The WWE Raw Reaction for February 27, 2023
Welcome to the WWE Raw Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show in Grand Rapids, MI as we continue on the Road to WrestleMania 39.
As always, you can check out John’s full in-depth report here.
We kick things off on the Road to WrestleMania with a quick recap of The Sami Zayn/Usos happening from Smackdown. That leads us into Promo Time with Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. Jimmy tried to pass the issues off as normal family disagreements. The Street Profits come down to poke the bear a little before their scheduled match.
The tag match was quite fun. The Street Profits are kinda stuck in neutral with The Usos holding both sets of tag titles hostage for The Bloodline story. It’s kinda dragging down all of the tag division but I’m sure there are plans for a title change at WrestleMania and then the tag titles can be split apart. Ford has been shining in the spots he’s been put in recently. Sikoa eventually wipes Dawkins out with the Samoan Spike to pick up the win for his team. After the match, Kevin Owens does a hit and run attack on The Bloodline members to save Ford from Sikoa. Owens was dressed similarly to how Zayn was at Smackdown to continue the tease.
Brock Lesnar comes out next for the VIP Lounge before MVP comes out to introduce him. Lesnar wants MVP to sell him and the crowd on the Omos WrestleMania match. MVP does his best sales pitch and Lesnar agrees to the match. I’m not sure why this match is happening but I do have a few suspicions. My leading theory is this is Lesnar’s punishment for going off script at the last two PLEs. Anyway, Lesnar wants to share a drink to seal the deal. Lesnar produces the good stuff and MVP spits it out in Lesnar’s face. After Lesnar cleans up, he drops MVP with an F5 because he promised no Suplex City tonight.
Cody Rhodes takes on Chad Gable next. The match was as awesome as you would expect it to be. Gable is just in beast mode right now and needs to be properly rewarded in the future with at least a nice US Title run. The inverted superplex spot was rather impressive to see. Rhodes finished Gable off with a Cross Rhodes after hitting Gable with a leaping top rope Cody Cutter.
Byron Saxton was going to interview Baron Corbin until Kevin Owens walked by. Saxton ditched Corbin for Owens. I think this is just to keep Corbin in a holding pattern until they can figure something out with him. Owens reiterated that he did not need help to take down The Bloodline. Yeah, sure.
Montez Ford and Bianca Belair reenacted the famous scene from Titanic before he dropped his phone in the water without backing the photos on it up to the cloud. Whoopsie
The Judgment Day was backstage talking about Rhea Ripley’s WrestleMania match against Charlotte Flair and Finn Balor challenged Edge to a match at WrestleMania. That should be a great match and I do wonder if alter egos will make appearances?
Asuka is out next to totally wreck Carmella next. It was a solidly competitive match but this was just to get the “new” Kana gimmick over. Asuka picked up the win with the Asuka Lock. I expect the same at WrestleMania. Speaking of, here comes Bianca Belair to face off with Asuka before Carmella knocks the WrestleMania opponents down. I guess Carmella needs to lose to Belair as well.
Candice LeRae takes on the renamed Piper Niven next. Nikki Cross is out to observe the match. I’m glad the announcers sell Niven without reminding us about the whole Doudrop mess. This match could have been good, but they opted for a Three Minute Raw Special with our old friend the ROLLUP OF DEATH~! allowing LeRae to win. I believe this keeps LeRae’s 50/50 booking streak alive.
Johnny Gargano is backstage happy for Candice’s win and looking forward to his match later with Otis when Judgment Day walked in. Priest bragged about beating up Gargano in the Elimination Chamber so Balor said he’ll pick up where Priest left off next week. Gargano called Balor’s bluff and that should be an outstanding match. I assume Edge makes an appearance as well to answer Balor’s challenge.
The Miz is out to host MizTV next. Miz has an uber-important announcement to make. He’s the host of WrestleMania. Wow, that was underwhelming. It makes sense for his gimmick and all but really? Seth Rollins comes out wanting to see if Miz knows why his buddy Logan Paul has been ducking him. Rollins beats Miz up and takes his cell phone. Rollins held the phone up to Miz’s face to unlock it, which was rather funny. Rollins calls Paul and video chats with him. Next week, Rollins and Paul will go face to face to set up their WrestleMania match. After the call was over, Miz started moving so Rollins stomped him for good measure.
Austin Theory is backstage talking about John Cena returning next week to Raw and he’s going to face him to let Cena know he is now the past. There’s another WrestleMania match set up.
Bobby Lashley destroys Elias next and I’m surprised Ezekiel didn’t come out. Lashley talked about Bray Wyatt and an odd Wyatt video plays as Lashley leaves. The match set up has been unique for sure. I can’t wait to see how it goes next.
Chelsea Green is complaining to Adam Pearce backstage. Poor guy. Carmella enters and demands to lose to Belair next week, so Pearce obliges. Green and Carmella compliment each other after Pearce bails. We are running low on tag teams in the Women’s Tag Division, so why not?
Otis comes out with Maximum Male Models to lose to Johnny Gargano. It was a quick match and Dexter Lumis appeared to try to help even the odds a little bit. When is Tommaso Ciampa coming back?
It’s main event time with Damage CTRL defending the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship against Becky Lynch and Lita. The tag match was really good. Lynch and Lita jelled quite well for this match. Kai and Sky looked good here too. Damage CTRL as a group have been underwhelming, Bayley couldn’t get a win when something big was on the line and Kai was coming off her second injury since coming to the main roster. Bayley tried to interfere in the match so Trish Stratus came out to even up the odds. Stratus takes Bayley out, allowing Lita to finish Sky off for the win. After the match, Stratus celebrated with the new tag champs as we go off the air.
John gave this week’s show a rating of 7. I think I’ll agree with him on that as it was a rather solid episode that accomplished many things to get us down the Road to WrestleMania, capped off with the crowning of new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Let’s take a look at tonight’s highs and lows.
The Highs
We crowned new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions tonight and it was a special occasion too. Lynch and Lita are not going to be long term champions but the moment was special indeed. The fans will rejoice as this will get us to Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania, albeit in a tag match instead of a singles match.
Chad Gable is a machine right now. He has been a treat to watch recently and I really hope he gets rewarded with a decent US Title run later this year.
The Lows
Being the host of WrestleMania is the best we can do for The Miz? I’m not a huge fan of the guy but we couldn’t get him a match this year?
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That’s all I’ve got, until next time