Randy Orton Starts the Show, Alpha Academy VS DIY VS Indus Sher VS The Creed Brothers VS The New Day VS Imperium: Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Tag Team Turmoil
Randy Orton arrived to kick off this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw as The Viper wanted to talk about his return to WWE. Randy said he was always going to make his return as soon as Cody Rhodes asked him to be in WarGames and he’s now returned looking to get some recites on The Bloodline. Randy was then interrupted by Rhea Ripley and the Women’s World Champion made it clear that “Since you’ve been gone, The Bloodline has crumbled and The Judgment Day now runs WWE”. Orton laughed about this before he got attacked from behind by JD McDonagh and the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio. However, this didn’t faze the Apex Predator who dropped McDonagh with an RKO before he told “Dirty” Dom that he’ll make sure that they’ll have a match later on in the show. This was a good opening segment to Raw as Randy looked delighted to be back whilst I also really liked Rhea Ripley’s promo.
Grade: B-
After the Tag Team Division met R-Truth and a singer backstage, it was time for a Tag Team Turmoil match to determine the new Number 1 Contenders for The Judgment Day’s Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships. The match started off with Alpha Academy’s Otis and Akira Tozawa taking on DIY and this was pretty decent in-ring action mixed with a little bit of sports entertainment. Otis and Tozawa hitting “Caterpillars in Unison” was pretty cool, but it didn’t really help them as Meet in the Middle from Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa onto Tozawa was enough for them to advance. The next team that came out was Indus Sher and Veer and Sanga looked very much like imposing figures. However, they weren’t exactly booked like that as after about two minutes, Jinder Mahal’s men were eliminated thanks to Gargano rolling up Veer. The Creed Brothers were then the next team out and I felt like this is when the match started to step up a bit as both DIY and The Creeds are great Tag Teams. Ciampa and Gargano, who’d already been through two matches, showed plenty of resilience in this one, but a Brutus Bomb by Brutus Creed was enough for DIY to be eliminated. The New Day were then in the match and this was also good stuff between everyone involved. I wasn’t really sure who was going to come out on top in this section of the match (which is always a good thing), and in the end, it was actually The Creeds who advanced thanks to another Brutus Ball. The final entrants in the Tag Team Turmoil were Imperium, and at this point, I expected the Heels to pick up the victory. However, I was again pleasantly surprised as the third Brutus Ball of the night was enough for The Creed Brothers to pick up the biggest victory of their Main Roster careers. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good match that fully positioned Julius and Brutus Creed as key names on Monday Nights.
Grade: B
Cody Rhodes Promo, Bronson Reed VS Ivar, Nia Jax VS Zoey Stark
Despite Damian Priest’s concerns, the rest of The Judgment Day didn’t blame him for losing at WarGames. However, Finn told Priest that they needed to focus if they're going to keep their Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships with The Creed Brothers now coming for them. Cody Rhodes then made his way down to the ring as he wanted to thank all of his WarGames teammates, but more than anyone, Randy Orton. Cody also brought up CM Punk before he became the first person to declare themselves for the 2024 Royal Rumble. Seems a bit early to me, but anyway, the arena then went black as Shinsuke Nakamura appeared on the screen to reveal that his eerie messages over the past month or so have been meant for The American Nightmare. Back in the ring, Rhodes turned around to get red mist spat in his face by The King of Strong Style and this looks to be our next feud for the next month or so. That’s pretty cool, but it sucks that Shinsuke’s going to end up losing again.
Grade: C+
It was time for the second match of the night as Bronson Reed and Ivar clashed in a hard-hitting contest. These two men were just determined to beat one another up, but what I really liked about this contest is whilst both guys are big men, they’re also quite agile so both Bronson and Ivar were happy to leave their feet when needed. In the end, this match ended in a double count-out which isn’t great, but it kind of worked for these two guys as they then started brawling around the arena before WWE officials and referees had to break them apart. Was this quite scrappy? Absolutely. Did that work for this match? I think so!
Grade: C+
Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark were talking about Zoey’s match with Rhea Ripley at Survivor Series before Nia Jax walked in to mock Stark’s defeat. This annoyed Shayna before Zoey challenged Nia to a match. Before that, The Judgment Day walked into their Clubhouse to see R-Truth just sitting in there making an absolute mess. I’m very, very surprised that Priest didn’t just kill Truth right there! Zoey Stark then made her way down to the ring as it was time for her one-on-one match with Nia Jax. Just like last week, it’s now clear that the way to get a female wrestler over (for at least a week) is to have them in a match with Nia Jax as Zoey Stark was massively cheered whenever she delivered moves onto Nia. Still, it didn’t account for much because Jax ended up picking up a pretty comfortable victory with the ANialater. There wasn’t much to this match, but I thought it was good for what it was.
Grade: C+
Drew McIntyre Interrupts Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven VS Tegan Nox and Natalya: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, Dominik Mysterio VS Randy Orton
Gunther told Imperium to go and sort out DIY before The Miz came up to Gunther asking for a rematch. The Ring General laughed this off. Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ music then hit as the World Heavyweight Champion made his way down to the ring. Seth was clearly not very happy and he made it clear that he didn’t want to spend a single breath thinking or talking about CM Punk before he started to talk about WarGames. This brought out Drew McIntyre who congratulated Rollins on his win on Saturday before he demanded a rematch for the World Heavyweight Championship due to him making some changes since the last time the two fought at Crown Jewel. Whilst Seth seemed happy with this, he then told Drew that he’s already defending the World Title on next week’s Raw against none other than “Main Event” Jey Uso. As soon as this happened, McIntyre’s demeaning changed before he headbutted Rollins and started to chuck The Visionary around. This brought Jey Uso who (with the help of Rollins) was able to send The Scottish Warrior to the outside, and I thought all of this was really well done. Rollins’ bit about CM Punk, Drew agreeing that it was his own fault why he failed to beat Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at Crown Jewel, and most importantly, McIntyre destroying Seth as soon as he told him that Jey Uso had a Title opportunity before him. Great stuff between three genuine Stars.
Grade: B+
Backstage, Sami Zayn confronted Drew McIntyre and told him that whilst he understands what he’s going through, he can’t understand why Drew’s acting the way he is. McIntyre turned to Sami and told him he’ll make sure that they have a match next week. Another good segment featuring Mr. McIntyre. It was then time for a Title match as Chelsea Green and Piper Niven put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against the team of Tegan Nox and Natalya. This wasn’t really much of a match and that kind of sums up the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships (unfortunately). Still, I’m always going to be happy when Tegan Nox is on TV whilst I do enjoy the duo of Chelsea and Piper. In the end, Niven basically did all the work to beat Nox for the 3 count before she lifted up both of the Tag Team Titles which Chelsea Green celebrated on the outside (despite barely doing anything).
Grade: C+
Jey Uso found Randy Orton backstage and apologised to him for everything that happened between the two of them. Randy told Jey that as long as he’s out of The Bloodline, there isn’t a problem between the two of them. Just you wait Jey, just you wait! Becky Lynch then cut a sort of cryptic promo before it was (sort of) Main Event time as Randy Orton made his in-ring singles return against the current NXT North American Champion, Dominik Mysterio. If you’re just looking for a bit of fun, this is probably the match for you as Randy just beat up Dominik to the delight of the WWE Universe and he even did the same to JD McDonagh whenever The Irish Ace tried to intervene. Remember that singer I was talking about earlier, he was back in the front row, and at one point, he just shoved Mysterio over and I’m pretty sure that should’ve been a disqualification. Anyway, this allowed Randy to do his awesome back-body drop to Mysterio onto the announce table before The Viper dropped “Dirty” Dom with an RKO in the middle of the ring to score a victory. Simple stuff, but it was quite effective.
Grade: B-
CM Punk Returns to Raw
This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw ended with CM Punk cutting an in-ring promo as he thanked the fans for continuously chanting his name whilst he’s been gone. Punk also referenced both Paul Heyman and AJ Lee before he ushered the words “I’m Home”. He also said that whilst most of the people in the back welcomed him back with open arms, the people who didn’t are the ones who are probably worried about him taking their spotlight and that the Best in the World is now back. I wonder who Punk was refereeing to?! Overall, there wasn’t anything special about this, but the crowd seemed pretty happy to see CM Punk back.
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