WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 14/07

Linus O'Howell
Jul 15
4 min read

Naomi Starts the Show, The Judgment Day VS The Kabuki Warriors

The Monday Night Raw following Evolution and Saturday Night’s Main Event kicked off with Naomi as the brand-new Women’s World Champion celebrated her successful cash-in! Naomi talked about the fact that everyone expected her to cash in on Tiffany Stratton, but she told everyone to be ready for anything! This brought out Rhea Ripley, who was quickly followed by Iyo Sky, as both Iyo and Rhea made their cases for being Naomi’s first challenger! Adam Pearce clearly agreed with both women’s points, as he booked a Triple Threat for Summerslam! In fairness, that is the right call, and Naomi was definitely the best part about this segment!

Grade: B-

Finn Balor was wearing 5 Titles in The Judgment Day Clubhouse as he told Dominik Mysterio to be in the corner of Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez ahead of their upcoming match against The Kabuki Warriors! The match itself was decent, everyone in the ring is talented, and the bits between Asuka and Roxanne were great! To be fair, Raquel and Roxanne actually work really well together, they’re clicking as a duo, and they also kept getting help from Dominik Mysterio! In fact, Dominik’s involvement eventually allowed Perez to pin Asuka with a little assist from Rodriguez!

Grade: B-

Women’s Intercontinental Championship Number 1 Contender’s 2-out-of-3-Falls Match: Bayley VS Lyra Valkyria, Chelsea Green VS Nikki Bella, Gunther Promo

Paul Heyman said that whilst he didn’t know Seth “Freakin” Rollins’ true condition, he did say that it doesn’t really matter as he has until next June to cash in his Money in the Bank contract! Lyra Valkyria was then sick of talking about Bayley, which was ironic as that then led into a 2-out-of-3-Falls Match where the winner would face Becky Lynch for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship at Summerslam! Bayley started off really strong here, going up 1-0 pretty early with a surprise roll-up, and she dominated for the most part until Lyra was able to make it 1-1! In the closing phases of this contest, Valkyria came back into it, targeting the leg of Bayley whilst The Role Model continued to attack the back of The Morgen! To my surprise, after failing to connect with a Rose Plant, Lyra Valkyria nailed Bayley with Night Wing to score the win and give herself another match with The Man! I really expected Bayley to win here; this result was a surprise!

Grade: B-

Stephanie Vaquer said she will leave Clash in Paris as the Women’s World Champion, but one person who didn’t agree with that assessment was Chelsea Green! Karrion Kross then had his own video, once again calling Sami Zayn a liar, before it was time for Ms. Green to go one-on-one with Nikki Bella! This felt like a very random match to have on Raw, in fact, I feel like this is the kind of match that could’ve been put on the Evolution card, but it was totally fine! Nikki had to fend off The Secret Hervice, with both Piper Niven and Alba Fyre trying to help their leader score the win, but in the end, Bella was able to drop Green with a Rackattack 2.0 to score the 3 count! After the match, Niven ambushed Nikki Bella from behind, only for Stephanie Vaquer to run down and make the save!

Grade: C+

Adam Pearce quickly rejected The New Day’s request for a World Tag Team Title rematch before Pearce told Dominik Mysterio that his medical condition with be “re-evaluated” next week! The best part about this was AJ Styles praying in the background, how AJ and Finn Balor have become great comedy characters needs to be studied! Rusev was then talking about his future plans before Sheamus told them they have a rematch next week, and then it was time for Gunther to cut a promo in front of the WWE Universe! Gunther said he retired Goldberg for good, that Bill isn’t coming back, and he also talked about the upcoming Gauntlet Match that will determine his challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam! This brought out Bron Breakker, and whilst The Ring General wasn’t interested in hearing what had to be said, Paul Heyman made it clear that Breakker is going to run the Gauntlet before he runs through him at Summerslam! Definitely want to see Gunther-Breakker even more after this!

Grade: B-

World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Gauntlet Match: Bron Breakker VS Penta VS LA Knight VS Jey Uso VS CM Punk

The last 50 minutes of Raw pretty much was given to a Gauntlet Match to determine who would face Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam! The first two competitors in the match were Bron Breakker and Penta, and they did a good job, I think they had the strongest match of all in terms of in-ring work, and the crowd were into it! Whilst it could’ve gone either way, a massive mid-air Spear from Bron was enough to eliminate Penta from the match before LA Knight entered the fold! Knight was supposedly not 100% following his match with Seth “Freakin” Rollins at Saturday Night’s Main Event, and that was seemingly WWE’s way of protecting The Megastar as he too got eliminated by Breakker! I’m not sure this will go down too well! Jey Uso was then out next, and he infuriated me as for whatever reason, Uso thought it would be a good idea to take down Breakker and then start Yeeting again! Like, what the heck, this is so stupid! Thankfully, Jey lost after Bronson Reed got involved, and also, since when were Gauntlet Matches No DQ, like why?! The final battle came down to Bron Breakker and CM Punk, and wouldn’t you know it, Bronson Reed got involved again! However, this time, Jey Uso returned and dealt with Reed, opening the door for Punk to nail Breakker with a GTS to get the win and earn his place at Summerslam! After the match, Reed ambushed Punk, with Breakker Spearing Uso, but this is when Roman Reigns finally made his return, wiping out both Bron and Bronson to the largest reaction of the entire weekend! Roman then embraced his cousin to close out the show, and I have to say, whilst the match was frustrating, Reigns being back is the absolute best!