WWE House Show Results: Winners, Highlights and Reaction from Weekend of Feb. 23

The WWE live event experience gives fans the chance to see the action up close and Superstars the opportunity to perform in a looser, more fun-filled environment than television.

They are the shows—away from the bright lights and cameras of television tapings—that allow performers to work on certain aspects of their characters while providing a special atmosphere just for the fans who flock to the arenas to see them work.

As WrestleMania 35 draws near, the importance of these shows and the Superstars' abilities to build momentum and hash out any special spots or angles planned for The Showcase of the Immortals increases tenfold.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday saw both the Raw and SmackDown brands hit the south for a series of shows.

Credit LordsofPain.com and  WrestlingInc.com for the results.

Jonesboro, Arkansas (Raw)

• Main Event: Braun Strowman defeated Baron Corbin
• Women's Tag Team Championship Match: Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated The Riott Squad to retain
• Natalya defeated Alexa Bliss
• Drew McIntyre defeated Dean Ambrose
• Elias performed with Apollo Crews
• Intercontinental Championship Match: Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush to retain
• Mojo Rawley defeated Tyler Breeze
• Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Revival defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to retain

Tag Team Respect

Both the men's and women's tag team titles were up for grabs in Jonesboro, as The Revival and the team of Bayley and Sasha Banks defended their respective gold.

It is no surprise the NXT exports have shown mutual respect for each others' work in the past and that was on full display backstage after the night's opener as The Boss 'n' Hug Connection met up with The Top Guys in a video for WWE's social media channels.

Considering where The Revival were just a month ago, disenfranchised by the entire WWE experience, it is rewarding to see them motivated to re-establish tag team wrestling on the sport's grandest stage. Even if it took them requesting their release from the company to get their opportunity to do so.

Columbia, South Carolina (SmackDown)

• SmackDown Women's Championship Match: Asuka defeated Charlotte Flair to retain
• Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe
• Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Sanity
• AJ Styles and The Miz defeated The Bar
• Miz TV with AJ Styles
• Lacey Evans and Nikki Cross defeated The IIconics
• United States Championship Match: R-Truth defeated Rey Mysterio and Andrade to retain
• Samoa Joe attacked Jeff Hardy
• SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos defeated The New Day and the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev to retain

Lacey Evans Wins Big In Her Hometown

Former Marine and the only real lady in WWE, Lacey Evans, had the opportunity to perform in front of her hometown crowd Saturday night as she teamed with the unpredictable Nikki Cross to defeat Peyton Royce and Billie Kay, The IIconics.

It was a rare babyface performance for Evans, who has not filled that role since early in her NXT career.

The promising young star recently starred in the 2018 Royal Rumble and since then, has made a habit of disrupting the festivities on Raw and SmackDown, stealing the spotlight and simply walking to the back.

Evans is expected to be the subject of a significant push, per Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Live, and the more ring time she gets in house show matches, the more prepared she will be when she is asked to do 12 minutes on pay-per-view with someone like Asuka.

That she was able to feed off some hometown energy most certainly helped boost her confidence Saturday, too. 

Tupelo, Mississippi (Raw)

• Tupelo Street Fight: Braun Strowman defeated Baron Corbin
• Women's Tag Team Championship Match: Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated The Riott Squad to retain
• Elias performed with Apollo Crews
• Heath Slater, Rhyno and Titus O'Neil defeated Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers
• Natalya defeated Alexa Bliss
• Drew McIntyre defeated Dean Ambrose
• Intercontinental Championship Match: Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush to retain
• Mojo Rawley defeated Tyler Breeze
• Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Revival defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to retain

Strowman and Corbin's Never-ending Feud Continues

With Roman Reigns unavailable for obvious reasons, and a back injury keeping Seth Rollins out of the ring until WrestleMania, it makes sense WWE would lean on Strowman to be the main event babyface on its Raw house shows for the time being.

With that said, the feud with Corbin is so monotonous and repetitive at this point that even seeing a match between the two live—regardless of how much effort is put in by the Superstars themselves or how much energy is created by their brawl-heavy bouts—it has to feel like reliving a bad dream.

Strowman going over and sending fans home happy is always the desired outcome at these live events, so that is good, but one would think WWE management would be able to find something more productive for these two to do that does not revolve around the same pairing we have seen so many times before.

Montgomery, Alabama (Raw)

• Montgomery Street Fight: Braun Strowman defeated Baron Corbin
• Women's Tag Team Championship Match: Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated The Riott Squad to retain
• Elias performed with Apollo Crews
• Heath Slater, Rhyno and Titus O'Neil defeated Jinder Mahal and The Singh Brothers
• Natalya defeated Alexa Bliss
• Drew McIntyre defeated Dean Ambrose
• Intercontinental Championship Match: Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush to retain
• Mojo Rawley defeated Tyler Breeze
• Raw Tag Team Championship Match: The Revival defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable to retain

Finn Balor Continues to Roll

For a Superstar who was so underserved by creative for the better part of two years, Balor is heating up at the most important time of the year and continued his recent roll by successfully defending his Intercontinental Championship against the man he defeated to win it, Lashley, and his mouthpiece, Rush, in a Handicap match.

Balor has a natural charisma and is one of the best workers in the company, so it's not much of a surprise that he is routinely one of the most over stars on any show he appears in.

At a time when his title reign is still in its infancy, victories on the house show loops and on television only serve to strengthen his credibility and put him over as one of Raw's elite.

Greenville, South Carolina (SmackDown)

• SmackDown Women's Championship Match: Asuka defeated Charlotte Flair to retain
• Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe
• Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Sanity
• AJ Styles and The Miz defeated The Bar
• Miz TV with AJ Styles
• Lacey Evans and Nikki Cross defeated The IIconics
• United States Championship Match: R-Truth defeated Rey Mysterio and Andrade to retain
• Samoa Joe attacked Jeff Hardy
• SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos defeated The New Day and the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev to retain

Charlotte Flair's Star Burns Bright

It says something of WWE's faith in Charlotte that it books her in the main event of house shows, with or without the hottest star in the sport (Becky Lynch) opposite her—and rightfully so.

Like her or not, The Queen has repeatedly performed up to the moment, delivering some of her greatest performances in the highest-pressure situations. She carries herself like a star, treats each match like the main event and has been as prominently featured as the face of the women's revolution as anyone.

Her weekend matches against Asuka carried the SmackDown brand and ensured the company would stand by its assertion that women can main-event, too.

They did, and Flair is better off for it as she enters one of her biggest tests to date: the WrestleMania main event.