We have quite the Monday Night Raw in store for us tonight on the first episode following Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Read on for live updates throughout the show, and read on for a full preview of the evening written earlier today.
8:00 – In a cold open, Dean Ambrose arrives in a yellow cab, very nearly forgetting his WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt in the backseat.
8:02 – Ambrose enters. Crowd chants “You deserve this!” He begins speaking about winning Money in the Bank, saying Seth Rollins was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Roman Reigns enters to massive boos. Reigns tells Ambrose he’s happy for him, but asks how it felt to cash in on Seth. Ambrose says he would have cashed in on Reigns, too.
Reigns says he plans to have a rematch with Ambrose, and Seth Rollins immediately enters and objects. Rollins tells Reigns to get in the back of the line because he won the title fair and square, but Ambrose stole it. Shane McMahon enters and congratulates Ambrose; he also says Rollins and Reigns will have a match to determine who gets to challenge Ambrose, and they’ll have the match tonight!
8:23 – Sami Zayn defeats Kevin Owens, but they continue to brawl after the match ends. After the commercial break, they are still fighting backstage.
8:40 – John Laurinaitis enters, throwing his hat in the ring to run SmackDown when it goes live. Shane McMahon says they want someone who represents the “new era” instead. He is, of course, talking about himself.
8:44 – Enzo and Cass enter and immediately start making fun of John Laurinaitis, calling him Johnny Laryngitis. Oh, and he’s SAWFT.
8:50 – Enzo and Cass defeat the Vaudevillains.
8:59 – A.J. Styles enters. Says he should be happy that he beat Cena, but the match was tainted by The Club’s interference. He needs a public apology from Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Gallows and Anderson enter and say they were just trying to help. Both apologize to him, and Styles says he wants them to apologize to John Cena as well.
John Cena enters. He says he A.J. Styles broke the contract. Anderson and Gallows apologize but say they’re the ones who interfered and they didn’t sign the contract. Styles says Cena can fight any member of the Club tonight…except for him. Cena says it doesn’t matter who he picks because the other two will just interfere anyway. Styles picks for him: it will be Karl Anderson vs. John Cena one on one.
9:17 – John Cena fights Karl Anderson. As predicted, A.J. Styles and Luke Gallows interfere, and Cena wins by disqualification.
9:31 – Backstage, Natalya attacks Becky Lynch…again.
9:33 – Baron Corbin defeats Zack Ryder.
9:45 – Backstage, Paige trash talks Dana Brooke and Charlotte ahead of their fight.
10:01 – Charlotte defeats Paige, retaining the WWE Women’s Championship belt. Dana Brooke and Charlotte celebrate as the match ends. Suddenly, Sasha Banks enters and clobbers Dana right in the face. In the ring, she fights Brooke and Charlotte before Paige returns and the two raise Charlotte’s belt together.
10:05 – Bray Wyatt returns! The Wyatt family enters. Bray says he and the family are as strong as ever. New Day enters. They say they work on the power of positivity whereas the Wyatts are too negative. Bray ominously tells them that New Day will fall.
10:19 – Rusev prepares to fight Titus O’Neil. O’Neil is pissed at how Rusev treated him and his kids at Money in the Bank. They begin to brawl before the match even starts, and Rusev retreats backstage.
10:32 – Chris Jericho confronts Shane McMahon, saying he has it out for him. Also says he is allowing a barbarian, Chris Jericho, to be the WWE champion when he should be suspended.
10:41 – Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins match begins, with Dean Ambrose sitting in on commentary. Match ends with no winner after both Rollins and Reigns are counted out. Shane enters and says they need a winner, but Ambrose says he can fight both of them in the same night. Shane counters by saying Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose will all fight in a triple threat match during Battleground 2016.
Tonight on Raw, we have a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and it’s not either of the people we expected. After Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns in the title match last night, Dean Ambrose cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, beat Rollins, and emerged victorious. Within the span of a few minutes, all three former Shield members held the title, a fact which the three will surely discuss this evening.
There’s also a lot to cover when it comes to the feud between John Cena and A.J. Styles. Cena had been saying on Raw that the result of that match could determine whether he has a place in the new era of WWE, and as we all know, Styles defeated Cena on Money in the Bank with the help of The Club. What is the status of John Cena post-Money in the Bank? How does A.J. Styles feel about his friends intervening in the match?
Plus, we can also look forward to seeing heel Natalya, and WWE.com‘s official preview suggests another iconic figure from SmackDown history might return. Who could that be?
We’ll find out this evening when Monday Night Raw airs at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on the USA Network.