The Royal Rumble was a rousing success, so tonight’s episode of WWE Raw has a chance to up the ante as the builds towards WrestleMania continues.
Ronda Rousey successfully retained the WWE Raw Women’s Championship at the Royal Rumble Pay Per View in a grueling battle with Sasha Banks, who flashed the “Four Horsewomen” sign after the match to make a statement that she isn’t done with Rousey. Though Ronda will presumably face Becky Lynch, the winner of this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble, at WWE WrestleMania 35, she still has plenty of enemies on the Red Brand.
Neither Braun Strowman nor Drew McIntyre emerged victorious in the Men’s Rumble, as Seth Rollins added yet another accolade to his extensive list of accomplishments in wrestling by winning the 2019 Rumble. Rollins had to toss out Strowman in order to punch his ticket to WrestleMania, but he seems locked in as Brock Lesnar’s Universal Title opponent following The Beast’s last-gasp win over Finn Balor.
Tonight, Strowman and McIntyre will square off. While Strowman was eliminated by the eventual winner Rollins, McIntyre was throw out by Dolph Ziggler, who surprised everyone by finishing in the final three. Though McIntyre will have to face Braun on Raw this evening, perhaps Ziggler’s constant presence will weigh down on the former “Chosen One”.
After falling to Rousey in an instant classic, Sasha Banks will continue her pursuit of the Women’s Tag Team Championships with partner Bayley, who was one of the standouts of the Women’s Rumble match as a member of the final four. Bayley and Sasha are the heavy favorites to win the titles, and they will be among several teams fighting for a spot in the Elimination Chamber match on Feb. 17 that will decide the new champs; those qualifying matches will begin tonight.
WWE Raw will feature a singles match between two more familiar foes in Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin, who once displaced Angle as the General Manager of Raw. Angle made an appearance in the Rumble match, lasting just three minutes before being thrown out by newly-crowned United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. Angle and Corbin have plenty of motivation to win this match, but Corbin heads into this contest with more momentum after eliminating Apollo Crews and NXT star Aleister Black in the Rumble.
Finally, we’ll likely get confirmation that Seth Rollins will head after Brock Lesnar, who may appear on the post-Rumble Raw to gloat with Paul Heyman following a close victory over the non-Demon Balor. Rollins, however, presents “The Beast” with a scary WrestleMania 35 opponent, given that Seth once stole the title from Lesnar’s grasp at ‘Mania 31 as Mr. Money in the Bank.
Check back here at 8 p.m. ET for the latest highlights, grades, and results from tonight’s post-Rumble edition of WWE Raw on the USA Network.