WWE Monday Night Raw Results for 1/18/2016 Episode; Brock shows, Paige Returns

The final Monday Night Raw before the 2016 Royal Rumble took place at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Also, as revealed on RAW, Roman Reigns will have the odds against him as he will be forced to enter the match as the #1 entrant. The segment dragged at times. Jericho is one of my favorite promo guys in the WWE, but he didn’t connect in my opinion. When he is done wrestling (or God forbid he gets sidelined) Kevin Owens should try his hand at the commentary table. The match was okay, but Jericho does what referees are meant to do, and bans all of the League of Nations from ringside. I admit that I feared Jericho had lost his cool, but I came away from Raw feeling like Jericho knows exactly what he is doing.

Natalya’s back, and she brought Paige! I don’t think anyone expected the Wyatts to be the ones standing tall at the end though. The match felt rushed. I went from groaning at the thought of Jericho even being in the Rumble match to feeling like he’s at least a dark horse candidate to win the match. After all, we never got a clear cut victor a year ago.

Right before Lesnar gets into the ring, Roman Reigns enters, and spear Brock immediately.

The Big Show punches out all The Social Outcasts. Yep. It felt like the show, being a go-home Raw to a pay-per-view fell flat, and the audience didn’t really help matters any. There’s nothing exciting about this match. Still, it was nice to see some effort made to making it seem like the Rumble match is about more than just Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. This isn’t 1999 it’s 2016! Needless to say, insults were flung back and forth. Also, it’s pretty obvious that Roman was going to get the win here. Eventually Ric was goaded into accepting the match for his daughter. These two teams haven’t feuded in a while and now the Usos have a chance to reclaim the tag titles in what feels like a quickly put together match. Ideally, this scenario would include Jericho turning heel during the Royal Rumble match on Sunday. After Brock gets back on his feet, he takes League of Nations to Suplex City. I’m sure next week’s Raw will be a great one since it’s post Royal Rumble, the PPV that is always surrounded in controversy.

7th Match – Jey Uso w/ Jimmy vs Big E w/ New Day: Jey was put in the Big Ending after Woods had distracted him, and he was covered for the three-count. Let’s wait and see what happens on Smackdown.

I haven’t seen Lesnar really manhandled that way in a long time, so could the Wyatts have been used to possibly set a WrestleMania match between the Beast and the Eater of Worlds? Maybe Show has turned so many times that WWE figures it’s not even worth taking the time to write a real turn for him. Over Roman Reigns. Over Brock Lesnar. Anyone can predict how this match is going to go, and this match lasts 55 seconds (I timed it, actually getting a minute and 13 seconds). Following the Royal Rumble, Reigns, furious with Jericho, will be looking to invoke his rematch clause. Hey, the guy sells and gets beat up. I might be insane saying this, but I’m picking Reigns to win the Royal Rumble. Owens appears slated for midcard to upper-midcard these days, which would keep him out of the main-event picture. Maybe he’ll be the last entrant in the Rumble match to plant the seeds for a Reigns/Triple H match at WrestleMania. Chris Jericho hosted his famous talk show, the Highlight Reel, and he and Paul Heyman engaged in an entertaining exchange. If I weren’t covering the show tonight, I would’ve watched the Golden State Warriors vs. Cleveland Cavs game or the big upset in college basketball with Iowa State knocking off Oklahoma. It just shows how strong Titus is, and adds another question to why they aren’t pushing him more.