WWE Raw Results, Highlights, and Grades for March 11, 2019

The Shield delivers a “Farewell Address”

WWE Raw opened with what may be the final time we’ll see The Shield together inside a WWE ring. They made their entrance, and Roman Reigns summed things up fairly quickly. Reigns said, if last night really was the last ride, he has no regrets. It was a strong farewell for them, but Roman then shifted focus and said they each have their own individual business to attend to.

Reigns said he wasn’t sure what Dean Ambrose’s business was, but said he Ambrose probably don’t know either. Roman himself announced he’ll be in singles action tonight on WWE Raw for the first time in over five months, and then put the spotlight on Seth Rollins and his impending clash with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.

Grade: B+, This was a simple little opener that put some closure on The Shield for now and let everyone turn their focus elsewhere.

Ambrose and Reigns made their way to the back, and Seth Rollins only got a few words out before being interrupted by Paul Heyman. The two went back and forth with Heyman hyping up the Universal Champion as always, but Rollins happily reminded him of the agile superstars who nearly beat Lesnar, namely Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, and Finn Balor. Rollins claimed he is uniquely ready to “slay the best,” but Paul Heyman responded by insisting Rollins doesn’t really know Brock Lesnar.

At that moment, we suddenly saw the appearance of Shelton Benjamin. The veteran Benjamin teamed with Lesnar years ago when the two were in WWE’s then-developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling. They’re also both accomplished amateur wrestlers. Benjamin planted Rollins with a string of german suplexes, laying him out as WWE Raw went to commercial.

Seth Rollins vs. Shelton Benjamin

Once back from commercial, we got an impromptu singles matches between Seth Rollins and Shelton Benjamin. The match started off hot and proved to be a great fresh contest between two extremely talented stars.

While he doesn’t possess quite the same power as Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin’s roots and style definitely provide a preview of what Lesnar might show us at WrestleMania 35. We even saw Benjamin go for an F5 near the end, only for Rollins to slip out of it and plant him with a Stomp to pick up the win in WWE Raw’s first match of the night.

Grade: A-, The back and forth promo was good, and the sudden arrival of Shelton Benjamin has spiced things up between Lesnar and Rollins. The match was a good WWE Raw opener.