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WWE News: ‘Monday Night Raw 25’ Live Recap, Results – ‘Stone Cold’ Returns, Legends Galore, New IC Champ

By Danny Cox
Published on: 12:46 PST, Jan 22, 2018

Tonight, WWE celebrated the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw and decided to bring back some of the greatest legends to ever step foot in a wrestling ring. There were so many past champions and old-school names scheduled for Raw 25, it was difficult to figure out just how they were going to fit all of them in. Well, that was easy and these results show that the plan was to do Raw in two places – the Manhattan Center and the Barclays Center.

The opening started in the old-school Manhattan Center where Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler welcomed fans to the phenomenal looking ballroom. At that point, they sent it to the larger arena for the night to officially get started.

As recapped by the official website of WWE, things really got kicked off when it went over to the Barclays Center and the introduction of announcers Corey Graves, Booker T, and Michael Cole. Right away, things picked up quickly as Stephanie and Shane McMahon came out to the ring to welcome everyone to Raw 25.

Vince McMahon came out and his kids handed him a congratulatory plaque which didn’t sit well with the boss of WWE. He wanted more, and that is when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin headed down to the ring.

Any fan of WWE may have been able to figure out what happened next, and it was beers and Stunners all around.

The fans absolutely loved this opening segment and the pop for Austin and the sound of the breaking glass was through the roof. It’s really hard to compare that kind of pop to anything that is heard these days in WWE.

From there, the announcers ran through some of the plans for the night and revealed that Braun Strowman, Kane, and Brock Lesnar are all here before their big match at the Royal Rumble. The Miz is also going to get a shot at regaining the Intercontinental Title in a match against Roman Reigns.

Next up, an eight-woman tag team match was going to be the first match on Raw 25, and it’s a great lead into the first-ever woman’s Royal Rumble match this Sunday.

Asuka, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Mickie James vs. Nia Jax, Sonya Deville, Mandy Rose, and Alicia Fox

Paige was at ringside for this one, but the match was very slow moving and even involved two commercial breaks. The babyfaces picked up the win as Banks forced Fox to submit, but the aftermath was the best thing.

As everyone was celebrating, Asuka dumped Mickie James over the top rope and threw Bayley and Banks over as well.

Winners: Asuka, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Mickie James

Kurt Angle is backstage and meets up with Coach, Harvey Wippleman, the Brooklyn Brawler, and the Boogeyman. Believe it or not, the Boogeyman gets a huge pop and even eats some worms.

The Undertaker arrived at the Manhattan Center to a great pop and gave a very strange and odd speech to the live crowd. It is really difficult to know if he is ready for more of if he actually called it a career.

The APA are playing poker against Heath Slater and Rhyno in the back when the “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase tosses money on the table and wants in.

A number of general managers are introduced to the crowd next with John Laurinaitis, William Regal, and a huge pop for Eric Bischoff. That pop is nothing like the “invited guest” of Raw and current SmackDown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan.

As the GMs were out celebrating with a “YES” chant, The Miz came down for his Intercontinental Title match against Roman Reigns.

Intercontinental Title Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs. The Miz

By the way, Reigns was booed out of the building on his way down to the ring. This was a pretty good match-up which included The Miztourage being banned from ringside and sent backstage, but the fans were easily behind the former MTV star.

They popped even louder when The Miz hit the Skull-Crushing Finale and won the eighth IC Title of his career.

Winner and NEW Intercontinental Champion: The Miz

The APA card game continues backstage with the additions of Jeff Hardy, MVP, and the Usos who have joined in.

Christian returns to Monday Night Raw for an edition of “The Peep Show,” and he talks about how many times he was a champion in WWE. Then, he introduces his guests who are the current Raw Tag Team Champions – Jason Jordan and Seth “Freakin'” Rollins.

The Bar came down during the interview and interfered, but the champs took them out. Well, Rollins took out Sheamus and tried to take out Cesaro, but he accidentally hit Jordan which may lead to some tension.

Alexa Bliss is being interviewed backstage about being the Raw Women’s Champion and the women’s Royal Rumble, but she is soon interrupted by Charlotte. A minute later, the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair comes in to brush Bliss off and perform a simultaneous “WOOOO!” with his daughter.

Titus Worldwide and Natalya join the poker game back in the APA’s “office” as Heath Slater continues to lose a lot of money.

“Woken” Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt

After weeks of back and forth between these two, they are finally facing off and it happens to be in the Manhattan Center. It’s kind of surprising that this match happened now as it was a weird payoff and it wasn’t much.

Winner: Bray Wyatt

Back to the Barclays Center and some of the women from Raw’s past are introduced.

  • The Bella Twins
  • Maryse
  • Kelly Kelly
  • Lilian Garcia
  • Jacqueline
  • Torrie Wilson
  • Michelle McCool
  • Terri Runnels
  • Maria Kanellis

All of the women stood on the stage and finally, Trish Stratus was introduced to the crowd to a huge pop.

Elias is walking backstage and ends up coming face to face with the iconic Chris Jericho who shows him his own guitar. A huge “Y2J” chant starts up in the arena as Jericho sings about Elias making “The List.”

Soon, Elias heads out to the ring and bickers with the crowd before singing a song for Jimmy Fallon who is in the front row. His song rips on Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, The Rock, and a number of other legends who have already had their time.

After putting down John Cena, it brings him out and the crowd loudly sings “John Cena Sucks” to his theme music.

After they go back and forth for a while, Cena pretty much starts taking out Elias without any issue until the heel hits a low blow. That leads to Elias cracking the guitar over the back of Cena and leaving him laying in the ring with the Drift Away.

The New Day has joined the poker game, but it ends up leading to an upcoming match between Heath Slater/Rhyno and Titus Worldwide. Ted Dibiase wins a huge pot and it leads to Ron Simmons delivering his signature “DAMN!” catchphrase.

Backstage, Mark Henry runs into his former Nation of Domination stablemate, The Godfather. It is then that The Godfather brings up how Henry used to be called “Sexual Chocolate” who ends up hitting on his friend’s wife.

Titus Worldwide vs. Heath Slater & Rhyno

As the bell rings for the match to start, the Dudley Boyz come down to the ring to a huge ovation as fans chant for the tables. Titus Worldwide and Rhyno throw Slater to the wolves who deliver a “WASSUP” headbutt and a 3-D through a table.

The Dudley Boyz and the other superstars hug and raise each other’s arms.

Winners: No Contest

WWE Champion AJ Styles is backstage for an interview he wants to be conducted by “Mean” Gene Okerlund. Styles talks about his handicap match at the Royal Rumble this weekend and imitates Hulk Hogan during the interview.

Back to the Manhattan Center where boos rang out before D-Generation X made it out to the ring, but only Triple H and Shawn Michaels to start. After a pretty good promo from both, he introduced the New Age Outlaws who did their awesome introduction and in true “WWE Attitude Era” fashion.

Next up, X-Pac heads out to a pretty good pop and “1-2-3” chant before introducing Razor Ramon aka Scott Hall.

Scott Hall began conducting a survey and said the Raw 25 episode was “Too Sweet,” and that brought out Balor Club. There was a meeting of the “Too Sweet” clubs in the middle of the ring before The Revival came out and ended up squashed by Anderson and Gallows.

After that, Scott Hall and DX decided to perform all of their finishers on both members of The Revival. After that, Finn Balor topped it off with the Coup de Grace.

Kurt Angle heads out to the ring with a number of legends and WWE superstars for the main event interview between Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, and Kane. Strowman came out first and he was followed by Kane as superstars hopped in the ring to separate them.

Paul Heyman introduced the WWE Universal Champion, who he said was there for a fight. The superstars cleared the ring and the brawl between all three men was on. Lesnar took out Kane before being powerslammed by Strowman through the announce table to end Raw 25. The show came to a close with Lesnar out on the floor and Strowman raising his arms to the crowd.

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