominik Priest vs AJ Styles – No Contest
Cody Rhodes def. The Miz
Naomi def. Liv Morgan
Bianca Belair def. Queen Zelina
RK-Bro def. Alpha Academy
The Usos def. Street Profits

The Show
♦ After the opening montage of Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, with Cody’s promo from last week and a few clips of Dusty Rhodes mingled in as well, The Miz opened the show with Miz TV.
Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler joined Jimmy Smith and Byron Saxton on commentary because Corey Graves is on honeymoon
Cody Rhodes was, of course, Miz’ guest as well as his opponent for the evening. He’s still got the Wrestling has more than one royal family theme, so maybe he’s keeping it. The RAW crowd was exceedingly happy to see him.
Miz accused him of breaking the pyro budget, taking too long to pose for the crowd, and trying to upstage him on his own show. Cody played to the crowd a bit more than let him begin. Miz’ first shot was to say that without his last name, Cody wouldn’t be the grandson of a plumber, he’d just be a plumber.
Cody said Miz was full of shit and hadn’t changed a bit while he’d been away. He’s the same arrogant, obnoxious, full-blown carny. And the fact he embraces it so bravely makes him reliable. Good old reliable Mike. He asked if he looks the same as he did? Everything he’s done has given him clarity about what he needs to do. And what he needs to do is win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship belt.
Miz corrected him, it’s a title, a belt holds up your pants. And while they’re lofty goals, anyone who could beat Seth Rollins at WrestleMania deserves to be in title contention, Seth Rollins wants a rematch and this time there’ll be no element of surprise. Miz doesn’t fancy Cody’s chances, and he doesn’t like his chances tonight either.
Unsurprisingly, Miz is jealous that Cody’s return got all the WrestleMania news space. He yelled at Cody, yelled at the crowd, then yelled at Cody again. Cody told him he respects him and all his accomplishments, but suggested Miz feels threatened by him. He’ll be happy to give Seth Rollins a rematch, but Miz is making things personal.
Miz corrected Cody’s use of the word “wrestlers” to “superstars”. Cody kept it classy and tossed Miz out of the ring when he tried for the inevitable end of the segment sneak attack.

♦ Dominik Mysterio vs Veer Mahaan was a really odd choice by Dominik considering Veer effortless crushed him and his father on his arrival at RAW last week. Unusually, Dominik was alone for the match as well. I say match, it was just a bad time for Dominik ending in his total destruction on the outside before being thrown back into the ring and made to submit.
Veer put the submission back on Mysterio after the match and it took four officials to drag him off. They had to drag him away twice, and it took much longer the first time. Veer passed a medical crew running to the ring with a backboard for Dominik as he left the arena.
Kevin Patrick asked Veer why he did that. He said he strikes fear into the heart of any man, then we got to watch Dominik Mysterio being loaded into an ambulance.

♦ Earlier today, AJ Styles told Sarah Schreiber he’s afraid of what Edge and Damian Priest are going to make him do to them. They talked about his family, and when you do that he has to throw hands. Priest wandered into view at that point and Styles attacked him. They had to be dragged apart.
Before the match, Priest said he pledged his loyalty to Edge last week, and this week he gets to prove why he deserves to be by his side.
Styles started AJ Styles vs Damian Priest, just as mad as he was backstage. The anger carried him through the first part of the match and he ended up retrieving Priest from the timekeeper’s area to bounce his head off the announce desk. After breaking the count, he took him down with a dive for the ad break.
By the time we got back, Priest was in control and Styles was bleeding from his forehead. Great match, which got weird when Damian Priest involved the blacklight heading into a second break.
The match was over when we came back and AJ Styles was ranting in the backstage interview area at Sarah Schreiber. What a weird non-ending. Very unsatisfying.

♦ The Miz vs Cody Rhodes took place at the start of the second hour. Was there a competing sporting event WWE were hoping to stop people turning over for? Seth Rollins sat by commentary but didn’t speak, and Miz tried to use his arrival to take advantage, but Rhodes was wise to that.
Fun match. Seth Rollins enjoyed it too. We know that because about one in twenty of the three thousand camera cuts during the ten-minute match were to see his reaction. Cody Rhodes won with Cross Rhodes. As if there could have been any other result.
Post-match, Seth Rollins joined him in the ring to say Cody had every advantage going into WrestleMania, but now he can see what he’s working with. He officially challenged him to a rematch and Cody immediately accepted.

♦ Ezekiel interrupted Tommaso Ciampa’s welcome interview, closely followed by Kevin Owens still insisting Ezekiel is Elias (he’s right, to be fair). Tommaso Ciampa confirmed that was Ezekiel, Elias’ younger brother, and Owens stormed off in a rage.
Anyway, Tommaso Ciampa is officially a member of the RAW roster.
♦ Liv Morgan vs Naomi, with Sasha Banks, took place because Morgan beat Banks on SmackDown. There was some mention from Jerry Lawler about Ripley being “in protocol” so she’s either sick or injured, which explains her absence and the delay in the title match.
Entertaining match. Much too short. Naomi got the pin during an exchange of attempted rollups.

♦ Bobby Lashley crashed the VIP Lounge before MVP and Omos arrived. He talked about how last week should have been a celebration, but he was stabbed in the back by the one man he thought he could trust, MVP.
He demanded MVP come and give him an explanation, but it took threatening to destroy the set to make him come to the stage with Omos. After some back and forth, the explanation turned out to be bitterness. MVP picked Lashley up when he was floundering and made him a star. He was the one who made him All-Mighty. And Lashley decided he didn’t need him anymore and didn’t want to share his WrestleMania spotlight.
Lashley accused him of latching on to another meal ticket. MVP took some time to hype to his next one. Lashley warned him he was coming for him after he’s chopped Omos down like he did at WrestleMania, then he destroyed the VIP Lounge set.

♦ R-Truth told Reggie off for leaving Dana Brooke alone with the 24/7 title at her and Tamina’s double bachelorette party, while he and Akira Tozawa had a double stag. Once he’d finished lecturing him, they went off to crash the party.
♦ Austin Theory has lost his first name and is now just Theory. Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville informed him he has a United States Championship match next week. Once he’d gone, Kevin Owens hassled them about Ezekiel and Deville somehow told him he could give Ezekiel a lie detector test next week.
At the end of the segment, Deville revealed she’d got the details of Bianca Belair’s first championship opponent and left to tell her in the ring.
Bianca Belair was already in the ring for Bianca Belair vs Queen Zelina. Vega is celebrating ridding herself of Carmella and thinks she’s going to be the next RAW women’s champion. A ridiculously short match that finished with a K.O.D. as expected. Sonya Deville made her entrance clipboard in hand, complete with her own theme, after the match.
Deville talked about there being “so many” women looking for a match with her, but she named all the viable contenders and while they’re all great, the division has the depth of a puddle. Belair said she’d take on anyone happily, so Deville gave her an open contract and got Belair to sign without knowing who her opponent would be. She gave them a big introduction, then attacked Belair from behind while she was waiting.
In case it wasn’t obvious before, Deville told Belair her next opponent was her and signed the contract. Adam Pearce arrived, furious, but Deville left with her signed contract in hand.
Backstage, Pearce told her off for abusing her power. She told him she was going to be the first WWE official to answer an open challenge and she was going to shock the world. There’s nothing he can do to stop her because she’s made it official, and he should stop being jealous that she’s still in her prime.

♦ Dana Brooke and Tamina agreed to a truce on the 24/7 title until after their honeymoons. Angel and Humberto were the first to crash the bachelorette, followed by Nikki A.S.H. trying to win the title and the 24/7 chasing pack. R-Truth gave everyone a pep talk about love and demanded everyone stop attacking Brooke until after he’s performed the double wedding next week.
♦ Chad Gable went through his boasting and some WrestleMania excuses on his way to the ring for RK-Bro vs Alpha Academy (non-title match). It was a good match. It should be a good match because they’ve fought each other five hundred and seventy-three times in the last two months. Much like the women’s division, the tag division also has the depth of a puddle thanks to WWE breaking up teams and releasing people for fun over the last couple of years.
The RAW Tag Team Champions won this one. Randy Orton delivered the RKO to Gable while Riddle stopped Otis from getting into the ring to break it up.

The Usos were shown arriving in the parking garage on the big screen. They made their way to the ring after a break and challenged them to a title unification match.
Street Profits arrived before Riddle and Orton could answer to remind everyone they’re next in line for a title shot. They promised The Usos a unification match once they’d won the titles, then argued until Randy Orton suggested they shut up and fight.
Orton apparently makes matches now, because The Usos vs Street Profits started after a break. I love good tag team matches and there is a solid argument that The Usos will eventually go down in the record books as one of the best teams ever to do it. Street Profits are right on form as well. But the real winners in this one were RK-Bro, who sat at ringside watching their next two opponents weaken each other.
The Usos threw Dawkins at Riddle and Orton heading into the final break, but they stopped paying attention to Montez Ford as they taunted RK-Bro, and got taken down with a huge dive. Riddle watches matches at ringside like a kid who’s had too much sugar. It’s oddly sweet. He had a lot to get excited about too because this one was great and the near falls were edge-of-your-seat tense.
The Usos got the eventual win, but they made Street Profits look incredible on the way there.
The unification match was agreed with The Usos and RK-Bro raising their titles at each other in the centre of the ring. Dawkins approached Riddle from behind while they were watching Jimmy and Jey leave. Riddle went for the RKO but he and Dawkins tumbled over the ropes. Orton RKO’d Ford then took twin superkicks for The Usos could pose out the show with both sets of titles.

Next week we’ve got two titles on the line. Finn Balor defends the United States Championship against Theory, and Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan get their postponed match against Sasha Banks & Naomi.
My slightly nauseated closer this week is a direct plea to whoever is responsible for WWE’s godawful camerawork. Please, please, please stick with one camera shot for longer than three seconds. It should not be a requirement to take anti-motion sickness prior to watching RAW on a Monday.