Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn kick off the show, Shinsuke Nakamura VS The Miz
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn’s music hit as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions kicked off Monday Night Raw. Sami Zayn cut a passionate promo on why he and Kevin are going to retain their tag team titles at Night of Champions against Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa before the Judgment Day interrupted. Finn Balor told the champs that they’ll be waiting for them if they make it out of NOC still with the titles before Kevin Owens clearly just wanted to fight. However, Damian Priest got the first shot in on Zayn before Ripley blasted KO. Sami then chased the heels off with a chair. Decent opening segment with some good lines.
Grade: B-
We got a video package showing off Seth “Freakin” Rollins and AJ Styles for Night of Champions (it was really good) before it was time for Shinsuke Nakamura to take on the Miz. This was a decent match, both guys are talented in the ring and at one point, I genuinely thought the Miz was going to win after he hit Shinsuke with the Skull Crushing Finale. Thankfully, the King of Strong Style put his foot on the ropes. In the end, Shinsuke picked up the victory after nailing the A-Lister with the Kinshasa. Always happy to see Nakamura win, but this match and feud hasn’t made Shin feel any bigger than he has in the last couple of years. He needs a killer feud/match to really get himself on the path that he should never have been taken off of in the first place.
Grade: C+
Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contenders Battle Royal, Becky Lynch, Xavier Woods VS Dominik Mysterio
We got a sit-down interview between Corey Graves and Seth “Freakin” Rollins where the visionary talked about being the inaugural NXT Champion, his run with the Shield and his eventual turn. This was all really well done and I like that WWE included his NXT Championship victory. Adam Pearce then told Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville backstage that the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships match is off as Liv Morgan is injured. Sonya rightly said that Liv and Raquel should be forced to relinquish the belts before Rodriguez challenged Green to a match. Akira Tozawa once again got scared backstage when Imperium walked past him before they made their way down to the ring. Ludwig Kaiser cut his always-good intro promo before the Ring General Gunther talked about how he’s going to be as dominant as ever on the red brand. It’s crazy to think that Gunther is still undefeated on the main roster. It was then time for a Number 1 Contenders Battle Royal to see who would face the Intercontinental Champion at Night of Champions. Akira Tozawa was the first man to be eliminated as Baron Corbin chucked him out before the former King of the Ring winner was eliminated by Dexter Lumis. Dolph Ziggler was able to eliminate JD McDonagh from the match before Von Wagner chucked out the multiple-time World Champion which is a big deal. JD then brutally attacked Dolph Ziggler to showcase why he’s such a vicious competitor. The Alpha Academy and the Viking Raiders had a squabble mid-match which ended with all four competitors getting eliminated whilst Xyon Quinn was also eliminated in his Raw debut. After Elias, Riddick Moss and Johnny Gargano were eliminated, the final four was Bronson Reed, Matt Riddle, Ricochet and Mustafa Ali. Imperium managed to cause enough of a nuisance to Riddle to the point where Reed was able to eliminate him before Ali and Ricochet tried to work together to eliminate the big Aussie. In the end, though, it was Mustafa Ali who took both men out with a diving dropkick to earn the biggest win of his career for a long time. I thought this match was really good, new superstars were made to look cool, feuds were either furthered or started and Ali winning was awesome. Unfortunately, he’s probably going to get absolutely destroyed by Gunther, but for now, I’m choosing to think positive-Ali!
Grade: B+
Becky Lynch was walking backstage and in the background, you could see Paul Heyman shaking hands with the Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest. Remember that for later. Becky Lynch’s music then hit as the Man came out to cut an in-ring promo. Becky talked about how Trish has lit a fire in her that’s been sleeping for a long time now before she challenged Stratus to a match at Night of Champions. This was one of those old-style Becky Lynch promos that made her into one of the biggest stars in the wrestling industry back in 2019. Really well done and if this match does happen, I really hope it’s good because the promos leading up to the match have been superb.
Grade: B+
Rhea Ripley watched on before she told Cathy Kelly that Natalya needs “to stay in her lane”. The Queen of Harts then walked in and said Ripley needs to show the same respect that everyone gives her and that what she did to Dana Brooke last week was uncalled for. I’m sorry, but it’s not like Natalya was in a rush to help Dana at all. Mustafa Ali was then backstage as he walked up to the Alpha Academy and offered them some advice. His best line was “I used to be a loser like you guys too”! He continued his happy walk before he bumped into Imperium. Gunther congratulated Ali on a big win before he told the Heart of 205 Live that he felt regret for him over the fact that he’s got to travel halfway across the world to suffer the biggest loss of his career. However, Ali fired back and told the Ring General that he feels regret for him over the fact that he’s got to travel halfway across the world after Night of Champions without his Intercontinental Championship. It’s sort of a shame that these guys don’t have more time to build this feud up, but both men smiling at the end of this segment made up for it. It was then time for a rematch from last week's show as Xavier Woods battled Dominik Mysterio. This match wasn’t as good as last week's encounter, but the end result was still the same as Dominik managed to beat Xavier Woods after some interference from Rhea Ripley. I don’t mind this as long as it ends with the New Day returning and feuding with the Judgment Day.
Grade: C+
Indus Sher debut, Cody Rhodes, Raquel Rodriguez VS Chelsea Green
We got a really cool video package for JD McDonagh before Cathy Kelley caught up with the recent NXT call-up in the parking lot. JD said he attacked Dolph Ziggler to make a statement and to prove to everyone why “you should never bet against an Ace”. The most interesting part of this was Finn Balor was watching from above. I don’t know what this means, but I’m definitely intrigued. Indus Sher then arrived to make their in-ring debut on Monday Night Raw. Veer and Sanga faced local enhancement talents and absolutely destroyed them. Of course, the Indian Tigers got the victory before Jinder Mahal grabbed a mic and said Indus Sher are here to take over. I thought Indus Sher were good on NXT so this was fine, but they can’t afford to do too many squash matches before they get their first proper feud.
Grade: C+
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were confronted by Imperium backstage as Gunther told the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions that he wasn’t happy with the way they treated Vinci and Kaiser last week. Kevin Owens then told them that they are focusing on the Judgment Day tonight, but they will happily face them in 6-man tag team action next week. Their tag partner should be Mustafa Ali, but I’m slightly worried it’s going to be Matt Riddle. Cody Rhodes then came down to the ring as it was time for him to cut another promo. Cody talked about a story called “The Scorpion and the Frog” before he warned Brock that he’s no longer the next big thing, he’s just a thing in Cody’s way. Rhodes always delivers his promos really well, but sometimes, it does feel quite repeated.
Grade: B-
Zoey Stark was being rude to Nikki Cross again backstage before Candice LeRae came over to stop it. Zoey then called Candice’s family “weird” which is a fair point (not a bad thing though) before LeRae challenged Stark to a match for next week. That should be good and it looks like the LeRae-Cross storyline hasn’t been dropped after all. One-half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez then made her way down to the ring as she was about to go one-on-one with Chelsea Green. Both Raquel and Chelsea are good in-ring workers, but it’s fair to say this was a pretty comfortable outing for the former NXT Women’s Champion. She was in control of Green for most of the match and when she wasn’t, it was only because of interference by Sonya Deville. In the end, Rodriguez picked up the victory with the Tejana Bomb. However, after the match, Raquel Rodriguez was attacked from behind on the ramp by Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler who said they were coming to take the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Great (I’m being sarcastic).
Grade: C
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn VS The Judgment Day
Imperium were backstage as Gunther shook hands with Paul Heyman. Again, remember this. We then got part 2 of Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ interview where the Visionary said that his current character is the best iteration of Seth Rollins. It was then teased that Rollins was going to talk about the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns in part 3 on next week’s show. Again, this was good, but it’s just a shame that they skipped over some of his best characters. They didn’t nearly took about his Authority character enough, his run as the architect and they only said one line regarding the “Monday Night Messiah”. Just feels like a missed opportunity, particularly given the fact that they talked about his NXT run earlier in the show. Apollo Crews then got a video and it totally looked like something out of one of the Creed films before it was time for the main event as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn battled the Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest. The in-ring action was good (which isn’t a surprise), but that didn’t feel like the most important part of this. Early in the match, Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio made their way down to the ring and after interfering one to many times, they were thrown out. Xavier Woods then arrived and brawled with Dom to the back before Paul Heyman arrived on the ramp whilst talking to the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns on the phone. Imperium then arrived at ringside and caused enough distractions to the point where Finn Balor was able to nail Sami Zayn with the Coup de Grace to get the victory. The Judgment Day winning is always good, but you do have to ask why the likes of Mustafa Ali and Matt Riddle didn’t come down to help the tag team champions. Putting Ali in the same paragraph as these guys feels awesome and weird at the same time!
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