27th March 2017

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Raw Women’s Champion Bayley & Sasha Banks def. Charlotte Flair & Nia Jax



PHILADELPHIA — Man, Bayley could use a hug right now, or at least a win. The Raw Women’s Champion came to the final Monday before WrestleMania in about as dire straits as she could have been in after suffering consecutive defeats to Sasha Banks and Nia Jax, each of which earned those victors a place in what is now a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match for Bayley’s title on Sunday.

The good news, however, is that The Huggable One still has a leg up on Charlotte Flair.

In a tag team match that united Bayley and Sasha against Charlotte and Nia, the champion got a much-needed victory over her most dogged opponent, administering a Bayley-to-Belly after Sasha (who, for what it’s worth, Charlotte accused before the match of using Bayley to get herself back in the title picture) helped free her from the confines of the Figure-Four Leglock.

Though Bayley got the final count, Nia got the last word, laying out all three women before posing with the Raw Women’s Title — or, as it may be known on Sunday, her Raw Women’s Title.

Austin Aries def. Noam Dar



In six days, Austin Aries and Neville will both make their WrestleMania debuts, with Neville’s WWE Cruiserweight Title at stake. Aries, at least, will go into The Show of Shows with a full head of steam — literally.

He barreled into Noam Dar with a running dropkick to the face only seconds into their match on Raw and didn’t let up.

Despite a solid distraction from Alicia Fooooooox that set Dar up for a rollup pin, Aries kicked out of the pin attempt and blasted Dar with an elbow and the Discus Five-arm.

Then, with Neville watching from commentary, Aries provided the cherry on top: the Last Chancery submission hold, to which Dar tapped almost instantly.

Seth Rollins signed Triple H’s Hold Harmless Agreement



Seth Rollins has put pen to paper, and all bets are off — and that might not be as good news as Triple H thought it would be.

The King of Kings had intended The Architect to sign his own doom when he ratified The Game's Hold Harmless Agreement, as it would give Triple H free reign to brutalize his former protégé in a Non-Sanctioned Match at WrestleMania without fear of legal repercussions.

But what he didn’t take into account was that, by signing The Game’s document, The Architect gave himself the ability to reclaim the identity he sacrificed to align with Triple H in the first place, which is as powerful a motivation as any Superstar has ever had going into The Showcase of the Immortals.

And judging by the way Rollins withstood The Game’s subsequent sneak attack on his injured knee, there’s a chance Seth Freakin’ Rollins might just survive The King of Kings’ onslaught and get the payback he’s been angling for.

Triple H seemed somewhat unnerved when Rollins sent him running, but he really shouldn’t have been surprised: He’s the one who taught Rollins that there’s always a Plan B.

An Over-the-Top-Rope Challenge descended into chaos



Jinder Mahal’s looking pretty cut up these days, but does he have the strength to toss Big Show over the top rope? On his own, not necessarily — The Man Who Comes In Peace tried with all his might, but was unable to topple the giant in an Over-the-Top-Rope Challenge.

But the combined strength of subsequent challengers Mahal, Bo Dallas, Curtis Axel and The Shining Stars was enough to send The World’s Largest Athlete tumbling over the ropes.

Of course, Show was quick to return to the ring and destroy everyone who ganged up on him … at least until the arrival of Braun Strowman suddenly threw a wrench into the giant’s victory lap.

But The Monster Among Men assured Show he wouldn’t be throwing hands just yet. He’d wait to do that until Sunday in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville def. Gentleman Jack Gallagher



Neville is indeed The King of the Cruiserweights, but Gentleman Jack Gallagher undeniably gave the WWE Cruiserweight Champion one of the toughest tests of his title reign — twice, now.

Granted, this week’s Neville-Gallagher clash was non-title, but Austin Aries was hopefully taking notes at the way the British brawler exposed whatever weaknesses The King of the Cruiserweights has.

Actually, Aries was definitely taking notes at the conclusion — Neville defeated Gallagher with a superplex floated over into the Rings of Saturn — because immediately after, he conducted an impromptu interview on “AANN” (The Austin Aries News Network) with The New Day asking who they thought would win the WWE Cruiserweight Title Match at WrestleMania.

After Aries displayed that he possessed the ability to do the New Day hip swivel, they cast their unanimous vote in A-Double's favor.
The people have spoken.

The Undertaker confronted Roman Reigns



At WrestleMania, The Undertaker and Roman Reigns will clash to determine which Superstar can lay claim to the “yard” The Deadman has held dominion over for almost 30 years.

And, for all Roman’s bravado and insistence he would do no less than "put The Undertaker down" in six days’ time, Undertaker may still possess a slight edge.

During The Big Dog’s final address before WrestleMania, The Last Outlaw appeared on the TitanTron in front of a freshly dug grave, with Reigns’ name chiseled on the accompanying tombstone.

The lights then went out in the arena and when they came back up, The Deadman was face-to-face with his foe, just in time to promise that Reigns would, indeed, rest in peace.

Raw Tag Team Champions Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass never happened



The Raw Tag Team division has been something of a demolition derby lately, so it’s only fitting that the three teams battling for the titles at WrestleMania brought some steel into the equation.

After attacking Cesaro & Sheamus with several implements — a ladder chief among them — earlier in the evening, reigning champions Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson found themselves on the receiving end of reciprocity before their non-title bout with Enzo Amore & Big Cass.

The King of Swing and Celtic Warrior crashed the match before the bell, blasting the good brothers with a ladder of their own.

The attack kicked off a massive brawl that ended, somehow, with Gallows & Anderson using the ladder to reclaim the advantage and leave all their No. 1 contenders down.
Too sweet indeed.

Sami Zayn def. Kevin Owens to earn his way into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal



If you thought Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon’s vendetta against Mick Foley devotee Sami Zayn ended with him getting choked out by Samoa Joe, you were sorely mistaken.

Not only did she put The Underdog from the Underground into a No Disqualification Match against Kevin Owens when he tried to declare for the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, she attached a dire stipulation to it: If Zayn won, he’d be in the Battle Royal; if he lost, he’d be fired.

Good news, though: The No Disqualification rule meant Chris Jericho was free to save Zayn at the moment of truth, thwarting an attempted interference from Joe and allowing Zayn to roll up KO for the win.

Owens received no quarter after the match, either. The Prizefighter was swarmed by the U.S. Champion and sent running. Moments later, Owens received the ultimate, crushing declaration of war before his and Jericho's title match at WrestleMania: a long-awaited spot on the resurrected List of Jericho.

Universal Champion Goldberg confronted Brock Lesnar



According to Paul Heyman’s Theory of WrestleMania Relativity, WrestleMania's Universal Title Match will end in one simple solution: F-5 = Lesnar goes up, down goes Goldberg.

But when The Advocate unveiled that theorem a couple of weeks ago, Goldberg wasn’t around to provide any evidence to the contrary.

That changed on the final Raw before WrestleMania.

Moments after Heyman insisted that challenger Brock Lesnar did not “fear the Spear,” renamed WrestleMania “Death of a Superhero” and declared Goldberg would not “survive the F-5,” the Universal Champion came to the ramp, challenged Lesnar to brawl and speared him to the ground.

To paraphrase Heyman: Down goes Lesnar.