Judgement Day promo and Alexa and Asuka VS Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H.
The Judgement Day kicked off there show with both their cool appearances and entrance music. They didn’t say much of importance other than the Mysterios and Edge weren’t there before Damian Priest hyped up his match as Edge’s retirement match. They were wrong about one of them not being there as Rey Mysterio attacked them but after a cool confrontation with Rhea Ripley, the Judgement Day took advantage, including Rhea hitting a DDT onto a chair and Balor hitting the Coup de grace onto a chair that was lying on top of Mysterio. This was fine
Grade: C
The first match of the night saw the Women’s Tag Team championship tournament continue as Alexa Bliss and Asuka teamed up to take on “the established team” of Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. If they’ve established anything, it’s the fact that they can’t win anything and that continued as Asuka made Doudrop tap out. This wasn’t bad but it also wasn’t great. Alexa and Asuka are two very talented wrestlers and Doudrop is pretty decent, but Nikki needs to go back to being “Sanity” Nikki Cross if she wants to salvage her career in this company. Bliss and Asuka’s win sets up a very exciting semi-final matchup against Dakota Kai and IYO SKY which goes down next week. Bianca being in Bliss and Asuka’s corner was also a nice touch as they will be teaming up together at Clash at the Castle.
Grade: C+
Theory’s back and Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander take on The Miz and Ciampa
After 2 weeks, Theory, who had a good run of being on every show, is finally back. He put himself over like a good heal before Dolph Ziggler interrupted to say that the difference between the two is he actually earnt the Money in the Bank briefcase. They then brawled into a camera which was cool as it went to an ad break. When the show came back on the air, they were still brawling. This sets up a match for later on in the night.
After a quick promo, The Miz and Ciampa were in the ring to have a tag team match against the team of Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander, two people that have a lot of history together in this business. This was a fun match, Miz and Ciampa did the normal WWE tag team format of work over one of the good guys before the other one gets a hot tag and runs wild. There were a few really cool moments in this match, one of them being when Ciampa and Miz both clapped on the ring apron, something Ciampa used to do in NXT. Ali is a terrific in ring performer and hit a crazy suicide dive onto Ciampa who went flying over the commentary table. What was really cool as well is that both teams had really close near falls that were believable endings. The ending came when Mustafa Ali went to the top, for context he has to have one of the worst percentages when it comes to actually delivering top rope offense and that percentage got worse as he got hit with a really “awesome” mid-air knee/kick before Ciampa hit the Fairytale ending to get the win. Right winners, Ciampa is looking great on the main roster and hopefully, Ali and Cedric will become a more regular team on Monday Night Raw.
Grade: B+
Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre
A replay of last week's assault by Kevin Owens onto Ezekiel was shown before a hilariously brilliant picture of Ezekiel’s family sitting around his hospital bed. The best part of this was Zeke’s Dad started talking which was great. For context, it was Ezekiel/Elias just with a white wig on. Drew then walked through the backstage area as a fiery bin was being put out, another potential act by Dexter Lumis.
Drew McIntyre came out to the ring to say that he will give the Undisputed Championship what it deserves before answering the rumours of him having a back injury by saying “It’s because I’ve carried 20 men for the past 3 years”, A great line. He then said a bunch of potentially matchups for after Clash at the Castle but one big name he missed out was Kevin Owens, who interrupted him because of it. Kevin said that the “real KO is back, the prize-fighter”, which used to be his old gimmick over 6 years ago. Drew then fired back at Kevin Owens’ comment about Drew not knowing who he truly is and this whole segment was brilliant, both were so passionate and are two of the best promos in the game.
We came back from an ad break, and we got Drew VS Kevin Owens in a match. This was awesome, KO is one of the best in the world whilst Drew has felt like a massive star who never loses for years now. KO hitting an awesome frog splash was one of the highlights. Even though the match finished in a DQ due to The Usos attacking McIntyre, it didn’t take away from the action and was definitely the right call as this will make Drew VS Owens an even bigger deal if they battle again in the future. KO hit a stunner at the end and told The Usos to tell their tribal chief that he owes KO one. That’s a great line given their history. Drew then laying the Usos out and sending his own message to the champ is good. This was all brilliant, doubt they’ll be many segments that are better than these through the rest of the year.
Grade: A+
Seth Rollins and Riddle as well as Veer’s Squash match
After Seth Rollins comes down to the ring to say Riddle is going to announce his retirement, Riddle announces that he is medically clear and that he is in the arena. Riddle then runs down to the ring and has a brawl with Seth Rollins through the crowd. After a cool US Championship hype package, Riddle is interviewed by Kevin Patrick and challenges Seth Rollins to a match at Clash at the Castle.
Grade: B-
Veer Mahaan returned to Raw after a few weeks and squashed enhancement talent Beaux Keller. This was a typical Squash match were Veer dominated his opponent and we will most probably never see Keller again. This wasn’t great but that’s just how squash matches go.
Grade: D
AJ Styles VS Bobby Lashley
Bobby Lashley VS AJ Styles was a really fun match were Lashley retained his United States Championship. During the match, The Miz and Ciampa wanted to get revenge on AJ Styles from last week but before the Miz could attack Styles, Dexter Lumis jumped the barricade but was taken away by the security guards. This was a fun match because AJ and Bobby are both popular babyfaces, so it was something different from the normal Face VS Heel dynamic. These two both showed why they are two of the best on Monday Night Raw and this win makes Lashley’s US Championship run feel even more important.
Grade: B
Dana Brooke VS Dakota Kai and Theory VS Dolph Ziggler
After an early backstage encounter, Dakota Kai made her Raw debut against 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke. Kai is a good wrestler, so it was important that she got the win, and she did, but the match wasn’t very long and was also not the most exciting.
Grade: D
Theory VS Dolph Ziggler main evented the show after their earlier brawl. This match was pretty decent and that isn’t a surprise as Dolph is an incredible wrestler and Theory is the future of this company. Theory kicking out of the Zigzag made the match feel like a bigger deal and him winning cleanly with the “A Town Down” was a good ending. Fun match but shouldn’t have been in the main event.
Opmerkingen