After a week of no storyline movement to focus on Raw Reunion, a lot was planned and delivered for the July 29th edition of Monday Night Raw. There were four huge matches scheduled, including a gauntlet match to decide who AJ Styles would face at SummerSlam for his United States Championship, as well as a Raw Tag Team Championship triple threat match, which was won by the OC – Gallows and Anderson. A night full of excitement saw plenty of highlights to choose from, so let us take a look back at this week’s Raw.
#AndNEW: Maria Kanellis is the New 24/7 Champion
The night kicked off with the first ever mosh pit mixed tag team match for the 24/7 Championship between the champion R-Truth and Carmella vs Drake Maverick and Renee Michelle. Not so shockingly, R-Truth would finish off Maverick rather quickly to retain his championship. As soon as the bout was over, the wrestlers on the outside crowded the ring, creating a dog pile on Truth and a pin was made. Mike Kanellis would come out of the pile as the new 24/7 Champion. He would run to the back where his wife Maria Kanellis would show up angry as ever.
Maria would instruct Mike to get down on his back to allow her to pin him and become the new champion. He would do as his wife wished, leading to Maria Kanellis becoming not only the new 24/7 Champion, but also the first ever pregnant champion in the WWE as well. Maria would skip through the halls as she knew no one would pin her and it seems this is where the championship will be going for now.
Raw Highlight: Ricochet earns his shot for SummerSlam
A gauntlet match would take place between Rey Mysterio, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Andrade, and Ricochet to decide who would face AJ Styles at SummerSlam. Mysterio would notch two big wins on Cesaro and Sami Zayn before being eliminated by his rival Andrade. Ricochet would draw the lucky card of the fifth spot in the gauntlet, which he would have enough in him to hit the 630 Splash on SmackDown’s Andrade to claim his spot at SummerSlam and face AJ Styles for the United States Championship at SummerSlam. So much for no rematches. At least this one should be a classic.
#AndNEW and Raw MVP: The OC win the Raw Tag Team Championships
Tag team matches can be some of the best in wrestling and that was no different on Raw last night. It was The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) vs The Revival (Dash and Dawson) vs The OC (Gallows and Anderson) for the Raw Tag Team Championships. It was great back and forth tag team action that mostly involved the rivalry between The Usos and The Revival taking place. As the match would come to a close however, The OC – Gallows and Anderson would be in the right spots as they would empty The Revival out of the ring before hitting The Magic Killer finish on Jimmy Uso for the victory and to win their second tag titles in the WWE. The OC of Styles, Gallows and Anderson has almost all the gold on Monday Nights. It is almost like they are trying to beat the Undisputed Era before they achieve the same in NXT.
Raw Highlight: Brock Lesnar brutalizes Seth Rollins
To absolutely everyone’s shock, Brock Lesnar was live in the building for this week’s Raw. The Universal Champion had his eyes set Seth Rollins while he was about to finish off Dolph Ziggler. Lesnar would hit four different F5’s. One was throwing him into the LED ring post, while the final three being Lesnar F5ing the “Beast Slayer” onto the top of a steel chair and would leave him coughing up blood. It was an absolute brutal attack that you certainly did not expect to happen at all. Rollins was loaded into an ambulance, but the ambulance was stopped before it could leave the arena. Lesnar would pull Rollins out of it as he was on the gurney. Lesnar would lift him up once more and F5 him onto the side of the gurney which left him down and out once more. Brutalize doesn’t say enough about this one.
Raw Highlight: Cedric Alexander is slowly becoming a Star
CEDRIC, NO, YOU DIDN'T.#RAW @CedricAlexander pic.twitter.com/Q81JInt43q
— WWE (@WWE) July 30, 2019
It all but seemed Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe’s Samoan Summit was just going to be a battle between the two men but became so much more. Drew McIntyre added himself to the equation which led to Cedric Alexander doing so as well. The Usos and The OC would get involved as well and all the men would be at the top of the ramp when Alexander would climb to the top of the LED entrance board. He would dive from the top to take every single man out. The fight would end with The Usos and Cedric hitting Joe before Roman would Spear him to end the night. The biggest piece to take out of this was Cedric Alexander being the main factor of all of this, and his star is slowly beginning to glow.
Raw was one eventful show to say the least, seeing three new champions by nights end. Matches were made for SummerSlam while Roman Reigns’ SummerSlam plans seem to be a little confusing. It looks like yet another tag team match for “The Big Dog”, but what is to be believed is that SummerSlam is looking to be a must-see event with plenty stars getting their moment. Make sure to come back tomorrow for the SmackDown LIVE Rundown.
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