WWE Raw: Results, Highlights, Grades For June 25, 2018

After a stellar June 18 edition of WWE Raw, this week’s show had a lot to follow, but featuring a big Intercontinental Championship rematch helped sweeten the deal.

The June 25 edition of WWE Raw kicked off with GM Kurt Angle and constable Baron Corbin, who didn’t like being outshined by Angle’s introduction.  The GM was addressing the Brock Lesnar Universal Championship situation, but was interrupted by Roman Reigns immediately.  Another interruption followed with Bobby Lashley, who also has a big interest in Lesnar these days.

Lashley said Reigns has proven he can’t beat Lesnar and that he should move on from The Beast Incarnate.  The Big Dog responded by saying Lashley moved on from the WWE 10 years ago and failed to conquer the MMA world.  Angle then announced that the multi-man match at Extreme Rules to determine the new number one contender is off the table after a snag in Lesnar’s contract.

Tensions continued to boil between Reigns and Lashley and Angle said he would think about putting those two in a match at Extreme Rules.  The Revival then came out and called out both Reigns and Lashley with Angle and Corbin agreeing to a tag team match pitting Reigns and Lashley against The Revival in a rematch from last week.

This was a good enough start to the show with both Reigns and Lashley getting verbal jabs in.  Their disagreements will likely lead to a one-on-one match and keeping an eye on the number one contender situation is key as well.

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Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley vs. The Revival

Despite noticeable disagreements from the start, Reigns and Lashley took it to Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder from the start.  The Revival did get things back in its favor, however, temporarily grounding Lashley.  A solid tag team display followed with Dawson and Wilder performing like a well-oiled machine.

However, Lashley got back in it and made the tag to Reigns, who came in guns a blazing.  However, much like they did before, Dawson and Wilder seized control back while cutting off the ring to keep Reigns away from tagging in Lashley.  The Revival’s techniques are so old school and it’s always refreshing to see.

The assault continued on The Big Dog with Lashley unable to do anything about it.  But you can’t keep Reigns down forever and after fighting back in it, the hot tag was made to Lashley, who went all out on The Revival.  The Big Dog tagged himself in unexpectedly, causing more confusion between Reigns and Lashley.  But that confusion ended up costing Reigns, who was pinned by Wilder.

Reigns and Lashley stood off in the ring post-match with Lashley saying to let him take care of business next time, only adding more fuel to the fire between the two.  Overall, this was a solid tag team match and a huge win for The Revival that the team really needed.  Hopefully that gets Dawson and Wilder back on track to return to prominence in the tag team division.

A Woken Matt Hardy promo followed with Hardy and Bray Wyatt addressing The B-Team’s impersonation from last week like only they can.  Both then made their entrance for Hardy’s pending match with Curtis Axel coming up next with two of the four superstars involved in the Raw Tag Team Championship picture going at it.

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Matt Hardy vs. Curtis Axel

As Matt Hardy awaited his opponent, Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas continued to impersonate The Deleters Of Worlds and it was just as wonderful as last week.  These two always seem to find a way to be entertaining and memorable.  The match then finally got started with Axel looking for key momentum for The B-Team before its tag team title opportunity at Extreme Rules.

The match went back and forth in the opening stages with both men getting in offense.  But as Hardy slipped off the top rope, Axel countered into a cross body and got the quick, yet surprising win over Woken Matt.  Hardy was even impressed by Axel’s win, leading the audience into a standing ovation.

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The match didn’t do much in terms of in-ring action, but it added to the entertainment value of these two teams.  A quick recap of Sasha Banks and Bayley’s fallout from last week was shown, as was The Authors Of Pain throwing their weight around backstage before their tag team action that was on deck.

It had been a while since The Authors Of Pain were on Raw, but tonight gave them the opportunity to make another statement.  They came in with a lot of momentum initially and were looking to gain some of that momentum back.

After commercial, Alicia Fox was shown backstage talking to Bayley as Fox is officially back from her injury suffered a few months back.  Kurt Angle then told Bayley she would be teaming with Banks and Ember Moon to battle The Riott Squad later in the night.

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The Authors Of Pain vs. Rich and Rex Gibson

Akam and Rezar’s first match on Monday nights in a few weeks came against a couple local competitors in a match that barely exceeded the entrances of The Authors Of Pain.  As expected, they demolished the two and got the quick win.

AOP tried attacking the two even more after the match, but Titus Worldwide had other ideas and chased them off.  There seems to be a program forming between those teams.  Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin were shown arguing backstage, only for Finn Balor to come in and join the party.  He wasn’t the only one as Mr. Monster in the Bank, Braun Strowman came in as well.

Strowman said he wanted to team up with Kevin Owens, the man who he had been destroying on a weekly basis.  Angle obliged and said he would team with Owens to face Balor and Corbin later in the night.  Talk about combustible teams.

It was announced that Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss would be live up next to address her beating last week courtesy of Ronda Rousey.  How would Bliss respond to what the baddest woman on the planet did to her?

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Alexa Bliss Segment

As Alexa Bliss and her friend Mickie James made their way to the ring, a video package showed the actions of Ronda Rousey last week that featured a big attack on Bliss.  James then introduced Bliss in a suck up-like way before both laid into Rousey, who is still suspended for 30 days.

The verbal shots at Rousey continued with James saying Bliss’s cash-in at Money In The Bank is one of the best cash-in’s of all-time.  Bliss then turned her attention towards Nia Jax, who will challenge Bliss for the Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules next month.  She said how she’s here while Jax is still recuperating from her match with Rousey at Money In The Bank.

Bliss kept going at Jax and Rousey while bragging about herself along the way.  Natalya then made her way to the ring to address Bliss.  She said the countdown is on for Rousey’s return to come back and deal with Bliss.  That only led to more Bliss verbal shots, this time directed towards Natalya.

Nattie said her and Bliss have a match right now, but she said she wasn’t alone as Jax then unexpectedly joined her.  This was a solid segment that showed more of how great Bliss is as a heel champion and gave Natalya a key spot on the card at the same time.

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Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss

The match between Natalya and Alexa Bliss had already started when the show came back from commercial with Bliss in control, but Natalya would start turning things back around in her favor.  Only for a moment when then Bliss got control back, grounding Nattie.

Natalya’s power advantage took over momentarily before Bliss got the upper hand back.  The Raw Women’s Champion got a little cocky, which allowed Nattie to get back in it.  She had a lot of momentum, but James’ distraction helped get Bliss back in control.  However, Jax returned the favor and distracted Bliss.

That distraction helped Nattie lock in the sharpshooter and that made Bliss tap out, giving Natalya a huge win.  This was a short match, but it did quite a bit for the storyline in play and should help Natalya out tremendously moving forward as she made the Raw Women’s Champion tap out.  A quick recap was then shown from last week’s Intercontinental Championship match, which saw Dolph Ziggler upset Seth Rollins.

Rollins was then shown backstage and cut a promo about how he would recapture his title tonight.  A Jinder Mahal photo shoot was then shown before The Riott Squad intervened and randomly took the camera and threw it on the ground to show some sign of dominance.  The trio was set for the six-woman tag team match set to take place next.

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Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Ember Moon vs. The Riott Squad

The powder keg that is the relationship between Sasha Banks and Bayley was on display next when the two teamed up with Ember Moon to battle Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan in tag team action.  Kurt Angle said this would be the final time for Banks and Bayley to get on the same page.

Bayley, Banks, and Moon got off to a fast start and even stood tall early on.  But as the match came back from commercial, Ruby had Moon down.  The Riott Squad worked together nicely and singled out Moon before Banks got tagged in and began taking it to Ruby.  Chaos then began breaking down, but in the midst of it, Bayley saved Banks from getting pinned.

However, it wasn’t enough and Ruby pinned Banks for the win.  But immediately after the match, Bayley began attacking Banks.  Her frustration built up over the past few months reared its ugly head and she laid out The Boss.  The match itself didn’t do much of anything, but the post-match outburst stole the headlines from this segment.

Seeing Bayley in this light was so different, but awesome.  She kept it real with Banks and she basically said how she’s tired of Banks’ superiority complex.  This might be the best move for Bayley’s career and it’s intriguing to see where it goes from here.

Kevin Owens then approached Angle backstage saying how he doesn’t want to team with Braun Strowman later in the night.  But unfortunately for KO, Angle didn’t budge and the match remained intact.

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No Way Jose vs. Mojo Rawley

A rematch was on deck next when No Way Jose battled Mojo Rawley in one-on-one action.  Neither of these individuals have gotten much, if any, traction on Monday nights.  So, having them face off with each other makes it rather hard to get invested in either superstar.

Before the match, Rawley cut a promo by saying how Jose hasn’t earned the right to walk down to a WWE ring.  He then talked down to Jose’s conga line, especially Todd.  And honestly, Todd is more over than Rawley at this point given how the crowd reacted to him.  Mojo said, however, that the match wouldn’t take place.

He sucker punched Jose and walked off.  The segment was pretty much wasteful, besides Todd of course.  Kurt Angle then told Bayley backstage that she had to go to counseling next week after her actions towards Sasha Banks.  The Monster Among Men then made his entrance as he was set to team with Kevin Owens against Finn Balor and Baron Corbin.

Given how Braun Strowman has treated Owens recently, it would be interesting to see how the two teamed together.  The same could be said for Balor and Corbin as well, considering how Corbin has been getting on everybody’s nerves lately as constable Corbin.

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Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor and Baron Corbin

The seemingly dysfunctional teams of Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens battling Finn Balor and Baron Corbin seemed destined for fireworks from the start.  Constable Corbin tagged himself in right off the bat and went toe-to-toe with KO.  Balor and Corbin controlled Owens, but Balor kept getting more frustrated with Corbin in the process.

Owens tagged in Strowman, however, and The Monster Among Men quickly took down Corbin.  The way these teams kept tagging in and out was quite humorous, especially when Strowman yelled at Owens to get in there.  But surprisingly enough, Strowman and Owens got on the same page and took it to Corbin and Balor.

Balor got momentum back when the show came back from commercial and didn’t allow Owens to tag in Strowman.  But Mr. Monster in the Bank got in the match and Constable Corbin felt the brunt of it.  Strowman’s patented shoulder tackles on the outside took out both Balor and Corbin and Strowman even told Owens to do the same, which worked until he ran into Corbin.

The Demon King had finally seen enough of Corbin, however, and kicked him off the apron.  The two then began to battle on the ramp and got counted out, giving Strowman and Owens the win.  After the match, KO tried shaking the hand of Strowman.  And instead of waiting around too long, Owens ran away to avoid the inevitable destruction Strowman was going to give him.

KO was shown backstage running from Strowman and then hiding with Strowman looking for him and making a fat joke at the same time.  As far as the match goes, it was quite entertaining and did feature some pretty good in-ring action from time to time.  Owens tried leaving the building, but Strowman took his keys and flipped over his car outside.  How great is Strowman?  So great.

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Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins For The Intercontinental Championship

After last week’s surprising turn of events that saw Dolph Ziggler capture the Intercontinental Championship from Seth Rollins, The Architect didn’t wait long to invoke his rematch and it came in the night’s main event.  Could these two recreate the great match they produced just one week earlier?

Rollins was extremely focused from the start and wasted little time going after The Showoff.  Both men had early momentum, but Ziggler’s aggressiveness propelled him into control of the match after that.  He kept Rollins grounded during this stretch before The Architect got the pace of the match back in his favor.

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The presence of Drew McIntyre on the outside affected Rollins’ focus at times as well, which played directly into Ziggler’s hands.  The Intercontinental Champion got control back for a while, thwarting off every move Rollins tried to make.  But the crafty Rollins recaptured the momentum, only for McIntyre to cheap shot Rollins and subsequently get kicked out of the ringside area by the referee.

The match really got going after that point with both men scratching and clawing to walk out with the Intercontinental Championship.  These two in-ring aficionados put on a clinic with several high-risk moves and dramatic near falls.   But just as Rollins looked like he was going to win the match, McIntyre returned and laid out Rollins, keeping the title with Ziggler despite Rollins winning via disqualification.

Ziggler and McIntyre tried double teaming Rollins after the match, but Roman Reigns came out and helped fend off the attack to aid his friend and Shield brother.  It was an absolutely great match with a not so perfect ending, but it should keep this feud going into Extreme Rules.

Next: WWE Raw 5 Predictions

As an overall show, this was a pretty stellar Raw with several standout moments.  Bayley’s aggression, Strowman’s antics, and the main event for the Intercontinental Championship were all great moments throughout the course of this show and the buildup towards Extreme Rules should really ratchet up in the coming weeks.