WWE Raw results, July 15, 2019: All-Star main event determines Brock Lesnar’s SummerSlam challenger

A Cross-Branded All-Star Top 10 Battle Royal will determine who will challenge The Beast Incarnate for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam.

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — The short version: “We told you so.” But Paul Heyman is never one for brevity, and so his and Brock Lesnar’s return to the champions’ circle was one long, insidious victory lap, with The Advocate gleefully recounting the weeks in which he told the WWE Universe and Seth Rollins that Lesnar would cash in the Money in the Bank contract, emphasizing the fact that that any failure to take him seriously was more their fault than his.

As far as SummerSlam is concerned, Heyman, in his self-proclaimed genius, turned his attention to the Cross-Branded All-Star Top 10 Battle Royal, where Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Cesaro, Braun Strowman, Rey Mysterio, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns will all vie for the chance to challenge The Beast at SummerSlam. With a talent pool like that, we can all agree that no matter who wins, The Biggest Event of the Summer will feature a marquee main event. But as far as Heyman’s concerned, none of these prospective opponents stands a chance against The Conqueror. And if it turns out he’s right, we can’t say we weren’t told that, either.

Ricochet & The Usos square off against Robert Roode & The Revival in a chaotic six-man tag team melee.

Ricochet might have lost the United States Championship to AJ Styles last night, but The Club aren’t quite done with the former champion. Looking to add insult to injury for the young Superstar, Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson ambushed Ricochet at the conclusion of a 2-out-of-3 Falls Six-Man Tag Team Match in which Ricochet & The Usos teamed up to defeat The Revival & Robert Roode.

For The Usos, who lost their Raw Tag Team Title bid to Dash & Dawson last night, the victory is a welcome gust of wind in their sails that may yet again carry them to the “Top Guys’” doorstop. But the win proved to be little balm for Ricochet, who found himself sized up by The Club moments after he scored the decisive fall of the match against Roode. Ricochet came out swinging, darting into Styles with a suicide dive that instigated an all-out brawl among all nine Superstars. Ultimately, however, it was Styles who got the last word, downing Ricochet with a Phenomenal Forearm and feeding his foe into a Magic Killer from Gallows & Anderson. Ironically, Ricochet had seemed to be taking his loss in stride before The Club came calling, but he clearly won’t be afforded the luxury of a positive outlook. The beatings will continue until his morale doesn’t just fall, but ceases to exist altogether.

Erik & Ivar make short work of two local grapplers on Monday Night Raw.

At this point, local tag teams who agree to be on Raw might as well just feed themselves into the meat grinder and be done with it, because The Viking Raiders have been racking up homebred hopefuls for several weeks and didn’t hesitate to add another duo to their collection on Raw. Vinny Gruner & Jackson James served mainly as playthings for Erik & Ivar’s unique offense, with the final Viking Experience acting as more of a mercy blow than anything else. And with bodies piling up in The Viking Raiders’ wake, it’s looking more and more like this savage, unpredictable duo simply can’t be stopped. They can only be fed.

Cedric Alexander battles a vengeful Drew McIntyre, one week after Alexander’s stint as Gary “The GOAT” Garbutt.

On paper, Cedric Alexander is the perfect rebound opponent for a reeling Drew McIntyre: One night after being embarrassed by The Undertaker & Roman Reigns, what better pickings are there for the former NXT Champion than the man who almost humiliated him the previous week on Raw? The size and power difference seemed to make this one a foregone conclusion, but unfortunately for McIntyre, the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion came ready to play. Despite suffering a series of power maneuvers from McIntyre, Cedric slowly picked the Scot apart with high-flying offense before sealing the match with a roll-up reversal of McIntyre’s reverse Alabama Slam. And just minutes after McIntyre promised to tear Alexander limb from limb, he’s left with more questions than answers, while Cedric is looking like the one who opponents underestimate at their peril.

Bray Wyatt has left the “Firefly Fun House” to introduce Finn Bálor to all his new friends … including “The Fiend.”

Samoa Joe and Finn Bálor both lost at WWE Extreme Rules, so a comeback win was crucial for the two former champions looking to regain their footing — and, in Bálor’s case, the Intercontinental Championship — in time for SummerSlam. But only Joe was able to channel his frustration into a victory, and Finn found himself in a world of trouble he didn’t quite see coming.

While the Irishman got some bragging rights by landing a Coup de Grâce on Joe during a scrap in the wake of his loss, his moment was cut short when his music ground to a halt and the lights cut out in the arena. The sounds of a scuffle could be heard in the darkness, and when the lights came back up, they revealed Bray Wyatt in his horrifying Fiend mask and duster, with a limp Bálor in position for Sister Abigail. The former WWE Champion planted his foe mercilessly into the mat before making his exit, and that Intercontinental Title is looking farther away by the second — though that’s probably the least of Finn Bálor’s problems right about now.

In his hometown, Long Island Iced-Z locks up with Mike Kanellis.

Theoretically, father-to-be Mike Kanellis should be the happiest man in the world. Unfortunately, he’s married to Maria Kanellis, who seems dead set on unmanning her husband by berating him, insulting him and openly questioning the parentage of her child. There could be an argument that this is all some kind of motivational technique, but the overwhelmed Kanellis found himself defeated by Zack Ryder in a matter of seconds following a backstage argument with Maria where she deemed him too inept to compete and tried to battle The Ultimate Broski in his stead. Then again, given the relish with which Maria insulted Mike after the match, this may have been the result she wanted all along. 

Kalisto, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik take on new United States Champion AJ Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows in six-man tag team action.

If there was any doubt The Club was going to do things right this time around, they certainly put it to rest on this week’s Raw when they won their first Six-Man Tag Team Match since their reunion, overwhelming The Lucha House Party and nearly crippling Kalisto with a match-ending Calf Crusher that AJ Styles refused to release. With that being said, their win wasn’t exactly seamless, thanks to an appearance from Ricochet in the middle of the match that briefly threw the bout into chaos.

Ricochet’s interference, where he repaid The Club’s earlier ambush by attacking Styles, clearly weighed on The Phenomenal One for the remainder of the match; he competed with a little extra fire, and even his torturous submission on The King of Flight seemed to stand as a message. But Styles feeling the need to reply in such a fashion is also a statement of sorts about Ricochet, and the manner in which he finally decided to repay his weeks of cheap shots at the hands of Styles. It may well end up being that anything AJ Styles can do, Ricochet can do, too — perhaps even better.

Things get intensely personal between The A-Lister and The Showoff in a bombastic installment of “Miz TV.”

Extreme Rules wasn’t Dolph Ziggler’s best night — he lost to Kevin Owens in a matter of seconds — so it was somewhat odd that The Showoff requested time on “Miz TV” to discuss the last few twists and turns his career has taken. It quickly became clear, however, that he had come to Raw for the express purpose of picking a fight with The Miz, who he accused of turning into a corporate yes-man type instead of the hungry, Cleveland-born outsider who forced his way to the upper echelon of WWE. For Ziggler, that was a fate worse than any 17-second loss, but Miz was happy if somewhat confused to absorb the insults … at least until The Showoff mentioned Miz’s wife. The A-Lister threw hands the second the words left Dolph’s mouth, driving him from the ring and handing The Showoff yet another embarrassment, as well as a reminder of just how gritty he can be.