Winners, News And Notes After WrestleMania Backlash 2022

WWE Raw after WrestleMania Backlash 2022 advertised a United States Championship match between Cody Rhodes and Theory. Rhodes scored his second pay-per-view victory over Seth Rollins last night in an excellent match at WrestleMania Backlash, while Theory was not on the card as only one championship was defended.

As Cody Rhodes was closing in on a United States Championship win, Seth Rollins predictably interfered, forcing a disqualification victory for Rhodes.

WWE Raw also saw the return of Alexa Bliss, who used her old theme music and returned to her original ring gear, however she did still carry around a Lilly doll. Bliss picked up a quick victory over Sonya Deville after Deville was relieved of her duties as a WWE official. WWE Raw also booked a high-profile match for next week as Bobby Lashley will face Omos inside a steel cage.

WWE Raw last week garnered an average viewership of 1.581 million as viewership continues to slip against the NBA playoffs.

• May 2, 2022 | 1.581 million
• April 25, 2022 | 1.614 million
• April 18, 2022 | 1.648 million
• April 11, 2022 | 1.803 million
• April 4, 2022 | 2.101 million

• WWE Raw Venue: XL Center (Hartford, Conn.)
• WWE Raw Tickets Distributed: 6,467
• WWE Raw Tickets Available: 328

AEW vs. NJPW Forbidden Door Sells Out (Pro Wrestling Bits)

WWE Raw Total YouTube Viewership Last Monday—9,811,585 (Down from 12,065,089)

• Most-Viewed: The Bloodline brawls with RK-Bro and Drew McIntyre (1,700,871 views)
• Least-Viewed: Cedric Alexander Looks to Impress MVP and Omos (160,235 views)
• Median Viewership: 440,435 views

WWE Raw Results| Monday, May 9, 2022

RK-Bro def. The Street Profits

RK-Bro kicked off WWE Raw with the lights dimmed, almost as if they were mourning last night’s loss.

The Street Profits, particularly Montez Ford, cut a great promo as to why they should be next in line for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship. If they lose this match, maybe they’ll finally turn heel.

Riddle recycled an oldie-but-goodie line from Rob Van Dam when he said RK-Bro 4:20 “just smoked your asses.”

Riddle accidentally hit Orton while doing a dive to the outside, which is something to monitor. This led to Montez Ford hitting a frog splash on Riddle, and I would have fallen for the false finish if Corey Graves wouldn’t have screamed out “new champs!”

Liv Morgan def. Rhea Ripley (with The Judgment Day)

Edge has short hair now as he continues to commit to this new character. His hair was similar to that of Rhea Ripley. Also, it’s now called “The Judgment Day” instead of Judgment Day.

The Judgment Day not only had dimmed lights, but also shadows in the ring.

Rhea Ripley joined The Judgment Day because she was “done being used.”

Rhea Ripley wore a not-so-subtle judgment scale on her face in addition to black hair and lipstick, which smeared through her face.

Ripley won this match by submission in her Judgment Day debut, and even had new theme music.

Finn Balor def. Damian Priest by Disqualification

Poor Damian Priest continues to be the whipping boy of this stable as they’re even protecting Finn Balor against him.

The Judgment Day laid out Finn Balor and AJ Styles as WWE seems to be building to a tag team match and/0r an eventual split between Balor and Styles.

MVP’s VIP Lounge with Omos

After an awkward interruption by Cedric Alexander, Bobby Lashley took out MVP’s security, which consisted of two Washington Generals.

Cedric Alexander could actually be a good addition to MVP, Omos and a new Hurt Business.

I’m curious to find out who is going to win this rubber match between Bobby Lashley and Omos, because I could see it going either way.

Alexa Bliss def. Sonya Deville

In a positive development for Black women in wrestling, Sonya Deville was finally fired as a WWE official.

WWE brought back the old Alexa Bliss gimmick, but they weren’t about to get rid of that doll which continues to fly off the shelves. Everybody wins (except Sonya.)

Kevin Owens and The Alpha Academy Lay Out Ezekiel

Kevin Owens showed up dressed as his “older brother” Ken Owens.

Kevin Owens and Alpha Academy would make a great stable.

These three laid out Ezekiel, and nobody came to help Ezekiel, not even Elias.

Backstage, Becky Lynch openly criticized WWE’s “championship contender” matches by saying “beat the champion in order to beat the champion? That doesn’t make any sense!”

Veer Mahan def. Frank Loman

I couldn’t help but notice how similar Frank Loman’s gear and hairstyle was to Wardlow.

Before the match, Frank Loman noted he had triplets, which inspired chants of “he has triplets!”

Cody Rhodes def. Theory by DQ

Parts of the crowd were singing Cody Rhodes’ theme song word for word.

Based on Cody Rhodes promo, where he vowed that his feud with Seth Rollins was over, I could tell this match was going to end with Seth Rollins interference. If that’s the case, hopefully it’s be Cody winning by disqualification instead of losing a match to Theory.

Unsurprisingly, Seth Rollins attack Cody Rhodes just as he was on his way to victory, and to his credit, he got a ton of heat for it.

Even heel announcer Corey Graves was disgusted by Seth Rollins’ actions following his beatdown of Cody Rhodes.

Naomi and Sasha Banks def. Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H.

As part of her plan to “get more serious,” Nikki A.S.H. continues to parade around in a superhero costume.

Byron Saxton had a great analysis about the value of relationships in wrestling by comparing Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H.’s friendship outside of the ring to that of Sasha Banks and Naomi, who rode that friendship to a tag team title. Unfortunately, the viewer was never clued in about Nikki and Doudrop’s friendship until tonight.

Apparently, Nikki A.S.H. and Doudrop got together just to tease a singles feud as Doudrop went on a tirade against Nikki A.S.H. following her loss.

Ciampa def. Mustafa Ali with Miz as a Special Guest Referee

This was one of the rare matches where the referee towered over both competitors.

Corey Graves noted how The Miz was the first person to referee a match in Louis Vuitton red-bottoms.

Miz did a good job getting heat for his tainted officiating.

Bianca Belair def. Asuka by Disqualification

Becky Lynch appeared on commentary for this match which is always a hit-or-miss proposition.

By the time this match started, there was five minutes left in the show.

Belair and Asuka worked very well together, wrestling at 100 mph, in the limited wrestling we got to see of this main event before Becky Lynch interfered.