WWE Raw recap and results: The road to WrestleMania is here at last

WWE Raw was actually interesting this week. No, really. The red brand’s latest televised episode came live from Columbia, South Carolina and was actually a decent three hours of television.

With Elimination Chamber also in the books, we are well and truly on the road to WrestleMania. Hence the focus of the show was all the major matches already made and a few potential match-ups.

For my money, the segment of the night belonged to Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch. Given both are solid promos, this should be of little surprise.

But what was even more startling was the acknowledgement of a long-term story. In WWE. Shocking, I know.

Belair was first out, celebrating her Elimination Chamber win and promising to beat Lynch. Lynch then came out and delivered a killer line – the two women to have won a WrestleMania main event will be facing off.

“The only reason you were able to main event #WrestleMania was because I did it FIRST!”

“You might have done it first … but I did it better!”@BeckyLynchWWE @BiancaBelairWWE #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/QJAolpiE8Q

— WWE (@WWE) February 22, 2022

Lynch then harked back to her return and eventual heel turn. Because fans despised her for beating Belair, Lynch now despises Belair. Again, another killer line.

Belair chose instead to let her wrestling do the talking, defeating Doudrop in a match that followed this segment. It was a repeat match we’ve seen ad nauseam, but the two women put on a banger.

What’s more, it showed off Belair’s biggest asset – her superhuman strength – and made Doudrop look good in defeat. Stellar work all round.

The celebrity tie-ins begin

The Miz revealed his WrestleMania tag team partner to take on the Mysterios – Logan Paul. Sorry to anyone hoping for Cody Rhodes!

Anyhow, using either of the Paul brothers is a guaranteed way to get some media exposure. So the move makes sense – plus their boxing careers as well as online notoriety makes them natural heels.

Seriously, look at this image of Miz and Paul standing together. Two men with the most punchable faces in the world, teaming up. What could be better?

The most despicable tag team on #WWERaw!@LoganPaul @mikethemiz pic.twitter.com/haNGBo9bOK

— WWE (@WWE) February 22, 2022

Paul, to his credit, heeled it up quite well too. He told Rey Mysterio he had pool toys bigger than him and then hit a Skull Crushing Finale on Dominik when the inevitable brawl broke out.

Given how well Miz’s last WrestleMania encounter with a celebrity went, there’s no reason to believe this could be any different.

WWE Raw – best of the rest

• Brock Lesnar opened the show but was interrupted by Paul Heyman, who said Lesnar will need to win at Madison Square Garden prior to WrestleMania to remain WWE champion. Good shot at building intrigue, but we all know Brock will beat anyone before the event.
• Alpha Academy beat The Street Profits in a decent tag match.
• Oh look, a rare Finn Balor sighting! The Prinxe teamed up with Tommaso Ciampa to take on The Dirty Dogs, as Ciampa’s NXT feud with Dolph Ziggler made it to WWE RAW. Of course Ciampa and Balor won.
• Rhea Ripley beat Nikki ASH. The real question is why they keep facing off, given Ripley has comprehensively beaten Nikki every time they did contest a match.
• Damian Priest beat Shelton Benjamin to retain his US title. After the match, he issued an open challenge for next week and Balor accepted. This could be a fun match.
• Dana Brooke won the 24/7 championship from Reggie thanks to… kissing him long enough to pin him? They then avoided everyone else gunning for the belt. Okay.
• Edge cut a pretty good promo challenging anyone to step up and face him at WrestleMania. This should be interesting.
• Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins beat RK-Bro to get put in the RAW tag team championship match in two weeks time. The story here is that Owens and Rollins are desperate to make the ‘Mania card and doing what they can to achieve that. Fair enough.

Grade: B-