WWE Raw live results: King & Queen of the Ring semifinals, Roman Reigns appears
Semifinal matches in both the King & Queen of the Ring tournaments will headline tonight’s WWE Raw from Baltimore, Maryland.
The featured match will see Oba Femi take on Dominik Mysterio for the first time ever with the winner advancing to the King of the Ring finals.
The other semifinal will see IYO SKY vs. Raquel Rodriguez with the winner advancing to the Queen of the Ring finals. The two have wrestled twice on Raw previously with the series split at one each.
Fresh off attending Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns makes his return as he attempts to calm the issues within The Bloodline.
Chad Gable’s post-unmasking run kicks off in earnest as he goes one-on-one with Rusev after saving Rey Mysterio last week from Rusev and Ethan Page.
Before she faces Liv Morgan in a Queen of the Ring semifinal, Charlotte Flair will take on Roxanne Perez.
Our live coverage kicks off at 8 pm Eastern.
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Live! From Baltimore, Maryland.
There are some rowdy fans in front of the arena.
Corey Graves & Joe Tessitore (subbing for Michael Cole tonight) were on commentary.
Roman Reigns & The Bloodline Open the Show
Roman Reigns and the Usos arrived at the arena in separate SVUs. Don’t these guys care about the environment? A stagehand gave Roman the WWE World Title belt. Jacob Fatu was also waiting backstage, so that’s a third car. Seriously, haven’t these guys heard of carpooling?
Roman and the Bloodline take their sweet time getting into the ring, and the crowd loves Roman. He gets a huge pop just for saying the name of the city. Roman told the crowd to “acknowledge” Jey Uso, who is already in the semi-finals of the King of the Ring and is no doubt winning the crown. Roman put over “Big Jim” as well, acknowledging that there wouldn’t be a Bloodline or a Tribal Chief without Jimmy Uso.
After putting over Jimmy and Jey, the crowd starts chanting “Fatu!” figuring he will be acknowledged next. But Jey Uso grabs a mic and puts a stop to that, because Fatu needs to acknowledge the Usos. Roman acknowledged the problem, and Fatu grabbed the mic. Fatu doesn’t listen to Jimmy and Jey; he only acknowledges “the O! T! C!” Roman accepted that answer, and called for Mark Eaton to hand him a box. Inside the box was what looked like a wooden Ula Fala.
Roman said that the performers backstage is scared that the Bloodline is going to run the business again, but that the Bloodline has been running the business since the Wild Samoans were running the territories, since Yokozuna was “heavyweight champion.” Roman welcomed Jacob Fatu to the Bloodline and gave him the wooden Ula Fala, which Fatu accepted. Jimmy and Jey were arguing about this, with Jimmy seemingly okay with things and Jey still upset.
Eric Andre, an actor/comedian who is in some movies with Roman and John Cena, was in the front row. He made the mistake of touching Fatu’s Ula Fala, and Fatu pulled him over the guardrail and tossed him in the ring. A gaggle of security geeks ran in to try and stop Fatu from hitting Andre with a top rope splash. Adam Pearce practically begged Roman to put a stop to it. It looked like Roman was going to stop Fatu, but Roman gave him the okay and Fatu jumped over the security geeks and splashed Andre! Fatu went to leave, but Roman gave him the okay to do it a second time! And so Fatu gave Andre a second splash.
Iyo Sky v. Raquel Rodriguez in a Queen of the Ring Semi-Final
Sky started out fast against Rodriguez. Rodriguez floored Sky with a crossbody, and Sky dropped to the floor. Rodriguez followed and tossed Sky into the ring barricade.
Back in the ring, Sky tried a guillotine choke, but Rodriguez countered with a suplex. Sky dodged a charge from Rodriguez and sent her to the floor. Sky tried a dive to the floor, but Rodriguez caught her and lawn-darted her into the ringpost.
(It amazes me that the opening segment can go like 25 minutes without a commercial, but three minutes into the actual matches they have to go to a commercial break.)
Back from the break, Sky got a near fall with a victory roll. Sky hit a backhand, then rolled up Rodriguez and gave her a double stomp. Sky drove into Rodriquez with a meteora in the corner. Rodriguez looked completely gassed, and Sky came off the top with a dropkick.
Sky went for another meteora, but Rodriguez slid out to the apron. Sky caught Rodriguez with another kick. Sky tried a sunset flip/powerbomb to the floor, but Rodriguez blocked it and stomped Sky. Rodriguez tried to send Sky into the announcer’s desk, but Sky slipped free and sent Rodriguez into the announcer’s desk. Sky tried for a stomp through the desk, but Rodriquez got out of the way, and Rodriguez tripped Sky into the table.
Back in the ring, Rodriguez missed a dive off the ropes. Sky powerbombed Rodriguez out of the corner, then came off the top with a moonsault to get the pinfall.
Match Result: Iyo Sky pinned Rodriguez to advance to the finals of the Queen of the Ring Tournament (10:14).
This was the Iyo Sky show featuring Iyo Sky.
— Liv Morgan wanted Danhausen to curse for Domink’s opponent tonight, but Danhausen’s demands of human monies and guest spots in Morgan’s next music videos were too high for Liv.
— A recap of the Danhausen/Stephen A. Smith/New York Knicks saga, ending with Knicks winning the NBA Championship. The video made it clear that the Knicks losing Game 3 was “not Danhausen’s fault.”
— A recap of the latest chapter of the Seth Rollins/Bron Breakker saga, which featured Rollins challenging Bron Breakker to a steel cage match at Night of Champions.
— In Adam Pearce’s office, Lyra Valkyria was so happy about some news Pearce gave her she gave him a chest bump. LA Knight entered as Valkyria left, sore about losing the King of the Ring fatal four-way. Knight thinks Solo Sikoa is back in the Bloodline, but Pearce isn’t so sure. Nonetheless, Knight will take care of things his way.
— Jackie Redmond interviewed Chad Gable, who is ready to make amends with all the people he owes apologies to. As he left for the ring, he walked past Austin Theory chatting up Maxine Dupri.
Chad Gable v. Rusev (w/ Ethan Page)
Rusev took Gable down with a go-behind. Gable responded in kind. Rusev caught Gable with a back elbow, but Gable came back with a series of arm drags. Rusev gave Gable a cheap shot with a boot, but Gable came back with a belly-to-belly suplex.
The fight spilled to the floor, and Rusev sent Gable into the steel steps. Rusev suplexed Gable on the arena floor. The crowd was solidly behind Gable. Rusev rammed Gable’s head into the announcer’s desk. Gable back suplexed Rusev onto the announcer’s desk. Page distracted Gable, and Rusev sent him down with a charge. Rusev then tossed Gable over his head and into the announcer’s desk.
Back from a commercial, Gable dumped Rusev with a pair of German suplexes. Gable sent Rusev to the apron. Rusev climbed to the top, but Gable caught him and superplexed him to the mat. Gable got an ankle lock, but Rusev escaped. Resuev went for the Accolade, but Gable escaped. Gable locked in the ankle lock, but Ethan Page got in the ring. Gable dumped Page with a clothesline, but then walked into a Machka Kick. Gable kicked out at two.
Rusev locked in the Accolade. Gable started to power out. Rusev went for another kick, but Gable dumped him with an Angle Slam. Gable then locked in the ankle lock, and Rusev had to tap.
Match Result: Chad Gable tapped out Rusev (10:26).
Page and Rusev tried to attack Gable after the match, but Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee ran in to make the save. The crowd chanted “You tapped out!” at Rusev. As Gable recovered, Lee and Mysterio helped him to his feet.
Chad Gable was incredibly over in this match.
— The Usos confronted Roman Reigns in the back. Jimmy thought the plan was for Reigns to tell Jacob Fatu to listen to the Usos when Roman isn’t around. Reigns redirected the conversation to LA Knight. Why hasn’t he been handled yet? Roman wondered about sending Fatu after Knight, but Jimmy volunteered for the job.
LA Knight, YEAH!
LA Knight came to the ring and addressed the crowd. Knight recreated the ending of his match on Friday night by laying on the canvas. Knight was especially over with the fans in Baltimore (since he’s from nearby Hagerstown). A friend tried to advise Knight to take the week off, but of course he had to get to Baltimore! Knight called out Roman’s gaslighting, and said pretty soon Roman will be scamming people with his own meme coin. Knight again reasserted his claim that Solo Sikoa is back in the Bloodline, since he cost Knight the match with the Samoan Spike and Jey Uso advanced.
Jimmy Uso came to the ring to retort. Jimmy tried to explain to Knight that Solo “doesn’t run with” the Bloodline and that somehow things are different now. Knight asked if he went after Solo Sikoa and smacked him so hard he’d go “back to factory settings,” would the rest of the Bloodline step in?
Jey Uso came out to back up Jimmy. Jey told Knight again that Solo was on his own. Jey is better than LA Knight, Jey beat LA in the center of the ring “on his own.” And Jey demanded LA Knight “acknowledge” him. Knight acknowledged that Jey “can kiss his as$$” and the fight was on. Jimmy took out Knight with a steel chair.
Jey grabbed a chair, but Jimmy tried to stop Jey from using it. Knight got the chair and took both Usos out with chair shots. Jacob Fatu ran in and took out Knight with a Tongan Death Grip.
TV recapper for the Observer website, starting in 2021 with AEW Dark. Currently covering the Monday Night Raw beat.