WWE Raw Results, Highlights, and Grades: NXT is the main event
The Kabuki Warriors vs. Charlotte Flair and Natalya
In our first match of the night, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors were in non-title action against Charlotte Flair and Natalya. Before the match, WWE talked about Natalya’s victory at WWE Crown Jewel over Lacey Evans in the first and only women’s match to ever take place there.
The match itself got off to a fun start, with Natalya gaining some early momentum over Kairi Sane before a tag to Asuka changed the pace. The former champions Asuka and Natalya began to trade some mat wrestling, even swapping several submission holds before ending up at a relative stalemate.
Natalya made the tag to Charlotte Flair, who took control as things went to commercial. As the match continued, Charlotte Flair found herself in the ring with Kairi Sane and started gaining momentum. Flair even nailed Natural Selection, but Asuka put Sane’s foot on the bottom rope at the last second to break up the pinfall.
Charlotte manages to lay out both Asuka and Kairi in the ring a bit later, climbing the turnbuckle before nailing a huge moonsault onto both of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. Flair tossed Asuka out of the ring and tried to cover Sane, but Asuka slid back in and helped break up the fall once again.
After another commercial break, Kairi Sane shifted the tide with a huge kick on Flair to set up for two hot tags. Natalya and Asuka were both tagged in and entered the fray, with Nattie gaining the edge after a big clothesline and a german suplex.
Natalya looked to finish it with a sharpshooter, but Asuka countered into an armbar. Natalya powered out and got into the sharpshooter yet again, but Kairi Sane came in with a codebreaker to Natalya that broke it up. Charlotte Flair suddenly entered the ring and speared Kairi.
Asuka looks to end it with the Asuka Lock on Natalya, but Nattie counters and manages to slap on the sharpshooter one more time. With Kairi still down, Asuka can’t hold it any longer and taps out.
Grade: A, This was a great match with a few believable false finishes. Natalya and Flair looked great as a team, and picked up a non-title win that likely will give them a title shot at a future time.
Brock Lesnar kept looking for Rey Mysterio
After that match, Paul Heyman was back out on the ramp with Brock Lesnar in tow. He approached the commentary table and began asking Jerry Lawler where Rey Mysterio was. Lesnar started shoving Heyman, but former NFL offensive tackle and Reality of Wrestling product Dio Maddin stood up from commentary and got face to face with the WWE Champion.
Maddin towered over him, but Lesnar quickly got him over his shoulders and sent him crashing through the announce table with an F5. As Lesnar is standing near the ramp, Rey Mysterio finally appears with a lead pipe in hand.
Mysterio goes right after Lesnar, hitting him in the knees multiple times with the lead pipe. With Lesnar staggered, Mysterio grabs the WWE Championship and runs down the ramp to gain momentum and slam the title into the face of Brock Lesnar. The crowd was loudly chanting 619 and fully behind Mysterio.
Back from commercial, we saw Lesnar struggling to get up the ramp due to the damage to his knees. Things cut to Rey Mysterio who talked about Brock Lesnar coming after his son, which is what is most important to him. In response, Mysterio said he is going after what is most important to Brock Lesnar, the WWE Championship. Mysterio challenged Lesnar to a title match at Survivor Series.
Grade: A, This was a fantastic furtherance of the foundation the opening segment laid, and a great attack by Rey Mysterio. He’s the ultimate underdog, and he damaged Brock Lesnar. This is such a classic story, and it’s being told really well.