Gunther Starts the Show, Braun Strowman VS JD McDonagh
After a recap of WWE King and Queen of the Ring, Ludwig Kaiser was in the ring as he welcomed out Gunther to start this week’s Monday Night Raw! The new King of the Ring talked about making everything he wins more prestigious before he called out Damian Priest. Priest said he respects Gunther, but he will beat him when they get to Summerslam. Drew McIntyre then arrived to say he’ll be the Champion heading into Summerslam which prompted The Ring General’s exit as McIntyre and Priest threw a few shots at one another. The Scottish Warrior said the whole of Scotland will mess with the head of the World Heavyweight Champion whilst El Campeon got into Drew’s head by mentioning McIntyre’s Wife! Before anything else could happen, Braun Strowman arrived as it was time for the first match of the night! In terms of a segment, this was pretty decent, and it did a good job showcasing the top stars on Monday Nights!
Grade: C+
We then headed straight into the first match of the night as Braun Strowman took on JD McDonagh. This was very much what you would expect, with Braun just throwing JD around the ring, but McDonagh was able to injure Strowman’s knee which helped him a little bit. Finn Balor also interfered in a successful manner, but the same couldn’t be said for Carlito who didn’t do anything that helped The Judgment Day before Strowman reversed The Irish Ace’s move into a really good Powerslam to score the win. This was very simple, but I enjoyed it!
Grade: C+
Ilja Dragunov VS Ricochet, The Authors of Pain VS The Creed Brothers, Sheamus Speaks
Liv Morgan said she would beat Becky Lynch fair and square in tonight’s Main Event before Damian Priest told Finn Balor and Carlito to find JD McDonagh. Ricochet then asked Adam Pearce for a match with Bron Breakker, but Pearce said that Breakker was suspended. Instead, the Raw General Manager gifted The One and Only a match with Ilja Dragunov, and that was next! This was another really good contest between these two men, they’re kind of turning into the new “Axiom-Nathan Frazer” duo from a couple of years ago where they just have entertaining contests every time! Ilja is probably The Best in the World right now whilst no one is as good of a high-flyer as Ricochet. We also got a good near-fall following a Recoil, but we didn’t get a clear winner here as after the WWE Speed Champion hit a Shooting Star Press, Bron Breakker arrived and flipped Ricochet inside out with a nasty Spear before he delivered another one to Dragunov! All of this combined was great, Bron looks like a beast right now!
Grade: B+ (Match and Post-Match Angle Combined)
Adam Pearce berated Bron Breakker backstage before he caught up with Kiana James. R-Truth was then handing out ice cream to The New Day before Karrion Kross brought up some good points about how Kofi Kingston and The New Day are holding Xavier Woods back! Kross isn’t wrong! This then led into the next match of the night as The Authors of Pain clashed with The Creed Brothers. Both of these teams are former NXT Tag Team Champions, and all four men have good amateur Wrestling backgrounds so they were able to put on a decent match with the time that they had. I always enjoy watching The Creeds cause they are so impressive, and they probably would’ve won this match had it not been for Scarlett wiping out Ivy Nile. This distracted Julius and Brutus and allowed AOP to hit their Tag Team finisher to score the win! Akam and Rezar will clash with Kofi and Woods next week, and I really hope they win!
Grade: C+
Rey Mysterio cut a promo on Carlito before Sheamus was walking backstage and Braun Strowman walked past him as he’d spotted JD McDonagh. The interesting thing to note about all of this was McDonagh was speaking to none other than Liv Morgan! Interesting! Sheamus then headed to the ring as The Celtic Warrior wanted to speak about his future plans. Sheamus said he wasn’t annoyed at Ludwig Kaiser for costing him in the King of the Ring Tournament as that’s how the game goes, but the former multi-time World Champ wasn’t impressed by Kaiser’s comments over the following weeks. Ludwig then appeared on the screen and took more shots at the Irishman before Sheamus headed backstage and a brawl began between the two, ultimately being broken up by referees and security! There wasn’t all that much to this, but I thought Sheamus was quite funny, and I’m all for a proper feud for Ludwig Kaiser.
Grade: C+
Kairi Sane VS Lyra Valkyria, Carlito VS Rey Mysterio, Bronson Reed VS Otis
Becky Lynch and Lyra Valkyria had a discussion backstage before Lyra headed down to the ring for her match with Kairi Sane. This match disappointed me slightly as Kairi Sane is a great pro-wrestler whilst Lyra Valkyria has been on a great run for months now. For whatever reason, this just didn’t click unfortunately, or certainly not as well as they should’ve of. In the end, Lyra scored the win via roll-up before Iyo Sky snapped at Damage CTRL in the back!
Grade: C
Damian Priest was furious with Carlito, JD McDonagh, and Dominik Mysterio backstage for being completely useless and consistently messing things up before it was time for Carlito to go one-on-one with Rey Mysterio. This was a pretty slow contest, and that’s been the same for all of Carlito’s matches since he returned last year. I don’t know what it is, but he just isn’t an exciting competitor to watch! Towards the end, Finn Balor arrived to take out Dragon Lee before Rey Mysterio dived onto Balor. Instead of Carlito taking advantage of this, Mysterio just hit the 619 and the Diving Splash to score the win! After the match, Rey Mysterio went to take out Finn Balor before Damian Priest arrived and wrecked both Rey and Lee to end the segment standing tall. I really like how good Damian Priest looks like whenever he’s in these spots, but my goodness do the rest of The Judgment Day suck!
Grade: C+ (Just Because of Priest)
Chad Gable was not impressed with Akira Tozawa backstage before he referred to Maxxine Dupri as “Goldie Locks and The 3 Brain Cells”! This guy is terrific! Master Gable then headed down to the ring with his Prized Pupil as Otis had to make up for the other day in a match with Bronson Reed. This was a fun contest between two massive men, and I always enjoy watching Reed wrestle cause he’s so good at what he does! Otis actually was doing great himself until Chad Gable banned him from hitting the caterpillar, and this cost Otise and allowed Bronson to hit the Tsunami to score the win. After the match, Master Gable ripped apart Otis, Maxxine Dupri, and Akira Tozawa before he went to whip Otis with a belt. However, Maxxine stopped him and got sent to the back as a result before Sami Zayn arrived to try and help the Alpha Academy. In the end, this backfired on the Intercontinental Champion as he got dropped by Gable to end the segment! This was really good, Chad Gable is absolutely killing it right now, and Otis, Tozawa, and Dupri’s selling of all of this always needs to be praised!
Grade: B (Match and Post-Match Angle Combined)
Women’s World Championship Steel Cage Match: Liv Morgan VS Becky Lynch
After Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn confronted Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark (Sonya Deville was also here) backstage, it was Main Event time as Liv Morgan put her newly won Women’s World Championship on the line against Becky Lynch inside a Steel Cage! This was another decent contest between these two women, even though I wouldn’t say this was better than their one from a few days ago. Still, there was a story here as Dominik Mysterio arrived to “try and help” Becky win before Finn Balor and JD McDonagh arrived to question him. Braun Strowman then arrived and chased after McDonagh before he bulldozed through Dominik who bounced into the cage door which hit into Lynch. This ultimately “opened the door” for Morgan to crawl out of the cage to retain her Women’s World Championship before the show went off the air with Liv kissing “Dirty” Dom. Okay, so either Liv is messing with The Judgment Day to get to Rhea Ripley, or her and Dominik genuinely planned all of this out. And don’t forget, Mr. McDonagh was also speaking to Morgan earlier in the show!
Komentáře