WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER 5/10: Lashley vs. Drew in Non-Title Affair, New Day and RK-Bro vs. Elias & Ryker and Champs Styles & Omos, Asuka & Dana & Mandy vs. Nia & Shayna & Charlotte

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
MAY 10, 2021
TAMPA, FL. AT THUNDERDOME IN YUENGLING CENTER
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Adnan Virk, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves

Match Results from Last Week

• A.J. Styles & Omos defeated New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship. Before the match, Styles explained that he & Omos were not on Raw as of late due to them celebrating in the Caribbean.

• Charlotte Flair defeated Dana Brooke (w/Mandy Rose). After the match Sonya Deville added Charlotte to the Raw Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania Backlash between champion Rhea Ripley and Asuka, making it a triple threat. Later, Adam Pearce took issue with Sonya adding Charlotte (just override her Adam).
• Damian Priest defeated John Morrison (w/The Miz).
• Lucha House Party (Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik) defeated Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin. After the match, Cedric said Shelton was the weak link in the Hurt Business and split up their team. Shelton later said he was the one who saw something in Cedric and said he himself will survive.
• Angel Garza defeated Drew Gulak. After the match, Angel stuck a rose up Drew’s ass and kicked him.

• RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) defeated Elias & Jaxson Ryker.
• Sheamus defeated newly signed Mansoor via DQ when Humberto Carrillo interfered. Sheamus attacked Carrillo during an interview backstage earlier in the show. Sheamus retained the U.S. Championship.
• Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler defeated Lana & Naomi to retain the Women’s Tag Team Championship.

• WWE Champion Bobby Lashley defeated Braun Strowman in a non-title match. Braun was distracted by Drew McIntyre, who was on guest commentary.

Significant Non-Wrestling Segments from Last Week

• A vignette aired for the returning Eva Marie.
• Alexa Bliss said her doll Lilly’s favorite color is red and caught her having her eye on someone.

Advertised Matches and Segments by WWE

WrestleMania Backlash is less than a week away. Tonight’s episode of Raw will be the last before that event. Coming out of last week we learned that Bobby Lashley will face his other Backlash opponent, Drew McIntyre in a non-title match. In addition, the Raw Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles & Omos will be involved in an eight-man tag match while the Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax are booked for a six-woman tag match.

Non-Title Match: WWE Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre

At WrestleMania Backlash, Bobby Lashley defends the WWE Championship against Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre in a triple threat match. Originally it was to be a one-on-one match between Lashley and Drew after Drew defeated Braun and Randy Orton in a triple threat match. Weeks later, Braun got himself added after defeating Drew one-on-one. I mentioned earlier that Braun lost a one-on-one to Lashley last week.

Tonight, Lashley faces his other Backlash opponent in Drew in a non-title match. While their history goes back to their days in TNA, their WWE history is complex. They were part of an unofficial trio with Baron Corbin towards the end of 2018. Last year, ironically at Backlash, Drew defeated Lashley to retain the championship when Lashley’s then-storyline wife Lana got involved. Lashley recently retained the championship over Drew at WrestleMania. Check out Lashley’s little but of sarcasm on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/fightbobby/status/1389717582773694470?s=20

Frank’s Analysis: I know Lashley, I know! We talk about this all the time. Matches are done over and over and over. It’s hard to come up with new things to say here. That being said, Mace and T-Bar were not on the show last week and have attacked Drew on numerous occasions. They’re likely still involved in this and could show up tonight.

Eight-Man Tag Team Match: Raw Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles & Omos and Elias & Jaxson Ryker vs. New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) and RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle)

Feuds will coalesce in a matter of speaking when Raw Tag Team Champions A.J. Styles & Omos team with Elias & Jaxson Ryker to take on New Day (Kingston & Woods) and RK-Bro (Orton & Riddle). New Day lost the Raw titles to Styles & Omos at WrestleMania and came up short in their chance to regain them last week.

RK-Bro and Ryker & Elias aren’t in a feud necessarily, but they did have a match last match. New Day and Ryker & Elias had a series of matches in different variations following WrestleMania. Elias holds a singles victory over Kofi. RK-Bro has won each of their two matches since Riddle defeated Orton in a singles match.

Frank’s Analysis: Orton and Kingston did have a fairly heavy-duty personal feud not two years ago over the WWE Championship, right? I guess everything is good now. Orton was also kicking legends in the head and was involved in a dark feud with Bray Wyatt where he set him on fire. Let’s all just forget that and move on because this is what Vince McMahon wants to do now and, we just don’t care about any of that. Anyway, there isn’t anything worth analyzing here as it’s just a way to fill TV and feature the teams in a different way.

Six-Woman Tag Match: Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler and Charlotte Flair vs. Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke and Asuka

In another coalescence of feuds, Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler will join up with Charlotte Flair to take on Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke and Asuka. Jax & Baszler retained the tag team titles over Lana & Naomi last week but were involved with Mandy & Dana not too long ago. Charlotte holds recent singles victories over Mandy and Dana. Raw Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley interfered in a match between Charlotte and Asuka several weeks ago. She defends the title against both women in a triple threat match at WrestleMania Backlash.

Charlotte and Jax’s history are complicated as in storyline, Nia injured Charlotte last year. Charlotte holds a singles victory over Baszler before WrestleMania. Dana was Charlotte’s “understudy” back in 2016.

Frank’s Analysis: I do find it interesting Rhea Ripley is not involved in this match. When Vince gets a “new toy,” he loves to “play” with it as much as he can. I get the sense they’re avoiding putting Rhea in the ring as much as possible. That’s strange to say about the reigning Raw Women’s Champion. That said, like the eight-man tag, there isn’t much to analyze here other than getting these women on TV. I’m sure Rhea will get involved in some way.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!