WWE Raw results, Jan. 9, 2017: Chris Jericho captures Roman Reigns' United States Title in Handicap Match main event

The Monster Among Men disrupts Raw's opening match pitting Roman Reigns against both Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho.

NEW ORLEANS — Roman Reigns’ odds of retaining his United States Title went from rough to near-insurmountable over the course of about five minutes in the beginning of Raw when Braun Strowman came to the ring to exact revenge on The Big Dog for last week’s double Spear. The Monster Among Men picked a hell of a time to make his move, as the bell hadn’t even tolled on Reigns’ U.S. Title defense against Jeri-KO when Strowman came calling. The Gift of Destruction’s assault was thankfully cut short by the arrival of Seth Rollins, whom Strowman had been fighting backstage before Raw even started in earnest.

Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon — who was in the middle of evaluating Mick Foley when Strowman broke loose — made her entrance right as the chairs came out and managed to salvage the debacle by sanctioning the immediate matchup of Rollins vs. Strowman. She also gave Reigns till later in the night to prepare for a reset of his title defense, but that might all be for naught. Thanks to Strowman, Reigns’ handicap might have gone from metaphorical to literal.

The Architect takes on The Monster Among Men in an impromptu match.

Seth Rollins went high-risk against Braun Strowman, but, alas, high reward was in short supply at the end of the impromptu matchup that saw an impending victory slip from The Architect’s fingers. Which isn’t entirely to say Rollins lost the match. He did so much damage to Strowman with a Frog Splash late in their matchup that, even though Rollins missed a top-rope leap to the outside and found himself hurled into the audience, The Gift of Destruction was too winded. He couldn’t get both himself and Rollins back into the ring to beat the 10-count. The decision freed Strowman up to wail on The Architect with a chair, but Rollins quickly countered and managed to drive Strowman off for the time being.

The Extraordinary Gentleman takes on the cunning Drew Gulak in Cruiserweight action.

Last week on 205 Live, Ariya Daivari ruined Jack Gallagher’s bout with Tony Nese in a most vile fashion. And as befits an Extraordinary Gentleman, Gallagher will not allow such villainy to stand. After defeating Gulak’s tag team partner Tony Nese on Raw, Gallagher took to the microphone to formally invite Daivari to a parley on tomorrow night’s 205 Live, with the threat of fisticuffs should the scoundrel refuse.

Lince Dorado squares off against "The King of the Cruiserweights," live on Raw.

As Neville continues his campaign to install himself as King of the Cruiserweights, Lince Dorado joins the ranks of the fallen that the furious high-flyer has assembled en route to claiming his throne. Dorado, making his first Raw appearance in some time, seemed initially to possess the right mix of skills to defeat, or at least match, Neville’s own, when he stormed out of the gate after Neville refused to a pre-match handshake.

Neville quickly found his own footing — literally — with a series of boots to The Golden Lynx, grounding the masked Superstar with the blunt force of his boots and several wrenching holds to Lince’s arm. The luchador attempted a last-gasp hurricanrana, but Neville impresseively reversed it into a fireman’s carry facebuster and, finally, tapped Dorado out with the Rings of Saturn. Of course, Neville refused to let up on his foe after the bell, and that was when WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann, whom Neville put out of action two weeks prior, made his return and quickly got the better of his foe in an impromptu brawl, looking more than ready to come at the King when the time is right.

Luke Gallows continues to employ the "good brothers'" divide-and-conquer strategy against the Raw Tag Team Champions.

Looks like a brother shake is in order, but not for the tag team you think. One week after Luke Gallows’ meddling cost Cesaro a match against Karl Anderson, The Swiss Superman’s fellow Raw Tag Team Champion Sheamus withstood another round of chicanery to defeat Gallows on Raw. As you might expect, The Suntan Biker Man beat the mousse out of Sheamus’ famous ’hawk throughout the course of their slugfest, but The Celtic Warrior hung tight long enough to tee Gallows up or the Brogue Kick. At that point, Anderson, who had been talking trash with Cesaro on commentary the entire match, cheap-shotted The King of Swing to set up a brawl that seemed to lead to a distraction-fuelled win for Gallows. But when Sheamus kicked out of Gallows’ last best shot, Cesaro got the better of Anderson on the ramp and it was Gallows, now distracted himself, who wandered into a Brogue Kick.

Kofi Kingston takes on "The Titus Brand" in an unscheduled bout.

Even after Titus O’Neil's confrontation with Xavier Woods last week, The New Day seemed open to allowing The Big Deal another opportunity to join their crew after he sucker-punched Xavier Woods. They gave O’Neil a seven-years-delayed mulligan on his disastrous keg carry challenge from the original NXT (to be fair, he might have some Redemption points). But when The Big Deal dropped the keg of “Booty Juice” before crossing the finish line, he took issue with Kofi Kingston siding with the ref and found himself contending one-on-one with Kingston in the ring.

That, too, ended in booty for the former O’Neil, despite a powerful performance that included a series of blistering chops to the chest, a boot that knocked the hair tie from Kingston’s dreads and a successful block of the sunset flip that pinned him last week. New Day came to their man’s rescue in the nick of time, distracting O’Neil with Francesca II Turbo and leading him in a chase around the ring that landed him square in the path of Trouble in Paradise.