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WWE Monday Night Raw comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (June 24, 2019) from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington, featuring all the fallout from the Stomping Grounds event that went down just last night in Tacoma.
Advertised for tonight: AJ Styles takes on Ricochet in a non-title match, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the Raw live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE RAW RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR JUNE 24
We’re starting off with Seth Rollins, as commentary recaps what went down at Stomping Grounds last night. He stands in the ring, soaking in the cheers from the fans at the arena, who start a brief “burn it down” chant.
He really lets the moment breathe.
“So about last night...”
He’s got a single hair stuck on his forehead, by the way.
“Last night, Baron Corbin thought he was going to take this title from me,” he says. That’s when Becky Lynch’s music hits. These two are dating, if you didn’t know. And if you didn’t, don’t worry, WWE will be here to remind you 88 times.
When her music stops, a “Becky” chant breaks out. She seems surprised but appreciative.
“Hey, you kind of interrupted me,” Seth tells her.
“Did I?”
“Ya did.”
Cute.
Rollins gives Corbin credit for being smart and getting a referee like Lacey Evans but says he’s not smart enough to recognize he has “the best back-up on the planet.”
“I would say it pays to be The Man’s man,” Lynch responds.
She goes on to mention tapping Evans last night and slapping her head off her shoulders in the main event.
Cue up Corbin’s music.
He doesn’t show up, though, and instead Evans attacks Lynch from behind. Seth tries to pull her off and she pushes him. He smiles and gets out of her way so she can beat up Evans. Corbin then runs in for a sneak attack of his own but fails miserably and he also gets beat up.
Baron gets a mic and says he needs to give Lynch the Universal title and go home to make a sandwich because she’s taking care of all of his business. Lacey jumps in to threaten to nutshot him again. Corbin goes on to say he picked Evans because she’s the only real woman around these parts, and he would take her on as a mixed tag team partner. Lacey suggests they have a mixed tag match at Extreme Rules.
Becky agrees to it but only under the condition that if the champs win, Evans and Corbin leave them alone forever. The heels say they’ll accept it but have a stipulation of their own. Rollins agrees to it before even hearing it. Corbin reveals both the Universal and Raw women’s titles will be on the line, winner-take-all.
Time for an 8-man elimination tag team match.
Daniel Bryan & Rowan & The Revival vs. The New Day & The Usos
The heels couldn’t get along right off the bat and The Revival were responsible for Daniel Bryan getting pinned and the SmackDown tag team champions being eliminated. They hit the Shatter Machine on Xavier Woods just after and pinned him to eliminate The New Day. That meant restarting the match as a regular tag team affair against their rivals, The Usos.
The Usos won on a really cool finish where Dawson suplexed Jimmy Uso from one post expecting Wilder to come down from the other post but Jey got there first and used a splash on Dawson to get the pin.
We’re shown video of Braun Strowman pulling a semi truck from “earlier today.” He’s a monster, you see, and they needed to build to the upcoming TUG OF WAR he’s going to have with Bobby Lashley.
That’s for later.
The Miz makes his entrance for yet another episode of “Miz TV.” His guests will be 24/7 Champion R-Truth and Carmella.
They make their entrance looking over their shoulders the entire time. Truth is rocking a green shirt that reads “Truth is 24/7,” which is actually pretty good. Before getting in the ring, he starts checking underneath it. He trusts nothing and no one at this point. The Miz reassures him it’s okay to enter the ring for the interview because he confirmed the 24/7 rules are suspended during the course of said interview.
Miz talks about how wild the 24/7 championship has been since its inception. He throws it to the video of Drake Maverick’s wedding, where he wore the title with him and ran into a referee just after making it official with his bride as they walked back down the aisle. Truth rolled him up from behind and won the title.
Back in the ring, Miz condemned Truth for doing such a thing at a man’s wedding. Truth tells him he hasn’t been able to “eat, drink, or be merry, if you know what I mean.” That got a snort from someone on commentary.
He said he’s even got wrestlers showing up to his house, pretending to be police, telling him his car is on fire, all kinds of madness. Carmella jumps in to say that, yes, interrupting Maverick’s wedding was extreme but it just shows how important the 24/7 championship is to people.
Maverick interrupts to say that winning that title was the biggest moment of his career but his wedding day was supposed to be the biggest moment of his entire life and Truth ruined it. His wife won’t talk to him, won’t go on their honeymoon with him, and they also have yet to consummate the marriage. Truth says fiber should help with that, mistakenly thinking he was saying he’s constipated.
Maverick goes on to suggest a one-on-one match tonight so he can win back “the love of my life.” Carmella thinks that means he’s trying to win his wife back, but he clarifies he means the 24/7 title. The Miz says he’s getting information in his ear, and can confirm if Truth accepts the challenge no other wrestlers will be able to interfere, as they’ll be banned from ringside. Truth accepts, and here we go.
R-Truth vs. Drake Maverick (24/7 championship)
The match didn’t last long. Maverick attacked, Truth took it, hit one move, and got the pin to retain the title.
After, a group of wrestlers came running down to the ring, now that it’s legal to attack. Truth gets caught up by No Way Jose and Cedric Alexander nearly takes advantage. A big brawl breaks out and Truth uses the distraction to put Carmella on his back and run the hell out of there.
Back in the ring, Maverick is shown looking distraught and alone.
Naturally, Charly Caruso is right there to interview him. She brings up all the ways life has been terrible for him and he breaks down. She pressed ahead anyway. “I know it’s rough, anything you can say right now?” He shook his head and walked out, with fans chanting “na na na na, na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.”
Backstage, Lacey Evans runs into Baron Corbin and says she wants to be Raw women’s champion, so he better... Corbin cuts her off and says he’s equally ready to vanquish Seth Rollins. He’s tired of everyone acting like he’s Superman. Lacey says they know his weakness, and that’s Becky Lynch. He understands.
Before walking off, he says if they can beat them both, they could be the new power couple of WWE.
Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns
Time for the 2-on-1 Handicap match they booked last night at Stomping Grounds after Reigns beat McIntyre despite McMahon’s repeated interference.
Actually, Mike Rome was made to announce that this will just be a 2-on-1 match, which means Shane and Drew don’t have to tag in and out.
The heels took control quickly and were having their way with Reigns. They set him up for a Coast 2 Coast with McIntyre holding Reigns there but when McMahon went up to the top rope, the lights went out after the gong hit.
When they came back up, Undertaker was in the ring.
He put the boots to McIntyre and McMahon before slashing his throat and doing his pose in the ring. Reigns wasn’t shown before the cut to commercial break.
It’s time for the TUG OF WAR.
We’re shown a video of earlier when Bobby Lashley had a rope tied to a phone pole and he was trying to pull it when the rope broke. That’s how powerful he is!
We even got a Tale of the Tape. Strowman is bigger in pretty much every way.
They put the ropes around their waists and the idea here is you have to pull the other guy across the red line. Lashley dominated early but right when Braun got his toes near the red line, he looked up and smiled. Then he yanked Bobby right to him in just two pulls, winning the Tug of War match.
Lashley responded by punching him in the mouth and sending him crashing into the ring pole. Then he used the rope to attack Braun’s eyes. Strowman hit a shoulder block to counter once they were on the outside, but Lashley got the edge before bailing out.
Charly Caruso interviews AJ Styles.
She brings up his match with Ricochet and this being his first day back from injury. He starts talking about how rehab went well and she cuts him off to say she wants to know why he challenged Ricochet.
He starts talking about the match with Samoa Joe when No Way Jose’s music goes off and he notices something he doesn’t like. It turns out to be Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows dancing along. Styles is mad they’re acting like this when they have a match with Viking Raiders tonight.
They claim it’s okay because they’re at the top of their game. He wants to know why they lost last week if that’s the case. Then he wonders about the two guys he knew from Japan, who were former champions. Anderson was getting pissed, but Gallows said they’ll just go prove him wrong right now.
Their match is next.
Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. The Viking Raiders
The match told the story of Anderson and Gallows showing they could bring it early on but getting cocky enough to throw up the “Too Sweet” and ask if AJ Styles could see. It was around that time the Raiders made their comeback and quickly scored the pinfall win.
Styles was shown looking on disappointed backstage.
Nikki Cross apologizes to Alexa Bliss backstage. Alexa is surprisingly nice about it and they call Bayley out for being fake again and yadda yadda. Cross says there has to be a way to get Bliss another shot at the title. Bliss responds they just need to come up with a plan, and Nikki agrees.
When she doesn’t get the hint, Alexa plays it up that Nikki needs to do so now, and Cross runs off to do just that.
Commercial break.
Back from said commercial, Natalya and Naomi were there to tell Nikki that Alexa is not a good person and they’re just trying to look out for Nikki. Cross said she knows Alexa’s reputation and that’s when Alexa shows up asking what’s going on. It quickly breaks down and Naomi makes clear a tag team match is happening tonight.
Back to the ring and Heath Slater is there with Mojo Rawley for a match they set up on social media earlier in the evening. Before they can get going, R-Truth runs in because he’s still being chased around. Chaos ensues and in the midst of it, Slater wins the title from Truth.
He runs away from some guys and ends up right back in the ring with Truth, who he immediately loses the title to.
Cedric Alexander then runs in and pins Truth to become the new 24/7 champion. He tries to run away but is taken out by EC3, who wins the title himself. While he’s celebrating, Carmella comes from nowhere to take the title from him. While he’s protesting, Truth runs up from behind and rolls him up to win the title back for himself.
They run away again and everyone chases them again.
Ricochet is interviewed backstage.
He’s asked how it feels to win his first championship in WWE. He says he’s still trying to let it all digest but it’s a feeling he doesn’t want to go away and he’s willing to do anything he has to to make sure it doesn’t. Then he thanks everyone for all the support, because he needed it to get here.
But that was last night. Tonight, he wrestles AJ Styles, a guy who was a trailblazer for guys like him. He intends to prove he’s worthy of holding the U.S. title by beating Styles later this evening.
Kofi Kingston hits the ring but before he can be interviewed, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens enter to say Charly Caruso’s questions are garbage and they’ll be taking care of the interview now. Owens calls her “Not Renee” and says we’re getting an impromptu Kevin Owens Show.
Question 1: Why are you here?
Question 2: Who do you think you are?
Question 3: Why don’t you just get the hell out of here, man?
Kingston wonders if Owens can see the zit he has on his head. Zayn calls him a paper champion and wonders why his entire identity is that he gets help from his friends, the same friends KO and Sami “destroyed” at Stomping Grounds. Sami wants to know why Kofi uses his friends. Kingston, of course, says they’re brothers who support each other. But also, he beat Owens all by himself at Money in the Bank. And he’ll beat Sam Zayn tonight by himself too.
Zayn calls him arrogant and says his ego is out of control. He needs a dose of reality and who better to give it to him than Sami?
Kofi says it’s not about ego but perseverance. He’s also tired of hearing Sam Zayn talk, so why doesn’t he just come on down to the ring and catch another Trouble in Paradise kick to the dome.
Time for the match.
Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn
They had a fun match that saw Kingston win on a roll up. Owens didn’t interfere. Commentary called it a “big, big victory” and Zayn got too overconfident and got caught. As Kingston was leaving, Owens got on the mic and called him out for a match right here and now. Kofi quickly decided he was good with that and got back in the ring.
Kofi Kingston vs. Kevin Owens
They were getting after each other while commentary put over how grueling it was for Kingston. The finish was abrupt and fell flat to the live crowd. Kofi hit an S.O.S. on the outside on the ramp. Owens looked like he smacked his head against said ramp on the bump. Kingston got up from it and slid in the ring and the referee was suddenly calling for the bell. Mike Rome announced he was the winner via count out.
As he was celebrating, he was attacked from behind by Samoa Joe. He hit Uranage at the top of the ramp and then walked to the back. Cameras showed shocked and concerned fans out in the audience. As referees were trying to help Kingston up, Joe returned in a hurry and put Kingston in the Coquina Clutch.
Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss
This seemed like a tag match based on earlier but instead it’s a singles match. Nikki Cross was out in Alexa’s corner but Nattie wasn’t with Naomi. The match didn’t last long, as Naomi inadvertently kicked Cross when going for Alexa on the outside and Bliss used the advantage to hit Naomi with a DDT to score the pin.
After, Alexa attacked Naomi and had Nikki come into the ring and take part in it. Cross seemed really conflicted about it. She ultimately pushed Naomi and it knocked Alexa over too. She didn’t know what to do.
That’s when Natalya made her way out, to scare them off.
After a commercial break, we come back to the tag match they set up earlier.
Naomi & Natalya vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
This match ended the same way as the first one, with Alexa using Nikki to score a pinfall, this time on Natalya. Cross celebrated with Alexa, seemingly oblivious to the issue here.
AJ Styles vs. Ricochet
Anderson & Gallows made their way out to ringside for the match before it really got underway. Then they tried to get involved and Styles went to the outside and told them to leave.
This was the main event, so they were given the chance to showcase what they can do together. I was distracted throughout much of it by an overzealous fan who stood for a great deal of the match holding up a towel with the Seattle Seahawks logo on it.
The match was good enough to garner a few “this is awesome” chants at one point. The finish saw Styles win with the Phenomenal Forearm. Cole was sure to note that this may put him in contention for the U.S. championship. The ref brought the belt into the ring and Styles took it from him so he could put it over Ricochet’s shoulder himself. Then he held his arm up in a show of respect.
The show ended with the two embracing.
End.