The Judgment Day Start the Show, Alpha Academy VS The New Day
The Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day kicked off this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw as Finn Balor and “Senor Money in the Bank” Damian Priest celebrated their victory over Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso last week. This brought out Cody Rhodes who called Rhea Ripley the leader of The Judgment Day before Cody challenged Priest to a match. Damian said it should happen at Crown Jewel (because okay) before the rest of The Judgment Day arrived. Whilst Jey Uso was able to take out Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh arrived out of nowhere and helped Senor Money in the Bank injure Cody’s ankle with a nasty chair strike. I feel like the opening segment of Raw tends to always follow the same pattern, but it’s starting to get a little bit dull.
Grade: C
After we saw Jey Uso helping Cody Rhodes backstage, it was time for the first match of the night as Alpha Academy and The New Day went toe-to-toe. This was a decent tag match that was fun which you’d come to expect given the talent involved. Akira Tozawa was also at ringside with Maxxine Dupri as he is now a “Junior Member” of Alpha Academy, but his support certainly didn’t help Chad Gable and Otis as in the end, Kofi Kingston dropped Otis with Trouble in Paradise before he dove onto Master Gable on the outside leaving Xavier Woods to land his elbow drop onto Otise to get the victory. Personally, I think the wrong team won this match.
Grade: C+
NXT Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch VS Indi Hartwell, Women’s World Championship Contract Signing, Giovanni Vinci VS Johnny Gargano
Jackie Redmond asked Becky Lynch a stupid question about why she’s defending her NXT Women’s Championship on back-to-back nights before we got a mad video package for Ivar. I could be wrong, but Valhalla made out as if Ivar’s now a God which is certainly something. Rhea Ripley then confronted Seth “Freakin” Rollins backstage to tell Seth that he should join The Judgment Day. The Women’s World Champion then said that if he does that, Damian Priest will be convinced to cash in his Money in the Bank Briefcase on “another Champion”. My favourite part about all of this is how angry the World Heavyweight Champion got when Ripley said that he could be “the World Champion”, rather than “a Champion” (I’m still waiting for the rematch between Reigns and Rollins). Natalya then came up to Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell to wish Indi good luck in her NXT Women’s Championship match (this came across as really fake) before it was time to see whether Indi Wrestling could recapture the title that she never lost as she faced the current NXT Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch. This match was alright, it was nice to see Indi Hartwell getting to show the wider WWE audience what she’s capable of. Unfortunately, there was legitimately a 0% chance of Hartwell winning this match and that became true when Becky made her tap in the Dis-Arm-Her. For me, I would’ve had this match next week rather than have it the night before Lynch faces Lyra Valkyria in a huge Main Event matchup at NXT Halloween Havoc (Night 1). Also, Xia Li just attacked Candice LeRae backstage because she felt like it.
Grade: C+
Nick Aldis then decided to just show up in Adam Pearce’s office before he apologised to Pearce for kicking him out of SmackDown last week. Establishing that Pearce is the good guy, he allowed Aldis to stay around and watch the show. Adam Pearce was then in the ring after an ad break as he was about to see over the Contract Signing for the Women’s World Championship Fatal 5-Way match which is taking place at Crown Jewel. Raquel Rodriguez, Zoey Stark, and Shayna Baszler all signed the contract without any problems, but the same could not be said for Nia Jax who asked where Rhea Ripley was. Rhea then came out despite Pearce telling her that she wasn't allowed to make it clear how angry she was about this match before Nia cut a terrible promo which led to a brawl. Security guards tried and failed to break it all up and it ended with Jax being the last challenger standing as the Women’s World Champion watched on from the ramp. None of this was good and I really don’t have high hopes for the match in Saudi Arabia.
Grade: C-
Ludwig Kaiser was telling Giovanni Vinci about the importance of beating Johnny Gargano later on before Bronson Reed walked in and told Kaiser to “tell his boss” that he can find him if he’s looking for Round 2. Akira Tozawa then walked in and challenged Bronson to a match which Mr. Nice Guy declined as a sign of mercy before Tozawa chopped The Big Aussie. This was totally random, but it made a lot more sense after the show when I watched a digital exclusive on YouTube (why it wasn’t just on the show I’ll never know). It was then time for the next match of the night as Johnny Gargano went one-on-one with Giovanni Vinci. This match bothered me because it could’ve and should’ve been so much better than it was. The contest itself only went a few minutes and the audio even got interrupted by a trailer for the new “Five Nights at Freddy’s” film which really bothered me, mainly because I’m getting sick of stupid advertisements in WWE. Anyway, Tommaso Ciampa then returned to take out Ludwig Kaiser who was trying to interfere before Gargano nailed Vinci with the One Final Beat to get the victory. So far, WWE are not doing a very good job at making Johnny Wrestling look good, let alone a star (like he should be).
Grade: C-
Logan Paul Returns to Raw, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven VS Natalya and ?, Drew McIntyre VS Sami Zayn, Bronson Reed VS Akira Tozawa
After Shinsuke Nakamura cut a promo in Japanese about “wanting to be set free”, Logan Paul made his return to Monday Night Raw to a chorus of boos. Logan talked about how he’s going to take Rey Mysterio’s United States Championship before he was interrupted by none other than the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio. I genuinely laughed at this and I loved the fact that Logan was trying to shut the crowd up so he could hear Dominik talk trash about Rey. Logan then asked Samantha Irvin to get in the ring to do a “dress rehearsal” in regards to what she’s going to say at Crown Jewel before Ricochet came out of nowhere and took both of the Heels out. This wasn’t a long segment, but it was a lot of fun and I now really want to see Paul and Mysterio become NXT Tag Team Champions together (because why not).
Grade: B
We then went straight into the next match as the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Piper Niven were about to face Natalya and a partner of her choice due to Tegan Nox suffering an injury last week. Natalya’s partner was then revealed to be none other than Nikki Cross, but Nikki was really her partner as she just stood on the ring apron staring into the thin air before she left. This allowed Chelsea Green and Piper Niven to hit their moves onto Natalya to get the victory. None of this worked whatsoever. The crowd didn’t care about Nikki (which isn’t her fault) whilst Natalya got way too much offense in on the Tag Team Champions. Also, Natalya’s not a sympathetic Babyface in the slightest which hurt this segment even more.
Grade: D
After Drew McIntyre took a shot at Jey Uso regarding The Bloodline’s interference in last week’s Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match, The Miz found Adam Pearce and called himself the “Greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time”. This tells me that The Miz wants to get killed by Gunther before he was interrupted by Rhea Ripley who handed Pearce the signed contract for the Women’s World Championship match at Crown Jewel before she said she’d be keeping the pen. I didn’t get any of this either. It was then time for Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn to have the best match of the night. I thought this match was really good as it showcased why both guys deserve to be at the top of the card on Monday Night Raw (and WWE in general). The crowd was also really into this match which made it even better, but I do have a negative, and that negative is the finish. For some reason, Rhea Ripley’s music hit and the Women’s World Champion came down to ringside. This distracted Drew who nearly lost thanks to a roll-up before Ripley then decided to distract Sami which allowed McIntyre to nail Zayn with the Claymore to get the victory. I don’t get why Rhea Ripley had to come out because Drew winning clean would’ve made him look so much better. Also, she almost cost McIntyre so none of it really made any sense.
Grade: B-
Nick Aldis was just talking to Katana Chance and Kayden Carter about them moving over to SmackDown before Adam Pearce came up to him and asked what he was doing. Aldis then said he would do the right thing and leave before Nikki Cross just walked past looking dejected. The one thing I will say about this is I wouldn’t mind seeing Chance and Carter on SmackDown because they’re never used on Raw. We then got a match between Bronson Reed and Akira Tozawa and it went pretty much how you would’ve expected it to. Reed looked great as he destroyed Tozawa who always sells well before Bronson picked up the victory with the “TSUNAMI”. I should also mention that after this match, Akira Tozawa was given a “Dallas Cowboys Championship Title” before he started to dance as Alpha Academy, The New Day, and DIY watched on.
Grade: C+
Damian Priest VS Jey Uso
After Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Drew McIntyre made it clear to one another backstage that they aren’t interested in getting help from The Judgment Day at Crown Jewel, it was Main Event time as “Senor Money in the Bank” Damian Priest fought “Main Event” Jey Uso. The action in this match was solid, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. The finish is the most important part as Finn Balor arrived just in time to cost Jey the victory before Priest took advantage and dropped Uso with South of Heaven to get the victory. The Judgment Day then continued to beat up Jey Uso before Cody Rhodes ran down to make the save. Whilst all of this is starting to become a bit too repetitive, it was nice to see Damian Priest get the W.
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