WWE Raw results, March 2, 2020: The Viper RKOs Beth Phoenix after twisted explanation for attacking Edge

BROOKLYN — According to Paul Heyman, the difference between Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre is that the WWE Champion got where he is through an extended campaign of merciless destruction (salute to Ricochet’s gritty but futile campaign for the title), while McIntyre owes his success to an ability to capitalize on single moments of vulnerability. McIntyre didn’t seem to mind, leaning into the strategy during a show-opening confrontation weeks in the making.

After going face-to-face with Lesnar, McIntyre dropped the champion with a Claymore when The Beast attempted to charge him, emphatically poking a hole in Heyman’s slander of the challenger as a “hyped-up fraud.” As if to prove that precision is the name of the game, McIntyre dropped Brock with a second Claymore on the ramp (plus a third at the crowd’s request), signifying a new narrative as WrestleMania approaches. The WWE Title bout is not quite unstoppable force vs. immovable object, but a game of inches, with McIntyre showing more than enough skill to thread the needle.

The Street Profits have never lacked a sense of urgency, but there’s something to be said for putting it in fine print. Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins defeated Seth Rollins & Murphy to win the Raw Tag Team Titles by converting on a crucial “Now or Never” stipulation that would have barred them from future championship matches had they come up short.

Rollins & Murphy certainly had the right idea, stationing AOP atop the ramp to act as an insurance policy/distraction for the referee. But Kevin Owens struck while the ref dealt with Rollins’ minions, Stunning The Monday Night Messiah to tee up a Ford Frog Splash for the pinfall on the solo Rollins. Rollins quickly cried foul and demanded a rematch at Elimination Chamber, but for now, he remains a Messiah without a relic, a preacher whose bully pulpit now looms significantly smaller.

Kevin Owens is questioned as to why he interfered in the Raw Tag Team Title Match pitting Seth Rollins & Murphy vs. The Street Profits.

Between her savage attacks and swaggering mystique, Shayna Baszler is looking like the odds-on the favorite in the Women’s Elimination Chamber Match. Even though The Queen of Spades couldn’t mix it up with the injured Asuka on Raw, her bout against Kairi Sane served as a frightening example of what the two-time NXT Women’s Champion is capable of even when she’s not taking a literal bite out of the competition.

Defeating Sane is theoretically no cakewalk for Baszler. The two had a series of classics over the NXT Women’s Title in 2018, but The Submission Magician was on another level in her Team Red debut, dismantling The Pirate Princess piece by piece before submitting her with the Kirifuda Clutch. Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch, however, wasn’t overly impressed, chiding Baszler from the commentary desk for refusing to fight her head-on. Based on tonight, she might want to count that as a blessing.

Beth Phoenix came to Raw to provide a medical update on her husband Edge. Instead, she managed to do what no one else could and get Randy Orton to explain why he attacked The Rated-R Superstar during a confrontation that got intensely personal and culminated in a quick-strike RKO to the former Women’s Champion.

As to the long-awaited why, The Viper justified his attack as a return of a long-unpaid favor. Edge saved Orton from himself once upon a time, and Orton reasoned that his old friend’s pursuit of an in-ring return could put him in the path of even greater danger that would take him away from his wife and daughters. Beth, he said, was the real villain here, labeling her an “enabler” who refused to recognize that Edge was a “junkie” for the roar of the crowd, and it was Orton who did the hard thing and took away his supply.

That might have been understandable enough, in a twisted sort of way, but The Apex Predator’s final turn of the knife made it even more personal, when he implied that his love for Edge and his daughters was more than Beth could ever muster. The Glamazon answered with a slap to the face followed by a swift kick to the gut, and Orton retaliated with an RKO before walking out without a word. Several of Beth and Edge’s old friends rallied to Phoenix’s side as she became the latest member of Edge’s family to fall victim to Randy Orton’s “love,” though it’s hard to imagine how this action could have possibly saved anyone. If anything, it’s just made things worse.