Rhea Ripley Starts the Show, Alpha Academy VS American Made
After Joe Tessitore was welcomed as the new voice of Monday Night Raw, the show properly kicked off with Rhea Ripley! Rhea talked about how happy she was to dominate Liv Morgan in Germany before she challenged Liv to a rematch for the Women’s World Championship. This was answered by Dominik Mysterio who said Morgan wasn’t here tonight, but she would accept MAMI’s challenge. Wouldn’t you know it, Liv showed up and with the help of Dominik, Ripley managed to get her foot stuck in the bottom rope which ultimately caused her to get help from Damian Priest to the back. This was a fine segment, but it’s not memorable.
Grade: C+
After a passionate promo from Chad Gable, American Made made their way down to the ring to take on the Alpha Academy in the first match of the night! This was a fun opening contest, The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile are really good at what they do whilst Otis, Akira Tozawa, and Maxxine Dupri are just a lot of fun! The crowd were also well behind Otis as per usual, but the closing sequences ended up happening between the two female talents. Whilst attempting the reverse Caterpillar, Chad Gable got onto the apron to distract Maxxine and this allowed Ivy to lock in the Dragon Sleeper for the submission victory! After the match, Chad Gable challenged The Wyatt Sick6 to an 8-person Mixed Tag Team Street Fight which Uncle Howdy gladly accepted!
Grade: B-
Shayna Baszler VS Zelina Vega, CM Punk Speaks, Dominik Mysterio VS Ilja Dragunov VS Dragon Lee: Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament
We then headed straight into the next match as Shayna Baszler clashed with Zelina Vega. This was a decent little match, both women can go in the ring, but it also didn’t exactly have any standout moments. In fact, the standout moment of this one came when Shayna suddenly just won off of a knee! After the match, Lyra Valkyria tried and failed to make the save before Sonya Deville cut a promo about how dominant The Pure Fusion Collective are!
Grade: C
Damian Priest told Rhea Ripley that Adam Pearce had booked him in a Tag Team match for the Main Event, but it was Rhea who told Priest that she’d find him a partner. Lyra Valkyria then hinted at a certain Canadian returning to Raw next week before CM Punk arrived to speak his mind. Punk talked about how grateful he is to be alive after Bash in Berlin, and that he’s now moving on to bigger and better things. Those things being Gunther and the World Heavyweight Championship. This was a decent promo from Punk, it made sense that he’d want to fight for a World Title again. However, before he could leave, Drew McIntyre blindsided him and hit a couple of nasty Claymores before he snapped the bracelet with AJ and Larry’s names on it! McIntyre then started to feed Punk the bracelets in a freaky moment before CM Punk was stretched into an ambulance. However, before Punk could get to the ambulance, McIntyre was back as he destroyed a bloody Punk which included raking at his rival's eyes! I’ll be honest, this was brutal, but this was probably an even cooler segment than the one from back in Chicago.
Grade: A-
If the crowd wasn’t riled up enough, Dominik Mysterio’s music hit as it was time for “Dirty” Dom, Dragon Lee, and Ilja Dragunov to collide in another match in the Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! This was a decent contest that had a story at play too. See, it felt like Dominik Mysterio could steal one, especially when Carlito ran down to help out, but the arrival of Damian Priest put a stop to this as Priest chased Mysterio out of the building. This left us with a fight between Ilja Dragunov and Dragon Lee, and in the end, it was Dragunov who prevailed following a Torpedo Moscow!
Grade: B-
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn VS Damage CTRL, Gunther Promo, Braun Strowman VS Sheamus VS Ludwig Kaiser: Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament
Adam Pearce stupidly allowed Braun Strowman to take Bronson Reed’s place in the Intercontinental Championship before Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn clashed with Damage CTRL. This was a Number 1 Contender’s Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships which kind of makes sense, but this Division is just so directionless it’s untrue. The interesting part is Kairi Sane kept getting into things with Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, and this ultimately left Iyo Sky alone to get beaten by The Unholy Union! Fair enough!
Grade: C
Kofi Kingston got laughed at by Gunther backstage before Rhea Ripley confirmed to Damian Priest that Jey Uso is willing to be his Tag Team partner for the Main Event! Gunther then arrived to cut a promo about how great he is and that there’s simply no one on his level! This led to the surprising return of Sami Zayn who came out and acknowledged that the Intercontinental Championship is usually used as a stepping stone for the World Title, and that’s why he wants a shot at The Ring General. Gunther simply said no before Sami questioned whether the Champion was scared or not?! Gunther-Sami is exciting, this segment was decent, the only thing that’s missing is a bigger stage.
Grade: B-
Jey Uso’s backstage promo got interrupted by Bron Breakker who fired a stern warning at Jey before Braun Strowman, Sheamus, and Ludwig Kaiser clashed in another Triple Threat Match! This was definetly hampered by the fact that Bronson Reed was out due to covid, but Braun did a decent job of selling his injuries whilst Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser work really together. In the end, it looked like The Celtic Warrior was going to win with a Brogue Kick, but Pete Dunne arrived to stop that from happening before Strowman took advantage and dropped Kaiser with a Running Powerslam to score the win and complete next week’s Number 1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way!
Grade: C+
The Judgment Day VS Damian Priest and Jey Uso
After a backstage interaction, Damian Priest and Jey Uso were ready to team together in the Main Event against the reigning World Tag Team Champions, The Judgment Day! The crowd were well into this one, getting behind both Babyfaces whilst also booing the Heels. The in-ring action was totally acceptable, JD McDonagh and Damian Priest had some good moments, but the main bit came outside of the ring when Rhea Ripley stopped Liv Morgan’s attempted interference by chasing her off with a crutch! Back in the ring, Priest dropped McDonagh with a Razor’s Edge before Jey delivered the Uso Splash to score the win and end the show with the crowd on a high! Again, there wasn’t much to this, but it did its job.
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