WWE Raw 3/19/18 Recap – Bray vs. Matt Hardy in the Ultimate Deletion

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Kurt comes down before Roman comes down and says that he’s suspended, but someone has to represent the main event of Mania since Brock won’t come out. Roman stages a sit-in, so Kurt has him arrested. Brock comes down and Germans him before bashing him with a chair and hitting an F5. Brock leaves and Roman is loaded up on a backboard to a “you deserve it” chant. Boy, this push is just going great! Roman is loaded on a gurney and Brock tips it over after his theme plays. The Alexa-Nia drama is recapped and Alexa comes down with Mickie and says that she’ll end Asuka’s streak tonight.


Asuka and Alexa have a solid match with Asuka rightfully dominating, but Alexa using Mickie to escape. She gets locked in an ankle lock, but gets the ropes and goes outside to escape – but Nia prevents it. Mickie takes a beating and Alexa escapes through the fans. Last week’s tag team battle royal is recapped and Kurt tells Alexa that she will face Nia at WM while Braun can fight for the tag titles – but he must find a partner. Braun battles Cesaro in what is probably Braun’s best actual match yet with Cesaro flying around for him. Cesaro eats the powerslam and it ends.


At the Woken Hardy compound, Matt cuts a promo for his family and Senor Benjamin prepares the battlefield for annihilation! The Revival beats Titus Worldwide in a heatless match. Apollo actually did the job here, which is shocking given that Titus was in this. They announce that they’ll be in the Andre battle royal and Mark Henry’s HOF video airs. Sasha and Bayley face Absolution, but first, we get some terrible middle school drama class promo work from the faces. Bayley gets a backslide with a rather revealing angle for Sonya, but the ref is distracted. Bayley is shoved into Sasha and a pump high kick ends it.


Cena’s win over JBL in 2005 is shown and Cena comes out and says that as long as WWE is around, the Undertaker has meaning. Cena tells Taker to say that if he’s retired, just say it – but don’t jerk him around. Kane comes down in new gear and chokeslams Cena. Shame we couldn’t just redo 2012 and have him shove Zack Ryder off a ramp for old time’s sake. Matt meets with his animals at the compound. Miz comes out and cuts a promo on not being on the cover of the WM Magainze and Miz and the goons face The Balor Club tonight. Miz talks about Balor and calls him “Prince Nevitt”. Maybe he teamed with “Bruno Sanmartino”. Balor pins Miz off a cradle before Seth makes a save for Balor when the goons attack him.


Matt sails on Skarsgard across the Sea of Reincarnation. A Ronda Rousey hype video airs and we see judo pics and actual UFC footage – which they didn’t even do for Brock. She talks about winning the Olympics and sleeping in her car, but broke arms to make money and feed her dog. Her fall from grace isn’t covered beyond a clip of her saying that she thought God hated her after her final fight. She talks about how Travis Browne told her she wasn’t just a defeat or a fighter. She says that this is a dream come true for her and Kurt says that all eyes will be on her.


Bray comes to the compound while Matt circles around in his ring. After a needless cutaway to the commentators, Matt gets the upper hand when the drone attacks Bray. Matt hits a Russian legsweep for 1 before eating a shotgun lariat. Bray goes to attack Matt with a chair, but fireworks go off and Matt attacks him with the chair. They fight towards a shack area that gets a “dilipadated city” caption before clips of Bray’s compound are shown. Bray is distracted and eats kendo stick shots and has flashbacks of Orton buring his shack down.

Matt evades him beyond some Hardy icons before eating shots near a tree. Bray teases a uranage on a piano in the Hardy compound used for the Impact show with a ring inside of it. Matt wants to delete Bray, but can’t choose between the Mower of Lawn or the Chair with Wheels. Bray’s spider walk prevents him from being run over by a lawn mower and they fight on the apron. They brawl outside and Bray prepares to deliver Sister Abigail into the boat, but the drone attacks – so Bray throws it around. Senor Benjamin tosses Bray a globe and sings “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” before Matt beats Bray with a Twist of Fate to win the main event of Raw in WrestleMania season. Matt tosses him into the Lake of Reincarnation, but he can’t be found and has been deleted! Well, this was on the lower end of the Broken Universe matches – but for a WWE-ified version, it was far better than expected.