WWE Raw recap, review: 'Stone Cold' Kevin Owens opens a can of whoop-ass
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
Owens 3:16 says I just impersonated your a**.
Welcome back to my "Highs and Lows," this time covering the 3/21/22 edition of Monday Night Raw featuring "Stone Cold" Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins continuing his quest for a WrestleMania match and Becky Lynch getting serious.
Here’s a quick recap of the match results:
- Rey and Dominik Mysterio defeated Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode via pinfall after Dom hit a Frog Splash on Roode
- Omos defeated Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez via double pinfall
- Shayna Baszler and Natalya defeated Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley via pinfall after a Hart Attack
- Finn Balor defeated Austin Theory after interference from Pat McAfee
- RK-Bro defeated Alpha Academy via pinfall in a non-title match
- Dana Brooke and Reggie defeated Tamina and Akira Tozawa in roughly one minute
- AJ Styles defeated Seth Rollins via DQ to keep his match against Edge at WrestleMania following interference from Edge himself.
WWE RAW HIGHS
Kevin Owens as Steve Austin
Owens’ impersonation of "Stone Cold" was spot-on, and you could tell it was being done by someone who grew up idolizing the guy.
The glass shattering at the top of the show did, in fact, for a split second, trick me into thinking Austin was making a surprise appearance — then I quickly realized I was being duped and loved it even more.
The fact that they got me with the second fake-out was even better.
Not sure why I didn’t see it coming, but that just proves how good Kevin Owens is at facial expressions and promo work.
Becky Lynch shows no remorse
Speaking of stone cold, Becky Lynch had ice in her veins this week as she cut down Bianca Belair in a promo.
I especially loved the line where she said: "Bianca, you don’t want to lose your soul. I’ve already sold mine, and I would sell it every day of the week and twice on Mondays if it means keeping this on my shoulder."
The amount of effort Becky has put into being as straight-forward of a heel as possible in the build to this match is commendable.
She hasn’t been playing it cool or trying to get cheers. She’s been creating as much heat as possible for the moment Belair pins her for the Raw Women’s title, and if that’s what happens, the pop will be huge.
Seth Rollins and AJ Styles
Rollins continuing to descend into madness without a WrestleMania match has been way more entertaining than it should be.
The guy is just so tuned into his character that you can’t help but get sucked into everything he’s doing.
Even if it was fairly obvious he wouldn’t steal AJ’s match against Edge, seeing him become desperate enough to try only drives home how badly he wants to be involved in "THE MOST STUPENDOUS TWO-NIGHT WRESTLEMANIA IN HISTORY."
Sorry, didn’t realize the caps lock was on.
Seth and AJ Styles being given that much time in the main event was unexpected, as well, but a big positive. Too much stalling before the last match can be a bummer, so this was a welcome change.
Lastly, the final tease from Rollins continues to build intrigue around next week’s show, as well as his inevitable WrestleMania opponent, so this was dually effective.
WWE RAW LOWS
Commander Azeez and Apollo Crews squashed
Booking Crews and Azeez to lose so quickly the last few weeks has essentially killed any chance of this feud going forward.
It will also be hard for audiences to take this duo seriously now that we’ve seen them decimated so easily together.
Crews is immensely talented, though, and Azeez has a lot of potential. Since both are still in their early 30s, I wouldn’t mind seeing them shifted back to NXT for a little bit to hone their act on the Wednesday night show.
This would help both Superstars shed the recent losses and give strong heel competition for someone like Bron Breakker post-Mania.
In the current landscape, shifting to NXT 2.0 for a bit doesn’t feel as permanent as it was when Triple H was running the brand.
Don’t forget to follow all your favorite WWE Superstars and shows in the FOX Sports app to receive alerts on what they’re doing and more.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.
