R-Truth and Brock Lesnar in a WWE ring
A confused R-Truth stepped up to Brock (Credit: WWE)

With the Royal Rumble less than two weeks away, it’s time for WWE to start setting things up for the huge show – and the approaching road to WrestleMania.

This week’s Monday Night Raw did that in a smart way, with 24/7 champion R-Truth stepping up to Brock Lesnar before the latter will step into the Royal Rumble match as the number one entrant in Houston, Texas on 26 January.

It’s the kind of face-off fans never expected to see, but it’s exactly that kind of action viewers will get when the WWE champion is in the ring at the end of the month, with the potential for 29 opponents ranging from hard-hitters like Drew McIntyre to comedy guys like Truth.

Their interaction on last night’s show was glorious, with Paul Heyman at his best hyping up Brock’s dominance while R-Truth played his deluded role to perfection. Seeing Lesnar struggling to hold it together with every joke was glorious, including Truth’s claim he would throw his advocate over the top rope.

However, once he found out it was actually the beast who’ll be entering the Rumble, he quickly changed his mind, quipping: ‘I don’t want Brock Lesnar to take me a Sioux Falls City!’

Lesnar was in bits as he corpsed his way through the segment, but managed to come out looking like a machine when he attacked R-Truth after he tried to lead the crowd in his ‘What’s up?’ chant.

Brock dropped him with an F-5 to stand tall, grabbing a mic and uttering ‘That’s what’s up’. To add insult to injury, Mojo Rawley ran out to pin R-Truth and claim the 24/7 title, capping off an unexpected but brilliantly entertaining bit of business.

Best of the rest

There were a lot of fun and interesting moments to make this week’s Raw noteworthy, but one of the absolute biggest involved the continued rise of Buddy Murphy.

The Best Kept Secret was once again at the wrong end of a losing effort against his foe Aleister Black, and it’s set him up for a fascinating few months. It’s no surprise the pair put on an absolutely incredible match in their third one-on-one contest, with their chemistry and innovation on full display.

However, Murphy’s strop at ring-side lasted through both Erick Rowan’s latest squash match and well into the main event fist fight between Seth Rollins and AOP, and the team of Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Big Show.

Seeing Buddy get involved to cost Big Show the victory as he joined Seth’s group to end the broadcast shows the faith management have in him, and it’s going to be great to see how this all unfolds.

Elsewhere, Becky Lynch and Asuka had a contract signing for their Royal Rumble match, with the Empress of Tomorrow hitting the green mist to add some real fire to the upcoming bout.

Lana, Lashley and Rusev is still a thing, but Liv Morgan’s pop when she came out to set up next week’s mixed tag match showed this storyline is doing exactly what it’s meant to.

Drew McIntyre also continued his ascension towards the main event with an impressive win over Randy Orton and AJ Styles, in a triple threat where their feud meant he could so easily have been an afterthought.

Could this actually be the big Scotsman’s year? Let’s hope so!

Quickfire results

  • Drew McIntyre beat both Randy Orton and AJ Styles in 10 minutes.
  • Ricochet built momentum over Mojo Rawley in a 3 and a half minute victory.
  • Charlotte pinned Sarah Logan after 2 minutes.
  • Lashley defeated Rusev in 14 minutes.
  • The Viking Raiders defended the Raw tag team titles against the Signhs in less than a minute.
  • Aleister Black beat Buddy Murphy in another instant classic going almost 14 minutes.
  • Erick Rowan squashed a local talent in 90 seconds.
  • Seth Rollins & AOP defeated Big Show, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe in a 5 minute fist fight when Buddy Murphy got involved.

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