A ‘Monday Night Raw’ show is broadcast from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Getty)
Monday Night Raw broadcasts live tonight from Oklahoma City, and this episode, one of the final outings prior to Money in the Bank, is looking to be quite jam-packed. Read ahead for our live coverage of the evening’s festivities, followed by a preview of the full show published earlier this afternoon.
8:00 – Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio verbally spar over who will win at Money in the Bank this weekend for about eight straight minutes, all while perched atop ladders.
A fight finally commences, only to be interrupted by…Teddy Long! He’s super excited that SmackDown is going live, but Stephanie McMahon won’t commit to giving him the showrunner gig. Stephanie announces singles matches to begin immediately: Zayn vs. Del Rio, Ambrose vs. Owens, and Cesaro vs Jericho.
8:30 – Cesaro defeats Jericho, finishing the match with a Cesaro swing after which Jericho taps out.
8:39 – Rollins vs. Reigns fight is teased in a promo video.
8:56 – Lana and Rusev enter, and Rusev prepares to take on Jack Swagger. Rusev defeats Swagger by count out after pushing him into Titus. Titus joins Swagger in going after Rusev after the match ends.
9:05 – Cena in the house! Cena asks, “Why, A.J? Why?” A.J. Styles enters, joined by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. A.J. says that John Cena is an embarrassment, and he will run circles around him. Cena says A.J. is a failure and he’s desperate. Cena asks why A.J. had to recruit the help of The Club. A.J. responds that once you lose to John Cena, you get buried; Anderson and Gallows are his insurance policy to make sure he stays above ground.
9:13 – The Club prepares to enter the ring, when suddenly The New Day enters to protect Cena. A tag team match between The Club and New Day is scheduled for later this evening.
9:22 – Enzo and Cass take on the Vaudevillains in a tag team match. The Vaudevillains win by disqualification.
9:35 – Sami Zayn fights Alberto Del Rio in a match ahead of Money in the Bank. Alberto Del Rio wins.
10:22 – Charlotte offers a slight apology to her father, Ric Flair. Natalya and Becky attempt to get Dana on their side, but Dana suddenly begins fighting Natalya. A feud breaks out, and Charlotte and Dana emerge victorious. Dana and Becky will go one-on-one on SmackDown this Thursday.
10:35 – R. Truth fights Tyler Breeze, but Fandango and Goldust enter within moments and the match ends in a no contest.
11:05 – Tag team contest between The Club and New Day ends up being a two-on-three. The Club wins. After the match, all three members of the Club team up against Kofi Kingston before John Cena steps in. Suddenly. A.J. Styles comes out of nowhere and attacks Cena yet again. Kofi Kingston takes out Styles, and Cena and New Day stand triumphant over A.J. Styles and The Club.
The biggest question ahead of June 6th’s episode is “How will John Cena respond to A.J. Styles’ shocking heel turn?” Last week, Cena returned after a four-month absence and declared that anyone who hopes to be the future of WWE must go through him first. Soon after, A.J. Styles joined up with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to attack Cena, and the entire WWE universe is anxiously waiting to hear from Styles about that decision. Though Styles appeared on SmackDown on Thursday, he still has not yet spoken about the Cena feud.
It seems like a safe bet we’ll see a promo between the two that sets up their singles match at Money in the Bank, which airs on June 19.
Another important question is, “What the heck is going on with Seth Rollins?” In a strange segment on last week’s show, we saw Rollins confront Roman Reigns ahead of their battle for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank. That confrontation, though, mostly involved Rollins silently staring at Reigns, pretending as if he was going to enter the ring, leaving, coming back, and then leaving again. Will his bizarre mind games continue tonight? Is he trolling Reigns and the WWE audience, or is something else going on here?
Speaking of Money in the Bank, we still need a seventh competitor in the titular battle. So far, we’ve got Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Chris Jericho, Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens and Alberto Del Rio, but that still leaves one slot open. Could we find out who our final ladder match participant will be on Monday Night Raw this evening? WWE only has so much time to solidify the lineup. Mid-card matches also need to be set up, so it’s likely we’ll leave tonight’s Raw with a much better picture of what this year’s Money in the Bank will look like.
Finally, could Bray Wyatt be returning this week? We don’t know for sure, but Wyatt has been posting some cryptic teases on Twitter recently, leading many to speculate we might see him pop up on Raw.
Check back in during the show for live results, highlights and commentary on the episode.