Rapid Results:
- Natalya defeated fellow Money in the Bank competitors Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, and Ember Moon in a fatal four way by tapping Alexa Bliss out
- Ruby Riott defeated Bayley with a Riott Kick
- Ronda locked in the armbar after her face-to-face exchange with Nia Jax
The Rundown:
RAW kicks off with all men and women competitors in the MITB Ladder Match in the ring on ladders. After Kurt Angle and Baron Corbin bicker, Alexa Bliss cuts them off and says even though she is suffering an injury, she will overcome it and win the contract. Sasha Banks cuts her off and asks what exactly is injured. Alexa guesses it is her shoulder and Banks says that it’s funny her shoulder is hurting when she was hobbling out of the ring last week. Ember Moon chimes in and says after Sunday, Alexa Bliss will be real sore.
Banks and Moon argue about who is winning and Kurt stops them. He gestures to Natalya if she is ready to compete due to her injury. Natalya is sure that she is ready and promises that she will go on to win the contract and secure a title match against Ronda Rousey. Sasha tells Natalya that Ronda might be champion, but she’ll be cashing in. The men start arguing and Alexa lets out a squeal. She says she already knows Braun is going to win. Banks says Finn is going to win.
The fatal four way is up next. Bliss strikes everyone and takes them all out. She goes for a crossbody, but Ember catches and throws her with a fallaway slam. She tries to escape, but Banks is right behind her. She runs to ringside, but Natalya is also there. She tries to swing on her, but Natalya sends Alexa into the barricade. Ember takes Natalya out with a dropkick and capitalizes with a roll up on Sasha. They go back and forth with roll ups until Natalya reemerges. She lifts Banks up, who kicks Ember away and rolls Natalya up. They go back forth with pins until Natalya takes Ember out with a discus clothesline. Sasha flips Natalya over and takes her out with a sitting meteora.
Natalya counters and takes Sasha down with an armhold. They go back and forth until Natalya slams Sasha down and goes for a Sharpshooter. Banks kicks her to ringside and Ember enters the ring. She goes after Banks and the two show off their athleticism. After kneeing Moon in the head from the apron, Banks flips over the ring post and takes Natalya out. Ember then flies through the ropes with a suicide dive, taking Sasha out. Bliss runs and takes Ember out with a deadly right hand. She goes to pin Sasha in the ring, but The Boss kicks out.
We return from commercial and Alexa is wearing Natalya down by bending her leg, capitalizing on her injured knee. Ember tries to stop her, but Bliss nails her with another right hand. Natalya hobbled to the ropes, trying to escape, but Bliss continued the attack. Natalya tried to fight back, but Alexa kicked the back of her knee. Sasha ran in and took Bliss out with a comeback. She hit her with springboard double knees, but Bliss stayed in. Moon ran in and took both women out with a springboard crossbody.
She drilled Banks with an enziguri and got her to the corner. She then hit her with a middle rope suplex. Bliss broke the pin, but Moon speared her to the corner. Alexa reversed and hit her with a sunset flip. She went for the pin, but Banks broke it by taking Alexa out with a meteora. Ember and Sasha brought Alexa to the corner and went to hit a double suplex from the top, but Natalya powerbombed both Ember and Sasha off. Alexa went for a Twisted Bliss on Sasha, but she got her knees up. All women are down!
We come back to the action and Alexa is bringing the fight to Banks. Sasha manages to trap Alexa in the Bank Statement. Natalya runs off Sasha’s neck and trips up. She takes both out with a dropkick and sends Alexa to ringside. She locks Sasha in the Sharpshooter, but Ember takes her down with a superkick to the back of her head.
The War Goddess tosses Natalya to the corner and nails her with the running handspring elbow. She then takes Natalya out with an Eclipse! Alexa gets involved and goes back and forth with Ember. She pulls Ember to ringside and throws her into the steps. Alexa tries to steal the win, but Sasha breaks the pin! “This is Awesome” chants break out as Sasha goes for a Bank Statement on Alexa. Bliss sends Banks into the ring post and Natalya sneaks up on Bliss, rolling her up and applying a Sharpshooter! Alexa taps and Natalya takes the W!
After tormenting backstage personnel, The Riott Squad looked to take Bayley on in action. Ruby Riott goes after Bayley quick and overpowers her early on. Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan watch their partner brutally embarrass Bayley. Bayley fights her off and tackles her to the ground. She unloaded on Ruby with fists but Riott sent her off with an elbow. She sends her back with a knee, but Bayley responds with a takedown. She bounces Ruby’s head off of the turnbuckle and drills her into the canvas with a bulldog. She then took her down with a spinning elbow as Ruby fled to ringside. She misses her sliding corner kick, but takes Ruby down with a back suplex.
Back from commercial break and Ruby is in control. Bayley throws her off and takes her down with a dropkick to her knee. However, Riott sends Bayley into the turnbuckle with her knees. Ruby digs her knee into Bayley’s shoulder as she bends her arm behind her back. Bayley sends Ruby off and clocks her with a running elbow and high knee to the corner. She goes for an elbow drop, but Riott dodged. She tried to capitalize with a pin, but Bayley kicked out. Bayley tried to steal the win, but Sarah and Liv inserted themselves. Bayley took her eyes off Ruby and Riott sent Bayley into the ring post and finished her off with a Riott Kick. Morgan and Logan restrained Bayley as Ruby drew an ‘R’ on her stomach with a marker.
Natalya approaches Ronda Rousey backstage and tells her to be careful because Nia is out to make a statement tonight and will not hold back.
Nia Jax and Ronda Rousey joined Coach for their face-to-face. Nia starts and states that she and Ronda are both competitive and she purposely pushed Ronda’s buttons last week to see how she would react. She compliments Ronda but says she’s still so new to WWE. She lists rules that apply in WWE, but not UFC. Ronda tells Nia that she’ll improvise Nia’s arm off. She says she is confident and has earned the right to feel so.
Nia says Rousey’s ONE match was impressive, but it was a tag match against a woman who wrestles part time. She says Ronda has yet to compete for a title in WWE and states that she has been here for years. She tells Ronda that she is no Stephanie McMahon, she is the RAW Women’s Champion. She states that Ronda wants to take her arm, but Jax will take her reputation and she will be known as ‘The Baddest Woman On The Planet’. She reveals that she challenged Ronda because she knows she will win because Rousey isn’t ready.
Ronda rises from her chair and laughs before listing things people claimed she wasn’t ready for, but succeeded in anyways, including joining the Olympics and going in the UFC Hall of Fame. She shouts at Nia, saying she is Ronda Rousey and she is born ready. Jax goes to hit her but Ronda catches her arm. Nia sends her off with a headbutt, but when she picks Ronda up by her hair, Rousey flips her into the armbar! Nia blocked it for as long as possible, but Rousey managed to trap her and get her to tap out.
RAW Talk:
RAW was amazing. The girls really showed the men up, as they always do, but really did THAT.
The fatal four way was absolutely incredible. All four were impressive and put on a classic. This match will definitely be one of my favorites from this year. However, Natalya had the wrong knee bandaged. How did they mess that up.
I’m hyped for Ronda vs Nia at Money in the Bank, and frankly, it should main event the show, and I think it might. I just didn’t like how Ronda locked in the armbar and Nia tapped in seconds. They should have saved the armbar for Money in the Bank or had Nia fight out. It made the champion look extremely weak considering her whole argument was Ronda wouldn’t able to lock it in. Anyways, the match will hopefully deliver.