Drew McIntyre Starts the Show, Iyo Sky VS Lyra Valkyria
Monday Night Raw kicked off this week with Drew McIntyre heading down to the ring to cut a promo. Drew said his focus is fully on Saturday Night before Damian Priest arrived to make it once again clear that he doesn’t need The Judgment Day to beat him. That’s why Priest then offered McIntyre a match against Finn Balor where if he wins, The Judgment Day are banned from ringside at Clash at the Castle. This was a pretty simple storyline that didn’t further the build much, but it did at least set up the Main Event.
Grade: C+
Liv Morgan was waiting for Dominik Mysterio in The Judgment Day Clubhouse before Liv gifted Dominik a key card to her hotel room. Dom honestly looked scared. It was then time for the first match of the night as Iyo Sky looked to get revenge on Lyra Valkyria. This was a decent match for the most part which you would expect given the talent involved, but it felt a bit scrappy towards the end. Lyra was going to win the Nightwing, but Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane pulled her out of the ring before the referee watched Iyo pull Valkyria’s hair before Sky followed it up scoring a roll-up victory which didn’t make much sense. After the match, Damage CTRL continued to attack The Morgen (even though Dakota and Kairi didn’t seem exactly convinced) before Katana Chance and Kayden Carter ran down to make the save. At least they’re on tele again!
Grade: C+
Braun Strowman and The LWO VS The Judgment Day, Sami Zayn Promo, Sami Zayn VS Otis
Finn Balor and the rest of The Judgment Day seemed concerned when Dominik Mysterio told them that Liv Morgan had been in The Clubhouse before The Miz bumped into Sami Zayn as he was trying to find R-Truth. Sami then caught up with Akira Tozawa and Maxxine Dupri before Otis explained that he’s nothing without Chad Gable. It was interesting that Otis brought up both Tucker and Mandy Rose here. Damian Priest then walked into The Judgment Day Clubhouse to find out what’s going on with “the key card” before we got a great video promo from Ludwig Kaiser which has now convinced me that he should win Money in the Bank! I’m not kidding! It was then time for some 6-man Tag Team action as Braun Strowman teamed up with The LWO’s Dragon Lee and Rey Mysterio to take on The Judgment Day. This match honestly went on way longer than it should’ve and it was also really slow for quite a while. However, the later parts of the match were good as Liv Morgan again showed up to distract Dominik Mysterio which didn’t go well for Dom before Zelina Vega attacked Morgan to potentially set up a World Title feud going forward. Braun Strowman then finally got the hot tag and he wrecked everyone (especially JD McDonagh) before Strowman dropped Carlito and Lee hit the assisted dive to score the victory! Most of this wasn’t needed, but the ending was fun!
Grade: C+
Ilja Dragunov got a good hype video before Ricochet told Ilja that he has his back. Iyo Sky then snapped at her Damage CTRL partners Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane before Sami Zayn headed to the ring to talk about Clash at the Castle. Sami said he will finish Chad Gable for good on Saturday before Master Gable arrived to laugh this off. Zayn then once again asked the rest of the Alpha Academy to leave Gable behind, but Chad shut this off before it was time for Otis to take on the Intercontinental Champion. Once again, Otise dominated Sami, but as soon as Chad distracted him by getting on the apron, this just allowed Sami to deliver a Helluva Kick to score the win before Otis floored Zayn after the match. However, Otis also seemed like he was tempted to take out Chad Gable too, but he ultimately didn’t and this honestly seemed to make Gable even more happy than before! I am so looking forward to their match this Saturday!
Grade: B- (Overall)
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn VS Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark, Bron Breakker VS Ilja Dragunov, The Awesome Truth VS The Authors of Pain: World Tag Team Championships
The Miz found R-Truth doing fortunate telling with Scarlett. This was done to set up a Tag Title match for later in the show! Jey Uso then got his own video package which was quite good before Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn cut a promo on their way to taking on Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. I have very mixed feelings about this match as it wasn’t very long at all and Fyre and Dawn barely got any offense in. However, that was because Shayna Baszler became “possessed” and absolutely destroyed The Unholy Union before Baszler made the former “Forever Champ” pass out in the Kirifuda Clutch. So yeah, this didn’t make Alba and Isla look great at all, but my goodness did it make Shayna look like a beast (something I’ve been waiting for for over 4 years)!
Grade: C+
After a Bron Breakker video package, Bron headed down to the ring to go one-on-one with Ilja Dragunov. This was easily the best match of the night between two super-talented performers that have been allowed to be stars like they were on NXT. There’s also a massive history between these two guys which only helped matters, and to be fair, it was probably Dragunov that got more offense in as The Mad Dragon just kept fighting. However, Breakker managed to roll out of the ring following a H-Bomb before The Badass ultimately hit not 1, not 2, but 3 Spear’s to get the win in what was a very competitive bout! After the match, Bron was looking to Spear Ilja again, but Ricochet arrived from literally nowhere to make the save!
Grade: B
We once again returned to The Judgment Day Clubhouse to see that they were still talking about this bloody key card! Interestingly though, Finn Balor slipped it into his jacket pocket without anyone noticing, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust Balor one bit! Drew McIntyre and Sheamus then had a bit of a joke backstage before it was time for The Awesome Truth to defend their World Tag Team Championships against The Authors of Pain. This wasn’t much of a match, The Miz and R-Truth got way too much offense in before Karrion Kross interfered to help AOP. However, The New Day then arrived and attacked Kross before Truth used his Championship belt to ultimately score the roll-up win. What was the point?
Grade: C-
Ricochet was trying to help Ilja Dragunov in the back before Bron Breakker arrived and Speared Dragunov yet again. Bron and Ricochet then had a brawl in the parking lot which resulted in Ricochet landing horribly onto the concrete (one of the worst bumps I’ve seen in a while) before Breakker then slammed The One and Only onto a car windshield. They then cut to ring announcer Samantha Irvin who was clearly shaken up about this before Ricochet and Samantha went off in an ambulance together as Ilja Dragunov watched on. If this is to be Ricochet’s last appearance in WWE, this was a hell of a way to right him off TV! Also, I have to say that whilst his character hasn’t always been the best, in-ring wise, Ricochet is easily one of the best I’ve ever seen and I’m sure he will go on to do great things going forward.
Grade: A
Drew McIntyre VS Finn Balor
And in the Main Event, Drew McIntyre took on Finn Balor with important stipulations for Clash at the Castle in place. This was a decent match between two veterans of the game, but you kind of knew what was going to happen. Late on, The Judgment Day tried and failed to get involved before Drew nailed Finn with a Claymore to get the win. The show then went off the air with McIntyre and Damian Priest standing face-to-face, and yeah, I don’t have much else to add really.
