Big E looked strong and healthy in his latest return to the ring, but once again Kofi Kingston was the star of the show as his Trouble in Paradise on Sami Zayn lifted the New Day to a win over a heel team that also included Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler. While it’s disappointing to see Zayn take another loss, he was terrific, as usual, on the mic earlier in the night. Now here’s hoping Kofi-Ziggler in a steel cage come Stomping Grounds brings a little more energy than their match last week at Super ShowDown.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com6d ago

A solid showing by the women of SmackDown, as Sonya Deville (with the help of Mandy Rose) beat Carmella in an entertaining match, while blue brand champ Bayley had to work hard to take down Nikki Cross, who had Alexa Bliss by her side. This, of course, was just a tune-up for the Bliss-Bayley showdown at Stomping Grounds, but the truth is Cross looks like she has the chops to be in the spotlight in future pay-per-views. On the men’s side, Heavy Machinery, Otis and Tucker, were impressive in crushing a pair of local jobbers and now look to be the frontrunners to face the SmackDown tag-team champs, Daniel Bryan and Rowan.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com6d ago

It was a busy, frustrating and largely disappointing night for The Miz on Tuesday. After hosting a lengthy “Miz TV” segment with Shane McMahon, Drew McIntyre and Elias, The Miz would be granted a rematch against Shane O’Mac IF he could beat both Elias and Drew McIntyre. Miz defeated Elias, but could not overcome McIntyre. McMahon then called for the bell against an already broken Miz, forcing the face to submit for his second loss of the night. There were an awful lot of moving parts, and it’s unclear what the story arc is here. Perhaps the payoff will come at Stomping Grounds in a couple of weeks if they go one on one again. If not, chalk this one up to nothing more than another wretched day for the A-Lister.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com6d ago

The Revival won a triple threat match against Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins and The Usos on Monday Night Raw to become Raw tag team champions for the second time. It was a solid match, as you might expect with The Usos and The Revival involved, but Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins also had a few big moments to shine despite their two-month reign ultimately coming to an end. Dawson ultimately stole the pin from The Usos and pinned Ryder to seal the victory.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com7d ago

Monday Night Raw opened and closed with Seth Rollins, and the theme of the night was that the steel chair he used to decimate Brock Lesnar was never far from his side. Even though he ultimately ended up on the wrong side of a DQ decision to Kevin Owens in the main event, after putting his hands on special referee Sami Zayn, Rollins got the best of Zayn, Owens and Baron Corbin in the end. With Paul Heyman declaring during the night that Lesnar would no longer give notice before attempting to cash in Money in the Bank, a rivalry with either Owens or Zayn after Stomping Grounds would be a solid direction to head in.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com7d ago

Rounding out the rest of another inconsistent, if somewhat improved edition of Raw: Firefly Funhouse went to a dark place as Bray Wyatt smashed one of his puppets with a giant novelty hammer and then jarred the resulting jam. Ricochet, Braun Strowman and The Miz defeated Cesaro, Bobby Lashley and Samoa Joe in the match of the night; Lacey Evans had words with Becky Lynch, before teaming up with Alexa Bliss and defeating Lynch and Bayley; Lars Sullivan faced the Lucha House party in yet another handicap match, for some reason; The IIconics beat a couple of local talents in another match in which they didn't actually defend their women's tag team titles; and R-Truth spent the better part of three hours stuck in an elevator with several potential challengers to his 24/7 title and bonded with them as no referee was present.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com7d ago

Some of the biggest names in the business made one final statement ahead of Super ShowDown, including Goldberg, who will go one-on-one against The Undertaker for the first time ever. Goldberg had some strong words for his opponent, before the Deadman’s music hit, the lights went dark and The Undertaker appeared in the ring, nose to nose with Goldberg before disappearing just as quickly. Shane McMahon once again got the upper hand on Roman Reigns, beating down the Big Dog, thanks to assistance from The Revival and Drew McIntyre, while Finn Balor and Andrade came to blows, albeit briefly. And finally, Lars Sullivan, after months of reticence, spoke in freakish metaphors to a lukewarm response. Here’s hoping his in-ring performance Friday goes a little better.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com13d ago

This might not be the most popular opinion, but can we have more Dolph Ziggler, please? On Tuesday, he delivered another moving promo, both professing his respect for Kofi Kingston and the depths of jealousy ahead of their matchup at Super ShowDown. Then, shortly after Kofi and Xavier Woods took care of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, Ziggler laid out both New Day members with superkicks. Will things go Zigger’s way Friday in Saudi Arabia? It’s a longshot, but one thing is for certain: His performance, on the mic and in the ring, is a reminder that few, if any, do it better than Ziggler.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com13d ago

Welcome back to the championship mix, Alexa Bliss. Largely sidelined with injuries in recent months, she -- thanks to outside assistance by Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville -- DDT’d Carmella to win a triple-threat match, which also included Charlotte Flair, to earn a shot against Bayley at the inaugural pay-per-view event, Stomping Grounds, later this month. While Bayley will have her hands full, so, apparently, will R-Truth, who once again lost his 24/7 title, this time within seconds to Elias in a lumberjack match. Truth, though, immediately reclaimed his gold by pinning Elias under the ring and out of sight of the camera as the other performers all duked it out in the ring. In case you’re wondering, that’s four titles for Truth in the 15-day existence of the belt.

Matt Wilansky, ESPN.com13d ago

Monday night was largely centered on building up matches and appearances for Friday’s Super ShowDown event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. That’s what brought us about six minutes of The Undertaker, which basically boiled down to him telling Goldberg, “You’re next.” The long advertised and oft-hyped Brock Lesnar cash-in advertised for an entire week predictably led to nothing of the kind, although Brock Lesnar continued to do some of his best work of the last few years in utterly destroying Seth Rollins. Baron Corbin got an End of Days in for good measure, and although Corbin seems to stand very little chance of winning the Universal championship from Rollins on Friday, rolling Lesnar and even Becky Lynch into the story (as Rollins was being taken away in an ambulance) was a nice way of making the show feel like one cohesive web of stories.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com14d ago

Firefly Funhouse once again represented a light in an otherwise choppy, at best, edition of Monday Night Raw. Bray Wyatt’s madcap play on a children’s show folded in a workout segment, a Vince McMahon puppet with devil horns and subliminal messages that urged viewers to “erase your mind” and “let him in”. It certainly balanced out the silliness of the arm wrestling contest between Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley, which seemed to come straight out of the 1980s, as well as the type of frustration that comes from once again being unable and unwilling to uncouple Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair for an extended period of time. Lynch, predictably, interfered midway through a match between Flair and Lacey Evans. Also, Lars Sullivan continued his puzzling conflict with the Lucha House Party, while Rey Mysterio relinquished the United States championship to Samoa Joe and still got a Coquina Clutch for his troubles.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com14d ago

The Evans-Flair match was one of only four matches over the course of Raw’s three-hour broadcast. Drew McIntyre and The Revival defeated Roman Reigns and The Usos, with Shane McMahon playing the numbers game after the match as Reigns absorbed multiple Claymore kicks, a Shatter Machine and a spear from McMahon himself. On the positive side of things, Ricochet and Cesaro have another great match, folding the silliness of the 24/7 title into the aftermath of the match in the process by having Cesaro slide a table out from under the ring only to find R-Truth. It fas a fun way to keep that title on TV without making it a focal point. Nikki Cross had the crowd behind her in a big way in her victory over Peyton Royce, and showed off some of her dynamic offensive repertoire. She and Alexa Bliss are making the most out of their unlikely friendship, and if it goes any way other than the obvious in the short term, it’s good news for both of them.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com14d ago

If you've been unhappy with the recent direction of WWE, Monday's edition of Raw didn't do anything to help. The first hour, 15 minutes of the show featured no competitive wrestling. There was two "Who will Brock Lesnar cash-in against" segments that led to Lesnar "realizing" that he didn't have to choose now and walking off. There was a rehash of the Dolph Ziggler attack on Kofi Kingston, this time with Xavier Woods making a save, followed by a lengthy fight through the crowd. But the bright side of that was another passionate Ziggler promo. Shane McMahon "defeated" Lance Anoa'i after interference from Drew McIntyre. There was multiple segments from the Usos that led to a game of cornhole against The Revival and R-Truth doing a pass-through with the 24/7 title. Add-in a Fatal Four-Way which might've been an elimination match, but only one competitor was ever pinned, and you get an edition of Raw that we hope was off only because it was a holiday edition. At least there wasn't a segment where fans awkwardly asked Sami Zayn inane questions while he sat in a replicate of a 100-year-old electric chair. Wait, that happened?

Matt Willis, ESPN Staff Writer21d ago

While RAW was largely a disappointment, which brought about “AEW” and “this is awful” chants from the restless Kansas City crowd early on in the show, the silver lining was some of the in-ring action. The night’s main event between Universal champion Seth Rollins and Sami Zayn closed out the show on a positive note. Two other in-ring gems saw Ricochet rebound from a loss on last week’s show with a pinfall victory over Cesaro and the duo of Becky Lynch and Nikki Cross defeat women’s tag team champions the IIconics.

Sean Coyle, ESPN21d ago

Jon Moxley has landed in AEW. While Chris Jericho was the winner of the main event of Double or Nothing, and earned a future world title shot against Adam Page, that was not the biggest news of the night. As Jericho asked for a thank you from AEW and the crowd, a slow rumble became a roar as Moxley — fka Dean Ambrose — came from the crowd and proceeded to hit Jericho and referee Paul Turner with a pair of Dirty Deeds, and then lined up Kenny Omega for the same. Their battle spilled up the ramp and up on the stage, where Moxley hit a final Dirty Deeds atop a giant stack of chips on the stage, then flipped Omega down onto a different portion of the stage.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com23d ago

3-time WWE champion Mick Foley made an appearance on RAW tonight to debut a new championship. The title, dubbed the 24/7 Championship, is reminiscent of the Hardcore Championship of years past, a fond memory of the Attitude Era. The title can be defended anywhere, at any place, at any time. Following his announcement, Foley left the championship in the middle of the ring to be claimed by any superstar. After a brawl featuring a number of superstars, Titus O’Neil became the first-ever 24/7 champion. The reign didn't last long, however, as Robert Roode snuck up from behind him and rolled him up for the pinfall victory to become champion. After Roode evaded challengers backstage, R-Truth lured him into a trap and got the pinfall to take the title to SmackDownLive.

Matt Willis, ESPN Staff Writer28d ago

The Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers continued the night's run of tremendous tag team matches. While the Bucks ultimately won and retained the AAA tag titles, this was a showcase for the creative minds that all four men possess. It felt like an appropriate ramp up of energy and crowd excitement in the evening's co-main event.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com23d ago

The first major surprise of the night - a previously scheduled triple threat women's match on Double or Nothing added veteran standout Awesome Kong to make it a Fatal 4-Way. Kong spent a long stretch with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, as well as a short run with WWE. She also featured prominently on both seasons of the Netflix show GLOW.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com23d ago

Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) defeated Angelico and Jack Evans in a tag team wrestling clinic. After the match, the lights went out twice - once to mark the debut of Super Smash Bros., and once to allow an army of their masked minions to lay waste to both tag teams that had just competed.

Tim Fiorvanti, ESPN.com23d ago

Bayley cashes in her Money In The Bank briefcase on Charlotte and wins the SmackDown Live women's championship

Andrew Feldman, ESPN.com29d ago

Well that was a twist. Brock Lesnar runs in an grabs the Money In The Bank briefcase. He was announced as the winner.

Andrew Feldman, ESPN.com29d ago