WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 13/07

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
5 min read

Oba Femi Interrupts Brock Lesnar, Iyo Sky VS Roxanne Perez

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with Brock Lesnar as Paul Heyman made a claim that Oba Femi is obsessed with his client! In fact, Oba is so obsessed with Brock that he gave away a guaranteed World Title opportunity for this very match! However, at the same time, Heyman is scared about the fact that Lesnar is also obsessed with Femi, a statement that scares the life out of The Oracle! Paul then went on about how he’s gotten a restraining order on Oba Femi, something The Ruler didn’t exactly care about when he just marched down to the ring and destroyed the “Texas Police Department”! Oba then brought up a great point that had he challenged either Roman Reigns or CM Punk at Summerslam, Brock would’ve just cost him anyway, and that he’s going to make The Beast suffer inside Hell in a Cell! I really enjoyed this segment; it was nice to see a Babyface use common sense for once!

Grade: B

After a video package recapping the original arrival of The Shield, Iyo Sky went one-on-one with Roxanne Perez in the opening match of the night! These are two of my favourite female professional wrestlers, so I always enjoy it when we get to see them face off! However, I do have to question what we’re doing with Roxanne Perez, as The Prodigy should be way more than just a backup character to Liv Morgan! I know patience can be a good thing, but how many times have we seen potential storylines never get the payoff that they deserve (literally look at what happened to Kairi Sane)! Eventually, after a pretty competitive contest, Iyo Sky was able to score the win with a roll-up, only for The Judgment Day to jump her straight after! Sol Ruca attempted to run down and make the save, but she quickly got levelled by Raquel Rodriguez, with Liv Morgan ending the segment standing tall with an ObLIVion (to Sky)! I have no idea who’s going to win this feud, but it does feel like it’s been going on for a while!

Grade: C+

Alpha Academy Interrupt The Vision, Jimmy Uso VS Royce Keys

The Vision were out next to celebrate recapturing the World Tag Team Championships, with Maxxine Dupri particularly delighted as Logan Paul introduced her as the latest member of the group! This brought out Alpha Academy, as Otis and Akira Tozawa wanted to understand what was going on! Maxxine explained that they don’t even know Austin Theory, and that their judgment of him has been unfair! Otis then seemingly expressed his feeling for Maxxine, with Austin Theory finding this all to be hilarious! This led to a brawl between the two teams, with Bron Breakker “killing” Tozawa with a wicked Spear, only for Otis to fight everyone off! Then, when it looked like Theory was going to get wiped out, Maxxine Dupri stopped him, only to then deliver a shock low-blow to “Otise”! This was a pretty tragic segment if you’re a fan of Otis, but my goodness me; this made Maxxine look awesome!

Grade: B+

After all 7 Gauntlet contenders said their piece as to why they’re going to head to Summerslam and challenge Penta for the Intercontinental Championship, we came back from the ad break to get an impromptu clash between Royce Keys and Jimmy Uso! This all came about during the ad break, but in fairness, this match didn’t exactly last very long as it was much more of an angle! After some good camera work (which showed Jacob Fatu get closer and closer to the ring), Jacob Fatu would attack Royce Keys, causing the disqualification as Solo Sikoa would then arrive! Interestingly, Solo said he’d made the decision to come back to the family, but this was obviously just a ruse as Sikoa floored Jimmy Uso with a Samoan Spike! Fatu would then fight Sikoa, leading to LA Knight running down to make the save with a steel chair! Due to LA Knight having had enough of The Bloodline, he proposed a 6-Man Tag match for Summerslam, with him teaming up with both Royce Keys and Solo Sikoa to take on The Usos and Jacob Fatu! Interesting!

Grade: C+

Bayley and Lyra Valkyria Come Face-to-Face, Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s Gauntlet Match

Whilst Paul Heyman seemed very impressed by the actions of Maxxine Dupri, he still seems rather despondent from the rest of The Vision! Adam Pearce then revealed to Oba Femi that Heyman was bluffing about the restraining order, whilst Bayley was then out next as she called out Lyra Valkyria! Lyra looked absolutely insane here, like she hadn’t slept for a week, and she spoke as such by calling Bayley the “worst member of the four horsewomen”! Bayley had clearly had enough of the disrespect by this point, challenging Valkyria to a match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, before a brawl broke out to close the segment! I really liked this; I thought this was done very well!

Grade: B

After another video package, this time highlighting the downfall of The Shield, we got a vignette that seemed to suggest that Big Cassidy may be returning on the Raw after Summerslam! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as 7 men competed in a Gauntlet Match for the right to challenge Penta for the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam! This match started off with Dominik Mysterio taking on Joe Hendry, with Dom able to score the win after interference from JD McDonagh! Poor Joe! Je’Von Evans would then be out next, with this being a pretty competitive bout that saw Danhausen show up and fail at his attempt to curse Mysterio! However, all of this still distracted Dominik enough for Evans to knock off the reigning AAA Mega Campeon, before Dragon Lee would also come up short to The Young O.G.! I thought this was a really good part of the Gauntlet, but that’s not exactly a surprise! Rusev was then up next, playing the perfect Heel to an already-in-pain Je’Von, who’d worked tirelessly to make it to this point! I think Rusev must have locked in the Accolade about 4 or 5 times, with it taking quite a while for Evans to eventually pass out! Chad Gable would then avenge Evans with a roll-up victory over Rusev, although this wouldn’t help Chad out too much as The Bulgarian Brute locked in the Accolade on him as Ethan Page made his way down to the ring as the final entrant! Page and Gable were the two that I wanted to see win this match, so I was destined to be happy regardless of who came out on top! Despite having quite an advantage, Ethan Page couldn’t take advantage of it, with All Ego being forced to tap after Master Gable locked in the ankle lock! Penta VS Gable can steal the show on SummerSlam weekend!

Grade: B

World Heavyweight Championship Summerslam Contract Signing

The final segment of this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw saw Roman Reigns and Seth “Freakin” Rollins sign the contract ahead of their World Heavyweight Championship bout at Summerslam! Both guys signed the contract pretty effectively, with the crowd seemingly being a lot more behind Seth than they were Roman! Seth said how the only things guaranteed in the world are “Death, Taxes, and Seth Rollins beats Roman Reigns”, before he just left! Reigns then brought Rollins back to the ring by saying that even if Seth beats him at Summerslam, he’ll just relinquish the Title due to injury again! Roman also went on to say that Seth is always going to be Number 2, that he’s always going to be Number 1, and this led to Rollins dropping Reigns after saying that he’s glad that he’s not like The Tribal Chief! The segment would then come to a close with Seth “Freakin” Rollins flooring Roman Reigns with a Stomp, and all I have to say is these two together will never fail to be special!