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WWE Raw recap, review: Seth Rollins attempts 'Stone Cold' thievery
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
Seth Rollins tried to punch his ticket to WrestleMania by stealing an idea from a friend this week on WWE Raw, but it blew up in his face.
Welcome back to my "Highs and Lows," this time covering the March 14 edition of Raw, featuring Rollins turning on Kevin Owens, an unexpected change of attitude for Street Profits and Becky Lynch getting revenge.
Here’s a quick recap of the match results:
— Damian Priest defeated Finn Balor via pinfall after distraction from Austin Theory in a non-title match.
— Omos defeated Commander Azeez via pinfall in two minutes.
— Liv Morgan defeated Queen Zelina via pinfall.
— Rey and Dominik Mysterio defeated Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin after Dom performed a frog splash on Cedric for the pin.
— Bianca Belair defeated Doudrop via pinfall.
— Riddle and Montez Ford wrestled to a no-contest after interference from Alpha Academy.
RAW HIGHS
Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens
Kevin’s promo at the top of the show was KO at his best.
The 37-year-old WWE Superstar knows that this is one of the biggest opportunities of his career, and he’s making it count.
Rollins having the idea to get on the WrestleMania card by stealing KO’s "Stone Cold" Steve Austin approach made sense for his character, but I didn’t quite understand management taking the suggestion seriously.
Either way, WWE stayed on course, and Kevin fought a hard battle in the main event to show how much keeping the Austin segment means to him. Therefore, in the end, the silly stipulation didn’t really affect anything — and we still got to watch an awesome match between Rollins/Owens.
With WrestleMania only a few weeks away, I can’t decide whether I think Seth’s opponent will appear before WrestleMania or they’ll be a surprise one of the nights. The latter could be cool.
Think of the Hardy-esque pop for a big returning star.
Scott Hall tributes
The unfortunate news of Hall’s passing rocked the wrestling community at the start of Monday Night Raw this week. WWE did an exceptional job, however, of keeping his memory alive throughout the night.
The intro memorial graphic, Owens saying, "Hey yo" at the top of the show (and later, "tough times don't last, but bad guys do"), Priest using the Razor’s Edge, a touching video package and more.
We all knew the exact way Corey Graves was feeling as he began to well up with tears before the video package, but all these things helped ease the pain of fans around the world mourning the loss of an industry icon.
Rest in peace, Bad Guy.
Becky Lynch snaps
This is the stuff I’m looking for in the build to a big title match — not just trash talk or traded wins leading to a rubber match, but an actual story that feels creative. It might be simple, but sometimes we don’t get enough.
The mean streak showed by Becky on Raw this week continued to push Bianca as the strong babyface heading into their WrestleMania match. It’s nice to see "Big Time Becks" putting in so much work to help her shine.
Next week’s vow to go for Bianca’s hair should be interesting.
Raw Tag Team title situation
It was great to see a different side of The Street Profits as they demanded a Raw tag team title opportunity at WrestleMania.
Since they had a valid argument in holding a recent victory over RK-Bro, their insistence didn’t make them look like heels, either. In fact, I think the team should be allowed to show their serious side more often.
Both performers, while bubbling over with energy, would be well served in showing that this isn’t always fun and games. That’s what Monday felt like, and I enjoyed it.
Alpha Academy not just stepping aside until after WrestleMania made me happy as well.
A triple-threat match between RK-Bro, Street Profits and Alpha Academy for the Raw Tag Team championships would be a killer match on "The Grandest Stage of Them All." Those are three teams that have been fantastic the past few months.
RAW LOWS
The Miz and Logan Paul
I hate including this here again because I like the idea of The Miz and Logan Paul together. The way Logan is being handled, though — where he’s hesitant to go full heel — makes it seem like his appeal in this area is misunderstood.
The reason Jake and Logan Paul do well on pay-per-view is because people will pay to see them hopefully get beat up.
As it stands, though, Logan is only slightly dissing the Mysterios, and I think they’d get more out of allowing him to do his thing. He barely said anything negative about Rey and Dominik while on commentary.
Let him put them on full blast next to create some real tension in their feud. Right now, it’s lacking much heat.
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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.
