WWE Raw results, March 25, 2019: Last Psychopath Standing

Finn Bálor fights the odds in a Handicap Match that could earn him an Intercontinental Championship opportunity at WrestleMania.

The abolition of automatic rematch clauses has forced deposed champions to work a little harder for a little longer to get another crack at the titles they lost. Finn Bálor, it appears, has fulfilled that new mandate with two consecutive victories over Bobby Lashley, and now he gets an Intercontinental Title bout at WrestleMania for his efforts.

Anyone looking for a caveat would point out that Bálor sent himself to MetLife Stadium on the strength of a Handicap Match win, but the argument holds a little less water when you consider the last-second change — Lashley was supposed to compete alongside Lio Rush, but an injury to the hype man subbed in Jinder Mahal — and the astonishing amount of variables that it brought. Between Lashley, Mahal, Rush and The Singh Brothers, Bálor wasn’t fighting one-on-two so much as one-on-five, so it’s hard to find fault with the sequence that brought him the win: An over-the-top-rope plancha to all five Superstars on the outside, and a Coup de Grâce to The Maharaja for the win.

Of course, Lashley did find fault, dropping Mahal and The Singhs with a ruthless post-match attack. And that might make The All Mighty feel a little better in the short run. But it won’t change the result or make the new challenger any less deserving.

Aleister Black & Ricochet try to send a message to the Raw Tag Team Champions in this non-title bout.

The Revival’s Raw Tag Team Title reign has been a story of coming through in the clutch when it matters and getting caught unaware when it doesn’t, mostly at the hands of Aleister Black & Ricochet. The “Top Guys’” personal boogeymen struck again on Raw, handing the champions yet another non-title defeat that was so impressive that Dash & Dawson felt the need to remind the WWE Universe who runs the roost around here.

The victory was doubly impressive by virtue of the way Black & Ricochet got there. Not only did Black grind his way out of one of Dash & Dawson’s patented, cut-the-ring-in-half gameplans, but he maneuvered The Revival into a rare error by charging them both into their opponents’ corner and dropping both champions at once with Black Mass. Ricochet sealed the deal with a 630 to Dash Wilder, and while The Revival’s post-match insistence that they be announced as still the Raw Tag Team Champions may seem on its face like a flex, it gets a little shakier the longer you look at it: After all, Black & Ricochet have gone past upstarts and moved into the territory of a legitimate threat. If you were The Revival, you’d want a different note to end the night on, too.

The Big Dog agrees to face The Scottish Psychopath on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

Drew McIntyre challenged Roman Reigns to a fight at WrestleMania, but he begged Joe Anoa’i to turn him down for the sake of his family. It appears both sides of The Big Dog seemed to accept, with the former Universal Champion sufficiently goaded by The Scottish Psychopath’s boasts of destroying The Shield, and the family man behind the vest throwing the first punch in defense of his family. But accepting this challenge might be to their shared detriment: Reigns had McIntyre on the ropes, riding the high of his frustration, but the towering Scot cut the onslaught short with a low blow that brought Reigns to his knees and a Claymore that put him on his back. The Scottish Psychopath played his WrestleMania card perfectly by appealing to both sides of Reigns’ personality, but The Big Dog may have underestimated his now-opponent’s cruelty: The truth is, Drew McIntyre doesn’t care which Reigns shows up to The Showcase of the Immortals. They’re all the same to him.

The Boss takes on The Queen of Harts, as Bayley, Beth Phoenix, Nia Jax and Tamina look on.

Beth Phoenix hasn’t officially come out of retirement yet, and that might be the best thing for Sasha Banks & Bayley. About the only conclusion to come out of Banks’ otherwise inconclusive rematch against Natalya — and the equally shifting WWE Women’s Tag Team Title picture — was that The Glamazon does, indeed, still got it: When Nia Jax & Tamina crashed the match and handed Banks a disqualification win with a boot to the face, Phoenix went to work, singlehandedly taking down the “Samoan Slaughterhouse” and administering a Glam Slam to Tamina. (Pointedly, she also placed her boot on Sasha's title as The Boss tried to take it out of the ring.) 

Perhaps The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection were initially excited by the idea of a past-vs-present exhibition, or maybe even a nostalgia match from Phoenix. That feeling has obviously turned to frustration, as the champions pointedly offered to face Beth & Natalya, Nia & Tamina, and even their SmackDown LIVE rivals The IIconics at WrestleMania, as well as anybody else who wanted to challenge them. But they might do well to be less hasty: If that bout comes to pass, they may well find they have severely misjudged the situation.

The exciting Apollo Crews tangles with The Lone Wolf, who will face Kurt Angle in The Olympic Hero's Farewell Match at WrestleMania.

Baron Corbin enjoys ruining people’s nights, and WrestleMania is an all-time opportunity for the former United States Champion, Money in the Bank contract winner and “Boston’s favorite son.” He has a chance to retire Kurt Angle with a loss, thus administering the ultimate insult to the Olympian and the WWE Universe. The Lone Wolf seems like he’s in a better position to do that than he’s perhaps given credit for. Not only did Crews defeat Angle admirer Apollo Crews, he did so in fairly decisive fashion by catching the five-tool player with an End of Days right when Crews started to roll. Corbin rubbed it in, too, administering the maneuver a second time after the match just for the fun of it and perhaps to send a message: Win, lose or draw, Angle may not be afforded the respect of a dignified exit.

"The Beastslayer" sends a message to Universal Champion Brock Lesnar during this tense interaction with The Beast's advocate, Paul Heyman.

Does Seth Rollins have a prayer of defeating Brock Lesnar? Paul Heyman thinks not. The Beast’s advocate had little respect for Rollins’ promise to take the Universal Title in the name of the fans he says will be his “army” in spirit, and little thought for the notion of a “Handicap Match” in which Rollins fights alongside the entire WWE Universe. After all, they have nothing to offer except “thoughts and prayers,” and as far as Heyman is concerned, Rollins’ big game has been a smokescreen to distract from the fact that he’s got nothing.

After asking Rollins and the audience not to take it personally when Lesnar wins at WrestleMania, Heyman found himself literally falling over while trying to evade a pursuing Rollins. The Kingslayer had no interest in throwing down with an advocate. But he did have a message: “We are going to WrestleMania, we are going to beat Brock Lesnar, we are going to take the Universal Title, we are going to march into Suplex City and we are gonna burn it down.”

Heyman is right, of course, that the WWE Universe can’t physically help Rollins in the fight of his life, to say nothing of a match The Kingslayer claims will determine the future of WWE. And whether Heyman underestimated Rollins, overplayed his hand, or called it to the T remains to be seen. But tonight, at least, he failed to read the room: If nothing else, Seth Rollins isn’t as alone as Heyman thinks, and that might make all the difference.

The Game agrees to The Animal's suggested stipulation in their No Holds Barred Match at WrestleMania.

Triple H and Batista’s No Holds Barred Match came out of nowhere as one of WrestleMania’s marquee contests, and two weeks out, the wrinkles just keep on coming. In his latest power play to turn the situation to his advantage, The Animal got litigious on The Game, delivering a letter from his lawyers threatening to bail on the match unless Triple H agreed to put his career on the line. Triple H accepted — though, as the 14-time World Champion pointed out, his decision to do so may have come as a bigger surprise to Batista than anyone else.

As far as Triple H was concerned, this new stipulation was nothing more than a chance for Batista to rewrite history in the same vein that The Game believed his former protégé already had. Batista’s recruitment as Triple H’s muscle in Evolution, for instance, went from being an obvious, mutually beneficial arrangement (remember, Batista was World Heavyweight Champion when he left the group) to a stifling power play; and quitting after failing to defeat John Cena became a protest resignation over The Game’s heavy hand as a manager. The King of Kings disputed every one of The Animal’s well-documented grievances and didn’t hesitate to call this one like he saw it, either, claiming the letter was a veiled attempt by Batista to quit once again without having to suffer the agony of defeat.

The surprise, then, was that The Game didn’t exactly disagree with the stipulation on its merit: In his mind, if he couldn’t defeat Batista at this stage of either of their careers, then he was better off as a full-time COO anyway. Triple H’s only exception was the way in which Batista went about handling his business, and now, there’s no way out for either of them. For better or worse, Batista is going to get exactly what he wanted.