WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 08/12

Linus O'Howell
7 days ago
4 min read

Gunther Starts the Show, Kairi Sane VS Iyo Sky

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with Gunther as The Ring General cut a promo about the opportunity that awaits him as John Cena’s final-ever opponent! Gunther stated that whilst John Cena may be the “Greatest Sports Entertainer of All Time”, he is the “Greatest Professional Wrestler of All Time”! I quite liked that differentiation between the two, and Gunther made it clear that he is going to do what no one has ever done, and that’s break John’s spirit! Gunther is adamant that he will make Cena tap out on Saturday, and I would assume that’s how it’s going to play out!

Grade: B-

We then headed straight into the opening match of the night as Iyo Sky clashed with her old “Sky Pirate”, Kairi Sane! I thought this was a good opening contest; the action was strong, and Kairi and Iyo will always gel well together, given just how much history they have together! Asuka and Rhea Ripley were both hanging out at ringside, with Asuka becoming a particular nuisance as the match went on! Rhea eventually dealt with The Empress of Tomorrow, and this opened the door for Sky to deliver Over the Moonsault onto Sane to score the victory!

Grade: B-

Finn Balor VS Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee VS The War Raiders: World Tag Team Championships

Logan Paul made it clear to the rest of The Vision that he wants to get payback on Rey Mysterio, before The War Raiders had a video package stating that they would recapture the World Tag Team Championships! Rey Mysterio then made his way down to the ring as he was set to face Finn Balor in singles action! However, that didn’t happen as Rey was attacked in the entranceway by Logan Paul, with the same masked man from Survivor Series also appearing, nailing Mysterio with a wicked Stomp! Logan then floored Rey Mysterio with Brass Knuckles, before LA Knight ran down to make the save! Knight was clearly bothered by all of this, making it clear that he wants to get his hands on The Maverick before the end of the night!

With the previous match being called off, we headed into Championship action as The War Raiders looked to dethrone AJ Styles and Dragon Lee for the World Tag Team Titles! Whilst The War Raiders are a solid team, the odds of them defeating AJ Styles and Dragon Lee were not very high! Despite that, we still got a fun little matchup, with some good offensive manoeuvres, but in the end, it was a pretty straightforward retention for Styles and Lee! After the match was over, AJ and Dragon came face-to-face with The New Day, only for The Usos to arrive as Jimmy and Jey confirmed that they’re now back in the Tag Team Division! I’m not sure it’s going to last long, but we’ll just have to see how this will play out!

Grade: C+

Stephanie Vaquer Gets Interrupted, Lyra Valkyria VS Roxanne Perez

Stephanie Vaquer headed down to the ring to cut a promo, stating that she is ready to face all challengers! This brought out Nikki Bella, who demanded a rematch for Stephanie’s Women’s World Championship, only for Raquel Rodriguez to arrive to floor Bella! By the looks of it, we could be heading in the direction of Vaquer-Rodriguez, and to be honest, I quite like that! As far as this segment went, it wasn’t the most effective, especially given the fact that people cheered for Raquel when she attacked Nikki!

Grade: C

After Liv Morgan told Roxanne Perez that they’re now going after the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, Roxanne headed down to the ring to go one-on-one with Lyra Valkyria! These two have so much history together; they’re two of the best women’s workers in the world, and that meant they were able to put on arguably the match of the night! I also continue to enjoy the dynamic between Roxanne and Liv Morgan, with Liv cheering on Roxy (at least for now)! Bayley tried her best to deal with Morgan’s outside interference, but eventually, a couple of illegal shots to the eyes of Valkyria allowed Perez to nail a Pop Rox to score the win! Liv and Roxanne for Tag Team Champions? I’d love to see it!

Grade: B

LA Knight VS Logan Paul

After Maxxine Dupri finally made Natalya submit, it was Main Event time as LA Knight and Logan Paul clashed after their altercation earlier in the show! This was another contest between two superstars who have battled each other a lot, and I thought this was another decent contest! Unfortunately for LA Knight, both Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed arrived to put his odds in an even worse position, and things then managed to get even worse as the hooded figure returned again to nail Knight with a Stomp on the announce table! This then allowed Logan Paul to deliver a 5-Star Frog Splash to get the win, before The Vision destroyed Knight post-match! The Vision then had a promo segment, with Bron Breakker stating that he wants to face the real CM Punk on January 5th, not the “nice guy” version that he’s been pretending to be! LA Knight was then shown to be getting back onto his feet in the parking lot, hence the reason that Bronson Reed and Logan Paul then went back after him, with Reed delivering a nasty TSUNAMI to Knight onto the top of a car to close the show! I'd better not see LA Knight till next year now, because he was destroyed here!