The Queen and the 2020 Royal Rumble winner, Charlotte Flair, comes to the ring to announce who she will be facing at WrestleMania.
Flair gets in the ring and says everyone wants to know who she will choose to face at Wrestlemania. Will she choose Becky Lynch for the Raw Championship or the SmackDown Champion Bayley? Charlotte says she has held the Raw Championship several times and she’s beaten Becky too. She has held the SmackDown Championship and has beaten Bayley. She says she also has love for NXT, and NXT has love for their queen. Charlotte says she has held all the gold 10 times. But the queen still wants all the gold.
Out comes the NXT Champion Rhea Ripley! She gets in the ring as the fans chant “NXT”. She reiterates that Charlotte did win the women’s Royal Rumble and she gets to challenge for any title she wants at Wrestlemania. And like she said, she has already beaten Becky and Bayley…but she hasn’t beaten her!
Ripley says as a matter of fact, she has actually beaten her. Rhea says if she is going to challenge for any title at Wrestlemania and then she raises her championship. Charlotte walks towards her and looks at the championship. Flair leaves the ring as the crowd boo her. Flair Woo’s and walks away, as Ripley raises her championship in the air.
Sarah Schreiber is backstage with Lashley. She asks him for his battle plan for tonight and if he’s distracted by Lana’s defeat earlier. He says he’s not distracted because his wife’s match was her match. They will celebrate tonight when he wins and gets the opportunity he deserves. He says he will beat both Rollins and Ricochet because he is the one man that can back up a bold statement. And after he wins, here’s the spoiler. He will defeat Brock Lesnar and go on to Wrestlemania as the WWE champion. And when he goes to Wrestlemania, he will beat Drew McIntyre and remain the WWE champion.
*Commercial Break*
Natalya Vs. Asuka W/Kairi Sane
The bell rings and Natalya takes a headock and grinds the Empress down, but Asuka reverses it and both women get to their feet. They exchange reversals and Natalya goes for the cover but Asuka kicks out. She sends Asuka to the ropes but the Empress comes back with a shoulder block that floors Natalya.
Asuka looks for a spinning back fist but Natalya moves out of the way. Natalya lifts Asuka for a powerbomb and a two-count. Natalya goes for the sharpshooter but Asuka rolls out of the ring to regroup with Sane.
*Commercial Break*
Back from the break and Asuka is laying the boots into Natalya. She slams Natalya face first into the mat, then goes for another kick but Naytalya ducks and attempts a roll-up to no avail. Asuka connects with a kick to the face then applies a modified abdominal arm bar stretch.
Natalya fights her way out of the hold but Asuka slams her into the mat and connects with the Shining Wizard for a near-fall. Asuka attempts an armbar but Natalya fights it and hits Asuka with right hands. Asuka goes for another armbar and this time Natalya stands up, lifting Asuka, and turns it into a vertical suplex.
Asuka runs at Natalya but gets caught with a kick. Nattie grabs Asuka but gets rolled-up for a near-fall. They exchange pinfall attempts until Natalya drops her with a discus clothesline. Nattie goes for the sharpshooter and locks it in. Asuka crawls and reaches the ropes and falls to the outside. Natalya goes to the outside and throws Asuka back into the ring. Sane distracts Nattie as she tries to re-enter the ring, allowing the Asuka Lock to be applied and that’s all she wrote.
Winner: Asuka
After the match, Asuka gets on the microphone and starts yelling in Japanese. She switches to English and challenges Becky Lynch to a match for the Raw women’s championship!
Out comes the WWE Raw women’s champion, Becky Lynch, and she saunters to the ring. Becky says after ducking her for a full year, she wants to fight Asuka again. Lynch says beating her at the Royal Rumble nearly gave her superpowers. And if she thinks she wants to drink from that fountain again, she is right because she does. But she thinks why would she put her championship on the line so close to Wrestlemania? Lynch says because the only thing more fun than beating her ass once would be beating her again. Lynch says she’s on.
Sane tries to attack Lynch from behind but Lynch throws her to the outside. Lynch turns around and stares-down Asuka, telling her she has eyes in the back of her head. Lynch grabs her WWE championship and leaves to the cheers of the fans.
*Commercial Break*
Charlotte will be on NXT this week to answer Rhea Ripley’s challenge.
Seth Rollins makes his entrance for the main event. Rollins says good things come to those who are on the right side of victory. And to join him in giving a round of applause to Buddy Murphy and AOP for their victory earlier tonight. Rollins says now it is his time to once again dethrone Brock Lesnar as the fans don’t appear to like it.
He says he made that promise this time last year and he got a different response. He promised he would go to Wrestlemania and beat Lesnar for the Universal title and that’s exactly what he did. And he took that title and he defended it all across the world. From here to Paris, to Tokyo, to Seattle, to New York City. And instead of a proper welcome, he got crucified.
Rollins says he doesn’t hate them for it. Rollins says he’s here to say thank you. It’s because of them that he is the man that he is today. The man he has become and so proud of. And he is going to dethrone Brock Lesnar once again but this time it won’t be for him or for the fans but for the greater good. For something that you cannot begin to understand. It will be remembered in 10, 20, 100 years. He will go down as the man who saved this industry. Drew McIntyre won’t go to Wrestlemania to fight the beast, he will go to fight the Monday Night Messiah.
Bobby Lashley and Ricochet make their entrances, and this match will happen after the break.
*Commercial Break*
Number One Contender Match
Seth Rollins Vs. Ricochet Vs. Bobby Lashley
The bell rings and Ricochet fights off both Rollins and Lashley right away. He throws Lashley to the outside and drops Rollins and tries to pin him but Seth kicks out. Ricochet hits a hurricanrana and Rollins falls to the outside. Ricochet runs to the ropes but Lashley trips him up, preventing a dive to the outside.
Seth is back in the ring and hits a slingblade on Ricochet. As Lashley is entering the ring, Rollins knees him back onto the outside. Rollins continues to assault Ricochet. He sends Ricochet to the corner, runs at him but gets tossed over and onto the apron. Seth springboard off but Ricochet moves out of the way and Lashley returns to swat Rollins.
Lashley grabs Ricochet and Rollins and delivers a double neck breaker. Lashley clothesline Rollins to the outside, then runs at Ricochet but gets caught with a kick to the side of the head. Dropkick from Ricochet that sends Lashley to the outside.
Ricochet hits a tope to Lashley, then gets back in the ring and hits one to Rollins on the other side. Ricochet throws Rollins back into the ring and climbs to the top rope but out comes Buddy Murphy, who pushes Ricochet onto the floor!
AOP come down as well and they attack Lashley. Kevin Owens comes out to make the save and Murphy meets him on the stage but gets superkicked. Erik comes from behind and attacks AOP, while Owens runs to the ring and helps out. Erik and Owens grab steel chairs and hit AOP with them on the outside of the ring. It’s chaos as we head to the break.
*Commercial Break*
We return to see Seth and Ricochet down in the ring. Both men get back to their feet and Ricochet unloads some right hands. He runs to the ropes but Lashley drops him. Rollins runs at Lashley but he too gets caught and hit with a spinebuster. Lashley gets Rollins in the corner and tackles him with shoulders.
Ricochet jumps off the top rope with a crossbody to Lashley, who rolls to the outside. Ricochet with a right hand takes Rollins down, then he gets on the apron and knocks Lashley down. Ricochet springboards into the ring with a flying forearm to take Rollins down. A standing shooting star press by Ricochet earns a near-fall, but then Lashley attacks him from behind.
Lashley goes to throw Ricochet but he lands on his feet, only to get hit with a spinebuster anyway. Lashley drops Rollins face-first onto the mat for a near-fall. All three men are down. Seth gets on the top rope and hits a blockbuster on Lashley but Ricochet breaks the pinfall attempt.
Rollins climbs the top rope but Ricochet hits him from behind. Ricochet climbs the second rope but Lashley knocks him down and hits Seth with a uperplex! Ricochet gets back on the top rope and hits the 450 splash for the win!
Winner: Ricochet
Ricochet is the number one contender! He will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia.
After Ricochet wins, Brock comes down and hits him with an F5. Brock poses with the title to end the show.
And that’s it for this week’s Raw. I will see you back here on Wednesday night for AEW Dynamite results, but we’ll have loads of content between now and then, so stay tuned to Ringside News. Safe travels!
