In case you missed the show, the following is the WWE Monday Night Raw results, highlights and headlines from the show on February 21st.
WWE RAW Results, highlights and headlines from last week’s show
WWE RAW Results 2/21
Brock Lesnar introduces himself as the new WWE champion, before being interrupted by Paul Heyman, who announces he’ll have to face Bobby Lashley for the belt before getting to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania
Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens tell us that their path to WrestleMania will be as a tag team
Alpha Academy def. Street Profits
Tommaso Ciampa and Finn Balor def. the Dirty Dawgs
Miz teases a Cody Rhodes debut, but it’s Logan Paul who will tag with Miz against the Mysterios
Rhea Ripley def. Niki A.S.H.
Undertaker’s Hall Of Fame video montage reminds me that he was in a Scooby Doo movie
Damian Priest def. Shelton Benjamin
Damian Priest calls out Finn Balor for a US Title match next week
Reggie calls out Dana Brooke to apologize, and she kisses him to win back the 24/7 Title
Bianca Belair confronts Becky Lynch about their Mania rematch
Bianca Belair def. Doudrop
Edge cuts an awesome promo about how he and WrestleMania need each other
Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens def. RK-Bro to add themselves to RAW Championship Match
WWE RAW Highlights From 2/21
Brock Lesnar Has Never Been Better
It’s time to face the facts: WWE has somehow made Brock Lesnar the best he’s ever been. He hasn’t been truly on his own in WWE for over 15 years, and unlike then, he no longer needs Paul Heyman to captivate a crowd. And unlike with Heyman, they’ve never let Lesnar be quite this fun. Lesnar just gets to walk to the ring in his best John Wayne attire each week, yucking it up with the crowd, and he still maintains his badass persona.
In fact, the Elimination Chamber match showed Lesnar might be the scariest he’s ever been as well. Because now, the violence and power almost seem to come out of nowhere. Like tonight, when Lesnar went from helping the crowd chant stupid at Heyman and making Saskatchewan jokes to suddenly silencing his former advocate. Lesnar’s promos aren’t groundbreaking, but they are so effective. It just shows that while we rag on WWE for constantly calling in Lesnar to the title scene after monthly absences, there is a good reason.
How to Get Massive Debut Heat? Be Logan Paul
This is not an endorsement of the Paul brothers. They are a-holes. But you know what one upside of being a real-life heel is? It means when you debut on WWE RAW, you get huge boos from the get-go. Especially since in this promo, Miz was teasing a certain AEW departee expected to debut soon as well. So, when Logan Paul made his way to the ring to be Miz’s tag team partner for WrestleMania, the crowd understandably came unglued. It was a perfect introduction as well, as the pair beatdown the Mysterios before Paul planted his impression of Miz’s finisher on Dominik Mysterio.
This angle isn’t anything special, but it makes sense for Miz to be the one paired with Paul, and it should make for a good WrestleMania moment if the ultimate good guys in the Mysterios get their revenge against Paul. I mean, who wouldn’t pay the big bucks to see Logan Paul get beat up?
Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch Get the Spotlight They Deserve
WWE sometimes does things so simple, so obvious, that I feel bad that I need to praise it. Belair vs. Lynch at WrestleMania is one of those things. Should have this been in doubt? No, but you never know with WWE. When Lynch beat Belair at Summerslam in 26 seconds, it felt like WWE might just move on from last year’s breakout star. Now, they’ve done the right thing, and are telling the obvious story: Belair getting redemption on the biggest show of them all.
The story has been told well, with Belair trying to beat one of the four horsewoman two years in a row, and Lynch finally having to face the one woman she’s been avoiding for the last six months. This was only helped by a great promo between the two tonight, and a good in-ring showing for Belair afterward as well.
Honestly, this match against Doudrop was the best thing on the whole card tonight on top of the great storytelling as well. If WWE does the obvious thing once again and Belair wins the belt at Mania, they may just be able to sell this as one of the best storylines in recent memory.
WWE RAW Lowlights From 2/21
Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. Deserved Better
When Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. broke up their tag team, it seemed like WWE might have a direction for them both. But instead, we’ve got a weird one-sided mini-feud. Rhea has eliminated Nikki at the Rumble, pinned her in the gauntlet match last week, eliminated her from the chamber match, and then pinned her clean tonight in five minutes. Weirder yet, they keep presenting each altercation like it’s their big blowoff or first meeting since their split. In fact, it’s been four times now and each time Rhea has decisively gotten the upper hand. Their attempt to do one final encounter feel tonight also fell flat in a match that was too short and felt more like a squash match than anything.
It seems clear that they want to push Ripley back into the main event scene, but we could’ve made this a bigger feud and not bury Nikki A.S.H. in the process.
WWE Headlines
Following Elimination Chamber, all roads lead to WrestleMania. Brock Lesnar will face Roman Reigns with both world championships on the line, Becky Lynch will face Bianca Belair for the RAW Women’s title, it’ll be Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey for the Smackdown Women’s Championship, and Miz & Logan Paul vs. the Mysterios on the current card. Suspected matches also include AJ Styles vs. Edge, and two tag title matches.
Cody Rhodes announced his departure from All Elite Wrestling last week after serving as an EVP and talent for the company since its inception. The rumors now are that Rhodes will make his way to WWE, and while he has been teased on TV in a couple of occurrences, there’s been no concrete proof of the American Nightmare’s next move yet. The only thing for certain will be that all eyes are on Cody until he makes his future known.
Tonight’s show was a lot of recap from Elimination Chamber, with the bare bones of WrestleMania build starting up as well. It did have an awesome last hour of the show though, with everything between Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair, Belair vs. Doudrop, Edge’s great promo and a solid main event closing on a high note. Hopefully, recap can get pushed aside in the coming weeks to build upon these storylines which have very high potential.
