Monday Night Raw Review - March 22, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Bobby Lashley def. Sheamus (Non-Title)

Lashley already beat Sheamus clean last week, so that combined with Sheamus' latest loss to Drew McIntyre at Fastlane made this match extremely predictable. That said, it was an enjoyable, hard-hitting affair with Sheamus once again putting in another commendable performance. McIntyre coming out afterward and saving Sheamus from the rest of The Hurt Business set the stage for the the Handicap match later in the night.

Raw Women's Champion Asuka def. Peyton Royce (Non-Title); Rhea Ripley Challenged Asuka at WrestleMania 37

I'm glad Royce's Raw Talk promo was finally acknowledged even though it happened weeks ago. She's been vastly underutilized since The IIconics broke up last summer and it was nice to see her have a real chance of breaking out against Asuka here. It wasn't an amazing match by any means, but at least she had a solid showing before eating defeat. The real focus was on Ripley's post-match debut and WrestleMania challenge to Asuka, which was the right call. Ripley mentioned that Flair has COVID, which is true, but Andrade said on Twitter that she only has four days left of quarantine, so it's entirely possible she's back next week and is inserted to make it a Triple Threat.

The Miz def. Jeff Hardy; Bad Bunny Accepted Miz's WrestleMania Challenge

Miz trying to come across as serious at this point is laughable. He was WWE Champion for eight days. The push to make him more of a threat should have happened months ago if not earlier and it's a shame that it's currently coming at the expense of Hardy who should be doing so much more given how popular he still is. The match was decent while it lasted but was way too short to be anything of note. I'm honestly surprised that it will be Bad Bunny vs. Miz one-on-one at WrestleMania. A tag team match would have kept Bad Bunny limited and at least gotten Damian Priest in a match on the 'Mania card.

Raw Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston def. AJ Styles

The pre-match exchange between The New Day and the duo of Styles and Omos was atrocious. How that was supposed to get viewers excited for their encounter at WrestleMania, I have no idea. The match itself was enjoyable and I wasn't expecting Kingston to pick up the victory. For what it's worth, I don't think Styles has ever meant less. I understand they're probably putting him in the Raw Tag Team Championship picture to elevate the titles and because they don't have anything else for him to do at WrestleMania, but beating Styles should mean much more than it currently does. He wins way more than he does, but you would never know because he hasn't been positioned as anyone important on the show in ages.

Drew McIntyre def. The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin) in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

I assumed this would be a straightforward squash match when this was originally announced, but I couldn't be happier to have been wrong. Instead, this was very competitive and Alexander and Benjamin scored plenty of offense before taking the loss (which we all figured they would, anyway). Those final few minutes were especially entertaining. Alexander and Benjamin are so damn good that it's disappointing they'll likely wind up in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. By the way, per the stipulation, Hurt Business are now barred from ringside for McIntyre vs. Lashley at WrestleMania.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler def. Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose (Non-Title)

We've seen this match a handful of times since late last year and, unfortunately, their interactions have never been interesting. The team of Jax and Baszler have long overstayed their welcome while Brooke and Rose are generic as they come. Worse yet, Lana and Naomi were on commentary begging for a rematch, even though they've already lost to Jax and Baszler. Ugh. The match was thankfully on the shorter side, but Reginald is channel-changing material for me.

Braun Strowman def. Elias

It was the Fastlane rematch no one asked for, and no one wanted to see it at Fastlane to begin with. I almost fast-forwarded through the match, but I'm so glad I saw Strowman do his patented shoulder block to Elias and Jaxson Ryker at ringside while train noises played in the background. Ugh. This entire segment sucked. We also now know it will be Strowman vs. Shane McMahon at WrestleMania, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody.

"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt Attacked Randy Orton​

I wish we got the WrestleMania announcement a month ago because at this point, I just want the rivalry to end so everyone involved can move on. And that's coming from someone who has actually liked it more than most. This was fine and at least accomplished what it needed to. There was no mention in the graphic of it being a cinematic match at 'Mania or a Firefly Fun House match or whatever, but I hope some sort of a stipulation is added. If this goes down in the ring, they may have a worse matchup than they did at WrestleMania 33 and I didn't think that was possible.

Overall Show

So many matches were made official for WrestleMania because, oh, I don't know, it's in three weeks. The fact WWE waited so long is ridiculous, but I realize that's because Fastlane was on Sunday and they needed Fastlane to work out any potential bugs with the live stream on Peacock. Speaking of WrestleMania, I'm very happy they took the time this year to announce which matches were happening on which night and that's extra important because there will be fans in advance and they deserve to know what they're paying to see. The third hour was largely a dud, but the stuff with McIntyre and Hurt Business throughout the show was well done. We also got the Raw debut of Rhea Ripley, so the show was a bit more bearable than usual this week.