Raw Recap, Reactions, & Biggest Moments- Big News From Bliss

We are officially in that time of year where Raw gets bigger and better with each passing week. Well, at least it should do. That's because between now and April 7, 2019, the card for WrestleMania 35 should gradually become clearer and clearer with each passing week. We may be getting a little ahead of ourselves here. We do have the Royal Rumble to deal with first, and there was an awful lot of build to that massive event on Monday's Raw.

Braun Strowman's segment with Brock Lesnar last week was a little embarrassing. On Monday's Raw, he had the chance to make us forget all about it as he opened the show. While sending a message to The Beast, Baron Corbin interrupted. That resulted in Strowman chasing a mouthy Lone Wolf through the arena. Rather than head for the hills, Corbin decided to hide in the back of Vince McMahon's limo. Unfortunately for Corbin, Elias saw him clamber in and sold him down the river. After tearing the door off, Corbin escaped and an extremely unhappy Mr. McMahon arrived on the scene. As punishment, the boss fined Strowman $100,000 but worst of all removed him from the Universal Title match at Royal Rumble. The Monster then continued to take his frustrations out on the limo, flipping it upside down.

In typical WWE fashion, two Superstars who will face each other soon were forced to team up on Raw this week. Ronda Rousey and Sasha Banks will face each other at Royal Rumble, but on Monday they took on and defeated Nia Jax and Tamina. Even though Banks and Rousey won by submission, it wasn't the Raw Women's Champion who made Tamina tap. The Boss locked in her Bank Statement and won herself and Rousey the match. After the bell, The Rowdy One insinuated that she will be doing the same to Banks at Royal Rumble. Banks naturally didn't take that well and the two bickered as they returned to the locker room.

We thought that last week's falls count anywhere match would be Seth Rollins' last chance to win back the Intercontinental Title. We were wrong. On Monday's Raw, Rollins and the man who cost him the title last week, Bobby Lashley competed with Dean Ambrose in a triple threat match. We were not told why the match happened, but oh well. Despite the animosity between Ambrose and Rollins, at one point during the match, the two of them worked together to dispatch of Lashley. As it turns out, they should have kept that up. Thanks to them being at each other's throats, and a constantly interfering Lio Rush, Lashley won the match. It is the first time The Almighty has been Intercontinental Champion.

WWE has planted the idea in our heads that we want Women's Tag Team Titles. Or was it the other way around? Either way, we now think it is a good idea and have been promised them in 2019, but when? Well, at Elimination Chamber as Alexa Bliss laid out on Raw. After unveiling the brand new championships, Bliss revealed that six teams will get the chance to become WWE's first Women's Tag Team Champions. Three teams each from Raw and SmackDown Live will step inside the chamber and the last team standing will be crowned champions. Her and Paul Heyman then proceeded to have a conversation about something that didn't pertain to the new titles at all. Here's hoping they haven't already become an afterthought in WWE's mind.

As discussed above, Strowman is no longer the challenger to Lesnar's Universal Title at Royal Rumble. That means a new challenger had to be determined, and four men threw their proverbial hats into the ring. John Cena, Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, and Finn Balor. Mr. McMahon clearly isn't as big a fan of Balor as he is the other three, and told him as such on Raw. That's why Balor had to first beat Jinder Mahal before going on to the number one contender's main event. Well, we hope you're watching Mr. McMahon, because Balor won that too. The Irishman will finally get his shot at The Beast at Royal Rumble, and we can't wait.

NEXT: FINN BALOR REPLACES BRAUN STROWMAN IN UNIVERSAL TITLE MATCH AT ROYAL RUMBLE