Monday Night Raw Review - February 24, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kevin Owens Interrupted Randy Orton

Orton's segments have been the best part of Raw in recent weeks and I love how they're dragging out his explanation for why he attacked Edge three weeks ago. This episode emanated from Canada, so the crowd especially hated Orton here because Edge is Canadian. Speaking of Canadians, Owens was the perfect person to interrupt Orton. They had a solid back-and-forth that set the stage nicely for their match later in the show.

Angel Garza def. Humberto Carrillo

I appreciated that the commentators acknowledged that this was the first time they've gone one-on-one on this brand, as they have done battle on 205 Live before. At any rate, this was a very fun match that was given plenty of time. You could tell they were related based off how terrific their chemistry was together and I liked that Garza continued his momentum with another win here. Andrade will be returning at Super ShowDown, so it will be interesting to see what will happen with him and Garza.

Ricochet def. Luke Gallows

Ricochet knocked off Karl Anderson last week, so it was only logical for him to take on Gallows last week. The weird thing it that it actually took him longer to beat Anderson, even though Gallows is more of a threat because he's bigger. It's nice WWE is giving Ricochet so many wins, but it doesn't change how he stands zero chance of defeating Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. It's more a question of how long he'll last.

WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman Addressed Ricochet and Drew McIntyre

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Lesnar to come out immediately after Ricochet's match? Nitpicking aside, this promo didn't serve much of a purpose aside from hyping up his title defense against Ricochet at Super ShowDown. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that Lesnar is winning on Thursday, so it was smart for him to focus on facing McIntyre at WrestleMania 36. If nothing else, the crowd was super hot for most of this.

Aleister Black def. Erick Rowan

I had no clue what the point of this was when it was announced earlier in the day considering Black beat Rowan clean last week and I got worried once The O.C. laid Black out backstage beforehand. Thankfully, Black won again as he should have, but this benefited from Black being "injured" because fans thought Rowan might hand him his first singles loss on the main roster. This told a solid story and was a quality contest, but I'm ready to move on from this nonsense with Rowan and his cage. Post-match, Black challenged AJ Styles to a match next week on Raw, which should be excellent.

Charly Caruso Conducted a Sit-Down Interview with Drew McIntyre

SmackDown featured something similar to this with Renee Young and Lacey Evans this past Friday, and while Renee is much more natural in the interviewer role than Charly, this was a vast improvement in terms of how it was executed and the material that was covered. I enjoyed McIntyre's appearance on The VIP Lounge two weeks ago, but this was way more effective in establishing him as a likable figure and catching viewers up to speed on his WWE journey. If McIntyre can keep this up, he'll have the entire audience behind him in time for his WrestleMania match with Lesnar.

Bobby Lashley def. R-Truth

Truth attempted to bring back Truth TV (despite not having a set or receiving a televised entrance), but Lashley wanted none of it. Although Truth's mic time was limited, it was highly entertaining. Meanwhile, WWE is still pushing the pairing of Lashley and Lana, which is a shame. Lashley would be much more of a force to be reckoned with on his own. He made quick work of Truth and went over in dominant fashion, but he remains as directionless as ever.

Shayna Baszler, WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Asuka, Natalya, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan Signed the Contract for the Raw Women's Elimination Chamber Match

This was every bit as pointless as the Chamber match itself will be. The last few weeks of the Baszler vs. Becky Lynch feud were recapped prior to this, so WWE is making it painfully obvious what the WrestleMania matchup for the Raw Women's Championship is going to be. In other words, there's no reason for a number one contender to be determined inside the Chamber. They teased a few future matches with Asuka vs. Natalya and Morgan vs. Riott, but this did nothing to make me care any more about the upcoming Elimination Chamber than I did before.

Angelo Dawkins def. Raw Tag Team Champion Murphy by Disqualification; Raw Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins def. Montez Ford

Dawkins vs. Murphy would have been better off not happening at all if it wasn't going to last more than a few minutes. It merely existed so The Street Profits could have at least one win (albeit by disqualification) before Rollins defeated Ford. That said, Rollins vs. Ford was a great showcase for both men. Rollins was awesome as always while Ford held his own and looked very impressive against the multi-time WWE world champion. I don't think Street Profits are winning the Raw Tag Team Championship at Super ShowDown, but I'd love it if they did, especially since Rollins and Murphy have no business holding the gold until WrestleMania if they aren't going to defend it at the event.

Randy Orton def. Kevin Owens

Owens and Orton haven't had many matches against each other over the years, so this felt fresh. It didn't have a hot atmosphere for the first half (likely because the three hours were definitely dragging), but they picked up the pace a bit after the commercial break. Rollins and his boys coming down to ringside virtually guaranteed interference (which is exactly what we got) and the finish was abrupt on purpose, but Owens hitting the "referee" with a Stunner and putting him through a table afterward made up for it and sent the crowd home happy.

Overall Show

This may not be saying much, but I give WWE props for making Super ShowDown feel like more than a glorified Saudi Arabia house show this time around. I'm not eagerly anticipating every match on the card, but the main matches should be interesting and will give us a better idea of what to expect at WrestleMania. As a go-home show, however, this edition of Raw wasn't anything special. I've praised the red brand for being better in 2020 than it ever was in 2019 (or 2018 for that matter), but this wasn't their strongest effort on the whole in recent memory. I'd chalk that up to most of the focus being on Super ShowDown, but based on what was announced for next week, expect that to be a must-see show with the road to WrestleMania kicking into high gear.