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WWE Raw recap, review: Kevin Owens' stunning challenge to Stone Cold
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
This week on WWE Monday Night Raw, Kevin Owens made a WrestleMania challenge to arguably the most popular wrestler of all time.
Welcome back to my "Highs and Lows," this time covering the 3/7/22 edition of Monday Night Raw featuring KO invoking the name "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, a magnificent triple threat tag team match, Edge going full heel and more.
But first, here’s a quick recap of the match results:
- RK-Bro defeated Alpha Academy and Seth Rollins/Kevin Owens via pinfall to once again become Raw Tag Team champions.
- Dana Brooke defeated Tamina in under 2 minutes to retain the 24/7 title
- NXT Champion Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa defeated The Dirty Dawgs via pinfall after Breakker hit a press slam on Ziggler
- Omos defeated Apollo Crews via pinfall in short order
- Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan defeated Queen Zelina and Carmella to earn a spot in the Women’s tag title match at WrestleMania
- United States champion Finn Balor defeated Austin Theory via DQ after interference from former champ Damian Priest
RAW HIGHS
KO’s challenge to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
An awesome moment that would’ve been an even bigger deal had Austin’s involvement not been rumored on wrestling news websites beforehand.
That aside, watching Kevin Owens call out someone he idolized as a child, for a segment that’ll take place at WrestleMania, got my juices flowing. By the time KO finally mentioned "The Texas Rattlesnake" by name at the end, I was all giddy.
I’ve got no issue with WWE leaving Steve’s involvement up in the air, either — should they choose to go that route — as the anticipation of that glass shattering only adds to the excitement once it happens.
We all know WWE wouldn’t advertise something like this unless "Stone Cold" was already locked down for an appearance.
UPDATE: Austin has now confirmed he'll be at WrestleMania.
"Whether you wanna call this the KO Show, a match, a fight, a brawl, whatever," he said in a video shared by WWE on Tuesday.
"I will guarantee you this, in Dallas, Texas where I started my career, at WrestleMania, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin is gonna open up one last can of whoop ass."
Triple Threat tag team title match
This was a bona fide banger.
These Superstars put together a flawless match with exciting moments throughout, and by the end, I would’ve felt satisfied with any of the teams coming out on top.
The spot with Randy Orton and Chad Gable, in particular, where Gable’s moonsault was reversed into an RKO will, for sure, be on people’s all-time best RKO lists going forward.
Props to Alpha Academy for not only holding their own in this match with top talent such as Orton, Rollins and Owens, but also for elevating themselves these last few weeks while holding the Raw Tag Team titles.
Hopefully they’ll still be included in the Raw tag title match at WrestleMania, they’ve earned that spot based on how entertaining they’ve been. If not, though, I’ve got no doubt Alpha Academy will be back in contention soon enough.
Bron Breakker’s debut
A minor positive here, simply for making NXT champ Breakker look good in his debut match on Monday Night Raw.
There wasn’t some massive overhaul to his gimmick, or a different moveset, either. This was the same Bron we see on NXT TV, and he kicked ass like usual.
Props to Ziggler and Roode here, as well. They made it hard to tell that this is only Bron’s 18th professional wrestling match in his career.
The new way of treating NXT 2.0 talent by cross migrating them with main rosters Superstars really seems to be working to the benefit of NXT’s young talent. I really wish they had done this with notable NXT 1.0 stars who have since exited the company.
You think you know Edge?
While the extreme purple filter used during this segment may have felt jarring, I appreciated the throwback to Edge’s early days in WWE.
Additionally, my favorite part of this promo was feeling like we were watching the next evolution of the Edge character begin to take form in front of our very eyes. The rock-n-roll dad who is just happy to be back has been thrown out the window and replaced with a more sinister, suit-wearing villain, and I’m digging the change.
This has potential to be the most mature version of Edge’s character yet, and I’m interested to see what that looks like going forward.
With a fresh slate, he can do whatever he wants, and I have a feeling Edge is going to give us something different rather than "The Ultimate Opportunist" we all remember.
RAW LOWS
MizTV with Logan Paul and Jerry Lawler
This segment wasn’t bad, I just felt like it belonged on a local live event, rather than a TV segment building to a WrestleMania match.
I’m sure the people of Cleveland were more invested than I was. Maybe sports fans who care about hometowns, too. Unfortunately, as someone who doesn’t, it caused me to zone out a bit.
Finn Balor vs. Austin Theory
These two didn’t put on a bad match, it was just difficult for me to get invested knowing they’d likely end up with a DQ finish.
Balor’s US title win was a step forward, but this was a step right back.
I would prefer to see WWE make the WrestleMania match against Damian Priest feel more meaningful with a compelling story, not predictable interferences.
Don’t forget to follow all your favorite WWE Superstars and shows in the FOX Sports app to receive alerts on what they’re doing and more.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.
