Chaos in Boston: This Week’s Full RAW Recap

Monday Night Raw kicked off with a bang—or rather, a clothesline heard 'round the world. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman opened the show, but the spotlight was stolen by Oba Femi. For the second week in a row, the "Ruler" stood toe-to-toe with the Beast. When Brock attempted an F5, Femi countered with ease, dumping Lesnar to the floor. The WrestleMania magic is real, even if Brock’s choice of words ("boy") was a bit... questionable for a man of Oba’s stature.

The tag team division is a beautiful mess. The Usos took on Logan Paul and Austin Theory (The Vision). While I’m still waiting for a promo to help me connect with Theory's new direction, sidebar… what is the pressure? The action was high-stakes. LA Knight interfered, taking out Logan Paul and handing Jey Uso the brass knuckles. Jey didn't hesitate, leading to a DQ loss for The Usos, but a very satisfying punch to Austin Theory’s face.

In one of the most intense segments of the year, Paul Heyman proved why he is the master of psychological warfare. Heyman heads to the ring, and immediately, we’re informed that he’s all that’s left of the vision and as a “man,” he’s going to have to deal with Seth Rollins. Using a restraining order as a weapon, he calls out Seth Rollins, who is then immediately surrounded by police. Seth walked away peacefully until Heyman took it way too far, bringing Seth’s wife and daughter into his diatribe. Seth breaks past the cops to deck Heyman before being arrested and escorted from the TD Garden.

Liv and Stephanie’s brawl felt perfectly chaotic. During Dom’s entrance, Stephanie targeted Liv, who quickly retaliated by throwing her into the entrance monitor. The landing looked rough, but both continued fighting all the way into Gorilla, where Stephanie dropped Liv on what appeared to be concrete (I really hope not). Eventually, backstage staff separated them.

Dominik Mysterio, accompanied by JD McDonough since he lost his Guerita, almost reclaimed the Intercontinental Title from Penta. However, his past caught up to him, as Finn Balor’s appearance distracted him and allowed Penta to retain the title. Finn then took revenge against Judgment Day by taking out McDonough and Dom. Dom’s desperate escape through the crowd was a reminder that while he’s grown as a performer, he’s still the same "Dirty" Dom we love to hate.

We closed the night with CM Punk poking the bear. He heads down to the ring, ignoring Jimmy’s warning not to keep talking about their family. He stands on business, saying that Samoans as a whole?! can’t do anything by themselves. He was upset when Roman called him “old” last week, but then went on to say he embraces it and is proud of it. He lands a nice insult, saying that Roman clearly uses “Just for Men” to cover up the grays in his beard, but FAFO when calling out Jey. He baits Jey into a rematch, but before the match can be confirmed, Jimmy is coming to the ring to tell his brother he’s doing too much. He reminds Jey that when he’s emotional, bad things happen. Eventually, Roman Reigns heads out to the ring, all business and respectfully asks The Usos to leave. The ring is swarmed by officials wanting to break things apart, and it seems like a huge nothing burger until Jey’s Crash Out Energy pushes Roman to snap. Roman decimates Punk, ending the night by standing tall after delivering a powerbomb through the announce table, with no official match announced or won.

Did you notice how the crowd immediately chanted again after Roman power bombed Punk? Maybe we, as fans, are seeing his true heel character shine through, or maybe we’re just ready for Roman to Reign again.

Either way, this was a show to watch and another exciting entry on the way to WrestleMania.

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