Raw results, July 2, 2018: Braun Strowman leaves Kevin Owens feeling blue after toilet incident

The Intercontinental Champion and his imposing ally overpower Roman Reigns until Seth Rollins evens the odds.

SIOUX FALLS, SD — Even by his standards, Roman Reigns has a lot of enemies these days. There’s Bobby Lashley, who he may or may not be facing at WWE Extreme Rules (pending Kurt Angle’s decision). There’s The Revival, who Reigns lost to in tag team action with and will be facing again with Lashley as his partner (per Angle’s decision). And then, of course, there’s Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre.

The Intercontinental Champion and his enforcer, who scrapped with Reigns and Seth Rollins at the end of last week’s main event title bout between Ziggler and Rollins, made their presence known when Reigns opened Raw with a few choice words for Lashley. After voicing their displeasure with Reigns’ proclamations of dominance, Ziggler & McIntyre instigated a two-on-one attack that Rollins was forced to break up, evening the odds and forcing a retreat from The Showoff and the Scot.

Even though Reigns already had one match scheduled for the evening, he and Rollins didn’t hesitate to seek Angle out backstage, demanding (and receiving) a match against Ziggler & McIntyre as well.

The Woken One continues his rivalry with The Axe Man as their Raw Tag Team Championship Match at WWE Extreme Rules approaches.

No Woken O’s this time: Curtis Axel got a good-natured round of applause from “Woken” Matt Hardy last week after what was deemed a “fluke” victory over the Raw Tag Team Champion, but this week produced a much more decisive — and much more upsetting — victory for the “Son of Perfection.”

Not only did the latest bout of B-Team mimicry (they did “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”) leave Hardy much less amused than usual, the absence of Bray Wyatt hurt The Woken One down the stretch when Bo Dallas decided to get involved on Axel's behalf. Dallas’ brief distraction as Hardy began to close in on the win gave Axel just enough breathing room to rally and take the match. The B-Team didn’t hesitate to partake in one of their now-signature celebrations, though judging by Hardy’s reaction, the fun and games are clearly over for him. Whether B-Team gets that message may well determine the final chapter of their Cinderella story.

Titus O'Neil & Apollo Crews stand up to the brutal tandem of Akam & Rezar.

Titus Worldwide made it a point last week to try and teach The Authors of Pain the unwritten rules of the locker room. This week, they were the ones learning the lesson.

While Akam & Rezar made themselves scarce before they could throw down in earnest against Titus O’Neil & Apollo Crews last week, the former NXT Tag Team Champions had no such hesitance when it came to pulverizing Titus Worldwide in a match on Raw. Flashes of brilliance from Titus & Apollo aside, the entire contest was basically a showcase for AOP’s blistering tag team maneuvers, up to and including the Last Chapter that downed Crews for the victory. AOP may not be well-versed in the classic bylaws of sports-entertainment, but clearly, the old rules may no longer apply.

One week after his disastrous tag team partnership with The Extraordinary Man, Baron Corbin demands that Finn Bálor issue a public apology.

It’s been a rocky couple of weeks between Finn Bálor and Baron Corbin, and it doesn’t look like the animosity will be cooling off anytime soon. Corbin — who attempted to reframe his recent aggression against The Extraordinary Man as a kind of teaching method — invited Bálor to offer him an apology for throwing hands against The Lone Wolf during last week's tag team match. 

The first-ever Universal Champion wasn’t about to give Corbin the satisfaction of flexing his managerial muscles, opting to lob a handful of jokes about Corbin’s vest and haircut instead of offering the forced apology. When Corbin pushed, Finn finally offered an apology — that Corbin’s acceptance of the Constable gig had cost him the respect of his peers — and The Constable responded with a cheap shot that dropped the Irishman to the mat. Despite being floored, Bálor rallied to send Corbin running in the ensuing scrap, and smart money says he won’t be apologizing for that anytime soon, either.

The War Goddess clashes with The Riott Squad's blue-tongued troublemaker, Liv Morgan.

Ruby Riott missed Raw with an injury, but the rest of The Riott Squad can still cause plenty of mayhem on their own. (They trashed the backstage area while Elias supplied them with some sweet riffs). Unfortunately, they couldn’t close the in-ring gap, though Liv Morgan was very impressive in a loss to Ember Moon that showcased both the potential of the blue-tongued brawler from New Jersey and the heart and skill of The War Goddess. Even though Ember was dropped to the mat by a flailing offensive press from Morgan, the former NXT Women’s Champion rallied with a jaw-dropping Eclipse to close out the match.

No Way Jose is determined to get a rematch against Mojo Rawley, but the intense Superstar has other plans.

Mojo Rawley has made his feelings on No Way Jose very clear over the last couple of weeks: He doesn’t like him, and he thinks he’s too jokey to call himself a WWE Superstar. And, as evidenced tonight, while he still has no desire to compete with Jose in a rematch of their bout from two weeks ago, he’s more than willing to cheap-shot The Dominican Dancing Machine and antagonize the cheeseburger in his conga line.

The difference this week was that Jose got the chance to fight back after Rawley obliterated the burger, though Rawley quickly snuffed out Jose’s flurry when he slammed his nemesis back-first on the ring apron. The beat goes on, but the crescendo of this dance may be soon approaching.

The Irresistible Force makes an example of Alexa Bliss' friend before her Raw Women's Title Extreme Rules Match against The Goddess.

Alexa Bliss didn’t seem too perturbed by Ronda Rousey’s announcement that she’ll be sitting ringside at WWE Extreme Rules with a personally-bought ticket (she’s suspended from Raw, not the pay-per-view). The announcement that Bliss’ Raw Women’s Title rematch against Nia Jax from the same event would be an Extreme Rules Match left her a little more shaken. But nothing seemed to show Bliss the gravity of her situation than Jax’s victory over Alexa’s friend Mickie James on Raw.

With Natalya backing up Nia at ringside, The Irresistible Force was a force to be reckoned with against the six-time Women’s Champion. If there was any bright spot for Alexa, it was that Mickie’s targeted attack of Nia’s knee left open a slight window as to how Jax might be beaten, but Jax nevertheless reversed the Mick Kick into a tremendous sitout powerbomb and sealed the win with the Samoan Drop.

The specter of Ronda Rousey looms large in the distance. The reality of Jax poses the more immediate threat. And Alexa Bliss is fast realizing she’ll have to deal with both before all is said and done.