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WWE Monday Night Raw comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (May 29, 2023) from the MVP Arena in Albany, New York, featuring all the fallout from the Night of Champions Premium Live Event that went down this past Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Advertised for tonight: Money in the Bank qualifiers will get underway, though no actual match-ups have been revealed as of now. Elsewhere, new women’s tag team champions will be crowned in a Fatal 4-Way match pitting Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Damage CTRL vs. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green. Plus, Seth Rollins is the new world heavyweight champion, Cody Rhodes has to pick up the pieces after losing to Brock Lesnar, and a whole lot more.
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the Raw live blog will kick off once the show starts on USA Network. It will be below this line here. Reminder: GIFs and pics allowed, but no links to illegal streams, please.
WWE RAW RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR MAY 29
Your eyes are open now but you know it’s still hard to see inside when the action and the intention are two separated things. Now I somehow wish I could explain, but instead I’m going to liveblog this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with a recap of Night of Champions.
Seth Rollins makes his first entrance as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, through the crowd and into a rain of streamers.
He lets the crowd sing his song for a long beat with a huge grin on his face before welcoming Albany to Monday Night Rollins. A “You deserve it” chant rains down on him, and he says it’s been a long road to get here, with lots of lows and lots of highs, but this just feels right, doesn’t it?
He says Raw finally has a champion who wants to be here, who is going to be here, and who is ready for a fight. He’s here with a title around his waist and the world singing his song.
AJ Styles makes his entrance.
He says he knows he’s supposed to be on SmackDown but he couldn’t resist coming here to Monday Night Raw to congratulate Seth Rollins. He gave everything he in that ring but it was almost like Rollins knew what he was doing before he did it, and the WWE Universe says he deserves, but AJ doesn’t agree, he thinks Seth earned it.
Seth says he’s not too good at this things, but after the beating he gave Styles on Saturday, he earned a handshake. Indeed, they shake hands and smile at each other.
Enter Judgment Day.
Finn Balor acts like he has to throw up, because whatever this is is making him want to puke. Damian Priest says he’s feeling kind of nauseous and thinks they should make this positive. At his prompting, Rhea Ripley says Judgment Day run Monday Night Raw.
Priest says with the Bloodline imploding, they actually run all of WWE, and they even did what Roman couldn’t by beating the tag champions. Ripley tells Seth not to get too comfortable with his title because one of them is going to be the one to take it off of him.
Finn and Damian agree that either of them could win it, Rhea says it could be her Dominik, and that leads Seth and AJ to laugh about it. They bicker and it leads to a tag match challenged and accepted for the main event tonight.
Commentary hypes up the rest of the show.
Ricochet makes his entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Adam Pearce gets on the mic talking to management and clearly trying to justify letting AJ Styles wrestle on Raw.
Pearce hears Rollins complaining and Seth demands he just make the match. AJ says he’s professional, he always has his gear, and tells Rollins to go change his pants. Adam gets the go-ahead to make it official and gets off the phone!
Ricochet vs. the Miz (Money in the Bank Qualifying Match)
Ricochet sends the Miz to the floor with a kick, off the ropes, Miz sidesteps so he lands a kick from the apron and follows it up with a kickflip moonsault to the floor! Back inside, Miz sends Rick to the floor, smashes his face into the announce desk and throws him over it!
Back inside, reverse chinlock and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Miz with a crossbody for two! He’s mad because he springboarded for nothing, Ricochet lands a kick and a knee, off the ropes with a flying forearm, shoulder block in the corner, kick to the jaw! Springboard caught, full nelson blocked, throwing the One and Only into the turnbuckles!
Back elbow up, Codebreaker out of the corner sets up the basement DDT... NOPE! Victory roll, reversed, no dice! Crescent kick from Ricochet sets up an Asai DDT, he goes up top...
Ricochet wins by pinfall with a shooting star press, qualifying for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
We get a recap of Zoey Stark costing Becky Lynch her match against Trish Stratus on Saturday.
Trish makes her entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Trish Stratus gets on the mic.
She says it means absolutely nothing to her to hear us say “Thank you, Trish” because she doesn’t care about us or what we say. She hates to say “I told you so,” but she told us so when she said she was going to beat Becky Lynch. That’s just what you do when you’re the greatest of all time, number one, “it.”
And now, Becky can crawl back in her dark hole and go through her stuff. You know, the stuff everyone goes through, or not everyone, not her, and give the real superstars a shot at the big time, real superstars like Zoey Stark who had her back even though she didn’t need it.
Enter Zoey Stark.
They hug and Zoey gets on the mic, saying she came her to be the best and make a statement, and who better to learn by than the OG herself. Yeah she could have taken Becky Lynch’s long difficult road, or she could be smart and be lead by Trish Stratus, who’s so humble and so kind.
Now that she has the floor, Stark has only one thing to say— “Thank you, Trish.” Stratus says she’s welcome and Zoey asks what’s on her face, which is a bruise on her jawline, and Trish says if Becky Lynch comes down here she’s gonna have Stark show her what’s up.
Enter Becky Lynch.
She points out they’re both still in their gear and she wants to finish it right here, right now. Trish sends Zoey to the floor, Becky drops her with a pair of punches and gets on the apron while Stratus begs off. In the ring, off the ropes, flying forearm, boot to Zoey, double leg into mounted punches on Trish but Stark makes the save!
Overwhelming Lynch with That Damn Numbers Game, Z360 takes her out again! She holds Becky up so that Trish can punch her in the jaw by way of a receipt! Zoey takes her “Thank you Trish” shirt off and they beat Lynch up until they can put it on her!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a hype reel of press for Night of Champions.
Indus Sher (Sanga & Veer) vs. Javier Bernal & ???
Indus Sher attack Javi and his tag partner before the bell and make short work of them...
Indus Sher win by pinfall with Demolition Decapitation.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are shown walking backstage to send us to break.
Back from commercial, we get a recap of Night of Champions’ main event.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn make their entrance and get on the mic.
Sami talks about winning at Night of Champions, not just by defending their titles but by doing exactly what they set out to do and watched the Bloodline crumble and Roman Reigns deserved everything he got.
He might hold the title for another thousand days, main event the next five WrestleManias, and get put in the Hall of Fame tomorrow, but none of it matters because he’ll always know in his heart when he looks in their faces that they won.
Enter Imperium.
Ludwig Kaiser cuts a promo saying actually GUNTHER’s victory on Saturday was more impressive.
Kevin Owens asks why they’re here, because last week they said his name and he came out but not this week and you can’t just come out on your own initiative, this isn’t the wild west! Sami backs him down but says he’s right, there’s an unwritten rule and they didn’t mention them.
Plus they have a match against Alpha Academy tonight and he knows they don’t want to step to them because the last time they tried they got embarrassed. Ludwig says they’re not worthy champions and it’s an embarrassment to have them represent Monday Night Raw.
KO says he wonders, because they always hear from Slenderman, and sometimes GUNTHER talks, but the bald one never talks! Zayn leads a “baldy!” chant to get Giovanni Vinci to talk, but Kaiser gets upset about being besmirched and starts ranting—
Chad Gable comes down the aisle with the loudest, longest shoosh you ever did hear, Otis Dozovic and Maxxine Dupri, who is now officially part of Alpha Academy, and says they’re gonna give them a lesson right now. KO and Sami want him to say the thing, you know the word he says kinda funny.
Gable obliges with a “thank yew!” and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a hype reel for Katana Chance and Kayden Carter.
Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis Dozovic) vs. Imperium (Giovanni Vinci & Ludwig Kaiser)
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are on commentary here.
Kaiser and Gable to start, Ludwig knocks him down, drop down, go-behind, side headlock, reversed to a headscissors, do the exchange in the other direction! Waistlock pin from Chad, cover for two! Vinci runs in, flying headscissors but Gable takes him out and then takes Ludwig down again!
Valhalla is at ringside for some reason but Maxxine Dupri cracks a roundhouse kick on her before running away! Kaiser putting boots to Gable, posting him and posing in the corner! Quick tags, working Chad over, he manages to trip Giovanni up and tags Dozovic in!
Otis clubs them both, World’s Strongest Slam on Vinci, Stinger Splash on Kaiser and it’s Caterpillar time! Giovanni breaks up the pin, Otis throws him to the floor, tag to Gable, waistlock, off the ropes, but Vinci hits the low bridge! Ludwig and Chad trading pins, tag to Giovanni!
Big spinebuster into a kick, powerbomb lift...
Imperium win by pinfall with the Imperial Bomb on Chad Gable.
Commentary recaps the saga of the vacated women’s tag team championship.
Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi Blackheart are interviewed in Gorilla but don’t get a word in before Damage CTRL roll up to tell them they’re not a real team and Bayley dedicates their win to Dakota Kai and tells them to stay out of the way unless Raquel wants to end up like Liv Morgan.
Rodriguez points out they’ve beaten Bayley and IYO SKY and also that Bayley is the only member of Damage CTRL who hasn’t held gold since she started the stable.
Raquel and Shotzi make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a Candice LeRae hype reel.
Chelsea Green & Sonya Devill vs. Damage CTRL (Bayley & IYO SKY) vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship)
Rodriguez and Green to start but Chelsea immediately tags Bayley in and runs away. Raquel runs over her with a lariat and she tags SKY in, block the tijeras, whip across, handspring, la casadora, float over, get Rodriguez in the corner for a Shotei and a couple hard forearms!
Tag to Bayley, working Rodriguez over, whip blocked, standing switch, waistlock takedown and the Role Model tags Chelsea back in! Raquel slings her in the ring, she rolls under and wants to tag out but nobody’s willing to tag in! Rodriguez throws her into Shayna, tag to Blackheart, a dive takes a bunch of folks out and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Baszler is in control on Blackheart, elbow stomp, whip to the corner, boot up, she wants the tag but Rousey grabs her and Shayna comes over for a short-arm lariat, reversed into a swinging neckbreaker and the path is clear!
Tag to Rodriguez, clear the apron, lariats on Baszler, scoop lift into a fallaway slam! Tag to Ronda, trading shots, body blows, lariat on the rebound! One-arm powerbomb lift but Baszler makes the save! One-arm powerbomb on Shayna, Rousey steps up into the armbar, Raquel keeping her hands clasped to block!
Bayley drops an elbow on Ronda! Green and Deville post the hell out of Rousey, Killswitch and a running knee... RAQUEL KICKS OUT! Tag to Chelsea, up top, SKY tags in on her, malfunction at the junction, double dropkick takes them out!
Rodriguez eats a Shotei, IYO is fired up, double knees in the corner, cover for two and Shotzi breaks it up! Blackheart off the ropes, diving on Bayley, shoving IYO into the corner, up and over, fireman’s carry facebuster over the knee and a Tiger suplex sends SKY flying! Flapjack in return, up for the moonsault but Ronda tags in!
Jockeying for position, Tower of Doom connects, Shotzi drags Rousey into the corner but Baszler meets her! Knocking Shayna down, the delay is criticla, diving senton caught into an armbar...
Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler win by submission with a cross armbar from Rousey on Shotzi Blackheart, winning the vacant WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
Another recap of Night of Champions sends us to break.
We see AJ Styles and Seth Rollins chatting in the locker room.
Dolph Ziggler makes his entrance to send us to break.
Dolph Ziggler vs. JD McDonagh
Ziggler rushes him out the gate, vicious forearms, biting McDonagh’s face! JD trips him up, wristlocks, a throw, tossing Dolph out of the ring and drawing him up to throw him over the announce desk! Throwing him into the steps, and referee Aja Perera counts...
The match goes to a double count-out draw.
Post-match, JD keeps attacking Ziggler, dismantling the steps and choking him on them with a knee before stomping his head and neck! He tells Ziggler he’ll remember his name and steps on his neck again!
We see Cody Rhodes walking backstage with his arm in a sling.
The annual Memorial Day video package runs and we go to break.
Back from commercial we get a recap of Brock Lesnar vs. Cody Rhodes.
Cody Rhodes makes his entrance and gets on the mic.
He asks Albany what they want to talk about and says he knows what’s hanging in the air, his loss due to referee stoppage. He says his contemporaries told him he was foolish to fight Brock one-handed and to not tap out. It’s not that it didn’t hurt, he was in excruciating pain, he didn’t tap out because that’s not the man he wanted to be.
Years ago he probably would have tapped out, but he knows now that sometimes second chances don’t come, there was a wildly popular star used to stand in this ring and say “Never give up” and that hurts like hell when you’re in a Kimura Lock for three minutes.
But he’s got a question for Brock Lesnar, that he has to ask into the camera because he’s not here tonight, off on his annual vacation, and he asks if he’s satisfied with this being done? They have victories over each other, 1-1.
He hopes he’s not satisfied, and he should consider this an open challenge to him. Hopefully he has social media, cable, a landline wherever he is, he’ll post his whole schedule sometime this week, from Wilkes-Barre to Wichita, and if he’s standing in a ring, he’ll be standing ready to fight Brock.
Tonight he’ll make it the last time he rattles off all of Brock’s accomplishments, and he does so, from NCAA to the UFC to here in WWE, he’s Beast enough to break his arm, but not man enough to tap him out, and if he refuses the challenge, we can add that Lesnar is afraid of what cannot be broken, he’s afraid of Cody Rhodes.
Backstage, Matt Riddle is interviewed.
He says it’s been one crazy hot bro summer and it’s only gonna get crazier with Money in the Bank around the corner. Imagine if he wins the briefcase—
GUNTHER rolls up and he congratulates him and wishes him luck and says he really wants him to win Money in the Bank and cash in on him, because beating and humiliating him is fun. All the best, GUNTHER.
Shinsuke Nakamura makes his entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get a recap of our new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions being crowned, because Raw is three hours long. (Three hours long.)
Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler are interviewed backstage.
They say loyalty is everything and limb by limb they went through everyone, and they’re done being denied and now they demand to be recognized as the best.
Bronson Reed vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (Money in the Bank Qualifying Match)
Reed hard out the gates, hip toss into headbutts, scoop and a slam, Nakamura to the floor and back in, baiting Bronson, punching away, off the ropes and he freight trains him and follows it up with an elbow drop and a huge crossbody senton! Big headbutt, whip reversed, fireman’s carry but Shinsuke fights out with elbows and lands a gamengiri!
Boot up in the corner, Nakamura just turns him around, going for the sliding German but Bronson is too big! Tripping him on the apron, Shinsuke sets him up for a running knee and a guillotine knee drop across the back of his head to send us to break!
Back from commercial, flying armbar countered into a folding press, huge lariat gets Bronson a nearfall! Heel kick cuts him off, in the ropes, this time the sliding German to the floor connects! Shinsuke fired up, but Reed counters with a Samoan Drop and a big senton!
Fireman’s carry, knee in the corner, off the top and Bronson cuts him down with a kick and follows it with a ripcord powerslam! Climbing up top, nobody home on the 747 Splash! Nakamura hits a Kinshasa, drawing himself up, another Kinshasa but Bronson rolls to the floor!
Nakamura ready to take a countout victory, Reed wakes up at Rod Zapata’s count of six, he stumbles at eight but he makes it back in and Shinsuke is right on him...
Shinsuke Nakamura wins by pinfall with Kinshasa to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match.
Judgment Day are interviewed backstage.
Rhea Ripley says she absolutely destroyed Natalya and she’s at home fixing herself up now. Dominik Mysterio says maybe next t ime she’ll think twice before stepping up to Rhea. Ripley says it’s on her for getting distracted and they’re very busy right now and tries to shoo Byron Saxton off.
He asks which two of them are in the main event tonight and they run him off to send us to break.
Back from commercial, we get another Memorial Day video package because sure whatever.
Commentary hypes up next week’s show, including the beginning of women’s qualifiers for Money in the Bank.
AJ Styles and Seth Rollins make their entrances and we go to break.
Back from commercial, we get another hype reel of media coverage for Night of Champions.
AJ Styles & Seth Rollins vs. Judgment Day (Damian Priest & Finn Balor)
Mysterio in the ring as a fakeout, Balor attacks Rollins from behind and Judgment Day are in control. Double whip, duck lariats, Seth slides out to the floor and poses with Rhea Ripley until she realizes. Back inside, Priest back in with him, Rollins lights him up with chops!
Whip to the corner, boot up, dive into a shot to the face and Damian capitalizes, throwing him into the corner and putting boots to him! Armbar, Seth fights to his feet, lands on his feet on a back suplex, slides under, upkicks and a tag to Styles!
In hot, Styles Rush on Balor sets up a sliding forearm, fireman’s carry, float out, STO backbreaker! Match breaks down, blind tag from Priest, Dominik runs interference and AJ grabs him by the lapels, leaving an opening for Damian to pounce him over the announce desk and send us to break!
Back from commercial, Styles wants a tag, Priest blocking, whip to the corner, boot up, passing AJ to the floor for Ripley and Mysterio to get some cheap shots in but Rollins makes the save and throws Dominik in the ring! Rhea gets in his face, he’s not scared and referee Chad Patton ejects the happy couple!
Schoolboy from AJ for two, Pele Kick and the path is clear! Seth tags in, lariats on Finn, kick combo sets up a rolling elbow, reverse STO into the turnbuckles, diving knee takes Priest out! Springboard knee for Balor, superkick... NOPE!
Rollins stampedes him into the corner, powerbomb lift, counter to a small package for two! Inverted headlock elbow drop for another nearfall, rolling through, tag to Priest! Damian clocks AJ with a forearm, lying in wait, goozle but Seth floats over, rolling elbow connects!
Priest clobbers him with a lariat... NOPE! Up in the turnbuckles, Seth meets him, Finn with the blind tag, superplex but Damian reverses into Broken Arrow! Balor off the top, nobody home on Coup de Grace! Superkick connects, both men down and out!
Tags made, Styles nails Priest with an enzuigiri, Ushigoroshi follows, to the apron, forearm, Seth dives on Balor, AJ has Damian lined up but the springboard comes up empty and Priest hits the Razor’s Edge... SETH BREAKS IT UP WITH BLACKOUT!
Waiting for Styles to tag out, Rollins in, fired up, crowd singing along...
AJ Styles & Seth Rollins win by pinfall with Blackout from Rollins on Damian Priest.
AJ and Seth stand tall in victory.
That’s the show, folks.
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