WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 06/04

Linus O'Howell
6 days ago
6 min read

CM Punk Starts the Show, Austin Theory VS LA Knight

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with a rather fiery CM Punk, as the reigning World Heavyweight Champion left nothing to be desired! CM Punk started his promo by pointing out the fact that whilst Roman Reigns needed his cousins two weeks ago, Punk didn’t need anyone to help him put Reigns through a table in Madison Square Garden last week! Punk then fired major shots at Roman, calling him “plastic”, whilst he also called The Rock a “former Hollywood Superstar”! CM Punk wasn’t done here, though, as he pulled out a crazy statement regarding an old segment where Roman Reigns ate dog food (those were the days), whilst Punk ended his promo by calling out Pat McAfee, telling McAfee to call “his boss” and tell them to lower the ticket prices! I’m not convinced that any of this was scripted, because CM Punk went off on one here! As a result, it was very, very good!

Grade: B+

IShowSpeed is still trying to get Danhausen to reverse the curse, but Danhausen won’t unless Speed gives him his mansion! Adam Pearce then told Speed to go home, but that wasn’t possible as The Vision took him down to ringside for Austin Theory’s opening match of the night against LA Knight! With there not being proper ad breaks on Netflix, you get the benefit of watching the entire match uninterrupted! However, sometimes that can be at a detriment to the overall watching experience, as sometimes nothing of note happens during the breaks (which sort of makes sense when you think about it)! This match was totally fine, with the best moment coming when Logan Paul “accidentally” shoved IShowSpeed into LA Knight, resulting in a “chase” that led to The Usos cutting Speed off! However, Speed was able to escape, and all of this just allowed Austin Theory to take advantage and roll Knight up for the win! After the match was over, LA Knight pitched a 6-Man Tag between himself and The Usos VS IShowSpeed and The Vision, a concept that Adam Pearce was more than happy to authorise!

Grade: C+

Finn Balor VS JD McDonagh, Lash Legend VS Bayley, Seth “Freakin” Rollins Speaks

El Grande Americano was rightly annoyed over the fact that he never got the opportunity to qualify for the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, whilst Finn Balor was then supposed to come down to the ring to take on his old buddy JD McDonagh! However, that didn’t exactly happen as Dominik Mysterio attacked Finn during his entrance, with JD also helping as Mysterio eventually stood tall after multiple steel chair shots! I’m guessing that WWE actually wants to hold off on a proper Balor-McDonagh match, especially given the fact that JD’s also wrestling at this year’s WrestleMania, but I feel like this could’ve been done better!

Grade: C

AJ Lee was supposed to have a sit-down interview with Michael Cole, but Cole was quickly replaced by Becky Lynch, as The Man talked about the time that they met backstage at WrestleMania 31, the day before AJ quit WWE! Lee then fired back by saying that whilst she’s proud of everything that Lynch has accomplished, none of that would’ve been possible without her, and that’s why when she goes home tonight, Becky’s daughter will say “AJ Lee” when it comes to who her favourite wrestler is! This was probably the best segment between these two women to date! Bayley was then out next as The Role Model was ready to go one-on-one with Lash Legend! Unlike the previous match, this one did actually take place, with Bayley and Lash putting together a decent little match, up until the moment where others got involved! I swear this exact same thing happened last week! Anyway, for some reason, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair decided that their best way to deal with Nia Jax was to attack her with a jacket, whilst Bayley did a much better job by just wiping them all out! Lash Legend was then set to take advantage of this, but a major assist from Lyra Valkyria (where she held Legend’s foot) was enough to earn Bayley the win! It’s weird how Bayley loses so often, and yet she beat Lash Legend!

Grade: C+

After Danhausen appeared in the ad break to celebrate winning a Slammy Award, Seth “Freakin” Rollins finally had a proper entrance for the first time in 6 months! Seth Rollins talked about how he’s missed hearing the crowd sing his song and that he has two missions right now! One of them is to win back the Title that he never lost (the World Heavyweight Championship), and the other is to kill The Vision! Luckily for Seth, The Vision have sort of done that by themselves, whether that’s with injuries or getting involved with The Bloodline! Anyway, Rollins knew that Paul Heyman was going to need backup, which is why he served Brock Lesnar up perfectly for Oba Femi! However, it seems like Heyman has recruited Gunther, which makes things very personal for The Visionary! This is when Gunther showed up to try and attack Seth from behind, but it was Rollins who managed to get the upper hand before security guards separated the pair of them! Gunther then headed backstage to see Paul Heyman, who thanked The Ring General for helping him last week, only for the big Austrian to tell Paul that what he did last week wasn’t for the reasons that Seth “Freakin” Rollins believes! I’m all for this match, and this was a well-done segment!

Grade: B

Penta, Je’Von Evans, and Dragon Lee VS Los Americanos, RHIYO VS Michin and B-Fab

Stephanie Vaquer told Liv Morgan that she’s better than having to resort to “Mom jokes”, whilst Stephanie also made it clear that she’s going to introduce Liv to her “Inferno”! Sadly, I don’t think we’re getting an Inferno Match, but this was a good promo! Instead, we got some 6-Man Tag Team action as Penta, Je’Von Evans, and Dragon Lee all teamed up to take on Los Americanos! Penta and Dragon have a lot of respect for each other, so they were easily able to team together, whilst Je’Von is just a simple Babyface! I’d say that El Grande Americano has every right to be aggrieved at not appearing at WrestleMania, let alone not even getting a qualifying match! Los Americanos tend to always put on entertaining matches, and that didn’t change here, with this firmly feeling like something you’d see on a house show! After everyone hit their big moves (including a ridiculous Mexican Destroyer on the apron), Evans delivered the O.G. Cutter to earn the win for his team! After the match was over, Rey Mysterio made his return to WWE TV as the WWE and AAA Hall of Famer announced that he will also be competing in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania! I want Vikingo!

Grade: B-

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria cut a fired-up promo regarding the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships (I really hope they win them), whilst Asuka had a great video promo of her own where she talked about how much she did for Iyo Sky, only for Iyo to betray her. I’ll keep saying it, but this Iyo-Kabuki Warriors storyline has been one of the best this year! Speaking of Iyo Sky, The Genius of the Sky reunited with Rhea Ripley to take on Michin and B-Fab in the Main Event match of the night! I can’t lie, I didn’t need to see one of the worst feuds on SmackDown (if not, the worst feud) move over to also appear on Raw, too, but that’s what we got, I suppose! The actual in-ring action wasn’t too bad; it was totally fine, but the ending was either a mistake or it was just a terrible booking decision! See, after Jade Cargill took out Rhea Ripley on the outside, Iyo Sky just rolled up B-Fab to get the win in what felt like a complete shock to everyone, including the performers! The Heels then jumped Iyo from behind before Michin and B-Fab grabbed hold of Rhea! Ripley was then screaming at Cargill to attack her, but Jade decided instead to use the kendo stick on Sky to end the segment! Good Heel work in principle, but I just couldn’t get over the ending!

Grade: C+

Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi Contract Signing

After Finn Balor teased the return of the Demon, and Stephanie Vaquer assaulted Liv Morgan before Roxanne Perez was able to address the whole “Balor situation”, the closing segment on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw was a Contract Signing between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi! It was such a big deal that both Triple H and Adam Pearce were out to moderate the signing, whilst Paul Heyman also showed up to introduce his client, Brock Lesnar! Weirdly, the end-of-show graphics then appeared, but the show carried on as Oba Femi was yet to make his entrance! However, as expected, no contract signing actually took place between the two of them, with Brock attacking Oba as he was about to enter the ring, before a massive brawl broke out! Both Lesnar and Femi went through a table, but neither one of them sold it at all, continuing their fight which saw security guards have to break them up! The funniest part about all of this is that Brock and Oba then started to throw chairs at one another, before the show just ended! This was a very oddly constructed segment, but Brock-Oba continues to be the storyline that I’m most invested in!