Cody Rhodes kicks off the show, Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Shinsuke Nakamura VS Damian Priest: World Heavyweight Championship Tournament
Cody Rhodes came out to kick off the “new era” of Monday Night Raw as he talked about his victory over Brock Lesnar at Backlash. As he went over and looked at the World Heavyweight Championship, Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ music hit as he made his way down to the ring to the first of two triple threat matches on the Raw brand. His opponents were Shinsuke Nakamura and Damian Priest and this was probably the match of the night. Seth Rollins is on a level not many if at all any are reaching right now whilst Shinsuke Nakamura is starting to look like the old King of Strong Style. Throughout the match, Seth and Shin had face-to-face interactions and WWE should definitely do this feud down the line. Damian Priest was also once again excellent as he continues his claim of being the Wrestler of the Year so far and the way he sold his leg injury made it feel like he was actually struggling. In the end, Seth “Freakin” Rollins picked up the victory after delivering the Pedigree to Shinsuke Nakamura.
Grade: B-
Otis VS Mustafa Ali, Cody Rhodes VS Finn Balor VS The Miz: World Heavyweight Championship Tournament
Imperium told Akira Tozawa backstage that Gunther is coming to Monday Night Raw next week before they ran into Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Sami asked Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci if they could wait 5 minutes which angered Kaiser to the point where a match between the two teams was set up. Mustafa Ali then made his way down to the ring as he was about to take on Otis. The match didn’t go very long and it was mostly here to further the Dupri-Gable-Otis storyline. Ali was in the perfect position for Otis to hit the Caterpillar and whilst Chad Gable was all for this, Maxxine Dupri wasn’t. The arguing between Dupri and Gable then allowed Ali to dodge Otise’s running attack before the Heart of 205 Live hit the 450 to get the victory. I like this story with Maxxine and the Alpha Academy, but Mace and Mansoor not being around is hurting it a bit. As for Mustafa Ali, even though his matches aren’t focused around him, Ali getting some victories under his belt is a really good thing and he could prove to be the best free agent around.
Grade: C
It was then time for the second triple threat match in the World Heavyweight Championship tournament as Cody Rhodes battled Finn Balor and The Miz. This match might not have been better than the first triple-threat match, but I enjoy seeing Cody Rhodes and Finn Balor go at it. Everyone had their moment to come close to victory and it very much looked like it was going to be Cody Rhodes after he delivered 3 consecutive Cross Rhodes to the A-Lister. However, Brock Lesnar then arrived and delivered an F5 to his rival on the outside before Finn Balor hit the Coup de Grace onto the Miz to advance to the Semi-Finals. After the match, Brock put Cody through the table before the Beast challenged the American Nightmare to a match at Night of Champions. One thing I didn’t like about this was the fake crowd noise that WWE was pipping in made it hard for me to hear what Brock Lesnar was even saying which is really dumb.
Grade: C+
Rhea Ripley VS Dana Brooke, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn VS Imperium
WWE then went straight into another match as the SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley took on Dana Brooke. Before the match, Dana said she welcomed the challenge of the Eradicator and it didn’t work out too well for the former 24/7 Champion as Rhea dominated the equation, hit the Riptide and then locked in her submission to pick up the tap-out victory. After the match, Ripley hit another Riptide before she once again locked in her submission. Natalya’s music then hit, but she seemed in no hurry to help Dana Brooke before she stared down the SmackDown Women’s Champion. If this was meant to make Natalya feel like a babyface, it didn’t work.
Grade: C
We got a video package showcasing the stars that are heading to Raw from NXT (minus Odyssey Jones) before Zoey Stark cut a promo about how she’s ready to change the game. She then went over to Nikki Cross, called her a “weirdo” and challenged her to a match for later on in the night. The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were then out in the ring as they were ready to battle Imperium. The match got time and everyone involved is talented. Kevin Owens, Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci looked particularly good whilst Sami Zayn’s Helluva Kick which he delivered onto Vinci to win the match looked really good. However, I just couldn’t get into this match for some reason. I think it has to do with the fact that Imperium (Kaiser and Vinci) have been booked to lose nearly every match that they are in and it doesn’t look like changing on the red brand.
Grade: C+
Nikki Cross VS Zoey Stark, Trish Stratus, Xavier Woods VS Dominik Mysterio
Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville were getting people to sign their petition and this included Xia Li! They then went over to the Way as Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis all turned down the opportunity to put their signatures on the piece of paper. Annoyingly, Johnny then said that the family is all back together which isn’t true, but then interestingly, the Rebel Heart said “he’s coming back home soon”. I doubt this means Austin Theory and given the way that both Candice and Dexter reacted to this, I wonder if a certain Blackheart may be making his return. Anyway, Zoey Stark then made her Raw debut as she took on Nikki Cross. Nikki Cross isn’t really doing anything at the moment, particularly given her storyline with Candice LeRae seems to have been dropped/put on hold, but I thought she did a decent job at putting Zoey Stark over. I’ve praised Zoey for a while as being the best female wrestler in all of NXT and I think she can be a major player on the main roster. Stark got the victory with the Z360 or as I like to call it, “the best finishing move in all of Professional Wrestling”.
Grade: C+
Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio were being interviewed by Byron Saxton before Xavier Woods and Akira Tozawa started to take the mick out of Dom. The best part about all of this is as soon as Rhea walked in, Tozawa quickly ran off which was genuinely funny. In the end, Ripley accepted Woods’ challenge for a match (on Dominik’s behalf). Trish Stratus was then putting up missing posters for Becky Lynch as the heel taunted the crowd. Becky’s music then hit and the crowd went wild only for Trish to reveal that she’d planned that which was really good. However, she didn’t plan it the second time as the Man returned and took out Stratus with a Bexploder. The storytelling from Trish over the past few weeks has been really good and I just hope the match is able to deliver when it eventually happens.
Grade: B-
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were in the trainers’ room checking on Cody Rhodes before the New Day’s Xavier Woods battled the Judgment Day’s Dominik Mysterio. This was a good match that saw both men get in plenty of offense. Xavier Woods showed why he is more than capable of winning championship gold as a singles star whilst Dominik showcased just how far he’s come as a performer, let alone a character. In the end, it was the interference from Rhea Ripley that allowed Dom to pick up the victory with a rollup.
Grade: B-
Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Finn Balor: World Heavyweight Championship Semi-Final
Indus Sher got a video to hype themselves up which is a good thing before Shinsuke Nakamura ignored the Miz’s requests by challenging him to a match for next week. The reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez then signed Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville’s tag team title rematch petition before the Complaint Department told the champs that this was for a match with Damage CTRL after Bayley and Dakota Kai beat Liv and Raquel on SmackDown. Cody Rhodes then accepted Brock Lesnar’s challenge “for a fight” at Night of Champions before it was then time for the main event as Seth “Freakin” Rollins battled Finn Balor for the right to go to Saudi Arabia to battle for the World Heavyweight Championship. This was another good match between two brilliant competitors. Finn Balor famously defeated Seth Rollins at Summerslam 2016 to become the inaugural Universal Champion and there was a great part in this match where Finn delivered a powerbomb to Rollins onto the barricade, the same move that forced Balor to relinquish the Universal Championship after less than 24 hours. The match itself was an even contest, but in the end, Seth “Freakin” Rollins delivered the Stomp to pick up the victory. Rollins deserves to become World Heavyweight Champion so him winning was definitely the right call.
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