Monday Night Raw Review - February 15, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre Attacked The Miz on Miz TV

I feel like we've seen McIntyre appear on Miz TV or The Dirt Sheet a million times since late last year. It's old, repetitive and uninteresting. McIntyre has done a great job of WWE Champion, but not even he could get me invested in this segment. The only positive thing to come out of this was that Miz announced he gave up his spot in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber, which provided a nice hook for the rest of the show as to who would replace him.

Riddle and The Lucha House Party def. The Hurt Business (MVP and Raw Tag Team Champions Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin)

We've seen pretty much every combination of Riddle against Hurt Business at this point, so while this was nothing new, it was at least well-wrestled. I find it funny that Lucha House Party are still getting matches wit the Raw Tag Team Champions because Raw has few other teams that actually matter at the moment. The babyfaces picked up the rare win, but Bobby Lashley laid them all out afterward, anyway. Where the hell was Keith Lee to make the save for his friend?

Raw Women's Champion Asuka and Charlotte Flair vs. Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce Ended in a No Contest

This wasn't terrible, but it was incredibly hard to care and it made Asuka feel more like an afterthought than she already was. If she didn't come out with the Raw Women's Championship belt, you would never know she's champion. The finish was even worse because, well, there was none. Instead, Evans announced she was pregnant, which is apparently legitimate according to PWInsider. Congrats to her, but this storyline couldn't have ended soon enough (assuming it's actually over and they don't drag this out by claiming Ric Flair is the father).

Kofi Kingston def. The Miz to Earn a Spot in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match

The stipulation stated that if Kingston won, he would have taken Miz's spot in the Chamber. If Miz won, John Morrison would take his spot instead (despite not being a former WWE Champion). These two have had no less than a thousand matches since 2008, but at least they always work well together and this was another quality contest from them. They had a rough start but managed to redeem themselves in the second half. I was fully expecting Ali to cost Kingston the win, and although he didn't, it's still possible he and the rest of RETRIBUTION injure him ahead of time and leave the spot for someone else.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Shayna Baszler def. Lana

The women's tag team division on the main roster is complete crap. I can't stress enough how badly I want to see Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez take the titles to NXT because this tag team feud does nothing for me. Lana pinning Baszler (again) would have killed the career of Baszler, so thankfully that didn't happen, even though it took a distraction from Nia Jax. The match was exactly what you'd expect it to be in that it wasn't very good.

Sheamus def. WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles and Kofi Kingston in a Gauntlet Match to Earn the Final Spot in the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match (Non-Title)

I feel like we've gotten a Gauntlet match before Elimination Chamber every year for the last few years, but I'm not complaining because they're always well done and eat up a ton of television time (in a good way). Kingston getting eliminated early made sense after he already wrestled earlier in the evening, McIntyre vs. Styles were finally able to have a proper one-on-one and it was entertaining, McIntyre vs. Hardy was also fun, McIntyre vs. Orton was kept short and sweet, and Sheamus coming in at the end to steal the victory was exactly what needed to happen. Sheamus was overdue for a notable win and McIntyre has seldom been pinned over the last year, so it felt like a big deal. My only complaint is that I wouldn't have had Sheamus vs. McIntyre last as long as it did, even though Sheamus dominated him for a majority of it. I would have saved any real interaction between them for their first match against each other, whenever that will be.

Overall Show

The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view feels like it's coming up too quickly, but I will say that WWE at least tried to put together a compelling card on paper in such a short span of time between the two brands, specifically with the two high-stakes Chamber matches. Speaking of stakes, I'm glad there was more of that than normal on this edition of Raw between Kingston vs. Miz and then the final Gauntlet. The rest of Raw was abysmal as always, but the three hours weren't completely intolerable. That's about the best thing I can say about it. It still doesn't feel like WrestleMania season on the Raw side of things, but maybe that will change following a possible major development on Sunday. Oh, and Bad Bunny won the 24/7 Championship during this show, for anyone who cares.