WWE booked Bobby Lashley defending the WWE Title on Monday’s episode of Raw against Randy Orton while also teasing that Big E would be looming to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase.
Earlier in the day, Big E announced on Twitter that not only would he be on Raw, but planned to cash in the contract to become WWE Champion.
This title match took place in the main event of the show from Boston, MA at the TD Garden. The match was back and forth with brawling on the outside of the ring. Down the stretch, they did some near falls. Orton hit an RKO to MVP on the floor. Lashley beat Orton with a spear. Post-match, Lashley attacked Riddle then put Orton through a table. Lashley was selling his left knee as if he had injured it.
This led to Big E coming out to cash in and did. After a commercial break and with 5 minutes left, the match started. Big E went after the knee of Lashley, who did get a near fall with a spear. Big E hit the Big Ending for the win.
This was a change of original plans as WWE had already confirmed Orton vs. Lashley in a WWE Title match taking place at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event.
It’s been reported that the reason why WWE loaded up this show and moved Orton vs. Lashley from Extreme Rules to Raw was due to Vince McMahon responding to last week’s AEW Dynamite beating Raw in the key 18-49 demo for the first time ever.
WWE previously advertised Lashley and MVP getting a Raw Tag Team Title shot against Orton and Matt Riddle, but that was nixed. Also, WWE went up against Monday Night Football for the first time this season and the NFL is a ratings monster.
