This week’s episode of WWE Raw is fully loaded. Not only will Stephanie Vaquer defend the Women’s World Championship, John Cena is scheduled to appear in Boston, Massachusetts, for the very last time. The Women’s Tag Team Champions are also putting their titles on the line against Asuka and Kairi Sane.
Keep checking in for the live results of this week’s episode of WWE Raw…
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John Cena, the GOAT
It’s a match that’s been talked about since Cena announced his retirement tour: Cena vs. Dominik Mysterio. While fans hoped that he’d be Cena’s final opponent and rumors of Cena defeating Dom have been floating around, it finally happened tonight.
Cena challenged Dom for the Intercontinental Championship for tonight’s show. Dom claims he would’ve beaten Cena in any era, and he had the chance to prove that once and for all. Unfortunately for Dom, his dirty tactics just didn’t work in his favor this week. Cena did beat him and walk out of Raw the new Intercontinental Championship. This mean’s he has held every single major title for the men in WWE, joining a very select few men that hold the accolade. With Cena’s retirement tour wrapping next month that leave just two dates left until the GOAT hangs it up for good.
It’s WARGAMES
Punk came out to address the fans about last week when he was attacked by Logan Paul. “The Maverick” eventually came out to confront the champion, saying that when he got hit with a Tsunami he started to see “The Vision.” Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker then came out and they eyed down Punk making their way to the ring. Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes sided with Punk and all hell broke loose at ringside. This does seem to be the catalyst to this years Men’s WarGames match, but we’ll have to wait and see how the rest shakes out. With Cody in the match, it seems pretty likely the Babyface team will also include Roman Reigns and maybe Cena? A real power team, if that’s the case.
Evil Nikki Bella Has Returned
Stephanie Vaquer has had issues with Judgment Day’s Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez for weeks now. Nikki Bella aligned with the Women’s World Champion against them and has been helping keep them at bay. Tonight, Vaquer went one-on-one with the powerhouse. While she retained the title, she didn’t come out of the match completely unscathed. Nikki raised her hand high but when she had her back turned, hit her in the face with the championship. She threw some heated words in Vaquer’s face and ripped off her shirt, revealing her black ring gear underneath.
Say what you want about Nikki, she’s really stepped it up over the last few months. Sure she’s a WWE Hall of Famer, but this run is very reminiscent of the one she had when she came back from injury before retiring from full-time in-ring competition. I’m not sure how much more time we’ll have her in the ring, but I know I’m going to be soaking it in.
Two Advance in The Last Time is Now Tournament
It was announced that a tournament to decide John Cena’s final opponent is taking place. In tonight’s Raw, we finally got an idea of some of the talent that will be fighting in said tournament. Two matches took place: Rusev vs. Damian Priest and Sheamus vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.
Rusev was first to advance after knocking Priest out. Given Cena just won the IC Championship — a title Rusev aims to reclaim — him advancing makes perfect sense. Plus, he’s yet another of Cena’s rivals from his tenured career.
Sheamus advanced too, which was pretty predictable honestly. They don’t seem keen on doing much with Nakamura at all at this stage, and again, Sheamus has that history with the champion. The tournament is set to include stars from Raw, SmackDown, NXT and others not in the company.
A chaotic women’s main event!
In a twist few saw coming, we have new Women’s Tag Team Champions! Sane and Asuka defeated Flair and Bliss to win back the belts they lost last May. They have been a forced to be reckoned with since their return, and it really feels like Flair and Bliss helped restore prestige to the titles. Now that the job is done (can’t say I was ready to see them lose right now, though) we turn our attention to WarGames.
Nia Jax and Lash Legend came out to beat down the former champions. Rhea Ripley made her return, running down to lay out the women in the ring (and IYO SKY was there too!)
Ripley only uttered a single word in true William Regal fashion: WARGAMES. So there we have it. The set up to WarGames is official! And with that announcement, this concludes this week’s episode of WWE Raw.
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