WWE Raw results, recap, grades: Randy Orton strikes, Retribution members reveal themselves

Orton returned on Monday to dish out some payback to Drew McIntyre ahead of Sunday's Clash of Champions

Drew McIntyre entered Raw without any clear idea of who he would defend the WWE championship against at Sunday's Clash of Champions pay-per-view. McIntyre was set to face Keith Lee on Raw, with a Lee victory securing him a match against the champion if Randy Orton was not cleared for action two weeks after being hit by three McIntyre Claymores.

Orton had not been seen since the McIntyre attack, but made a surprise return during the champ's match with Lee on Monday, attacking with a steel chair. With that, Sunday's title match is set as Orton confirmed he would not miss an opportunity to once again be world champion and the ambulance match with McIntyre would go forward. But Orton was far from done with his attacks on McIntyre.

Read on for a full recap, highlights and grades from all the action Monday night from the ThunderDome inside Orlando's Amway Center.

Randy Orton strikes back at Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre def. Keith Lee via disqualification when he was attacked by Randy Orton. Before his match with Lee, McIntyre said he understands that Lee wants his title and he is sure the two of them will joke about their issues over beers in the near future. But both men came into the match aggressively, with McIntyre immediately trying to score with a Claymore. Lee continued to target McIntyre's injured jaw throughout the match, delivering a big forearm when McIntyre started to build some momentum and causing McIntyre to continue guarding the injury. Lee would again hit the spot later with a clothesline before yelling at McIntyre, "This is my chance." Seconds later, McIntyre drilled Lee with a Claymore, but before he could capitalize, Orton ran in and hit McIntyre with a steel chair.

Continuing the assault, Orton pressed the chair into McIntyre's jaw following a second chair shot. After McIntyre rolled out of the ring, Orton turned his attention to Lee and delivered a punt. After the chaos, Orton cut n promo saying no one should have doubted that he'd be ready for Clash of Champions given his track record. He then walked to an ambulance parked near the entrance and talked about how many people he had sent to the hospital and the feelings he had when McIntyre sent him on a ride of his own. Later in the show, McIntyre was being seen by trainers when he stormed out to go look for a fight, which would pay off at the end of the next section.

Orton's promo was excellent, which has become the expectation during this incredible 2020 run. That said, they have done basically the same finish with multiple Lee matches now. When Lee was facing Orton on Raw a few weeks back, Orton hit the RKO right before McIntyre ran in and laid him out with a Claymore. Tonight, he was hit by McIntyre's finish before Orton ran in. This hasn't done wonders to boost Lee as it left the feeling both times that he was about to be pinned and he has been relegated to feeling like this extra cog in the "actual" angle. Still, the Orton work was strong, and the McIntyre vs. Lee match was solid television wrestling. Grade: B-

Retribution revealed

The show opened with five members of Retribution in the ring before they removed the hoods from their heads to reveal Dominik Dijakovic, Dio Maddin, Mercedes Martinez, Shane Thorne and Mia Yim. The group then cut a promo stating they had been given WWE contracts and now are able to do anything they want and would tear down WWE and rebuild it in their image. The Hurt Business made their way to the ring to confront the group, only for other masked Retribution members to swarm the ring before a brawl broke out between the two groups. Ultimately, the numbers were too much and Hurt Business was taken out by the now "official" roster members. Later, backstage, Retribution issued a challenge to Hurt Business for a match later in the night. Throughout the night, both groups executed backstage attacks, Retribution on random WWE superstars and Hurt Business on non-lead members of Retribution.

The Hurt Business def. Retribution via disqualification. The Retribution members were announced as Slapjack (Thorne), T-Bar (Dijakovic) and Mace (Madden). Lashley was the big force on his team, managing to finally take the match over for Hurt Business before locking in a Hurt Lock on Slapjack. As the hold was locked in, Mace walked across the ring apron and punched Lashley to draw a disqualification. The full Retribution forces ran in to attack. This led to Drew McIntyre and the locker room running in to even the numbers. However, during the chaos, Randy Orton attacked McIntyre from behind, laying him out with a RKO to end the show.

There's simply no way around how bad Retribution's presentation was. The promos they cut through the night were not good by any measure, the strange Batman villain Bane-style masks, and most importantly, the goofy and wholly awful names were all dings to what should have been Retribution's biggest night. Then, having the match end in a disqualification via a single punch from one of the match participants just deflated any last bit of interest from an angle that ran for the full three hours of the show. Retribution is looking more and more like an angle beyond being able to be salvaged. Grade: D

What else happened on WWE Raw?

• Angel Garza & Andrade def. Seth Rollins & Murphy and Dominik Mysterio & Humberto Carrillo via pinfall when Garza hit Murphy with the Wing Clipper. Two of the three teams had more or less broken up on last week's Raw, while the other was a makeshift tag (Mysterio and Carrillo). Still, a decent chaotic tag match that lands Garza and Andrade in a match for the Raw tag titles at Clash of Champions.

• Kevin Owens hosted Shane McMahon on the KO Show as McMahon was promoting the Braun Strowman vs. Dabba-Kato fight on Raw Underground. Kato came to the ring only to receive a slap from Owens for attacking him two weeks ago. Strowman then came to the ring and McMahon kept the two from coming to blows when Owens was attacked from behind by Aleister Black to end the segment.

• Zelina Vega def. Mickie James via pinfall with a backstabber. With the win, Vega secured a shot at Asuka and the Raw women's championship at Clash of Champions.

• Apollo Crews def. Cedric Alexander via pinfall with a roll-up. After the match, Bobby Lashley's music hit and the distraction allowed Alexander and MVP to attack from behind before Shelton Benjamin and Lashley joined in to deliver a beatdown.

• Dolph Ziggler def. Arturo Ruas via submission with a rear-naked choke on Raw Underground.

• Seth Rollins invited the Mysterio family to join him as he revealed information. Rollins claimed to have a DNA test that proved Rey was not Dominik's father -- but then switched to saying the test proved Aaliyah was not Rey's daughter. He then aired footage of Aaliyah checking on Murphy after Rollins attacked him last week on Raw. Rey told Rollins to leave his daughter out of things because she is just 19 years old and "knows nothing about the world," which caused her to storm off. Murphy would track Aaliyah down later to apologize if anything he did hurt her.

• Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler def. Lana & Natalya via submission when Baszler locked Lana in the Karifuda Clutch. After the match, The Riott Squad argued with the tag champs before Jax grabbed Lana and put her through the announce table.

• Riddick Moss def. Erik via TKO on Raw Underground.

• Asuka def. Peyton Royce via disqualification when Zelina Vega attacked her during the match. Billie Kay was backstage seemingly ready to challenge Asuka when Royce interrupted and instead took the shot, though Royce and Kay insisted they were still friends. Vega ran in and attacked a few minutes into the match, telling Asuka it is "her time" before ducking from a backfist and leaving the ring.

• Braun Strowman def. Dabba-Kato via TKO on Raw Underground. A slow match by Underground standards ended when a Strowman right hand knocked Kato down and follow-up hammerfists ended things.