The Raw Tag Team titles will be on the line on next Monday’s go-home show.
Raw Tag Team Champions The B-Team defending against The Revival and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt in a triple threat match has been announced for the last episode of Raw before SummerSlam. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas faced The Revival in a non-title match tonight, but Hardy & Wyatt interrupted it and attacked both teams for the double disqualification.
On last week’s show, The Revival interrupted a segment between The B-Team and Hardy & Wyatt. That led to them defeating Hardy & Wyatt with the Shatter Machine.
Axel & Dallas were repackaged after The Miz moved to SmackDown in this year’s Superstar Shakeup. They won the titles from Hardy & Wyatt at Extreme Rules last month and also defeated them in a rematch on TV.
Next week’s Raw is taking place at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Two tag team matches have been announced for tonight’s episode of Raw.
In a video on Instagram yesterday, Kurt Angle announced The B-Team vs. The Revival and Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. The Riott Squad for the show. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas vs. The Revival appears to be a non-title match.
Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder interrupted a segment between The B-Team and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt on last week’s show, which led to The Revival defeating Hardy & Wyatt. The Revival have been positioned as the strongest challengers for The B-Team’s Raw Tag Team titles.
Wilder tweeted about the matchup yesterday: “The Revival vs The B Team tomorrow night on Raw. We’re not second generation superstars. We weren’t guaranteed anything since birth. But someone let B Team know that we’re the best tag going and we’ll always bring our ‘A’ game.”
Banks & Bayley vs. Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan is a rematch from last week. Banks & Bayley won the first meeting after hitting a backstabber into a Bayley-to-Belly suplex on Morgan.
Tonight’s show from Jacksonville, Florida is being built around Ronda Rousey making her Raw in-ring debut against Alicia Fox. Bobby Roode vs. Mojo Rawley is also set.
The Big Takeaway: No Way Jose got the win against Curt Hawkins, taking Hawkins’ losing streak to 0-209. Mike Kanellis teamed up with The Revival against Chad Gable, Heath Slater & Rhyno in an attempt to get himself his first victory since moving to the Raw roster.
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No Way Jose defeated Curt Hawkins (5:27)
Hawkins not only lost again this week, but he was put through a table at the Buffalo Bills training facility. The vocal New York Jets fan did a training session alongside Titus O’Neil and Finn Balor. O’Neil joked on Twitter that Hawkins had started a “Jets” chant and it hadn’t gone down too well.
No Way Jose’s stuttering start to his main roster career continued here. The singing and dancing conga line gimmick would work fine if we hadn’t seen Adam Rose use it in virtually the same way in recent memory. But Jose and Hawkins worked fine together on this show.
Jose hit a crossbody on Hawkins and covered him for two. Hawkins then elbowed Jose in the face and hit a back suplex for a two count. Hawkins charged at Jose, looking for the spear, but Jose had it scouted and hit the pop-up punch for the win.
The Revival & Mike Kanellis defeated Chad Gable, Heath Slater & Rhyno (4:04)
The story of this one was told by Nigel McGuinness on commentary as they made their entrances. He noted that Kanellis had been winless since the Superstar Shakeup and was looking to use The Revival to get him a much-needed confidence boost. With this in mind, it became much more of a squash match than it ought to have been.
Gable got some early stuff in here but was otherwise largely anonymous. The babyfaces got some heat towards the end, with Rhyno hitting a belly-to-belly suplex on Dash Wilder and following it up with a spinebuster on Scott Dawson. Kanellis broke up the pin and then Slater hit a spin kick on Kanellis to send him outside.
The finish started when Wilder sent Slater out and Rhyno sent Wilder, but Wilder only landed on the apron. So Wilder blind-tagged in just as Rhyno was whipping Dawson to the ropes. Dawson then slid under Rhyno so that The Revival could hit the Shatter Machine for the win. Clever little finish to a nothing match.
Roman Reigns & Bobby Lashley are set to face The Revival for the third straight week.
Making it the first match confirmed for tonight’s Raw, WWE announced the rematch via a promo from The Revival this afternoon. Despite defeating Reigns & Lashley last week, the storyline for the match is that The Revival asked for it so they can send a message and prove that their win wasn’t a fluke.
Dash Wilder pinned Reigns with a roll-up last Monday after tension between Reigns and Lashley led to the finish. The week before that, Lashley tagged himself in and beat Wilder with a spear.
Before it was canceled, Reigns and Lashley were the only two wrestlers confirmed for the Universal Championship multi-man number one contender’s match at Extreme Rules. WWE has instead teased that Reigns will face Lashley at the pay-per-view.
Reigns also made the save for Seth Rollins last week after Drew McIntyre’s interference caused Dolph Ziggler and Rollins’ Intercontinental Championship match to end in a disqualification.
The only other thing that’s been announced for tonight is an angle where Sasha Banks and Bayley will have to attend “mandatory counseling.” Bayley snapped and attacked Banks following a six-woman tag on last Monday’s episode.
Image: Matt Fowler. Report submitted by Devin Axtman.
– The Revival defeated The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler)
With WWE’s European tour going on, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder appeared again and got the win with the Shatter Machine. It was a fun match that the crowd was into.
– EC3 defeated Fabian Aichner
Aichner cut a pro-Philadelphia Eagles promo to get heat in Dallas. It was a decent match, with EC3 picking up the win with the One Percenter.
Cross won it for her team in a decent match. Cross was very over and there was a lot of comedy where she tried to get Sane fired up. Gonzalez looked pretty green/sloppy.
– Oney Lorcan and Kona Reeves were in the ring for a match when Lars Sullivan came out. Reeves left and went through the crowd. Lorcan took a Freak Accident from Sullivan before Reeves came back for a match with Lorcan, who was barely standing up.
– Oney Lorcan defeated Kona Reeves
Lorcan pinned him with an inside cradle. Reeves cut a promo on Lorcan, then Sullivan came back and gave Reeves three Freak Accidents.
– NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong defeated The Street Profits to retain their titles
Good match. The crowd was split for it and they did some comedy along with the in-ring work.
O’Reilly and Strong were beating down Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins after the match until The Revival came out for the save. The champions bailed when that happened.
– Chad Lail defeated Kassius Ohno
This was really weird. The crowd got really behind Lail, chanting “Let’s go Chad” throughout the match. Ohno started working heel and I wouldn’t be shocked if the finish was changed. Lail won with a roll-up.
– NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler defeated Dakota Kai to retain her title
They had an okay match, but the crowd chanted “We want Chad” throughout much of it. Kai got a lot of offense and Baszler’s selling didn’t connect.
– Ricochet defeated Velveteen Dream
They had a great match to close what was a very fun show, doing lots of back-and-forth offense and great sequences.. The crowd was hot throughout and Ricochet hit the Bendadryller for the finish. Dream has a great presence. At one point, he went to “Too Sweet” a fan and then flipped him off.
With them returning home from WWE’s ongoing European tour, The Revival made a surprise appearance at last night’s NXT house show in Oklahoma City.
Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder, who are two-time NXT Tag Team Champions, interrupted the current title holders when The Undisputed Era’s Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong called out the locker room and claimed to be the top guys in WWE. Dawson & Wilder then unsuccessfully challenged for O’Reilly & Strong’s titles.
WWE uploaded a brief video of them answering O’Reilly & Strong’s challenge:
The Revival were called up to the main roster in 2017 and debuted on the Raw after WrestleMania, but both Dawson and Wilder dealt with injury issues last year that set them back. They returned to Raw last December when Dawson came back from a ruptured bicep.
This weekend’s NXT road tour will continue in Dallas, Texas tonight, with shows in San Antonio and Houston taking place over the next couple of days.
The Big Takeaway: Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado dispensed with Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick in a fun cruiserweight tag team opener and Breezango made their Main Event return to score a surprise victory over The Revival.
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Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado (w/ Kalisto) defeated Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick (4:56)
The Canadian crowd enjoyed this one, as they went 100 mph from the get-go. Kalisto played cheerleader on the outside throughout, but it felt like a waste as they could have gone for a six-man here and gone all out.
Dorado, who looks in great shape these days, was the star of the show both selling and moving like an elite performer. After dominating in the first half, he played babyface in peril until Metalik could grab the hot tag.
Dorado hit a back-handspring into a double stunner on both Gallagher and Kendrick, then Metalik launched Dorado into a hugely impressive senton over the top rope onto Kendrick on the outside. Dorado then landed his top rope elbow drop on Gallagher for the win.
Breezango defeated The Revival (6:04)
Tyler Breeze and Fandango came out as total babyfaces here and garnered a really good reaction from the crowd throughout. This was their first match on Main Event since November of 2016. The commentary trio strongly put over The Revival before this one, too, with Nigel McGuinness talking about them as being “tag team excellence” in WWE.
The result, therefore, came as quite a surprise given The Revival’s dominant streak of wins lately on Main Event. They cut the ring in half, using a ton of cheap shots and double teams to control the match. Much like the opener, they built this around the hot tag, with Breeze bringing in Fandango.
The finish saw Fandango help Breeze out of a double-team suplex by The Revival and hit a dropkick on Dash Wilder. Breeze then ducked a clothesline attempt by Scott Dawson and hit the Unprettier on him for the victory. There was almost a tangible sense of surprise on commentary when they scored the win.
On a backstage segment on Raw, Braun Strowman and his partner Nicholas relinquished the WWE Raw tag team titles, citing Nicholas’ scheduling commitments to school.
The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) attempted to simply get the titles they lost at WrestleMania back, but general manager Kurt Angle announced two matches would take place on Raw with the winning teams advancing to a match on Raw next week. The winner next week will face The Bar at The Greatest Royal Rumble for the titles on Friday, April 27th.
In the first match, The Revival defeated Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows after hitting the Shatter Machine on Anderson for the pin. In the second match, Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt teamed up to defeat Titus O’Neil and Apollo after hitting Sister Abigail into the Twist of Fate.
The Greatest Royal Rumble is a WWE Network special airing live from Saudi Arabia, headlined by a 50-man Royal Rumble, Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in a steel cage match, John Cena vs. Triple H, and more. Originally, The Bar was set to defend the tag titles against Matt and Jeff Hardy on the show.
The Big Takeaway: Raw rehash and WrestleMania build dominated the show this week. It otherwise saw The Revival steal a win against Titus Worldwide in the opener and a six-man cruiserweight tag match that ran at under two minutes in the main event.
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The Revival defeated Titus Worldwide (w/ Dana Brooke) (5:50)
Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder continued their build towards their appearance in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania with a win over Titus Worldwide. Vic Joseph put over on commentary again and again how they always know where the other is and what a successful team they have been of late, leading us to wonder how they will function in an every-man-for-themselves matchup.
Due to their cult following on the NXT roster, The Revival still get a strong crowd reaction when they come out — and that was especially apparent this week on Main Event. Apollo and Dawson started things off in the ring together in a match that was 50-50 throughout.
Titus O’Neil eventually got the heat and bulldozed both Wilder and Dawson, but Wilder managed to get them into a strong position when he blind tagged in so that The Revival were able to double team O’Neil and set up the Shatter Machine for the win.
Kalisto, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik defeated Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari & Jack Gallagher (1:46)
Last week on Main Event, top billing was given to six-man cruiserweight tag action, but it was frustratingly short with the finish coming at just after two minutes of action. In what was almost a rematch of last week’s match, with TJP substituted for Gallagher, this one was even shorter with Kalisto sealing the victory for the luchador team.
The highlight of the match was when Metalik stood on the apron and ducked his head under the top rope, ushering Dorado to use him to propel him over the top rope. Dorado ran up and launched himself off Metalik’s shoulders to the outside, striking both Daivari and Gallagher onto the floor.
Over on 205 Live, the offerings this week were extremely strong, with Nese and Mark Andrews putting on a really quality singles match. Nese came up short there, just as he did here, when Kalisto nailed him with an enzuigiri and followed it up with the Salida del Sol for the victory.
Two matches that had been expected to be added to the WrestleMania 34 card were made official on tonight’s episode of Raw.
First, it was confirmed that Nia Jax will be challenging for Alexa Bliss’ Raw Women’s Championship in New Orleans on April 8th. Their program has progressed over the last few weeks, with Bliss making fun of Jax and admitting to using her last Monday in a segment that was “accidentally” shown on the video screen. On tonight’s show, Bliss walked out of her match against Asuka and then ran away from Jax.
The 2018 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal was also announced tonight. The Revival defeated Titus O’Neil & Apollo and then declared themselves as the first entrants in the match. They mentioned Braun Strowman challenging for the the Raw tag titles at WrestleMania, saying that they’ll become the first tag team to win the battle royal.
Mojo Rawley, Baron Corbin, Big Show, and Cesaro are the four wrestlers who have won the battle royal since it was created in 2014.
Here’s the updated card for WrestleMania 34:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Shinsuke Nakamura
Ronda Rousey & Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon & Triple H
SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair defending against Asuka
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Nia Jax
Intercontinental Champion The Miz defending against Seth Rollins and Finn Balor in a triple threat match
Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defending against Braun Strowman & a partner
Cedric Alexander vs. either Mustafa Ali or Drew Gulak in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament finals
The Big Takeaway: Gran Metalik beat Tony Nese after a beautiful finishing combination. The Revival then stole a win against Heath Slater & Rhyno to close the show.
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Gran Metalik defeated Tony Nese (5:43)
Nese hasn’t had too much luck of late. In fact, he has only clocked up three singles wins since August of last year. His opponent this week was Gran Metalik, who rarely loses on Main Event as of late.
Nese took much of the early going, stopping to posture to the crowd at any opportunity. His physique is pretty remarkable, and he made throwing Metalik around look easy here.
They built to an excellent-looking finish where Nese was going for a superplex and had Metalik on the second rope in the corner. Metalik countered by crotching Nese and then did a rope-walk hurricanrana off the top rope. Metalik then pounced on Nese to hoist him up for the Metalik Driver for the win.
The Revival defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno (4:14)
It had been Slater and Rhyno who dealt Dash Wilder many of his singles losses last year when Scott Dawson was out injured. But after beating Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson on Monday Night Raw the previous week, The Revival came back to Main Event to notch up another win against some old foes.
Strangely, the heels worked out of what would be considered the traditional babyface corner at the top left of the hard cam screen, but there was no doubt that The Revival were the heels here. Slater and Rhyno took the opening minutes, getting the crowd on their side with Rhyno getting a few ‘EC-Dub’ chants from the expectant pre-Raw crowd.
After the break, Slater had the heat, taking out both Revival men and nailing Wilder with a running high knee and following it up with a neckbreaker. Wilder could only stop the three count by putting his leg on the bottom rope.
After two more near falls from Slater on Wilder, Dawson took out Rhyno to stop the tag and they teased a ref bump where Slater had to go out of his way to avoid colliding with the ref. This enabled The Revival to get the upper hand and hit the Shatter Machine for the win.
After Scott Dawson was cleared to return from injury, The Revival had their first match as a team in over four months on Monday night.
Dawson & Dash Wilder took on Heath Slater & Rhyno in their return on Raw, with The Revival hitting the Shatter Machine to get the win. Apollo Crews, Titus O’Neil, and Dana Brooke were shown watching the match backstage while it was going on. And in a post-match angle, Kurt Angle told Slater and Rhyno that they need to toughen up a bit if they want more opportunities.
Dawson was expected to return this month after suffering a ruptured right bicep in August and later undergoing surgery. It was noted in today’s daily update that Dawson was backstage at Raw and that The Revival could possibly be returning on the show.
While Dawson was out of action, Wilder wrestled on house shows and on Main Event as he waited for his tag team partner to return to the ring. After their post-WrestleMania call-up, Wilder also missed a couple of months earlier this year due to a fractured jaw.
The Revival look to be on the shelf once again after an injury to Scott Dawson.
WWE put up a video this afternoon before Raw with Mike Rome reporting that Dawson had suffered a ruptured bicep over the weekend at a house show. Rome stated that Dawson would be out of action for an undetermined amount of time.
Pro Wrestling Sheet first reported the story, noting that Dawson’s arm was heavily bandaged at Saturday’s event in Ontario and that it seemed like he may have to undergo surgery. The Revival were programmed with Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus on this weekend’s house show tour.
WWE’s post about the injury also mentioned that Dawson would most likely need to have surgery. If he does, he would likely be out of action about six months. Without surgery the time frame would be quicker, but still probably a few months.
This comes not long after Dawson’s tag team partner Dash Wilder returned from injury following a broken jaw that he suffered at an NXT live event earlier this year.
WWE reported on Dawson’s injury shortly after they officially confirmed that Bayley had separated her shoulder and would be off of SummerSlam. The Revival had recently been part of a feud with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson and The Hardys, with the direction seemingly leading to a match at SummerSlam in some form.
The Big Takeaway: Solid cruiserweight action held up the show again, while The Revival made it two weeks running on Main Event, this time with Scott Dawson in singles action.
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Rich Swann defeated Ariya Daivari (5:40)
Although it’s sad to see Rich Swann in a lesser position than he was in previously, this was a good advert for 205 Live. Swann starts quickly and is all over Daivari like a rash, even teasing an early Phoenix Splash. Daivari coaxes him out on to the apron and is able to send him head-first into the post.
Swann sells the move and acts as a deadweight as Daivari struggles to roll him back into the ring and stomps all over him. He slaps on a rear chinlock to slow things down. Swann works his way out and is able to hit Daivari with an enzuigiri to the back of his head as both men go down.
The last two minutes are excellent. Swann hits a beautiful modified Michinoku Driver, but Daivari kicks out. He counters with an inverted DDT and the Persian Lion Splash, but Swann kicks out. They go back and forth until Swann connects with a superkick to put Daivari in position for the Phoenix Splash, which he lands for the win. This was a very good opener.
Kalisto defeated Scott Dawson (w/ Dash Wilder) (4:40)
Kalisto takes no disrespect from Dawson, and after some early shoving, slaps him in the face. Dawson charges around the ring, hitting Kalisto with European uppercuts until Kalisto spins him around with a hurricanrana and dropkicks him outside.
Dawson goes to his tag partner and calls for a timeout as Kalisto teases a suicide dive onto both Dawson and Wilder. The Revival then try to team up on Kalisto, with Wilder handing the ring apron to Dawson to help him stop the momentum of a sunset flip. Dawson then regains his balance, and as the referee sees to the apron, he drives his knee into Kalisto’s left arm and we head to a break.
When we come back, Dawson tries to superplex Kalisto but is thrown off and eats a diving crossbody, followed by a springboard seated senton. Kalisto hits the spike rana, but Dawson kicks out at two.
Kalisto sends Dawson outside, then after punting Wilder, takes a huge clothesline on the apron from Dawson and looks in trouble. But back in the ring, Dawson tries for a suplex and Kalisto catches him in an inside cradle that he can’t kick out of in time, so Kalisto steals a plucky win.
The Big Takeaway: Brian Kendrick and Cedric Alexander had a really strong match at the top of the show, then The Revival made their Main Event debut by beating Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson.
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Cedric Alexander defeated Brian Kendrick (5:38)
Cedric Alexander hasn’t been on this show since February, so it was a pleasure to see these two work together here. On the bell, Kendrick hits Alexander with a big boot that sets the tone and pace for the match. Alexander responds by sending Kendrick to the floor outside and hitting him with a springboard senton.
He rolls him back in and catches him in a head scissors and follows it up with a dropkick. Kendrick thumbs him to the eye and flips him over into the Captain’s Hook. Alexander makes the ropes, but only with his foot. Kendrick regains control and transitions it into a seated Cobra Clutch.
Alexander works his way out and fires up with chops — only to be cut off by Kendrick’s leg lariat. The speed that Kendrick got up and down for this was seriously impressive. He goes for a cover but can only get two.
Alexander manages to hit a spear to the corner and follows it up with an enzuigiri to the back of Kendrick’s head. He comes off the top with a clothesline, but Kendrick kicks out at two. There’s then an awkward spot where Kendrick is trying to get the Captain’s Hook back on and Alexander lands on his head.
The finish sees Kendrick look for the Sliced Bread #2, but the counter by Alexander lets him get Kendrick up for the Lumbar Check for the win.
The Revival defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (7:20)
Even though The Revival find themselves on Main Event — there are many positives here: their opponents are Gallows & Anderson, they have a really good first outing, and they debut on the show with a win.
Dash Wilder and Anderson start things off before Scott Dawson comes in to have some quick back and forth with Anderson. Anderson starts to get some dominance and tags Gallows in.
Gallows works over Dawson with clubs to the corner. Wilder tries to come in and help out his buddy, but Gallows fights them both off. Gallows and Anderson are total babyfaces here, sending The Revival packing as we head to a break.
After the ads, Wilder cuts off Anderson and tags Dawson in. They double team Anderson and take control, cutting the ring in half. They do every heel tag team gimmick in the book, swapping in and out when the ref’s back is turned and making the crowd desperate to see Gallows come in.
Finally, Anderson is able to give Gallows the hot tag. He hits a Stinger Splash and a superkick on Wilder and he tags in Anderson while motioning for the Magic Killer. They hoist Wilder up, but Dawson runs in and pushes Wilder off. He sends Gallows outside and The Revival hit the Shatter Machine on Anderson for their first win on Main Event.
