WWE Raw Results: News And Notes After Seth Rollins And Murphy Reunite, Apollo Crews’ Big Night

WWE Raw was main-evented by a contract signing between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre, the return of Murphy—who came to the aid of Rollins—and a heavy presence from Apollo Crews, who pinned Andrade only to come up short in a United States Championship match.

Crews’ valiant attempt ended when he could no longer continue due to a [kayfabe] knee injury.

Last week’s Raw drew another non-holiday record low with just 1.842 million viewers.

WWE Raw Viewership—Last Five Weeks

• April 20, 2020—1.842 million viewers
• April 13, 2020—1.913 million viewers
• April 6, 2020—2.118 million viewers
• March 30, 2020—1.924 million viewers
• March 23, 2020—2.006 million viewers

WWE Raw Key Competition

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mainstream News Coverage
• The Bachelor Presents: Listen to your Heart

From the Forbes WWE Vault

WWE Total YouTube Viewership for WWE Raw Last Monday

6,687,699 views (Down from 8,078,298)

• Most-Viewed: Drew McIntyre vs. Angel Garza (1,076,124 views) 
• Least-Viewed: Akira Tozawa vs. Austin Theory (88,946 views)
• Median Viewership: 389,874 

WWE Raw: Monday, April 27, 2020

Opening Segment Featuring MVP’s VIP Lounge

Apollo Crews is in a Money in the Bank Ladder Match. There’s no way that happens in a pre-pandemic world, but good on him. I hope goes full Shelton Benjamin.

MVP refusing to shake Apollo Crews’ hand after Crews beat him feels like a rib on Isiah Thomas.

If somebody were to tell me that Zelina Vega has appeared in every empty-arena segment on Raw, I’d believe them without even doing the research.

Just because something is alliterative doesn’t make it a good nickname. In fact, it’s often the opposite. “Lethal Lothario” is a textbook example of this.

When did Rey Mysterio turn into Clint Eastwood and how did he get so good at it?

Rey Mysterio, Aleister Black and Apollo Crews def. Austin Theory, Angel Garza and Andrade

Angel Garza is now wearing velvet, which is what WWE put Viscera in when he had a lothario gimmick. As this gimmick continues to lose its subtlety, I’m very nervous for Angel Garza’s main roster future.

Samoa Joe talking up Zelina Vega being a shrewd manager because she’s taking advantage of the trios dynamic gives her more credibility as a manager than any comment this announce team has made about her in the past four weeks.

I don’t know if this is a main roster directive, but Garza has been waiting much longer to do the tearaway spot. By the time he removed his velvet pants this week, they were practically hanging on for dear life.

Hot Take: Andrade has a better Judas Effect than Chris Jericho.

Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka vs. Nia Jax Ends in a No Contest

Pre-Match Thoughts: This match features three people who absolutely shouldn’t be losing prior to Money in the Bank, and by segment’s end, two of them will do just that.

Tonight was Asuka’s turn to be the Kairi Sane Crash Test Dummy.

Well this match never got started so good on WWE.

Bobby Lashley def. Denzel Dejournette

WWE did Lana’s character no favors by having her fall hook, like and sinker for his line about her being too beautiful to be ringside.

Denzel Dejournette was lifting weights in an Orlando super gym just two short months ago, and not he’s out here slapping former TNA world champions in the face on national television.

Liv Morgan def. Ruby Riott

Liv Morgan hardly found her own voice while Ruby Riott was away. The only thing anybody remembers Liv saying while Ruby Riott was gone was something along the lines of “Lana, we were lovers! How could you go through with this wedding?!” In fact, not that the two are related, but Liv Morgan’s in-ring ascent happened right around the time Ruby Riott returned.

This match heavily relied on trash talk.

Jinder Mahal def. Akira Tozawa

I’m guessing nobody was more happy about Jerry Lawler not being on commentary tonight than Akira Tozawa

Greg Hamilton announced Jinder Mahal as a former WWE champion as if to confirm that, yes, that actually happened.

It was actually a breath of fresh air to see a fresh WWE Superstar win a squash match.

Andrade vs. Apollo Crews—WWE United States Championship

Good for Andrade and Zelina for getting all this TV time, but I’m so tired of hearing Andrade’s theme music.

The announcers were acting like tonight is the only night they’ll ever have to talk about all of Apollo Crews’ untapped potential so they have to make the most of it.

For at least the last five minutes of this match, I was in “Apollo might pull this off” mode. This was one helluva match.

Ricochet and Cedric Alexander def. Enhancement Tag Team

If MVP doesn’t align himself with Ricochet and Cedric Alexander he’s a lunatic.

MVP, Ricochet and Cedric Alexander could be the 2020 version of The Beat Down Clan. Google
GOOGL
it.

Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins Sign MITB Contract

Tonight’s moderator for the contract signing: Jerry “The King” Lawler.

Tuxedo Seth Rollins looks like so much more of a main event heel.

The fact that Seth Rollins severely out-dressed Drew McIntyre makes me view McIntyre as less of a champion.

McIntyre got to say the s-word uncensored, which is how you know WWE is serious about him.