Drew McIntyre Starts the Show, Iyo Sky VS Shayna Baszler: Queen of the Ring Quarter-Final
Monday Night Raw kicked off with Drew McIntyre arriving at the show before Drew headed to the ring to talk some smack! Drew did exactly that, talking bad about Jey Uso, CM Punk, and Damian Priest before the World Heavyweight Champion made his way down to the ring. Priest fired plenty of shots at McIntyre, including the great point that McIntyre was the reason why Damian didn’t cash in on Seth “Freakin” Rollins before El Campeon said that Drew made “Punk more relevant than his own Wife!” The segment then ended with the two agreeing to have a World Championship match down the line, and I thought this was a really good way to start the show!
Grade: B
After an incident in the parking lot, the first match of the night saw Iyo Sky face off with Shayna Baszler in a Quarter-Final match of the Queen of the Ring Tournament. Shayna actually attacked Iyo before the bell to take the early advantage, but the rest of the match was pretty even, with The Genius of the Sky doing dives whilst The Submission Magician tried to keep things on the mat. In the end, it was Iyo who prevailed with Over the Moonsault before Sky made it clear that the crown is hers
Grade: C+
Gunther VS Kofi Kingston, Akira Tozawa VS Bronson Reed, Lyra Valkyria VS Zoey Stark: King and Queen of the Ring Quarter-Finals
Damian Priest made it very clear that Carlito isn’t welcome in The Judgment Day Clubhouse before Chad Gable ripped into the Alpha Academy and he also wasn’t very nice to Ivy Nile which was “surprising”! Kofi Kingston then explained that he will win the King of the Ring Tournament in honor of Xavier Woods before Kiana James arrived on Raw by interrupting a conversation between Adam Pearce and The Awesome Truth. Nice to see Kiana on Raw as she’s worked hard for this! Anyway, Kofi Kingston then headed to the ring for his King of the Ring Quarter-Final against Gunther. I thought this was the best match of the night, Gunther wrestled hard whilst Kofi got to show off his amazing Babyface persona. There was some questionable refereeing here, but I guess that’s realistic, and Kingston almost scored the victory via a count-out. However, The Ring General was able to get back in the ring before Gunther hit the Powerbomb and made Kofi tap out in the Boston Crab! Really good work by both men!
Grade: B
Lyra Valkyria talked about how she will always have Becky Lynch’s back when needed before Liv Morgan came up and questioned this. Liv then turned around and got met by one of the worst punches I have ever seen (from The Man)! Anyway, Karrion Kross then sent an eerie message to Kofi Kingston before Akira Tozawa was sent out to tackle Bronson Reed. Akira did an okay job until he stopped listening to Chad Gable and starting getting fired up. This backfired on Tozawa massively as he got dropped by a Death Valley Driver followed by the Tsunami as Reed scored the W! There wasn’t much to this, but I like Bronson and Master Gable’s doing a terrific job right now!
Grade: C+
Gunther didn’t want to speak to Cathy Kelley so Ludwig Kaiser used it as a good opportunity to talk trash about Sheamus. Bron Breakker then got very annoyed at Adam Pearce backstage (and rightfully so) before Lyra Valkyria and Zoey Stark clashed in the other Queen of the Ring Quarter-Final (on Raw). I enjoyed this match, this is the type of level that we’ve come to expect from Lyra given her run on NXT, and Zoey Stark is such a good asset to this roster (and the company as a whole). The biggest positive for me however was the crowd reaction, as people got involved with Valkyria’s entrance which is a really positive sign given it’s only Week 2 for The Morgen on the Main Roster. To my surprise, Lyra actually scored the win with the Night Wing, and yeah, this was good stuff!
Grade: B-
Sami Zayn VS Otis, Becky Lynch VS Dakota Kai, The Authors of Pain VS The Creed Brothers VS The Judgment Day VS New Catch Republic: World Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way
Jey Uso said it’s his year to win King of the Ring before Sami Zayn arrived for a singles match with Otis. Otis actually dominated the Intercontinental Champion here before he got too excited and started setting up for the worm. Otis did eventually hit it, but not before Chad Gable could berate him and Gable continued this to the point where Sami was able to hit the Helluva Kick and sneak away with a victory. After the match, Master Gable slapped his Number 1 Guy, and what I will say about this is a proper Otis-Gable feud could be something special (no joke)! However, this also didn’t make Zayn look particularly great.
Grade: C+
After Braun Strowman laughed off JD McDonagh’s “warning”, Becky Lynch arrived as it was time for the Women’s World Champion to go one-on-one with Dakota Kai. I was really impressed by Dakota Kai in this match, she’s always really good in the ring, but it felt like King Kota was out to prove a point here! That’s a good thing, it will only help enhance Damage CTRL as a unit. In the end, DC got into the ring to cause a DQ after Becky locked Dakota in the Dis-arm-her and after Lyra Valkyria ran down to make the save, Liv Morgan appeared out of nowhere and threw The Man into the ring post. Liv has to beat Becky in Saudi, that would be wrong if she didn’t.
Grade: C+
Ilja Dragunov hyped himself up backstage before we had an awesome moment where Dragunov and Gunther stood face-to-face! YES BOY! We then got a Fatal 4-Way match as The Authors of Pain, The Creed Brothers, The Judgment Day, and New Catch Republic all fought for the right to face The Awesome Truth for the World Tag Team Championships. This match was a bit odd to me, and that’s mainly because AOP dominated the action whenever they got in the ring, except they were never the legal team! We did have a funny moment where Rezar was smiling after throwing JD McDonagh over the top rope and onto everyone else, and the stars here were probably The Creeds (which isn’t very surprising). It then looked like the New Catch Republic were going to win following the Birminghammer, but Carlito then arrived and took out Pete Dunne before Finn Balor hit the Coup de Grace to score the win! I’d like Finn and JD to win the Tag Gold, but whether that happens is another story!
Grade: C+
King of the Ring Quarter-Final: Ilja Dragunov VS Jey Uso
After Ricochet talked nonsense and Damian Priest told Carlito to have fun with the rest of The Judgment Day, it was Main Event time as Ilja Dragunov collided with “Main Event” Jey Uso. This match didn’t get as much time as it really should’ve, but that didn’t mean we didn’t get action as Ilja missed with an H-Bomb from the barricade onto the announce table before Jey “sort of” Speared The Mad Dragon over it. After the commercial break, the two went at it with hard-hitting strikes, and Dragunov nearly sealed the victory with the H-Bomb. Unfortunately for The Czar, his hand was too banged up to fully make the cover. This ultimately paved the way for Jey to hit a massive Spear followed by an Uso Splash to get the win before Gunther arrived, had a look at his long-time rival, and then stared down with Jey Uso to end the show! There’s an argument to be made that Ilja Dragunov shouldn’t have lost here, or he certainly shouldn’t have lost clean. And whilst I partly agree with this, I had no problem with it as Dragunov looked good in defeat and it makes sense to save Gunther-Dragunov 3 for a much bigger stage!
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