WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 15/09

John Cena Starts the Show, Lyra Valkyria VS Roxanne Perez

After Jey Uso and LA Knight got confrontational in the parking lot, this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw started with John Cena returning to Springfield, Massachusetts! John talked about how he used to play Football down at Springfield College, and that his friends and family are in attendance tonight! Cena then talked about Brock Lesnar, saying it would’ve been a lot safer for him to avoid having a match with The Beast, but that simply isn’t who he is! Now, whilst John Cena knows he can easily lose on Saturday, he also knows that he never gives up, and that certainly isn’t going to change against Lesnar! As far as segments go, this was solid!

Credit: WWE on YouTube

Grade: C+

Adam Pearce made it clear that he needs to keep the peace on Raw tonight, and LA Knight said the only way to do that is to give him a Tag Team match against The Vision! When Pearce asked LA who his partner would be, Knight responded “Jimmy Uso”! It was then time for a Stand and Deliver rematch as Lyra Valkyria faced Roxanne Perez in the opening match of the night! This was a good match; both women are very talented, but it was a shame that it took the crowd a while to get invested! Raquel Rodriguez got herself thrown out after the referee saw her blatantly trip Lyra over, and that cost Roxanne big time, as in the end, Valkyria was able to score the win with the Nightwing! After the match was over, Raquel ran back down to the ring to get revenge on Lyra, but this is when Bayley made her return to make the save! The Role Model then started to hug people, so I guess The Huggers is back now?!

Grade: B-

Kofi Kingston VS Penta, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Becky Lynch, CM Punk, and AJ Lee Come Face-to-Face

Iyo Sky and Stephanie Vaquer signed the contract for their Women’s World Championship match at Wrestlepalooza before Asuka got in the face of Vaquer, telling Kairi Sane to face her later in the show! Jimmy Uso then turned down LA Knight’s offer to be his Tag Team partner before Penta took on Kofi Kingston! As expected, both Xavier Woods and Grayson Waller got involved multiple times, trying their best to help Kofi out, but they didn’t exactly do that great of a job! See, in the end, Penta was able to score the win, but the way he did it was absolutely incredible as he nailed Kingston with a SPRINGBOARD PENTA DRIVER! Like, what?!

Grade: B-

Jey Uso told Jimmy Uso that he has to reject LA Knight’s offer to be his Tag Team partner (not knowing Jimmy had already done that), and this annoyed Jimmy to the point where he went and found LA Knight to tell him that he’d changed his mind! Seth “Freakin” Rollins and Becky Lynch were then out next to have a face-to-face confrontation with CM Punk and AJ Lee! What I liked about this segment is the entrances mattered; both Seth and Becky came out to their own individual theme songs whilst Punk and Lee came out to AJ’s song! Punk even mentioned this, saying that Seth and Becky’s egos keep getting in their way, and Rollins fired back by warning AJ Lee of CM Punk’s history of leaving when people let him down (this was a killer line)! AJ then responded by slapping Seth, and this resulted in Becky looking scared to retaliate, only to eventually drop Lee with a Manhandle Slam! I’m very excited for this match on Saturday, it should be the Main Event!

Grade: B

Dragon Lee VS El Grande Americano, Stephanie Vaquer VS Kairi Sane

Dominik Mysterio was cutting a promo about him becoming the brand-new AAA Mega Champion before the cameras rushed over to see Xavier Woods smashing Penta with a steel chair! El Grande Americano was then looking to bounce back from his first pinfall loss last week as he went one-on-one with Dragon Lee! This was a pretty good match I thought, maybe the best of the night, as both guys went at each other with a ferocious pace! I thought the action here was particularly strong in the beginning; it really was fast-paced, and there was a great near-fall after one of Americano’s Goons showed up to try and help him! However, whilst Lee was able to just about deal with 2 opponents, he certainly couldn’t deal with 3, as another masked Luchador showed up, opening the door for El Grande Americano to score the victory (despite the attempted help from AJ Styles)!

Grade: B-

Lyra Valkyria heard Bayley talking to herself as she entered her locker room, something Bayley found particularly disrespectful! Rhea Ripley then warned Stephanie Vaquer that she’s coming for the winner of her and Iyo this Saturday before Stephanie looked to build some momentum as she faced Kairi Sane! This was another good match on this show, who would’ve thought that having Vaquer fight good wrestlers would result in entertaining contests (I know, what an insane concept)! Anyway, Asuka seemed pretty irate throughout the entirety of this match, barking orders to Sane on the outside, and they clearly didn’t help as La Primera eventually scored the win with the SVB! After the match was over, Asuka attempted to get in the face of Stephanie Vaquer, but she was stopped by Iyo Sky! Vaquer-Sky could well steal the show at Wrestlepalooza!

Grade: B-

LA Knight and Jimmy Uso VS The Vision

After Finn Balor once again questioned Dominik Mysterio about his relationship with El Grande Americano, it was Main Event time as Jimmy Uso teamed up with LA Knight to take on The Vision! As expected, The Vision controlled this match for the most part, with Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed proving to be too powerful for their opponents! I did think LA and Jimmy did alright together; Knight is so used to having different partners every week, and yeah, this was alright! Ultimately, despite LA Knight’s best offense, he couldn’t make the difference at the end as Bronson Reed dropped Big Jim with his new finisher to get the win! After the match was over, The Vision continued their assault, resulting in Jey Uso running down to make the save before the show went off the air with Knight delivering a BFT to Jey! Good, as he should!

Grade: B- (Overall)