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Credit: WWE.com
Sunday’s Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view gave fans plenty to talk about, including the apparent murder of Bray Wyatt by Randy Orton.
During their Firefly Inferno match, The Viper set The Fiend’s entire body on fire in the middle of the ring. It brought back memories of The Undertaker being burned in his coffin, but this time, we saw the body go up in flames.
We also saw Charlotte Flair return to help Asuka win the Women’s Couples Championships and The Hurt Business defeated The New Day to become the new Raw Couples Champions.
This week’s Raw dealt with all the fallout from Sunday’s show and also set up The Royal Rumble on January 26. Let’s take a look at everything that happened on Monday’s episode.
February 1
Raw opened with Charlotte stepping out to give her first promotion since returning Sunday night to help Asuka win the Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler Women’s Couples Championships. She talked about being at the Thunderdome for the first time and entering as a champion. She said all a friend has to do is ask her for help and that’s what Asuka did. She introduces The Empress of Tomorrow as her friend and companion.
Asuka boasted of being a double champion. Charlotte appeared to be on the verge of asking for a Raw women’s title shot before Jax and Baszler interrupted them. After some trash talk, Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke dated. They said they wanted a women’s tag team title shot, but Charlotte suggests that the two teams face off as she and Asuka watch. Apparently The Queen has backup power because a referee showed up.
The game got under way after the break. Rose and Baszler started with their teams. Surprisingly, Rose took the MMA fighter down a couple of times and cornered her with a few shoves to the shoulder. They brought in Brooke and Rose and the former bodybuilder took down The Irresistible Force with a scissor takeover. Brooke and Rose pulled both women out of the apron with a double shoulder strap.
After another commercial lull, Brooke hit Jax with a series of forearms. Baszler accompanied her and knocked her down with a shot to the body. He worked on Brooke’s leg. The Golden Goddess did some punches and a suplex as she returned. Brooke stood up and tapped round for a count of two. The match ended when Baszler earned the submission victory over Brooke.
Grade: C-
Analysis
The initial promotions were awkward and poorly written, especially when it came to the weak insults from Brooke and Rose.
The match that followed wasn’t bad and actually exceeded expectations, but it still shouldn’t have occupied the first three segments of the show.
Rose and Brooke looked better than in other recent fights, but they still have work to do when it comes to building chemistry and finding good double-team spots. This would have been better in the middle of the show.
After such a strong pay-per-view, WWE should have opened up with someone like McIntyre or Orton to capitalize on the attention their matches received.
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Angel Garza gave a quick backstage interview before heading to face Drew Gulak. They closed and Garza landed the first shots before Gulak planted him with a side strike.
Garza tried to apply a submission, but Gulak turned him around. Latino Lotario broke free and threw a hip shot for a count of two. Gulak responded with a few punches but ran into a boot to the face.
Garza nailed it with a superkick before hitting the Wing Clipper for the win.
Grade: C +
Analysis
This was a solid match, but it was too short to be anything special. It looks like these two could have put on quite a show if they had been given 10 minutes.
Good to see Garza finally being used again on television. He’s still chasing a mystery woman, so we’ll have to wait and see if WWE follows up with something interesting.
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