The Judgment Day Start the Show, Dominik Mysterio VS Ricochet
Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley, the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh arrived to kick off this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw as they celebrated their accomplishments. Sami Zayn then arrived to tell The Judgment Day that he won’t stop fighting until The JD is no more before Rhea Ripley told Sami that he can have a match with Damian Priest later in the show. Dominik and JD then tried to attack Zayn before Ricochet ran down to make the save which happened to lead into the opening match of the night. In terms of the opening segment, it was the same as always, but I’ll give it an upgrade because Sami Zayn showed a lot of passion and fire.
Grade: C+
The first match of the night between the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio and Ricochet was decent enough and what I liked about this contest is the crowd got behind The One and Only. However, this match ended how a typical Judgment Day match has ended for the last who knows how long as Rhea Ripley and JD McDonagh caused enough distractions for Mysterio to steal the victory with a roll-up whilst also having his feet on the ropes and holding Ricochet’s tights. This felt a bit extreme to me.
Grade: C+
Alpha Academy VS The Creed Brothers, Miz TV (Featuring Imperium), DIY VS Imperium
We got a cool video package for DIY before Raquel Rodriguez said that nobody’s power in Saturday’s Fatal 5-Way can match hers. It was then time for The Creed Brothers to make their Main Roster debut as they took on Alpha Academy in Tag Team action. I enjoyed this match as it was technical wrestling elegance mixed in with some superb high-flying manoeuvres. Chad Gable and Otis are absolutely brilliant and they did a great job in showing the wider WWE audience that the same can be said about Julius and Brutus Creed. The crowd also really got into this match the longer it went on, and in the end, it was The Creeds who hit their awesome finishing move onto Otise to get the victory. What a win for them, and also what a great showing for the whole of Diamond Mine as Ivy Nile suplexed Akira Tozawa at one point!
Grade: B-
The New Day, who were dressed up as Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest, came into The Judgment Day’s lounge to try and do some Trick or Treating. They then left as the rest of The Judgment Day walked in before Damian Priest got a little bit frustrated with Rhea Ripley for just booking him in matches. That was the second of two interesting things that happened in this segment. The first one was seeing Finn Balor eat a piece/bar of candy. Nia Jax then said she’s going to squash everyone at Crown Jewel and walk out as the new Women’s World Champion before it was time for Miz TV. Somehow, The Miz had managed to get Gunther as his special guest, but it was the rest of Imperium that arrived before The Ring General. Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci told Miz that Gunther does whatever he wants before The A-Lister took shots at Kaiser and Vinci for being nothing more than sidekicks. This brought out the Intercontinental Champion who laughed at The Miz for only being good on the mic before Miz fired back by reminding Gunther that he’s the same guy that made the Intercontinental Championship relevant way before he ever did. Imperium then started to ruin the set of Miz TV which resulted in The Miz taking out Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci before Gunther dropped him with a chop. This was really good stuff from everyone involved. The idea of The Miz being a Babyface is a strange one, but I do think it can work. It’s also cool to have the two greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time feuding over that Title.
Grade: B
The Miz told Adam Pearce in his office that he wants a shot at Gunther and the Intercontinental Championship. Bronson Reed then walked in saying he was eying exactly the same thing. The brilliance of this is the fact that Miz brought Bronson Reed back to WWE, and now The Big Aussie is the guy standing in The A-Lister’s way. It was then time for the return of DIY as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa teamed up to take on Imperium. This was really good stuff in my opinion as both teams reminded everyone just how good they are. Seeing DIY back together is awesome whilst Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci are terrific together. The crowd were also fully behind Ciampa and Gargano in this match which was great to see, and in the end, DIY nailed Vinci with Meet in the Middle to get the victory. It’s fair to say that Ludwig Kaiser was not impressed with his partner afterwards.
Grade: B
Candice LeRae VS Xia Li, Drew McIntyre Video, Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS JD McDonagh, Chelsea Green VS Natalya: Trick or Street Fight
Shinsuke Nakamura made it clear that he’s still waiting for his next opponent to step up before we got video packages for both Candice LeRae and Xia Li. This was because it was time for a match between Candice and Xia that wasn’t great. The reason why it wasn’t great was because Li completely dominated LeRae before she nailed The Poison Pixie with a kick which ended up resulting in the referee having to call this match off. If this was part of a storyline, it wasn’t very good. However, it sounds like Candice might legitimately be hurt which if that’s the case, I hope she feels better soon.
Grade: C
Jey Uso and Sami Zayn hugged backstage before Jey told Jackie Redmond that he has plans to become a Tag Team Champion again. It was then Shayna Baszler’s turn to have a video package as she said that she’s the Baddest Woman in WWE before we saw DIY, Indi Hartwell, and the KC’s checking on Candice LeRae. We then got a video of Drew McIntyre returning to the WWE Performance Center to talk about when he won the WWE Championship back at WrestleMania 36. Drew then talked about his run as Champion whilst there were no fans in attendance before he brought up his losses to both Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 37 and Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle. McIntyre then ended his promo with a killer line saying “You were my first challenger as Champion in 2020, and now I’m going to be your last.” I don’t usually grade segments/videos like this, but I feel like I have to because this was a terrific bit of television. This stuff is the reason why Drew McIntyre was the Number 1 guy in the company in 2020 and he definitely deserves to be a World Champion again.
Grade: A
After Zoey Stark called herself “undeniable”, Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ music hit as The Visionary made his way down to the ring. Seth responded to Drew McIntyre’s video by telling him to get over it and that “people had it a lot worse than you winning the WWE Championship in the Main Event of WrestleMania.” Whilst everything that Drew has said and done has been the truth, Rollins’ point about some people never getting the opportunity to see their family members again as a result of the Pandemic changes the narrative of this World Heavyweight Championship feud entirely. Seth also said “The Messiah that you faced back in 2020 is long gone” before he was attacked from behind by JD McDonagh. This then led into the match between the two Superstars and I thought it was good stuff. Both Rollins and McDonagh are arguably two of the best wrestlers in the world right now and they put on a match that you would expect from them on this stage. Late in the contest, Damian Priest arrived with his Money in the Bank Contract, but this was more of a teaser as to what’s potentially going to come for the World Heavyweight Champion. In the end, Seth “Freakin” Rollins was able to get the victory after hitting both a Pedigree and a Stomp onto JD McDonagh before Rollins and Priest came face-to-face.
Grade: B (Promo and Match Combined)
Adam Pearce told Ricochet that he would give him an opportunity to fight for the Intercontinental Championship before the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Piper Niven confronted Pearce about the upcoming Trick or Street Fight. Ivar and Valhalla then appeared out of nowhere as Ivar wanted to talk to the Raw General Manager about the Intercontinental Championship as well. Seemingly everyone wants that Title. Becky Lynch then spoke about her run as NXT Women’s Champion before she took a shot at both Rhea Ripley and Roman Reigns. Xia Li then came up to her and called her out for losing the NXT Women’s Title last week. It was then time for the annual Trick or Street Fight and this time, the match was contested between one-half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Natalya. This was a complete “car crash” and not in a good way. The wrestling was incredibly sloppy and not even Nikki Cross’s head being under a pumpkin could save it. The only thing that actually made me happy in any way in this match was Michael Cole making a reference to Ichabod Crane. In the end, Chelsea Green got the win with the UnprettiHer which is at least something.
Grade: E
Damian Priest VS Sami Zayn
After Rhea Ripley said she's going to remind everyone just how dominant she is this Saturday at Crown Jewel, it was Main Event time as “Senor Money in the Bank” and one-half of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Damian Priest went one-on-one with Sami Zayn. This was the usual stuff that we’ve become used to in a Raw Main Event as the rest of The Judgment Day arrived (everyone except Rhea anyway) to try and help Damian Priest pick up the victory. This brought out Jey Uso who whipped out the Heels before he got in the ring and Superkicked Priest, causing the DQ. The Judgment Day then took over and started beating up Sami and Jey before Cody Rhodes’ music hit and The American Nightmare ran down to make the save. JD McDonagh then appeared out of nowhere to try and help his friends, but that backfired as Sami Zayn met him with a Helluva Kick on the barricade before Cody delivered two Cross Rhodes to McDonagh onto the announce table. Cody Rhodes then got back into the ring and cut a promo on Damian Priest saying that whilst he should be the leader of The Judgment Day, he’s nothing more than a “walk behinder” and that includes Dominik Mysterio. Whilst all of this feels like the same stuff we’ve been seeing for months and months, Rhodes’ point about Priest is a fair and correct one.
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