Owens and Zayn Vs. The Usos Official, Reigns Walks Away From Cody
John Castro This week's Monday Night Raw started where Friday's SmackDown left off. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens took the ring and clearly on the same page. Would a match be made official between those two and The Usos? The show ended with Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes going at each other verbally, while Solo Sikoa's readiness to be at that level was questioned.
Here are your winners and losers for Raw, March 20, 2023:
Winner: Owens and Zayn Vs The Usos Official
WWE didn't waste any time getting things started. Owens and Zayn called out the WWE Undisputed Tag Team Champions and wanted a shot at WrestleMania. The Usos came out and hesitated at first, but eventually, Jey decided this was the best way to get rid of their Zayn and Owens problems. Things broke down and all four brawled around the ring. The fighting stopped when Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, and Solo Sikoa pulled up to the arena.
This match was a long-rumored announcement in the making that WWE finally confirmed. It will absolutely be off the hook.
Winner: Montez Ford Vs Austin Theory
Ford was looking to get retribution after Angelo Dawkins had the STFU put on him last week. Ford put up a good fight but Theory was able to hit the A-Town Down for the victory. Theory and Ford can both go and they proved it in an entertaining back-and-forth bout full of action and high-flying moves. The outcome may have been predictable, but that didn't hurt things.
Backstage, Roman wanted to talk with Jey Uso privately and wanted to know where Jey had been. Reigns called Jey out for already making decisions and said he needed to be part of The Bloodline. Reigns wanted to know if Jey was still part of the family and Jey said he was.
Loser: Omos Squashes Mustafa Ali
In theory, this match was a good idea. WWE wanted Omos to look unstoppable and Ali is a great seller. The only issue here was that there was way too much time between offensive moves and the match was too short to be effective. In fact, the way this went down gives the impression that his match with Brock Lesnar could be a disaster.
Winner/Loser: Logan Paul and Seth Rollins Fight
Logan Paul was in the ring and responding to the crowd who was all over him. Paul took every cheap shot he could at the St. Louis audience. It wasn't exactly clear if Paul was trying to get the crowd to jeer him or if he was actually bothered by it based on his comments about no one liking him. Paul showed a replay of him knocking Rollins out, adding a clown emoji to the footage. All of a sudden his mic cut out and it was learned Rollins was in the production truck and messing around. He hit his own theme music and strutted down to the ring.
It looked like Rollins was going to talk and instead chose to double-leg him and the two fought on the outside. Rollins tried to splash Paul onto the table. Security got in the way and when Rollins got up, Paul knocked him out again. When Rollins came to, he was furious. Paul was all the way back at the entryway by then.
Loser: Johnny Gargano
This was a decent match between Gargano and Dominik but Gargano's involvement in the show was clearly to plug NXT Stand and Deliver. Promotion is all well and good but Gargano losing before his feud with Grayson Waller in NXT seemed like a miss. Dominik got the win after delivering a frog splash to Gargano's back.
Good win for Dominik. Not a great night for Gargano ahead of a big main event. Dom called out his father and warned Rey he wasn't going to stop coming after him and said he planned on making a statement when the entire Mysterio family would be at SmackDown.
Edge cut a promo in the dark saying Finn Balor should bring his demon to meet his devil. The hint here was that both men would be showing up as alternate gimmicks from what they are each week.
Winner: Chad Gable Vs Ricochet
If you were to pick two competitors on the current WWE roster that you knew would have a good match and then put them in the ring together, Chad Gable and Ricochet would/should be at the top of that list. These two showcased their skills in a singles match meant to promote the Fatal Four-Way tag match.
The only downside was the storyline turned to Maxine Dupree coming down and getting Otis' attention. The distraction caused Gable to lose. Still, this was easily the best match of the night.
Winner: Rhea Ripley Vs. Bayley
Ripley cut a promo on Charlotte Flair when Damage CTRL came out to sarcastically offer their assistance as an ally. Ripley didn't want their help and that meant Bayley was happy to target Ripley instead. Ripley looked dominant until the numbers game caught up to her. That brought out Becky Lynch, Trish Stratus, and Lita to make sure the fight was fair. The distraction was enough to walk Bayley into a headbutt and a Riptide for the loss.
Outside of Damage CTRL unexpectedly picking a fight with Ripley, this segment worked well to put Ripley over as a major threat and kept the back-and-forth going between Damage CTRL and their WrestleMania opponents.
Winner: Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns Promo
The show closed with a promo featuring Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns -- who had Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman by his side. Reigns sent The Usos away. Reigns called out Cody for always running away. How was he going to ever finish his story when he never finishes anything?
Cody admitted he ran away but said what he did when he ran was make it so that every wrestler could make a lot more money. He warned Roman that April 3 is gonna be a tough day because his winning streak will be over, he won't have the titles and his family will leave him too. Reigns looked like he was going to respond and simply walked out of the ring. Solo got in Cody's face but Roman stopped him after his first attempt at a Samoan Spike backfired.