WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 05/05
- Linus O'Howell
- 56 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Paul Heyman Interrupts Jey Uso, Penta VS JD McDonagh
This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with “Main Event” Jey Uso as the World Heavyweight Champion Yeeted his way down to the ring! Jey got straight down to business by calling out Logan Paul, but he was instead interrupted by a different Paul in the form of Mr. Heyman! Paul found Uso’s comments about him turning on The Bloodline rich after what happened a few years ago, and Heyman then delivered a seething promo on why “he” betrayed Roman Reigns and CM Punk at WrestleMania! See, Punk put Paul in a terrible position with his Tribal Chief, something a best friend shouldn’t do, whilst Roman didn’t trust that his Wiseman wouldn’t keep his secrets in! Paul Heyman then brilliantly flipped the switch on the whole Bloodline saga, saying it was him who pulled Reigns from the island of irrelevancy, and that he wasn’t the one who blew it at WrestleMania 40! Paul then continued his rant by saying that Roman Reigns came back for his Ulafala, not to save his Special Counsel from Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, and The Tongans, and yet he’s perceived as the bad guy! Jey Uso was very confused by all of this as it seemingly didn’t have anything to do with him, but Heyman came back to say that Seth “Freakin” Rollins wants a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, which Jey chose to happen on the same night! I thought this was a superb segment, I thought Paul Heyman was excellent as always!
Grade: A-
After Paul Heyman explained to Bron Breakker why Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ plan was working so well, it was time for the first match of the night as Penta took on JD McDonagh! This was a decent opening contest, both guys are good at what they do, and it flowed pretty decently! However, there was also a lot of shenanigans on the outside as The Judgment Day and Chad Gable all tried to get involved at different stages! In the end, though, it was Penta who managed to pick up the win as expected!
Grade: C+
Austin Theory VS ?, Becky Lynch Promo, Iyo Sky VS Roxanne Perez
Grayson Waller didn’t want to follow through with his scheduled match after hearing who his opponent was going to be, but he instead gave his match over to Austin Theory, something Theory initially thought was a nice friendly gesture! However, it was quickly proven that that wasn’t the case as Theory had to tackle the returning Sheamus! The thing about this is Sheamus has not been booked like a machine for ages, and yet Grayson Waller was acting like The Undertaker was coming out to him! Austin Theory is also a multi-time United States Champion as well as a Mr. Money in the Bank, so there’s no way that Austin should be scared of The Celtic Warrior! However, I will say that the delivery of the acting between A-Town Down Under was very good, and Sheamus of course got the win with a Brogue Kick!
Grade: C (I have no idea what to Grade this)
The Judgment Day were hanging out in their Clubhouse before AJ Styles walked in and said he’s got his eyes set on the Intercontinental Championship! Dominik Mysterio asked Finn Balor to sort that problem out whilst he focuses on Penta before The New Day potentially finally found themselves an ally in Chad Gable! Becky Lynch then walked past them all on her way down to the ring, and the first part of Becky’s promo was just constantly calling both Bayley and Lyra Valkyria “garbage”! Lyra then interrupted this to say that everyone’s careers were better when she wasn’t around (that’s actually a compliment to Lynch) whilst The Man was keen to point out that Sports Illustrated called her the Greatest of all Time! The segment then ended with a brawl, with Valkyria winning out, but this was another weak segment between the two, this feud isn’t working at all!
Grade: C-
It was then time to turn the show around with a dream match of mine as Roxanne Perez took on the Women’s World Champion, Iyo Sky! This was such a good match, this sort of followed on from their clash in last week’s NXT Main Event, but it actually flowed better with it being a proper singles match! The one gripe I had about this match is we were either going to get another DQ finish in this storyline, or Roxanne Perez was going to take another pinfall loss, and neither of those things are any good! Ultimately, WWE went with the latter as Iyo was able to pin Roxanne for the 3 count before the two shook hands! However, this was just a ruse as Giulia attacked Sky from behind before the NXT girls once again stood tall! Now, Rhea Ripley wasn’t here on this show, she’s in Australia, but that’s still interesting to me!
Grade: B
Otis VS Rusev, Gunther and Pat McAfee Come Face-to-Face
It was then time for a clash between two big men as Rusev went one-on-one with Otis in his WWE in-ring return! They said it’s been over 5 years since Rusev’s last match in WWE, that’s an awful long time, but I thought this was a lot of fun! This match was obviously done to position Rusev as a beast in Raw’s midcard division, but Otis still got plenty of moves in that reminded you of just how talented he is! In the end, Rusev was able to get the win by making Otise tap in the Accolade before The Redeemer destroyed Alpha Academy after the match was over!
Grade: C+
Adam Pearce was back to try and restore some order to the show as he welcomed both Gunther and Pat McAfee into the ring for a Face-to-Face confrontation! Pat started the segment off by putting over Michael Cole before the former Indianapolis Colts punter called Gunther soft whilst also refereeing to his past name Walter (that was very well done)! Gunther then responded by asking Pat how it felt to celebrate his daughter’s Birthday, and that the joy he felt that day is going to be the same joy that The Ring General feels when he destroys McAfee at Backlash! Gunther also said he will give Pat McAfee his full attention heading into the weekend because he doesn’t want to spoil his own fun! I enjoyed this a lot, I really like Pat McAfee, and Gunther’s amazing (of course)!
Grade: B
World Heavyweight Championship: Jey Uso VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins
And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, “Main Event” Jey Uso put his World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Seth “Freakin” Rollins! This was a very big match to have on an episode of Raw, it almost felt like it was happening way too soon, but it was ultimately here to build a story for further down the line! However, the match itself was pretty good, the near-falls in particular were strong, Jey kicked out of a Stomp whilst Rollins kicked out of a Spear! The closing phases saw Sami Zayn arrive to try and deal with Bron Breakker, but Breakker was able to then nail Zayn with a wicked Spear before he delivered another one to Uso! This then looked like it was going to open the door for Seth Rollins to get the win as he delivered another Stomp, but CM Punk’s music then hit as Punk chased everyone off with a steel chair to cause the DQ! I’m guessing we’re going to get a 6/8-Man Tag Team Match very soon!
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