This week’s RAW kicked off with the ‘A Moment of Bliss’ segment. Although Bliss’s guest was not from the women’s roster, it developed into how important she is to The Fiend. Her guest was Randy Orton. Last week, Orton lost his match against Aj Styles which was to move into a number one contender match. He lost because The Fiend caused the distraction and got into his mind.
Bliss welcomed him to the show and as the segment progressed, Orton said he knows exactly how he can get to The Fiend. The only way to get to The Fiend is to put Bliss in danger.
As the lights went out and then turned to red, The Fiend emerged to find Bliss in the arms of Orton. He put out his arms in an effort to get Bliss back which shows that there is some vulnerability with The Fiend. Orton would hand over Bliss and escaped the ring. As he was heading up the ramp he let The Fiend know that he got to him by exclaiming, “Who’s laughing now?”
The first out of two women’s matches of the night was a rematch between Lana & Asuka vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler. Last week, Asuka picked up the win and the makeshift team had all the confidence in the world to do it again. Prior to the match, both teams were interviewed backstage individually.
Jax and Baszler had a small spat over their loss last week. Baszler believes she did what she needed to do while Jax didn’t. Regardless of who was in the wrong last week, Baszler still was pinned by Asuka. She feels as though Lana got the best of Jax last week and feels that Lana should never get the better of anyone.
Lana & Asuka defeated Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax
Lana did just that this week. In fact, she pinned Baszler.
The underdog is finally getting some offense on the tag team champions and finding ways to outsmart them in the process. As the match gets to its conclusion, Lana gets locked in the Kirifuda Clutch. A move that normally would have made her tap out in mere seconds. She tries to tag in Asuka, but Jax pulls her off the apron to avoid the tag.
Asuka is able to break free from Jax however and rushes into the ring and delivers a running knee to Baszler. This breaks the submission hold and Lana winds up on top of her opponent as Baszler’s shoulders were on the mat. The referee counts to three and Lana wins the match for her team.
Lana and Asuka retreat up the ramp as Jax and Baszler are fuming.
The second match develops after Dana Brooke takes matters into her own hand and slaps the leader of RETRIBUTION, Mustafa Ali. During a match between Slapjack and Ricochet, Brooke shows up at ringside and delivers a slap to Ali demanding to know where Reckoning is. Two weeks ago, Reckoning attacked Brooke backstage as she was showing concern about her tag team partner, Mandy Rose. This attack took Brooke out of the Survivor Series match.
Dana Brooke defeated Reckoning
In Reckoning’s debut match on RAW, things did not go so well for this RETRIBUTION member. As the match is only mere moments into it, Reckoning’s mask came off. This obviously revealed her as Mia Yim, in case anyone hasn’t ever seen Yim before in their life.
To make matters worse, she would end up losing the match to a School Boy rollup by Brooke. Ali had jumped on the apron in hopes of distracting Brooke, but the plan backfired. After the match, Ali verbalized his frustrations at Reckoning saying that there are no failures in Retribution.
Let’s get into the Winners & Losers of the week.
WINNERS: Lana & Asuka
I am actually rather impressed with how well these two work together as a team and am thoroughly enjoying it. Lana keeps moving upward and it is a pleasant surprise they are still rolling with her climb after becoming Sole Survivor. I am also enjoying how they are clearly holding off on Lana pinning Nia. Asuka picked up the win on Shayna last week and Lana did the same this week.
If the rumored match between these two teams happens at TLC and we see Lana and Asuka becoming the tag champs, I would be down for it. Granted, I still think that The Riott Squad should be next in line.
Asuka is the best, Lana No. 1!
WINNER: Dana Brooke
Nice come back for Dana. I am glad they didn’t just drop the attack from Reckoning and continued with the storyline. Slapping Ali was a great added bonus also to bring back up the prior attack. Not sure if this will be the end of it all but to be honest it was more follow up then I expected.
LOSER: Reckoning
What a crazy debut. The funny thing is before I saw her lose her mask I was wondering if it was going to stay on throughout the match. With the way Ali made it sound, we may see Retribution losing its only female member, and perhaps Mia Yim will be back. We’ll see how this pans out.
LOSER: Shayna Baszler
As I said earlier, Nia is being protected for now. As a result, Shayna has taken back to back losses as a champion. This is rare for her. Lana pinning her was great for her but not so much for Shayna. I am a little leery about the titles going from one make-shift team to another but as I said earlier, I would be okay with it – if it happens.
What did you think of this week’s RAW? Who were your Winners & Losers? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!!
