On this week's Raw, WWE opened with a tribute to Becky Lynch before getting into the details of the brand-to-brand invitational. From there, Autson Theory got dumped but found a new group, Apollo Crews and Kevin Owens returned, and WWE teased the split of a heel tag team.
The show wasn't a strong as last week's, but there were still some excellent segments.
Here are your winners and losers for Raw, May 18, 2020:
Winner/Loser: Edge / Orton Opening
Outside of the marketing effort by WWE to bill their upcoming match as "The Best Wrestling Match Ever" -- which it is very unlikely to be -- Edge did his part to sell the emotion of the Backlash bout and kept up his string of strong promo work.
Orton and Edge have undeniable chemistry and this will certainly be a good match. WWE just needs to be careful not to try and oversell the idea of it being the best wrestling match in WWE history because the second it doesn't deliver, it will be considered a letdown.
Winner: Seth Rollins "You're Welcome Rey"
The idea of Seth Rollins having to sacrifice Rey is interesting in that it takes Seth Rollins in a direction that is unique and could lead to some fun storylines that will do his new Monday Night Messiah persona a world of good. It also teased that Rey will return, which is good news for fans reading reports in the rumor mill that suggest his contract is an unknown.
Humberto Carrillo came out to defend Mysterio's honor and wound up in a match with Murphy. Thanks to a distraction from Rollins, Murphy got the win. When he tried to take liberties with Carrillo after the match, his opponent for later in the night, Aleister Black came out for the save.
A simple but effective segment demonstrated that Rollins is taking no responsibility for what happened to Mysterio. And, he's not really interested in coming to the rescue for his own disciple either. There's a lot of layers here and the more layers the better.
Loser: Ruby Riott
Ruby Riott hasn't won a match on television since April 2019. More than that, she hasn't picked up a victory since returning to Raw and lost another contest on Monday night to Charlotte Flair.
Flair put on a strong showing, selling the injury to her hand after chopping the ring post, but what was the point? Was she there to promote Friday's SmackDown? She said Ruby wanted to say something but Riott never did. Not everyone can be a winner and you need enhancement talent, but this feels a lot like WWE is continually just throwing Riott out there with no regard for any long-term damage continuing to pile up the losses might do.
Winner: Asuka Celebration
It appears Asuka is now a babyface and that makes total sense considering how much the fans seem to be into her new character. Always goofy and laughing, it's hard not to enjoy one of her segments and to make things even better, Kairi Sane got in on the insanity. On Monday she was as, if not funnier, than Asuka.
Nia Jax came out to ruin the title celebration setting up what is likely to be a feud between the two stars. It's a wise choice because when Asuka wins (and she likely will), it will quickly put her over as a hard-to-beat champion.
There was also a sense of Sane turning on Asuka and that could be interesting moving forward, especially if WWE slowly hints at it happening.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
WWE teased more of a relationship between MVP and Bobby Lashley. It started backstage when MVP interrupted Lashley's interview with Charly Caruso and told him to stop holding himself back. Then, after Lashley destroyed R-Truth and Pretty Ricky in their match, MVP came out to applaud Lashley's tenacity. Lana watched on backstage and was livid that she's seemingly being worked out of Lashley's life.
As long as Lashley keeps getting a push towards a title run and his performances are dominant, we'll keep calling these segments winners. He's been so underused since his return, it's about time WWE started building him up as a legitimate competitor.
To close the show, Lashley came out and said he was putting Drew McIntyre on notice. He's definitely moving up in the world.
Loser: Iiconics Teasing Split
In a match that was heavily promoted but came with a completely unexpected finish, the Iiconics may have lost their opportunity at winning the Women's Tag Team Championships after Peyton Royce snapped and was disqualified by the official. Social media was buzzing prior to Raw thinking that Royce and Billie Kay might win the titles. Clearly, that is not the direction WWE is going.
The idea that Royce lost her cool will and should lead to a storyline, but what that will be is unclear. If it all leads to a split between the tag team, it's a terrible idea. These two are so much better together than they likely will be on their own.
Winner: Natalya Snaps... Again
WWE showed a clip of Natalya losing her cool after a loss to Shayna Baszler. She wanted retribution so she challenged Baszler to a Submission Match. Nattie put up a good fight but Baszler was too much for Natalya and picked up the win. After the match as the ring crew was trying to set up the stage for the Kevin Owens show, Natalya snapped again, wrecking the set.
A segment that pushed Baszler's dominance against one of WWE's best female submission wrestlers was also a segment that added some depth to Natalya's character. WWE has something up their sleeve.
Winner: Vega Turns on Auston Theory, Theory Joins Rollins
After a K.O. show fell apart and Apollo Crews made his return with a vengeance, Zelina Vega's boys had more trouble staying a cohesive unit. It wound up costing Auston Theory his spot in the group as Andrade and Angel Garza attacked Theory after the match.
Long-term, this is probably the right move. Theory is a real talent but he didn't quite make sense in this faction. Move him along now and building this group into a faction that feels like there isn't a third wheel is smart.
From there, when Murphy returned to battle Black, Theory was still on the outside of the ring. Rollins saw him upset about being ousted and invited him into the ring to help Murphy. Theory did so and the new collection of disciples took out Black.
Theory then hugged Rollins while Murphy looked on, unsure of what to make of it all.
Loser: Axe Throwing
WWE is trying to do things outside of the Performance Center and have chosen The Street Profits and Viking Raiders with a series of comedy sketches. This time, it was axe throwing and the Vking Raiders got a measure of revenge after being embarrassed in basketball one week earlier.
The Street Profits were incredibly bad, sans one incredible toss by Angelo Dawkins. The segment was capped off by Montez Ford accidentally throwing an axe through a police vehicle windshield.
Winner/Loser: Final Match
There was some good here, despite the fact that few people understood why WWE would call over King Corbin as the first SmackDown star in the brand-to-brand invitational. Corbin got in a lot of offense, and he's a super underrated heel, but eventually he couldn't keep up with the champion who kicked out of an End of Days at one, then landed a Claymore Kick for the pinfall.
Drew calling out Lashley and suggesting this monster is what people have been waiting for might have been the highlight of the bout.