RAW starts with Stephanie McMahon on her way to the ring. While she is on the stage her music stops and Roman Reigns music begins. Once Reigns' music hits, Stephanie’s' facial expression changes. Reigns tells Stephanie that she isn't needed out here, and then calls out Vince McMahon. Stephanie than tells him that Mr. McMahon is not in the building yet, and Reigns won't win his match later tonight against Sheamus. Reigns responds that the title is his life and he can't lose. Stephanie starts to begin a speech that highlights that fact that no one can beat the boss. She goes on to say that she is going to work him until he cant work anymore. Roman interrupts her to say if her dad screws him during the match tonight she will have to pick him up at the hospital.
This was pretty good set up for the main event of the night: the World Heavyweight title match between the champion Roman Reigns and Sheamus. The way they've been booking Reigns lately has turned heads; the fans that booed him earlier this year are beginning to change their tune. This segment would get a B- at best.
Dean Ambrose makes his entrance and sits at the commentary desk for Kevin Owens - Neville. Before the match begins it is revealed that "The Beast" Brock Lesnar will be at next weeks RAW. As Neville makes his entrance his ribs are heavily taped from the beating he got from Owens last week. Neville starts the match hitting many high-speed moves such as a shooting star press to the outside. Owens ended up taking control and doing what he does best; tossing Neville around, absolutely destroying him. Toward the end of the match Neville hits a few more spectacular moves, like a 360 splash off the ring apron.
The match ended with Neville being hung up in in a tree of woe. Owens does a massive cannonball summersault in the corner on to Neville. Owens finally hits the Pop Up Powerbomb for the win. Owens then went for an apron powerbomb on Neville, but Ambrose makes the save, via a suicide dive. The brawl moves to the announced table, and Ambrose ended up elbow dropping Owens through the announce table. The match itself was great and the feud between Owens and Ambrose is building pretty well. This match and post-match segment gets a B+.
Vince McMahon arrives and is interviewed. He talks about the benefits to having a good attorney. He then says its ironic how last week he was arrested by the law, and this week he is the law. This match is being promoted heavily and is certainly being made out to be a match the fans can be invested in.
We come back from the commercial break into a match between Titus O'Neil and Stardust. In a short mediocre match O'Neil wins. There is not much to say about the match nothing really went on it felt like it was mostly rest holds leading to a Clash of Titus. This match gets a D and that even may be too generous.
We then go to a segment between Becky Lynch and Charlotte. We find out that there will be a match between the two. Charlotte is clearly not to happy about it. Becky and Charlotte say this rematch is only for the spirit of competition and they do the pinky swear leading to a commercial break.
We comeback to the Divas champion Charlotte making her entrance and she is being accompanied by her father Ric Flair. Becky Lynch then makes her always-exciting entrance and the match begins. The beginning of the match Charlotte takes control. Once Becky managed to get control she went to help Charlotte up and Charlotte took advantage. Becky starts to gain control once again, hitting a well-done sleeper and rolling up Charlotte while she attempts to the Figure Eight. Charlotte takes control again for a short period of time before Becky started getting the best of her. At the end of the match Ric Flair gets involved and Charlotte tries to roll her up but Becky reverses and pins Charlotte. Becky begins to celebrate and Charlotte didn't look happy about it. Charlotte attacks Becky from behind. This has been a long time coming and was not much of a surprise. For the last couple of months now Charlotte has been using more heel-like tactics. The match and segment itself only gets a C+ rating though.
Backstage Mr. McMahon tells Sheamus that this match will make history. Mr. McMahon goes on to explaine the rules of the match including: no outside interferences and that he must obey all of Mr. McMahon’s commands. He closes with "may the luck of the irish be with you".
The next match is Ryback vs. The Big Show. The match starts with Big Show taking advantage and hitting his chops in the corner. Ryback turns the tables and hits him with a meathook clothesline and calls for Shellshock. Show reverses and hits a chokeslam, and then tosses Ryback over the top rope. The Wyatt Family appears out of nowhere. They attack Ryback when he’s on the outside. Braun Strowman chokes Ryback as Big Show watches. The Wyatts then turn their attention to Show. Show fights them off for a bit before being quadruple teamed by the Wyatts. The only point to this whole match/segment was to set up for Royal Rumble and it did its job. The quality of the match and segment wasn't anything special the highest grade it could get is a C.
The next match is the League of Nations (Rusev and Alberto Del Rio) vs. the Slammy award winning Usos. This match was very well done, and set a good tone for the tag team division this year. The match had many moments were it could have ended, such as the Usos hitting their splash on Alberto Del Rio. The match eventually came to a close with Alberto Del Rio hitting a double foot stomp off the top turnbuckle onto a tangled up Jey Uso. This match was exciting and great to watch. Lets hope the tag team division flourishes this year. This match can easily get an A.
The next match is Dolph Ziggler vs. Heath Slater. Adam Rose, Curtis Axel, and Bo Dallas accompany Slater. Slater and Ziggler have an ok match it could of been a lot better. There isn't much to say about the match itself other then the men at ringside frequently climbed the apron distracting Ziggler before Slater rolled him up for the win. The four then introduce themselves as the Social Outcast. This match was definitely not better than mediocre, and this new stable is more than likely just going to be made out to be the next JOB Squad. With this unentertaining promo and this not up to par match it could get a D maybe a C- but that is definitely the highest the match could get.
The next segment was Mr. McMahon and Reigns. Mr. McMahon tells Reigns the same thing he told match rules he explained to Sheamus.
We then have The New Day make their entrance, and they go right into a promo saying how they will start the year beating Kalisto and the Dudley Boyz. That leads to them making fun of WWE Hall of Famer Mike Tyson with him falling off a hover board earlier in the week. They begin a countdown to their present to the WWE Universe and at five it turned into the countdown for Y2J. Chris Jericho makes his return on RAW and announces he will be in the Royal Rumble match. This caught most people by surprise, like most Jericho returns do, and it added to the a short list of good things that happened on RAW tonight. This segment gets an A for the entertainment value alone.
The next match is the New Day - Kalisto and the Dudley Boyz. This match had some good action; Kalisto and Kofi together can always create exciting offense, which makes the match so much better. One of the best moments of the match had to be Big E. hitting a massive and dangerous splash on Kalisto on the ring apron. At the end of the match the Dudleys went for the wassup but it was reversed leading to Big E. and Kingston’s tag team finisher. This match was good, but it was not the best match of the night this match gets a B.
We finally have our main event: Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight championship with Vince McMahon as the special guest referee. Throughout the match Reigns would hit huge moves and Mr. McMahon would count slow, and when Sheamus hit big moves he would count faster. Mr. McMahon even turned his back for Sheamus to be able to hit Reigns with the stairs. Roman set up for a spear to Sheamus but he ran a few steps and hit a superman punch on McMahon. Stephanie ran out to try to protect her dad. Reigns eventually spears Sheamus and another referee counts the fall.
After the match Mr. McMahon announces that Reigns will defend the WWE title against 29 other competitors in the Royal Rumble match.