The Judgment Day Start the Show, The Judgment Day VS The LWO
Monday Night Raw kicked off this week with The “New” Judgment Day as Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio couldn’t keep away from each other whilst Finn Balor went on about making Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley pay! The LWO then randomly arrived as Rey Mysterio said he needed to put his son “in his place” before we came back from the ad break to see that an 8-man Tag Team Match had begun! This match actually got quite a bit of time, and it was decent enough. Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro have always been a lot of fun to watch whilst Dragon Lee is great at what he does. However, I am honestly a bit fed up of seeing the two Mysterio’s fight so that took away from this a bit. After some help from Liv Morgan, Dominik Mysterio was able to beat Rey Mysterio for the second-straight match before The Terror Twins arrived to wreak havoc and stand tall! As always, Priest and Ripley are great at what they do!
Grade: B- (Overall)
Damage CTRL VS The Pure Fusion Collective, Drew McIntyre Promo, Jey Uso VS Karrion Kross VS Kofi Kingston: Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament
The Miz spoke about how he originally made the Intercontinental Championship prestigious before Bronson Reed came up to him and sent a warning shot! The New Day then spoke backstage about both men entering the IC Title Number 1 Contender’s Tournament before Damage CTRL arrived as they had a match against The Pure Fusion Collective. As always, all four women are very good at what they do so the wrestling was good and flowed well! There wasn’t too much more to talk about given we’ve seen these lot wrestle a lot, but Zelina Vega did make her return to take out Sonya Deville and this led to Kairi Sane hitting the InSane Elbow for the win!
Grade: C+
Uncle Howdy spoke about Chad Gable in another one of those Wyatt Sick6 videos before Drew McIntyre arrived as he had some things to say about CM Punk! Drew basically spent this promo mocking Punk by doing all his lines and catchphrases before he said an interesting point about how Punk always attacks him from behind. Wouldn’t you know it, CM Punk arrived and attacked McIntyre from behind with a leather strap before Pun k attacked some of the security guards as The Scottish Warrior escaped. This was fine, but I’m starting to worry if this feud has gone on for too long now!
Grade: C+
Braun Strowman had a video promo where he said Bronson Reed was no match for him before Jey Uso, Kofi Kingston, and Karrion Kross clashed in the first match of the Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! This was alright, all three men are capable in-ring competitors, but you couldn’t exactly buy into any of the near-falls given the winner was basically revealed last week! However, the action was still good enough to make this worthwhile, and after Karrion Kross wiped out Kofi with a vicious forehand, Jey Uso delivered the Spear to secure the W!
Grade: C+
Randy Orton Promo, Braun Strowman VS Bronson Reed, Pete Dunne VS The Miz VS Xavier Woods: Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament
After Gunther sent in a video from Europe, Randy Orton headed down to the ring to address his big upcoming match at Bash in Berlin! Randy said most of the same stuff here as he has done recently, including how he wants to move into second (third) in the all-time list of World Champions, but one thing that was interesting was Orton brought up the fact that he was the World Heavyweight Champion when it was unified! When you actually think about that, Randy arguably has a right of being the World Heavyweight Champion so that only adds more heading into Saturday!
Grade: B-
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn cut an interesting promo on Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill before it was time for Braun Strowman to go one-on-one with Bronson Reed. This did start as a match, but it quickly became an all-out brawl as both men fought to the back. Bronson Reed even threw a bin at Braun Strowman which was quite funny before they headed out to the parking lot as Braun threw Bronson over a car! However, the craziest spot of all came when Reed hit a huge TSUNAMI onto Strowman on top of the car which absolutely shattered! I’m telling you, Bronson Reed is one of the best in the company right now!
Grade: B
After this, we headed straight into the next match as Pete Dunne, Xavier Woods, and The Miz collided in another Triple Threat Match! The focus of this match was around Xavier Woods trying to break out a singles guy and finally win solo Championships. That makes perfect sense, and it felt very set up that Woods was going to win here. Except, he didn’t as Pete Dunne ultimately ended up stealing the whole thing with the Bitter End. I have no issue with The Bruiserweight winning this match, but it felt like a missed opportunity.
Grade: C+
Chad Gable VS Uncle Howdy
After a Bron Breakker promo and The Terror Twins admitting that they’re the bad guys (I like that a lot), it was Main Event time as Uncle Howdy made his in-ring debut against Chad Gable! This was just a standard singles match, but that worked because Chad Gable is so good at what he does. Uncle Howdy needed to look cool here, and Master Gable did that for him! There was actually a ref bump which surprised me, and this just led to a brawl between American Made and the rest of The Wyatt Sick6, but in the end, it was Uncle Howdy who delivered Sister Abigail to seal the victory as the show went off the air. Again, this was effective!
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