Throughout the Raw episode, in addition to the excitement over the Superstar Shake Up, the commentary team had done a lot of work to hype up the main event. It would see Becky Lynch defend one of her two newly-won championships against Alexa Bliss, who had only competed once since October.
When the time finally came for the main event, it was something of a surprise for the audience to see Alexa enter the arena with Mickie James by her side. That friendship had seemingly ended some time ago, yet here they were together again.
"Finally, for the first time since October, we're going to see Alexa Bliss wrestle on Monday Night Raw," Corey Graves enthused on commentary. "And not only that, Ms Bliss has Mickie James accompanying her once more."
As Alexa and Mickie headed for the ring, Michael Cole recapped events from earlier in the show. "Opening the show tonight, Becky Lynch said she was looking for new challengers. She wanted to put her Raw Women's Championship on the line, and Alexa Bliss was surprisingly the one to accept the open challenge."
"Right, but nobody mentioned Mickie James being involved," Renee Young complained.
"I'm sure Mickie's just out here to watch her friend in her comeback match," Graves said dismissively.
Alexa finished her entrance routine and stepped into the ring, standing beside Mickie to await the arrival of the champion.
When Becky's music hit, she received a loud ovation from the fans. It made Alexa look at Mickie and roll her eyes in despair, lost as to why Lynch had so much fan support. The gesture was picked up on by Renee.
"Alexa can roll her eyes all she wants. Here comes The Man, who is fresh off of defeating Ronda Rousey in the main event of Wrestlemania, taking home both the Raw and Smackdown Women's Championships."
Becky stood at the top of the entrance ramp, holding the Raw title up in the air. The Smackdown one was being worn around her waist.
"The only problem with having all of the gold is that everyone is targeting you," Cole commented. "Can Becky survive her first test and emerge as Becky Two Belts, as she likes to call herself?"
Becky entered the ring, and after she gave her usual pose on the ropes, Greg Hamilton handled the ring announcements.
On one side of the ring, Lynch projected arrogance, while Alexa, as was often the case, appeared to think she was smarter than her opponent, intending that to be her key to victory.
As the match got underway, there was an air of uncertainty in the arena. The majority of the support was behind Becky, but those supporting had to wonder if they would see her end the night with one title or two.
Even after so long out of the ring, Alexa hadn't lost a step. That had been well and truly proven by the way she had used cunning and ring awareness to dominate the match.
Unfortunately for Alexa, dominating the match did not necessarily mean winning it. Nothing she had done had been enough for a three count, and after Becky reversed an attempted DDT into a suplex, Alexa looked to be the one in trouble.
When Alexa got to her feet, Becky was ready and waiting for her. She jumped into the air, wrapped her legs around Alexa's neck and delivered a hurricanrana.
In one fluid motion, Becky transitioned into a sitting position on her opponent's back and locked in the Disarm-Her.
"There is it!" Cole yelled. "The Disarm-Her is in, and it's in good!"
With Alexa screaming and writhing in pain, it seemed that the end of the match might be at hand. Mickie jumped up onto the apron, threatening to get into the ring.
The referee saw Mickie immediately and hurried over there, shouting at her to get down.
"What's Mickie James doing?" Renee objected. "Get her down off there!"
Frustratingly for Becky and the crowd, Alexa started tapping out, but there was no referee to see it and make the call; he was struggling to keep Mickie out of the ring.
"Alexa Bliss is tapping!" Cole called. "This match should be over!"
"It pays to have friends, Cole," Graves countered. "Not that you would know."
Livid, Becky got up to go and deal with Mickie herself. As she did so, someone else slid into the ring on the opposite side. Becky turned in that direction instead, only to find Sonya Deville jumping towards her. A brutal kick to the side of the head almost turned the champion's lights out.
"What the... What the heck was that?" Renee yelled as the crowd booed furiously.
"That's Sonya Deville, from Smackdown Live!" Cole cried. "Deville just kicked Becky Lynch's head off."
Sonya had quickly bailed from the ring as soon as she had committed the assault. Mickie got down off the apron, leaving the referee to turn around and find Alexa on her feet, with Becky struggling to get up.
Poised and ready to strike, Alexa pounced on Becky when she regained her feet, hitting her DDT finishing move.
"DDT!" Graves called. "Bliss into the cover!"
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
Even though Alexa was a heel, and had just cheated her way to a championship victory, the crowd still popped for her win.
"Alexa Bliss is the Raw Women's Champion!" Cole announced with more than a hint of disgust in his voice. "Thanks to a whole lot of help from Mickie James and Sonya Deville, Alexa Bliss is a four time Raw Women's Champion."
"What an embarrassing way to win a title," Renee said. "Becky had the match won, but Mickie James distracted the referee."
Retreating up the ramp, Sonya looked pleased with her decisive part in the end of the match.
Meanwhile, Mickie was in the ring, helping Alexa up. She snatched the Raw Women's Championship from the referee and had the honour of presenting it to the new champion herself.
"There you see the new champion, but there are more questions than answers here," Cole said. "Why is Mickie James once again allied with Alexa Bliss? Why did Sonya Deville interfere and attack Becky Lynch? Is Deville now on Monday Night Raw?"
"Right now, none of that matters," Graves said as Alexa stood facing the hard camera and gave her familiar pose with the title belt, adding a wink and a smug smile. "The only thing that's important is that Alexa Bliss is the new Raw Women's Champion."
Shortly, the lights above the ring were turned off, signalling the end of the segment. Leaving the ring with Mickie, Alexa felt so many emotions that she couldn't show while in character. At one point in the not too distant past she had wondered if she would ever wrestle again. Even when those fears had been allayed by WWE's medical staff, she had been reduced to the largely pointless role of host at Wrestlemania. Now, suddenly, she was back at the top of the mountain as a six time champion.
"Congrats, Lexi. I'm so glad you're back," Mickie said quietly on their way up the ramp. Since Raw was now on a commercial break, the words were private between them.
The kindness meant a lot to Alexa, too. They had spent a lot of time working together since Mickie had returned to WWE, and a strong friendship had formed between them. For Alexa, one of the best parts about the new Evolution stable was the fact that Mickie was going to have a key role in it. She considered her friend to have been treated poorly by WWE, but hoped that this was a turnaround in that regard.
"Thanks, Mickie," Alexa said warmly. "You were there for me through everything I've been through these past six months. I appreciate you, and I won't forget it."
They walked through the curtain to the back, where Sonya was waiting for them with a smile on her face. "Congratulations, Alexa," she said, offering a friendly hug, which was accepted.
Alexa didn't know Sonya well, but from the encounters they'd had, she had found her to be pleasant, respectful and keen to learn. They were all admirable and important qualities in someone who was a rookie in relative terms. Evolution was a big break for Sonya, and Alexa looked forward to doing her part in helping her develop.
Alexa was congratulated on her win by Hunter Helmsley and Vince McMahon. She thanked them both for their kind words, then it was time to leave Gorilla to make way for the preparations for the next match.
"What do you say to drinks tonight after the show? We've got the new team to celebrate, and the title win," Mickie said to them both after they had left, heading for the locker room.
"Thank you, but I can't. I have a date tonight," Alexa revealed.
"Oh! Tell us more!" Mickie demanded excitedly.
Alexa could tell that Sonya wanted to enquire also, but wasn't comfortable enough to do so with someone she didn't have much of a friendship with yet.
"I need to get Seth's number from you, if you have it," Alexa said to Mickie, letting that serve as a way to break the news.
"I think I can hook you up," Mickie said knowingly.
"Thanks," Alexa said, happy to leave it at that. The gossiping could happen after the date.
The trio walked on in silence for a moment before Sonya spoke up, sounding like she wanted to try her hand at striking up a conversation with her new teammates. "I can't believe Sasha got sent home," she ventured.
"I'll avoid saying anything on that one," Alexa said.
"Lexi and Sasha don't get along," Mickie explained to Sonya. "Sasha has taken shots at her several times, physically and verbally. And now she's been sent home for freaking out about Bayley moving to Smackdown tomorrow night. So, yeah, don't act like that is basically what I'm saying."
"Noted," Sonya said seriously.
Approaching the locker room, they found Charlotte Flair, who would at some point become the fourth Evolution member, waiting outside for them with her phone in hand.
"Congrats, Lexi," Charlotte said, beaming.
"Thanks, Char. It means a lot," Alexa said, returning the smile. She had always found Charlotte to be kind-hearted and supportive of others – a truly lovely person to be around. Although Alexa considered it a surprise that Charlotte had been up for taking on something of supporting role to her in Evolution, she wasn't going to question it. Charlotte's addition to the team meant that Evolution had the potential to be one of, if not the most dominant faction in the history of women's wrestling.
Charlotte held up her phone. "I was thinking about getting a picture of you guys, but it looks like I've been beaten to it."
One of WWE's official photographers was approaching the group. She smiled, happy to find the people she needed. "Can I get Alexa and Mickie, please?"
Sonya stepped aside, standing next to Charlotte. Her reasoning for attacking Becky hadn't been explained yet on screen, so it made sense not to have her in the picture.
Alexa and Mickie struck a few poses, with the Raw Women's Championship having pride of place. By the time the photographer was done, Becky Lynch had arrived. So as not to interfere with the shots, she hadn't been able to get by to the locker room.
"Thanks," the photographer said when she had what she needed.
Becky stepped forward and exchanged a congratulatory hug with Alexa. "Good job. It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow night. I know we're all going to be there."
"Yeah, good match," Alexa said, smiling in appreciation of the professionalism that was always to be found from Becky. "I don't know what's coming next, but I can't wait to find out."
A/N: Special thanks to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter.
Next time, we'll see Alexa's date with Seth. How do you think it will go?
