WWE Raw live results: AJ Styles tribute, Elimination Chamber go-home show
The final WWE Raw before this weekend’s Elimination Chamber takes place tonight at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
The show will feature a tribute to Georgia’s own AJ Styles who was forced to retire following a loss to Gunther at Royal Rumble. Styles has not appeared on TV since the loss.
Tonight’s show will determine the final Elimination Chamber participants in men’s and women’s triple threat matches. The men’s match will feature Jey Uso, Bronson Reed, and The Original El Grande Americano, while the women’s match will feature Raquel Rodriguez, Kairi Sane, and Iyo Sky.
The eventual winner of the women’s Chamber will know exactly which title they’re fighting for as Liv Morgan will be making her WrestleMania decision tonight. She has been embroiled in a back-and-forth war of words with WWE Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer.
Maxxine Dupri will be out for revenge against Nattie. The two fought to a double countout in their first match after Nattie trapped Dupri in a sharpshooter on the announce table.
Plus, Brock Lesnar returns for the first time since the Royal Rumble.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
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Show Recap —
Instead of the usual start to Raw with everyone arriving at the arena, Michael Cole and Corey Graves stood in the ring to welcome us to the show in Atlanta (as everyone sat calmly in their seats).
They were about to speak about AJ Styles, but they were interrupted by Gunther, who entered through the crowd. He sent Cole and Graves back to the announce desk as he entered the ring.
Gunther called it disgraceful that they were honouring a loser. The fans liked the losers. Losers like Bill Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles. Gunther ended their careers, so tonight should be a celebration for him. (It really sounded like they were piping in fake booing.)
Adam Pearce interrupted. Pearce claimed he knew Gunther would pull this, so he brought out security to escort him out of the building. (If he knew this would happen, perhaps he should have addressed it earlier.)
Gunther said he would leave under his own accord because what was happening tonight was disgraceful. As Gunther was escorted up the ramp by security, he turned around to boast to the crowd when he was suddenly attacked by Dragon Lee. They were quickly celebrated, but Dragon attacked him again backstage.
After Dragon Lee was taken away by security, Cody Rhodes appeared and gave Gunther a look before he made his way to the ring.
Rhodes entered to a big reaction and his hometown fans sang his name. He was about to talk about Styles, but like the announcers earlier, was interrupted, this time by The Vision.
Austin Theory said he was ashamed to be from Atlanta. Logan Paul knew Rhodes wasn’t ashamed to be from Atlanta because he lacked common sense. Paul asked if he was insane for showing up to Raw. Paul said Bronson Reed would win the Elimination Chamber and win the title at WrestleMania, meaning The Vision would take over SmackDown, too, and Rhodes would be the first one out the door.
Rhodes wasn’t sure about that and knew someone here who would disagree with them. That brought out Jey Uso (and Jimmy Uso) for their Chamber qualifying match.
They went to break after The Usos entered, and the entire break was Jey doing his entrance and Yeeting with the crowd.
(This was a typical opening segment. Except it was actually two opening segments in one. They cleared the ring after the first one and did another.)
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Cole called tonight a sell-out with over 12,000 fans.
Triple threat Elimination Chamber qualifying match: Bronson Reed vs. Jey Uso vs. The Original El Grande Americano
The opening match began at 8:20 pm, and they went to commercial two minutes later.
WWE Raw and PLE recapper/reviewer. Contributed to WrestlingObserver.com as the SmackDown reviewer in the 2000s before turning to WONF4W in 2015.