We have a RAW Women’s Championship match tonight. Sonya Deville gets the match she weaselled her way into. Randy Orton is being honoured in a 20th Anniversary Celebration. Bobby Lashley and Omos will have an arm-wrestling contest. And Becky Lynch is coming back for the first time since WrestleMania.

I’m Amanda and this is the RAW review.

Match Results

Bianca Belair def. Sonya Deville

Veer Mahaan def. Sam Smothers

Akira Tozawa & Tamina def. Reggie & Dana Brooke

Damian Priest def. Finn Balor

Mustafa Ali def. The Miz

RK-Bro, Cody Rhodes, & Ezekiel def. The Usos, Seth Rollins, & Kevin Owens

The Show

♦ Riddle opened RAW for Randy Orton’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. Superstars surrounded the ring. The career retrospective video package was great. Orton genuinely has had an incredible career. RK-Bro featured heavily, including Orton calling Riddle his friend.

Orton came out to a massive ovation. He started by saying he was born in Knoxville Tennessee, where RAW was this week. He confirmed he’s not going anywhere and talked a bit about some of the badass wrestlers he’s faced and the impact they had on his career. He’s having more fun with Riddle than he’s had in his entire career, and he stopped to give Riddle a hug and tell him he loves him. He gave the WWE Universe credit for supporting him and noted there would be no Randy Orton without fans.

Riddle said he had a surprise for Orton, someone who wanted to come out and speak to him. A second-generation superstar who said he’s Orton’s friend. Cody Rhodes. It was all smiles and hugs when Cody got to the ring, but Seth Rollins interjected from the commentary desk.

Rollins got into the ring and told Orton not to trust Rhodes because he’ll steal the spotlight. Tonight is about Randy Orton and his 20 years of career… in the past. Apparently, Orton, Rhodes, and Riddle are the past, and Rollins (who started wrestling in 2005, signed with WWE in 2010, 1st NXT Champion and main roster debut in 2012) is the future.

Ezekiel joined them to talk about his memories of Orton. Kevin Owens came in ranting and yelling about Ezekiel being Elias. Then The Usos joined the party to talk about unifying the tag titles when they beat RK-Bro at WrestleMania Backlash.

Adam Pearce arrived and made Seth Rollin, Kevin Owens, & The Usos vs Cody Rhodes, RK-Bro & Ezekiel. Owens punched Ezekiel. Orton RKO’d Owens, and that was the end of the segment.

♦ Glen Jacobs (aka Kane) was shown talking to Bianca Belair ahead of her title match. He’s the mayor and Knoxville is Belair’s hometown. Sonya Deville didn’t get a televised entrance for the match, which isn’t a great sign for her.

Bianca Belair (C) vs Sonya Deville – RAW Women’s Championship Match –  lasted about a minute. Belair threw Deville over the announce desk and Deville got counted out.

Never one to abide by a fair result, Deville insisted on restarting the match with no count-out rules. This time, she got disqualified for using a chair. Again she restarted the match, with no count-out and no DQ. As soon as the bell rang, Deville called out Carmella and Queen Zelina as a backup. They arrived as we went to a break.

Belair was fighting a three-on-one battle by the time we came back. She kicked out of a DDT onto a chair, so Vega wedged a chair in the corner for Deville to smash her into. Deville went face-first into the chair instead. Vega and Carmella were dispatched to the outside, and a K.O.D. ensured Bianca Belair retained her title.

Backstage, Deville interrupted Vega and Carmella arguing. She took the title opportunity she apparently promised them away and slapped them both. Carmella raised her hand to her and Deville reminded them she’s a WWE official and still her boss.

♦ Edge and Damian Priest are better than everyone and look down on us all from the top of their mountain. Damian Priest is going to destroy Finn Balor tonight. Edge said a lot of mean stuff about fans and other superstars alike, and suggested Styles isn’t there tonight because he’s nursing the injuries he caused last week.

Priest chipped in to say Balor’s guilt has been determined and he’s the punishment. Judgement Day has arrived.

♦ Veer Mahaan vs Sam Smothers was your standard local competitor squash with post-match extras. He went back a couple of times and put the bloke to sleep on the announce desk. Bored already.

♦ Bobby Lashley told Sarah Schreiber he’s confident about the arm-wrestling because he knows he’s stronger than Omos. But he has to be prepared if it goes beyond that because he doesn’t trust Omos or MVP.

MVP had to display his bitterness before Lashley came out. He talked about Lashley’s ego, the ego that made him forget who made him what he is, being his downfall. He predicted that Omos would rip Lashley’s hand off at the wrist after crushing it.

MVP narrated the event and his trash-talk gave Lashley the fuel required to win. He was losing until MVP said he was nothing without him. Omos beat Lashley up afterwards and MVP didn’t shut up through that either. He had Omos hitting Lashley in the ribs with the arm-wrestling table over and over. Lashley was left writhing in pain in the ring.

♦ R-Truth was the special guest referee for Reggie & Dana Brooke vs Akira Tozawa & Tamina. He set it up during a failed attempt at couples’ counselling. This storyline was cute (maybe) for a couple of weeks, but that seems like a very long time ago now. Tozawa pinned Reggie after declaring his love for Tamina as he threw himself off the top turnbuckle. 24/7 rules had been suspended for the duration of the match, but Tozawa and Truth had a go at pinning her afterwards. She screamed at Truth that she’d trusted him before she ran away.

♦ It was a sad and subdued Becky Lynch who took to the ring. She said it took three years for someone to beat her for the title and she’s avoided showing her face because she doesn’t know who she is without the title. She didn’t recognise herself without the title. She’s hit rock bottom.

She brightened up at that point and said if she’s hit rock bottom there’s nowhere to go but up. This is the start of a legendary comeback. She’s like an arrow drawn back and ready to shoot for the heavens. And once she’s beaten Belair no one will be able to stop her ever again.

And that’s when Asuka returned to RAW. She looks amazing and it’s so good to see her. She danced around then told Lynch ‘I will stop you because no one is ready for Asuka’. She flicked Lynch on the nose. Lynch missed with a punch and narrowly avoided getting caught by Asuka as she scrambled to safety.

♦ We got a Street Profits commentary on the show so far and the show to come. They do a great job and it’s a nice little backstage segment. Hey finished by making it clear they’re the first in line for the winners of the unification match.

♦ Finn Balor vs Damian Priest, with Edge, was interesting. Edge now sits on a throne, like the gimmick they had for Mei Ying over on NXT. He didn’t come to the ring with Priest, just sat on his throne on the stage under his purple lighting.

Good match. Priest only won because Edge stood up when Balor was on the top turnbuckle and Balor looked at him. He knelt for Edge when he returned to him.

♦ The Miz had Theory as his guest on Miz TV. There was a slightly snarky in places mutual appreciation society. Miz was in the middle of advising Theory everyone is jealous and that they need to earn the right to face him for the United States Championship when Mustafa Ali arrived. Ali got huge ‘Welcome Back’ chants from the crowd, and a ‘Do you still work here?’ from Miz.

Ali told Miz he didn’t need him to tell jokes, his wrestling was the only laugh he needed. He was there hoping Theory might be offering an open challenge and he could answer it. The crowd was into it. Theory said no. Ali accused him of being ‘all biceps and no balls’ and running away like his name’s The Miz. Theory said Miz would never run from a match and text Vince McMahon to set it up. Miz told Ali he’d make him wish he’d been given his walking papers (Ali asked for his release from WWE and was denied) and Ali hit him.

Mustafa Ali vs The Miz took place after the break. Corey Graves speculated on his ring shape as it’s been so long since Ali’s been seen, but that clearly wasn’t an issue. WWE should have let Ali go when he asked to go. As they didn’t, they need to have something decent for him because they’ve been wasting an incredible talent for much too long.

We saw the vicious side of The Miz in this one, and we saw an excellent comeback from Ali after the beating Miz dished out. Mustafa Ali got the win with a reversal of a figure four attempt.

Tommaso Ciampa attacked Ali on the stage. That could be an incredible feud if it’s given the time and space it inevitably won’t be.

♦ Rhea Ripley told Sarah Schreiber that she attacked Liv Morgan because she’s finally opened her eyes. When she first arrived, she became champion on her own, then she got thrown into the tag division with partners who bring her down. She’s done with that.

Liv Morgan flew at her while she was talking and they had to be dragged apart by officials.

♦ MVP told Kevin Patrick the arm-wrestling challenge wasn’t about the arm-wrestling. It was about showing Lashley he’s not All-Mighty without him. And that was just a preview because Omos has challenged Lashley to a match at Backlash.

♦ Seth Rollins interrupted Alpha Academy trying to get Kevin Owens to pay them for advice. Owens sent them away and yelled at Rollins for insulting him last week. They were still arguing when The Usos came to tell them to fall in line and get on the same page because they don’t want to end up on the Tribal Chief’s bad side.

Cody Rhodes, RK-Bro, & Ezekiel vs The Usos, Seth Rollins, & Kevin Owens was the main event of the evening. Entrances started with half an hour of the show remaining. WWE love mashing three feuds together and creating chaos, and chaos was how it started. There was a pre-match brawl once everyone had arrived, which took us into the ads.

Fun match with a lot of talent on display, but it was Randy Orton’s night so he got to be the hero. After Cody Rhodes took a ton of punishment in the first half and Riddle took a ton of punishments in the second half, Orton came in to save the day. He dealt with everyone with a little help from his friends, handed out a round of RKO’s, and pinned Jey Uso with the final RKO as Jey flew off the top turnbuckle.

A bit of a mixed episode tonight. It’s great to see Asuka and Mustafa Ali back. The hope is, of course, that they’ll be used prominently, as their talents demand. But we know there are no guarantees in WWE. Other than the comebacks and the nostalgic career retrospective stuff, it all felt a bit like treading water. What is encouraging is seeing two developing non-title feuds in the women’s division. More of that and less of the reruns and remixes, please.