WWE Raw results, June 24, 2019: AJ Styles and Ricochet take flight in Phenomenal main event

The New Day team up with The Usos to battle Daniel Bryan, Rowan & The Revival as top challengers clash with Tag Team Champions on Raw.

It was a rough night to be a Tag Team Champion on Monday, as the Raw and SmackDown titleholders teamed together for the first time and were each defeated in a non-title Elimination Match that extended one rivalry and, perhaps, teased the first notes of a new one.

The first to go were Daniel Bryan & Rowan, the SmackDown Tag Team Champions who suffered the ignominy of disrespect from The Revival and an early exit from them as well when Dash Wilder clobbered Bryan with a European uppercut as payback for some incidental friendly fire earlier in the match. The cheap-shot freed up The New Day’s Xavier Woods to pin The Beard, the “Top Guys” ousted New Day with a Shatter Machine to Woods and the match was down to two.

The Usos prevailed thanks largely to the same kind of adaptability and creativity that is usually The Revival’s calling card. When Scott Dawson teed up Jey Uso for a Power Plex, Jimmy secretly tagged in on his brother, thwarted Wilder’s ascent across the way and administered the Frog Splash portion of the move to Dawson. Using Wilder as a springboard to execute the move added insult to injury and served as a warning to the cocky Raw Tag Team Champions: This ain’t over just yet.

After losing the 24/7 Title to R-Truth on his own wedding day, Drake Maverick crashes “Miz TV” pleading for a chance to redeem himself.

For one brief, shining moment, Drake Maverick was on top of the world. He had his bride, his best man (shouts to EC3, whose solo cup at the wedding matched his suit) and his white whale, the 24/7 Championship. Then, R-Truth crashed the ceremony, and now Maverick’s got no 24/7 Championship and, if Twitter is to be believed, no wife. (EC3, presumably, still lingers.) As a matter of fact, he still doesn’t have the 24/7 Championship, despite a Hail Mary on Raw that led to an unprecedented development: The first-ever, fall-to-a-finish match for the 24/7 Title.

Maverick made his move during a “Miz TV” interview with Truth and Carmella, and thanks to an enticing stipulation from management banning the typical 24/7 mob from ringside, Truth accepted the 205 Live General Manager’s challenge. He also pinned Maverick in about five seconds and narrowly evaded the mob’s pursuit yet again, despite suffering a clobbering Neutralizer from Cedric Alexander. Maverick, meanwhile, was bereft and speechless in the ring, having failed to win back “the love of his life” — that’s the title, for those keeping score. Alas, after one taste of the white dress, he’ll settle for being the bridesmaid — if not a divorcé.

The Monster Among Men and The All Mighty square off in a battle of brute strength on Raw.

If there’s one thing to take away from Braun Strowman’s tests of strength against Bobby Lashley, it’s that The Monster Among Men is undoubtedly the stronger Superstar, but Lashley may yet prove to be the smarter. In a near echo of their titanic arm-wrestling match a few weeks ago, Strowman upstaged Lashley in yet another contest — this time, a Tug of War — only for The All Mighty to get the last word when he used the rope as an implement against Strowman, threading it across The Monster Among Men’s eyes and cranking back. Lashley didn’t stop there, charging Strowman from behind into the barricade and leaving with his pride intact. Strowman, meanwhile, was left to stew at ringside, having mistakenly thought the key to victory lay in the muscles in his arms and not the one in his head.

The Good Brothers aim to prove themselves to AJ Styles as they take on Erik & Ivar in tag team action.

Give Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson this: When they want to make a point, they try to make a big point. In their second consecutive week of trying to convince AJ Styles that they’ve still got the goods, the former Raw Tag Team Champions squared up with none other than The Viking Raiders — a team with far less accolades than The Good Brothers’ previous opponents The Usos, but one whose aggressiveness more than makes up for it.

Unfortunately for Gallows & Anderson, it was almost the exact same story as last week, with the former champions controlling the action until a last-minute comeback completely threw them off their game. Erik & Ivar finished the brawl with a rather incredible display of athleticism, culminating in a Viking Experience to Anderson that left the losers fuming, the victors celebrating and AJ Styles shaking his head behind the curtain. Again.

Immediately after beating Sami Zayn, Kofi Kingston must square off against The Critic of the Critics’ friend, Kevin Owens.

For a while, Kofi Kingston’s WWE Championship reign had the feel of a magic-carpet ride; something that was too good to be true but too good to last. Nice guys finish last, right? But then a funny thing happened: He kept defending the title and winning. And winning. And winning. And winning. He even won tonight, too, twice — first against Sami Zayn, and then against Kevin Owens, though as the commentary team pointed out, Kofi’s pace and desire to be a fighting champion may eventually catch up to him.

How right they were: Not only did a depleted Kofi allow himself to be goaded into a match with Owens after pinning a very game Zayn, he had to resort to a count-out victory over KO after planting him with an SOS on the ramp. Competing in three matches in 24 hours left Kingston visibly exhausted, and therefore ripe pickings for Samoa Joe, who bulldozed the titleholder from behind when the WWE Champion was making his exit, slingshot him into the stage, Uranage’d him on the ramp and finally locked Kingston in a Coquina Clutch that put him to sleep. And for all the worry of a metaphorical wall waiting for the fighting champion, the thing he actually ran into may have been worse.

Immediately after beating Sami Zayn, Kofi Kingston must square off against The Critic of the Critics’ friend, Kevin Owens.

Naomi and Alexa Bliss’ singles confrontation morphs into a tag team melee on Raw.

The Devil works hard; Alexa Bliss works harder. Not only did The Goddess earn a victory over Naomi one night after a disappointing turn at WWE Stomping Grounds, she won a tag team match with Nikki Cross moments later, bringing The Twisted Sister even further into her orbit in the process. By the end of the night, it was like she’d never lost to Bayley in the first place.

Nikki, distraught over kinda-sorta costing Bliss the SmackDown Women’s Title at Stomping Grounds, was looking for any way to get back into The Goddess’ good graces. And while she balked at joining in on a post-match beatdown of Naomi after the former SmackDown Women’s Champion been beaten by Bliss, Nikki more than proved her worth in a subsequent tag team match. In fact, she had Naomi’s partner Natalya on the edge of defeat when Bliss tagged in without Nikki’s knowledge, seizing the pinfall for herself after Cross had administered a textbook swinging neckbreaker. And while Nikki seemed a little confused over what had happened, a replay of the match’s conclusion brought a tentative smile to her face: After all, Alexa won. And that’s what Nikki wanted. Right?