Monday Night Raw recap 5/20/19

Raw comes to us to this week from Albany, New York. It’s the night after the Money in the Bank show. A new title is introduced. The wild card rule is in full effect plus much more. I'm breaking it all down the for you.

The show kicks off with Brock Lesner and Paul Heyman. He doesn’t get a nice reception from the crowd. He’s got the money in the bank case with him. He’s jamming with it like a boom box. Who knew Brock had old school swagger. That’s the most personality he’s shown in years. Heyman cuts another one of his fantastic promos while Brock stands there without much to say. I like how Heyman mentioned how Brock gets blamed for everything. Even John F Kennedy being killed. Heyman really knows how to play to the crowd.

Seth Rollins comes out to confront Brock. He talks about being the champion Brock couldn’t be. A champion people can inspire to be. He wants him to cash in on him tonight. Paul touches a sensitive note when he brings up Seth’s girl Becky. That’s when Kofi comes out. Kofi wants to state his claim too. He wants to be the greatest champion of all time. With the wild card rule, Brock can go after either champion. Paul ends the segment by telling both guys their night is not over with. Both guys are walking backstage and run into Triple H. He says they both men will team up in the main event to take on Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin.

The first match of the night is between Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman. Zayn tried to get help from Lashley for his match. Lashley declines. The match is underway and Sami takes off running. Both men end up backstage then back out in the ring. The match didn’t last long. Sami got some offense in but it wasn’t enough. Braun wins with the running power slam. I love Sami as a heel. He feels comfortable in that role. Braun really needs to go back to being the dominant monster he was not that long ago. Like I’ve mentioned before, he has not been the same since last years Wrestlemania where he teamed up with that kid. That really killed his momentum.

Lars Sullivan was set to be interviewed by a Charly Caruso. She asks him what are his goals in WWE? Before he gets a word out, the Lucha House Party comes to the ring. They attack Lars. They really held their own against him. Lars got some moves in but it was mostly all Lucha House Party. I was surprised by this. Maybe this is a way for Sullivan to pay his dues for his past comments.

Next up was Ricochet vs Cesaro. Cesaro has new music. It’s not to bad. The Bar is no more so he doesn’t need to use that theme anymore. Cesaro was dominant early on. Ricochet wasn’t 100% after the money in the bank match. He tied to go for a dive over the top rope. It was countered by Cesaro and he tossed him on the ring apron. Cesaro goes for a nip up which Ricochet counters and does a backflip off of Cesaro’s shoulders. He hits a hurricanrana as well to get back into the match. Cesaro comes back with a vicious uppercut. He then goes for a backbreaker followed up by the Neutralizer for the win. Good match. These two work well together with contrasting styles.

Charly interviews AJ Styles backstage. She asks him where does he go from here after his lost to Rollins? Go back to square one he says. He got beat clean last night. He knows he can beat Rollins. Baron Corbin comes in and has had enough of this talk. He tells AJ he failed. He brings up the fact he beat Rollins recently. Corbin feels he should have gotten the title match. It was a slap in the face. AJ says no but this is and strikes him across the face. I guess this could be AJ’s next feud. Styles deserves better. Corbin still sucks to me. Plus why is he still dressing like the Raw General Manager? He needs new ring gear.

We get Roman and Shane having a war of words with each other. Shane says that now that he’s done with Miz he can focus on him. He’s still not happy about Roman attacking Vince with a superman punch. Roman wants them to have a match tonight. Shane says that’s not happening. Roman says he hates spoiled kids. Shane has some new back up. Drew McIntyre comes out to join him on stage. Shane announces that he will accept Roman’s challenge. It will take place in two weeks at the Super Show in Saudi Arabia.

Shane and Drew are backstage and are approached by the Miz. He says things are not over between him and Shane. Drew steps in and says things have changed. If he wants Shane he has to go through him first. This sets up a match between the two later in the night.

We get an excellent tag team match between the Usos and The Revival. No antics. No back shaving. No ucey hot. Just two great teams getting it done in the ring. This is what the fans wanna see. This match delivered and was one of the best of the night. The Revival was aggressive early on. The Uso’s come back with some solid offense. We got several near falls. It was a thing of beauty. The Revival gets the win by grabbing the tights. This isn’t the last we will see of these two teams. If they focus on the in-ring work and less of the shenanigans, this will be a great feud. The tag team division needs it badly.

The FireFly Funhouse. returns once again. This time with just the music and the introduction of all the characters. We get an extended version. It shows kids and comes off very happy. Then it turns really dark. The ongoing theme of “let me in” was present. We get another glimpse of Bray in that scary mask. This could be one of the best things WWE has done in years. I hope they don’t mess it up. Maybe with Bray and Jo Jo celebrating the birth of their first child, he didn’t have time to film anything new for this week's show. Congrats to those two by the way.

Up next is a Moment of Bliss with special guest The Man Becky Lynch. Alexa Bliss is joined by Nikki Cross. She seems to be Alexa’s new friend. Even before they came out they were backstage talking and Alexa told her she did good filling in for her at Money in the Bank but she didn’t win. Back to the segment, Becky comes out and Alexa asks how does it feel not to be Becky 2 Belts anymore? Before she can get a word out she’s interrupted by The IIconics. They make fun of Becky. Call her Becky one belt. They mention they still have their belts. Becky says she’s defended her belt more then they have theirs. Lacey Evans comes out too and says it’s because of her she lost the smackdown Woman’s Title. This all resulted in a 6 woman tag team match being made.

Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross and Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans and The IIconics Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. Alexa spent the whole match on the outside sipping coffee. The match was ok. Lacey looked solid. She would eventually walk out on the match. She had enough of the nasties I guess. Becky was the best of them all I felt. Becky picks up the win with a leg drop off the top rope. Even with Alexa dealing with injuries (mostly concussions) they find a way to keep her involved in the action.

Mick Foley comes out to introduce the WWE universe to a new title. There were many rumors going around about what kind of title it would be. A legends title? Return of the hardcore title? Foley says it was time for Raw to get Raw again. He announces the new 24/7 Title. The crowd was not impressed. You could hear boos. It can be defended at all times and anyone from Raw, Smackdown, 205 Live, NXT, and NXT UK can go after it. He even mentioned some legends may challenge for it too.

We got a bunch of guys to come out and compete for it. Titus O’Neal, EC3, No Way Jose, Cedric Alexander, Eric Young, Anderson and Gallows who both had the belt tugging it back and forth plus several others. They are all brawling for the belt. Titus wins it and soon loses it to Robert Roode who attacked him from behind and rolled him up for the pin. R-Truth would end the night with the belt. He tied to help Roode hide when the guys were chasing him. Roode hid in the trunk of the car. Once they left, Truth had a referee waiting and got the victory. It seems lame at first but it gives the mid to lower card guys something to do each week. This should be an interesting title and will make for good tv.

Drew McIntyre vs The Miz was up next. These two had a decent match. Shane was in McIntyre’s corner. He got involved multiple times. Miz had Drew in the figure four leg lock. Drew escapes with a series of chops. Ric Flair would be proud of both men. Drew would pick up the win with the Claymore kick. Shane gets in the ring and says he has one last gift for Miz. He sets up for the Coast to Coast. Roman’s music hits. He comes down to the ring to help Miz. He hits Drew with a superman punch. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get Miz and Roman vs Drew and Shane this week on Smackdown. Or Shane could be replaced with Elias. You heard it here first.

In the main event, it’s a No DQ tag team match between Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin vs The Universal and WWE champions Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston. Lashley and Corbin got the early advantage. Attacking Seth before he could even get to the ring. The match gets going in the ring and Corbin and Lashley are still getting the upper hand. Rollins and Seth come back. Rollins would get a chair to use on the two. Kofi wins with the trouble in paradise on Corbin. Before they could catch their breath, Lashley hit both men with a spear. Brock Lesner would come down to tease a cash-in of the briefcase. Heyman says your in their head. Come back next week to announce who he would ultimately face.

That it’s for this week’s Raw recap. Like most weeks it had its moments. More good than bad this week I feel. We also learned Rey Mysterio has a separated shoulder. Next week we will get an update and the fate of the United States Title. It will probably be vacated if that’s the case with Rey’s injury. This was fun. I’ll be back later this week to recap NXT. I can’t wait for that.