Rhea Ripley Starts the Show, Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill VS Damage CTRL: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
Monday Night Raw kicked off this week with Rhea Ripley as The Eradicator made it clear that she still isn’t finished with Liv Morgan. This is when Tiffany Stratton made a surprise appearance to send a message from Nia Jax! Rhea and Tiffany then started to get into an argument about things before Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez attacked them from behind to end the segment! Whilst this was very basic, it set up the show’s Main Event which is at least something!
Grade: C+
After Adam Pearce gave Rhea Ripley no other choice than to team up with Tiffany Stratton to take on Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, the show’s opening match of the night saw Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Damage CTRL! This was actually a decent match, Bianca Belair and Iyo Sky have good chemistry together, and Iyo in particular is a terrific performer! Kairi Sane also had her flashes too, but the interesting thing to note was Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson were watching from the front row. In the end, Meta-Four played a massive part in the result as Legend decked Sky with a right hand before Belair dropped Iyo with the K.O.D. for the 1.2.3!
Grade: B-
World Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Tournament: Alpha Academy VS ?, Gunther Interrupts Cody Rhodes, Bron Breakker VS Kofi Kingston, R-Truth VS The Miz
Adam Pearce told The Judgment Day that they need to start defending their World Tag Team Titles which is why he’s setting up a new Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! Liv Morgan then introduced Raquel Rodriguez to the rest of the group before American Made had another terrific video package! Bron Breakker then cut a great video promo of his own talking about Jey Uso not showing him any respect before Bronson Reed told Adam Pearce that there wouldn’t be a problem as long as he gets a match with Seth “Freakin” Rollins! I really like Bronson Reed’s character, he simply wants to face Seth to prove he’s a Main Event guy, that’s both simple and effective! Alpha Academy were then out next to kick off the World Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Tournament, and their opponents were revealed to be none other than the returning Viking Raiders! Except, Erik and Ivar are now once again known as The War Raiders which is super cool, and honestly, this was a squash match! Besides Otis hitting a couple of moves, The War Raiders absolutely destroyed the Alpha Academy before they picked up the easy W! This is a good move in my book!
Grade: B-
Adam Pearce seemed very hesitant about giving Seth “Freakin” Rollins a match with Bronson Reed given all of Seth’s health issues this year. However, Rollins made it clear to Pearce that he has to give him this match if he wants “the best version of Seth Rollins” on his show! Cody Rhodes then arrived to thank the ST. Louis crowd for their constant support before The American Nightmare was interrupted by The Ring General, Gunther! Gunther actually showed a lot of respect to his fellow World Champion, saying that Cody is the Quarterback of this whole organisation! However, the World Heavyweight Champion then threw a shot at Rhodes by calling him “a secondary Champion!” This is when the Undisputed WWE Champion fired back by reminding his Crown Jewel opponent of the fact that he beat the most dominant Champion in the company’s history, and this then led to Gunther playing more mind games as the two shook hands. This was good, especially from Gunther!
Grade: B-
Kofi Kingston told Xavier Woods that he should’ve helped Jey Uso last week when Bron Breakker attacked him before we got a video package highlighting Dragon Lee! Kofi Kingston was then in the ring as he went one-on-one with Bron Breakker! This was a fine match, two former World Champions, but it didn’t have as much heat behind it as they might’ve hoped! Still, it was an easy way to give Bron Breakker the win before Xavier Woods ran down to make the save. However, after Breakker took Woods out too, Jey Uso arrived and laid out Bron with both a Spear and a Superkick to leave the good guys standing tall! Whilst the match was nothing memorable, I really liked the post-match stuff because Jey proved Kofi right here!
Grade: C+
The Terror Twins had a nice moment backstage as Rhea Ripley told Damian Priest to go back after the World Heavyweight Championship as she focuses on taking out Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez! Jey Uso then found Jimmy Uso in his locker room which was interesting before The Miz was looking to make an example of R-Truth. However, that didn’t happen as Truth still seems to think this is all part of an act, and after Karrion Kross and The Final Testament arrived, Truth beat Miz with a surprise roll-up! After the match, we got a hilarious bit where Kross fist-bumped Truth before he got AOP to beat him up as The Miz dropped his former buddy with a Skull-Crushing Finale!
Grade: C+ (Just for Kross)
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez VS Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton
After a tense moment between the two Uso Twins where Jey told Jimmy to leave him alone (good), it was Main Event time as Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez took on the pairing of Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton! Rhea Ripley wanted to do this match fully by herself, but that didn’t go to plan as Tiffany just tagged herself in! This also didn’t go to plan as not only did Tiffany and Rhea just argue with each other, but Raquel Rodriguez absolutely beat the crap out of The Center of the Universe! However, with Ripley and Morgan in the ring, it was a completely different story as Rhea easily beat up Liv before Nia Jax arrived to cause the DQ finish! The WWE Women’s Champion then destroyed Liv Morgan herself before she pointed at Tiffany Stratton to cash in her Money in the Bank contract! However, Dominik Mysterio then appeared and saved the Women’s World Champion from potentially losing her Championship! It was questionable to have both Liv and Tiffany get beat up as much as they did, it was also questionable to have the match end in a Disqualification! However, I don’t mind that part as much, and I quite like Stratton hanging around with one Champion as that Champion faces the other Champion!
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