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If WWE held every show in front of an audience as hot as Dallas, Texas was Monday night, they’d feel like the hottest product on Earth and nowhere near a decline.
Instead, Monday Night Raw likely will be an anomaly, with raucous fans and reactions scattered throughout the evening and elevating average material.
Oba Femi did the Lord’s work in selling his Hell in a Cell match against Brock Lesnar after Paul Heyman(!) phoned it in. Maxxine Dupri embraced her new character, becoming one of the most hated people on the show. Je’Von Evans and Chad Gable had strong evenings in the Intercontinental Championship #1 contender match.
However, some wrestlers didn’t fare as well, including the men who opened the gauntlet: Dominik Mysterio and Joe Hendry. The Vision still looked like geeks, badass geeks, but geeks nonetheless. The Bloodline continues to channel the nWo B-Team. And Lyra Valkyria has lost it.
SummerSlam is less than three weeks away, while Saturday Night’s Main Event is coming up in just a few days. That card is shaping up to be one hell of a house show… oh wait, it’s a televised special. Whoops.
Some good stuff here, but once again, there were too many low points scattered throughout the night.
Let’s get to it…
DOWNS…
8. An Impromptu Library Of A Match Breaks Out
When Raw came back from commercial and SmackDown superstar Royce Keys was in the ring, tangling with Jimmy Uso, it felt a bit chaotic and interesting… for about 10 seconds.
Then the reality that it was a Jimmy Uso match with Jimmy on offense sunk in, adn everything slowed down to a labored pace that just dragged until Jacob Fatu arrived, stalked to the ring, and caused a disqualification.
Impromptu matches are bad enough, but this effectively silenced what had been a red-hot crowd to that point, as they clearly could not care less about it, which really isn’t fair to Keys, who followed up a disappointing loss last week to Jimmy with a pin-drop quiet match Monday night.
One would think that if you had a match that was born out of a “heated” brawl that couldn’t be contained, and it was destined to end in a DQ regardless, then they should have just gone all out with a mad dash. Instead, they did the opposite.
7. Lyra Is CRAZY
Remember all those vignettes about how Bayley had voices inside her head and was going through a period where she would flip out on Lyra Valkyria out of nowhere, until WWE phased that gimmick out entirely?
Well, it looks like they’ve brought it back in a different form… and given it to Lyra.
Since turning on Bayley, Valkyria has sunk into a strange character, looking disheveled and disturbed, like a person who hasn’t slept in days and has been on a 48-hour bender without a shower.
Lyra joined Bayley in the ring to accuse the Role Model of holding her back during the past year, then suggested that she had lied to her former tag partner whenever she complimented her, such as calling her a “locker room leader” (instead, she was a doormat). Bayley’s response was to read her Wikipedia page and challenge Lyra to a match at Saturday Night’s Main Event before a brawl broke out between the two.
One could argue that Valkyria needed to do something after floundering for months, but “crazy disheveled wrestler” isn’t it. She more closely resembles former NXT running buddy Tatum Paxley than anything else. If she starts playing with dolls, it’s time to pack it in.
This was another segment that largely played out to silence from an otherwise hot crowd, which is disappointing – but not surprising.
6. Ice-Cold Wrestlers
Remember when Dominik Mysterio was so insanely over at WrestleMania 41 that it felt like only a matter of time before WWE would be forced to turn him face and elevate him above the Intercontinental Championship?
And remember when everyone was saying they believed in Joe Hendry?
Well, those days seemingly are behind us, as the two of them opened the IC title number one contender’s gauntlet match, and it was about as dull and quiet of a match segment as possible, despite a great audience. Hendry would ultimately fall to Dirty Dom after JD McDonagh distracted Joe.
This was a supremely disappointing mini-match, not just because the offense was basic, but because neither man is nearly as “over” as they were a year ago, and seeing them out there Monday night just felt like a reminder of how they’ve been squandered.
5. Since Heyman Brought It Up…
Don’t blame the writer; blame Paul Heyman for dropping a line during this spiel about restraining orders (seriously?).
Heyman was in the middle of a very odd promo (for him) and then talked about how he got a restraining order for Oba Femi… and one for Brock Lesnar as well. He got the order for Lesnar because “the Beast is a law-abiding citizen.”
Now, while he hasn’t been charged, Brock is far from a choir boy, being named in an ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE. Lesnar, as many are aware, was blacklisted from WWE for nearly two years after it was revealed that his name appeared more than 40 times in a suit former employee Janel Grant filed against McMahon and WWE, alleging sexual abuse and human trafficking.
For Heyman to throw that little line in there like that couldn’t have been coincidence, but even solely in-universe, the entire restraining order angle was weird.
4. A Subpar Heyman Performance
When Paul Heyman is outclassed on the mic by a rookie, you know something is wrong.
The Advocate for Brock Lesnar cut an uneven promo to open Raw Monday night, taking swipes at Oba Femi for being stupid enough to turn down a guaranteed title match at SummerSlam (after winning King of the Ring) because he’s obsessed with the Beast. Heyman called Oba a stalker, a stage-nine clinger, the biggest dummy he’s ever met, and a psycho ex-girlfriend.
Heyman then said he had gone to a judge to obtain a restraining order (after Brock interrupted and attacked Oba a couple of weeks back, mind you) because apparently getting WWE to issue a “no touch” order was too complicated. It was later revealed that the restraining order and the cops Heyman brought out were all fakes (which is good since Femi mauled them).
Considering this is the third encounter in four months between these two men, this promo felt a bit phoned in and not very good overall. This should be sold as the end of the rivalry, a clash of generational monsters - anything other than, “We got a restraining order against the rookie who beat Brock in five minutes at WrestleMania.”
Thankfully, there was a second half to this segment…
3. ‘14 Years In The Making’
They’re really going to try to make “fetch” happen.
During Raw, Michael Cole spoke about the upcoming SummerSlam match between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, and he attempted to paint it as a “classic and epic rivalry” that is 14 years in the making.
Yes, we’re really talking about these two in these lofty terms. A friendship/rivalry/friendship/rivalry lasting more than three Hulk Hogan four-year world title reigns. Rollins, who has never achieved the level of success and critical acclaim that Reigns has, and Roman, who only reached that pinnacle after years of being pushed ad nauseam until something finally stuck.
Regardless, WWE is going to try to sell fans hard on this being one of the biggest matches in WWE history. Cole promised a “multi-part, multi-week series” breaking down their history. The first video, a jarring blitz of clips of The Shield’s debut and dominance, flew by in a blur. If you didn’t already intimately know the history and were hoping to gain a deeper understanding, you were sadly disappointed.
Don’t worry, though: there are several more parts to this saga to unveil on the next couple of episodes of Raw.
2. The Best Of A Bad Situation
Apparently, The Vision is now not only still a thing, but it’s a rejuvenated act with Maxxine Dupri taking over as the oracle of the group from Paul Heyman.
The stable came out Monday night to celebrate last week’s triumph and explain their actions, only for Alpha Academy to make their way out. Their antics will get some praise later, but suffice it to say here, future WrestleMania main-eventer Bron Breakker was reduced to playing background heavy to the new “it” heel couple, Maxxine and Austin Theory.
While the segment would get tremendous heat, that felt more like a one-time thing associated with Otis and Akira Tozawa, not genuine, sustained hatred of Theory, Dupri, and company. Time will tell on this, but it’s clear that this is the group going forward, as Paul Heyman basically resigned from the stable later.
It’s going to take several consecutive weeks of strong material and performances to convince people that this on-its-last-legs stable adding a hapless wrestler and valet for a jobber tag team was the missing piece. Until then, it looks more like a best of a bad situation.
1. The nWo B-Team… Er, Bloodline 2.0
It’s getting really hard to look at this iteration of the Bloodline and not picture late-stage New World Order, circa 1999.
Back then, nWo Hollywood and nWo Wolfpac reunited, creating one oversized stable that was too big to coexist. Eventually, the group split into two subsets: the main-eventers wearing black and red, and what came to be known as the nWo B-Team, wearing black and white. The B-Team was a collection of jobbers who rarely interacted with the top stars in the stable and just flailed in their own side quests.
In today’s Bloodline, it increasingly feels like Roman Reigns is the top-shelf faction by himself, with Jacob Fatu flying in in a supporting role, and then the Usos and Fatu serving as the Bloodline B-Team.
Monday night, Fatu and Jimmy Uso tangled with Royce Keys, Solo Sikoa (who pretended to rejoin the family, only to dupe them and try to take them out), and LA Knight, setting up a six-man tag (with Jey Uso joining the Bloodline) at SummerSlam.
That… is quite the motley crew standing up to the Bloodline. It’s a borderline meaningless side quest for the family, while Roman continues to exist on his own island as he holds the World Heavyweight Championship. The Usos and even Fatu interact less and less with Reigns and seem to just occupy their own realm on WWE programming.
Fatu, in particular, looks more lost by this strange fracturing of the family. He was forced into the Bloodline after losing Tribal Combat, and he’s made it clear that he only does the Tribal Chief’s bidding, but he’s suddenly started targeting longtime friend Keys on his own, lamenting a decision that he seemingly made on his own. Where is Roman ordering him to strike down anyone who stands in the family’s way?
If Jacob truly is a conflicted, indentured servant of the Bloodline, why would he start attacking other people who haven’t posed a threat to the family unless he was ordered to do so? The less Reigns and his cousins interact, the more it looks like a two-class system, with one existing at the top, and the other trading on the legacy name while occupying a slot much lower on the card.
UPS…
6. Oba To The Rescue
Aside from the obvious disclaimers that this rubber match from Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi shouldn’t even be taking place (or at least should be Oba going for a clean sweep with the world title around his waist), you have to take your cap off to Femi for his promo Monday night.
After Paul Heyman delivered a mediocre promo, Femi strutted down to the ring, way closer than the 100 feet the alleged restraining order restricted him, and quickly manhandled the “cops.” Brock and Heyman retreated up the aisle to laugh while Oba grabbed a mic.
Femi asked who was next to Heyman, where was the Beast? “He used to run this place; now he just runs away.” He retconned his decision to forgo his world title match at SummerSlam by noting that Lesnar probably would have just cost him the championship anyway (A for effort).
Then Oba ranted at Brock about how inside Hell in a Cell, he can’t run from him, building to a crescendo while fans cheered. It was a strong closing that made it clear that, regardless of the shoddy booking, Femi clearly wants it.
He’s been tossed into a rubber match after foolishly giving up a world title match (in storyline), but the fire Oba breathes into the mic nearly equals his explosiveness in the ring, and that fire makes you forget how nonsensical this booking truly is – you just want to see Femi murk Lesnar and send him back to his deer stand in Canada.
5. Iyo Overcomes, Then Succumbs
Iyo Sky needed a good night in the ring Monday night after a prolonged period of uneven performances. Thankfully, she was in the ring with Roxanne Perez.
The Prodigy and the Genius of the Sky tangled in a “soften up the challenger” match, with Roxy trying to further injure Iyo’s already-balky knee, and Sky channeling fan support to fight back and persevere against Judgment Day interference, reversing a Perez rollup to get the win.
The match itself was pretty good overall, with Iyo continuing to be the workrate challenger going up against a champion in Liv Morgan who lets her minions try to take Sky out.
Afterward, the Judgment Day attacked Iyo, only for Sol Ruca to return the favor from last week. However, an attempted headscissors off the apron backfired and Raquel Rodriguez splatted the Women’s Intercontinental Champion into the barricade and ring post, while Morgan dropped Iyo with Oblivion.
The SummerSlam match between the two needs some more juice, but they still have a couple of weeks to get there.
4. Otis Draws The HEAT
Dallas fans had a love affair with Otis Monday night, and that relationship somehow turned Maxxine Dupri and Austin Theory into two of the most-hated heels on the Raw roster for at least one night.
The Vision’s in-ring promo was broken up by Alpha Academy, looking to reconcile with Maxxine. Otis tried to reason with her, pointing out that he said Theory was bad news from the jump, then started to confess that he had feelings for Dupri. Austin cut this short, mocking Dozer with some of the same basic b**ch lines you always hear from high school villains (“people like you don’t end up with people like her”).
Still, it worked, as fans booed Theory mercilessly, then cheered wildly as Otis overcame Austin and Bron Breakker. But when Maxxine leaned in to kiss Otis, Austin low-blowed him, allowing Dupri to lay in the badmouth and The Vision to take Alpha Academy out to tremendous heat.
This was white hot with fans in the building, and it sounded nuclear on television. Still, we’re talking about Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri here, not the birth of the McMahon-Helmsley Era. For one night, however, it sounded like everything clicked into place for The Vision.
We’ll have to see if they can string together a couple of strong weeks for the stable, but no one should be holding their breath.
3. Cringe, But Good Overall
Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins is not a dream match, nor is it a main event in any building. But damned if they didn’t try to convince everyone otherwise Monday night.
Reigns and Rollins had a face-to-face during their contract signing, with Roman promising to show #2 what #1 looks like, and Seth taunting the Tribal Chief for being a part-timer and someone who is just keeping the World Heavyweight Championship warm for its first champion, who never lost the belt when he was stripped of it last year.
Rollins tried to leave, but Roman enticed him back by swiping at Seth’s injury history, predicting that if Rollins won the title, he’d lose it after a couple of months due to injury anyway, calling it self-sabotage.
After more back-and-forth, Rollins finally had had enough and attacked Reigns. The two briefly brawled before Seth gained the upper hand and snuffed him out by turning a powerbomb into a Pedigree and then stomping Roman’s head into the mat.
Overall, this wasn’t as bad as one might think: both men got in some good digs, and the brawl at the end was pretty decent.
It’s still not this epic rivalry, but once you divorce the hype from the actual build, it’s not terrible.
2. A Big Night For The Young OG
Another wrestler in the Intercontinental Championship gauntlet match who came into the bout feeling ice cold had to be Je’Von Evans, who hadn’t wrestled on Raw in four weeks and had cooled off considerably.
Evans got past Dominik Mysterio (and JD McDonagh) with a bit of help from Danhausen, then turned in a short, fun, blistering mini-match against Dragon Lee. The two gelled pretty well, delivering a series of high spots that sent fans into a frenzy.
After Evans hip-tossed Dragon into the timekeeper’s area, he raced around the ringside area and dove over the barricade onto Lee, almost clearing the second barricade. Insane. The two continued their frenzied match, with Je’Von eking out a win with a rollup.
Then, Rusev struck. The Lion of Bulgaria attacked from behind and controlled much of their match, battering Evans and repeatedly snuffing out his attempted comebacks. When Evans powered out of an Accolade, fans lost their collective minds, fully getting behind the Young OG.
However, he wasn’t able to put Rusev away. After going for an OG Cutter and being cut off with a punch, Evans found himself in the Accolade again, this time unable to escape.
Evans didn’t win, but he made the most of his run through the bulk of the match. He had felt stalled on Raw recently – here’s hoping this sparks something for him.
1. Hometown Hero Head To Minnesota
Chad Gable punched his ticket to SummerSlam Monday night, winning the Intercontinental Championship gauntlet match by defeating Rusev and Ethan Page to earn a shot.
Rusev had just ended Je’Von Evans’ impressive run, so he decidedly wasn’t on the fans’ Christmas card list. The two battled back and forth before Gable managed to screw a rollup for the win.
But Rusev didn’t take losing too well, cinching in the Accolade after the bell, handing Page a huge advantage for the final pinfall. However, Gable kept fighting back, kicking out of Ethan’s signatures, and finally grabbing an ankle lock and not letting go. Gable finally scored the tap-out, sending him to SummerSlam for a match for a title that has eluded him for years.
Gable winning is the right call here, with SummerSlam taking place in his hometown and the former Original El Grande Americano still riding high after his mask-versus-mask match in AAA. Whether all of that translates to toppling Penta for the IC title remains to be seen, but this was pretty good stuff.
