Seth “Freakin” Rollins kicks off the show, Becky Lynch VS Sonya Deville: Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
Seth “Freakin” Rollins kicked off this week's edition of Monday Night Raw to tell the crowd that the reason he’s issued an open challenge for his World Heavyweight Championship tonight is because it’s been nearly two years (more like one and a half) since a World Championship has been defended on Raw. An interesting fact for everyone is the NXT Championship was defended more recently on Raw than either the Universal or WWE title. Anyway, Seth put over his opponent Damian Priest a bit before the Judgment Day’s music hit. Priest and Finn Balor made their way down to the ring and after some decent comedic lines, Damian Priest agreed to fight Seth Rollins without the Judgment Day in his corner because he has so much confidence in his own abilities. I thought that made Priest look really strong and I also enjoyed how Seth continuously took shots at Finn Balor’s Universal title reign. Solid opening segment.
Grade: C+
The first match of the night saw Becky Lynch take on Sonya Deville in a Money in the Bank Qualifying match. The in-ring action was actually pretty decent as both Becky and Sonya pulled out some good offense. Trish Stratus and Zoey Stark arrived midway through the bout to watch on from the rampway and multiple Chelsea Green interferences nearly lead to Deville picking up the shock victory. However, in the end, Becky Lynch was able to deliver the Manhandle Slam onto the Jersey Devil to get the victory. Whilst the action was good in the ring, Chelsea Green interfered way too many times and it kind of made it a bit ridiculous that Deville didn’t pick up the victory.
Grade: C+
Gunther VS Kevin Owens, Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler VS Katana Chance and Kayden Carter
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were being interviewed backstage before Imperium came up to them and told them that they weren’t going to stop until they become the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. KO was furious that Vinci and Kaiser once again appeared without them saying their names and when Gunther walked in and questioned Owens’ anger, Kevin challenged the Ring General to a match before he stormed down to the ring. This guy’s crazy. We then got a video package for Katana Chance and Kayden Carter which saw the KC’s put over their impressive resumes, both in and out of WWE. Chance being the first ever woman to climb the warped wall in American Ninja Warrior is particularly impressive. The Intercontinental Champion Gunther then made his way down to the ring as the match between him and Kevin Owens had now been made official. As expected, Owens and Gunther brought out all the stops in a hard-hitting affair which saw the IC Champion mostly dominate one-half of the Tag Team Champions. Owens was able to fight back because it’s Kevin Owens, but interference by Ludwig Kaiser allowed Gunther to sneak a roll-up victory. The ending particularly surprised me because I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gunther win via roll-up.
Grade: B-
Matt Riddle talked trash about Gunther backstage which resulted in Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci getting in his face about it. This didn’t work out for Imperium as Riddle ended up having to be pulled away so he didn’t break Vinci’s leg. Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler were cutting a promo backstage before they were confronted by Katana Chance and Kayden Carter who challenged the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions to a match. Ronda Rousey saw this as a death wish whilst Shayna was impressed with the KC’s bravery. This then led into a match that was a lot better than I expected. The reason for this is because Rousey and Baszler allowed Chance and Carter to look really, really good. What also helped in this situation is the KC’s are one of/if not the best female tag team’s in WWE history and some of their tag team offense is amazing. The crowd clearly realised this as well as whilst Chance and Carter got no reaction when they came out, Katana and Kayden were being cheered on by the end of the contest. They even came close to getting the victory when they hit their tag team finisher, but Baszler was able to break it up before she locked in the Kirifuda Clutch on Kayden Carter to get the victory. More stuff like this, please!
Grade: B-
Ricochet VS Shinsuke Nakamura, Miz TV, Zoey Stark VS Natalya: Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
Bronson Reed wasn’t at all impressed with Ricochet being in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match instead of him before Shinsuke Nakamura took the mick out of Reed for losing to him last week. We then got a video package for Johnny Gargano which was really cool before it was time for Ricochet to take on Shinsuke Nakamura in singles action. This was a decent match between two guys I rate very highly as Nakamura brought his striking ability whilst the One and Only continued to do crazy aerial moves. Ricochet even reversed the Kinshasa before he delivered the Recoil. However, Bronson Reed arrived to cause the double DQ before Bronson delivered the Tsunami to his newest rival (Ricochet). The interesting thing about all of this was you could tell the crowd were starting to cheer for Mr. Nice Guy, but WWE decided to pipe in fake crowd noise for some reason.
Grade: C+
The Alpha Academy were talking backstage as Otis talked about a number of different ways to beat the Viking Raiders. Chad Gable then agreed to start teaching Maxxine Dupri how to wrestle which should be interesting. However, I do really miss the Maximum Male Models. It was then time for another edition of Miz TV as the Miz welcomed his guest Cody Rhodes. The show started off with the Miz calling Cody Rhodes stupid for fighting Brock Lesnar with a broken arm before he welcomed out his surprise guest who happened to be Dominik Mysterio. Dominik got booed as per usual as Rhea Ripley and the Miz tried to shut the crowd up. Dom then had a brilliant line where he called Cody “a dead-beat Dad” before Rhodes fired back at him with some fiery lines of his own. When it looked like Rhea and Dominik were about to leave, Mysterio slapped Rhodes in the face before he hid behind the SmackDown Women’s Champion. Rhodes was clearly angry about this so he knocked Miz out with his titanium cast. I actually thought this was a decent edition of Miz TV and Dominik Mysterio coming out was just genius.
Grade: C+
We then went straight into the second Money in the Bank Qualifying match of the night as Zoey Stark looked to pick up a “big” victory when she took on Natalya. This match was ok, but it felt a little bit too long in my opinion. What I mean by this is I probably would’ve had Stark pick up a decisive victory in the same sort of way in which Rhea Ripley did at Night of Champions. However, that didn’t happen as Nattie got in a lot more offense and she probably would’ve won had it not been for the interference by Trish Stratus. Stratus tripped Natalya up on the ring apron which allowed Stark to hit the Z360 to pick up the victory and advance to London.
Grade: C
Paul Heyman told everyone to tune into Friday Night SmackDown to see which side Jey Uso is going to pick. Sounds good Paul. Indus Sher where then meant to face Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin in what should’ve been their biggest test on Raw to date. However, Veer and Sanga demolished Cedric to the point where the match didn’t even take place. I don’t think this is the way to put Indus Sher over on the main roster. Also, I really think Cedric and Shelton should take a trip down to NXT given their free-agent status.
Grade: C-
World Heavyweight Championship: Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Damian Priest
It was then time for the Main Event as Seth “Freakin” Rollins put his World Heavyweight Championship on the line for the first time when he took on the Judgment Day’s Damian Priest. This was a good main event match as both Seth and Damian looked to prove a point. Seth Rollins’ falcon arrow was particularly impressive, but the craziest thing in the match came when Rollins delivered a barricade bomb to the Archer of Infamy which saw Priest whack his back hard. Finn Balor then arrived to cause a distraction which allowed Damian to hit South of Heaven. However, the Punishment of the Judgment Day was too hurt to cover the Visionary straight away which probably cost Priest the victory. Damian then spotted Balor and he clearly wasn’t happy with his teammate before Seth Rollins was able to get the victory with the Stomp. After the match, Rollins and Balor stood face-to-face to close the show. I really like the fact that Damian Priest is being allowed to hang with the best of the best. However, I really don’t want WWE to split up the Judgment Day because they have been by far one of the best acts in recent WWE history. Anyway, Rollins-Balor should be a lot of fun at Money in the Bank.
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