WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 17/08

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
6 min read

Stephanie Vaquer Starts the Show, Je’Von Evans VS JD McDonagh

This week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with Stephanie Vaquer coming down to the ring to make one thing crystal clear: she’s here for Liv Morgan and Liv Morgan only! However, it’s not that simple, as the rest of The Judgment Day arrived, with Liv stating that she doesn’t care about what others think, as she’s only Champion for herself! Vaquer demanded that the reigning Women’s World Champion step up to her in the ring, but once again, that resulted in Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, and Roxanne Perez attacking La Primera, before Becky Lynch ran down to make the save! However, that didn’t go to plan, with The Judgment Day eventually standing tall following a Pop Rox!

Grade: C+

The Usos were over the moon with Solo Sikoa returning to the family, whilst the same couldn’t be said for LA Knight! When we came back from the ad break, we had an impromptu opening match of the night under way between Je’Von Evans and JD McDonagh! These guys are incredible at what they do, so this was always going to be good! There was also a story connected, with Je’Von tweaking his ankle early on, leading to the “master dissector” McDonagh targeting the injury! Despite this, it was still The Young O.G. who was able to come up victorious following an amazing O.G. Cutter, but Evans’ smile wouldn’t last long as he once again got dropped by Big Cass! When Cassidy thought that his work was done, Je’Von challenged him to more, with Evans fighting back valiantly until Dominik Mysterio got involved! This was fantastic Heel work!

Grade: B-

World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament (Round 1): Rey Fenix VS El Fiscal, Lyra Valkyria VS Sol Ruca, Bron Breakker Calls Out Oba Femi

After a video package hyping up the upcoming match, Rey Fenix and El Fiscal battled in the first round of the World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! We already know Rey Fenix well from his time on SmackDown, with him currently being the AAA World Cruiserweight Champion, but for those who are unfamiliar with El Fiscal, he is the son of the original Abismo Negro, a famous Lucha Libre star! I thought this was a decent match, with Fenix always showing out every time he steps into the squared circle! Unfortunately, the crowd didn’t seem to care that much, whilst the winner was never going to be in doubt! Eventually, an MMB was enough for Rey Fenix to score the win, advancing to one of next week’s Semi-Finals!

Grade: C+

Stephanie Vaquer made it clear that her return to the ring next week against Roxanne Perez is “personal”, whilst Becky Lynch told Stephanie that as long as she keeps going after Liv Morgan and the Women’s World Championship, she’s going to be her biggest problem! Lyra Valkyria then delivered a crazed promo ahead of her one-on-one match against Sol Ruca! I thought this was really good; the match of the night for me, I was thoroughly entertained! Sol Ruca knows how to have good matches; she did it multiple times in NXT, but Lyra Valkyria is absolutely incredible! I’d say make her the World Champion now, but the problem is WWE’s constant terrible booking towards The Morgen! After brilliantly dispatching Bayley in Madison Square Garden last month, we basically haven’t seen her since, meaning she’s lost a ton of momentum! On top of this, Valkyria actually lost this match, with Ruca scoring the win via a Sol Snatcher! Who on earth thought that was a good idea?!

Grade: B for the Match, E for the Booking

Jey Uso was feeling very cocky in the face of Jacob Fatu, whilst Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri continue to be a happy couple! One man who’s not happy is Bron Breakker, with Bron leaving the rest of The Vision in the back to storm down to the ring to call out Oba Femi! Breakker’s call would get answered by Paul Heyman, with The Wiseman talking about what is and isn’t smart to do! Oba Femi would then interrupt, with The Ruler believing that everybody knows that he’s the future of WWE, something that majorly ticks off Bron! Heyman had to then stop the two from coming to blows, with Paul explaining why a match of this magnitude needs to be saved for a bigger stage! After all, understanding things like that is all part of being the future of WWE! So, the epic contest between Breakker and Femi will take place at Sunday Night’s Main Event in Bron’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, and I’m going to predict that that’s when we see the return of Bronson Reed!

Grade: B

World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament (Round 1): Dragon Lee VS El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Chad Gable VS Rey Mysterio: Intercontinental Championship

After another hype package, Dragon Lee and El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. faced off in the final first-round matchup of the World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! I’m biased in the fact that I absolutely love El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr.’s entrance theme; it’s my favourite in all of pro-wrestling, but the fact that his entrance took place during the ad break is stupid! There would’ve been thousands upon thousands of people who watched this match not knowing who Dr. Wagner Jr. is, and one of the best ways to showcase a character is to have people see their entrance! On top of this, if people like Wagner’s presentation, they’re more likely to check out AAA, which is perfect for the business side of things (which we know WWE loves)! Anyway, rant aside, this was a good match; I enjoyed it! It was a pretty hard-fought contest, with both guys having their moments to win, but eventually, Operation Dragon was enough for Lee to come out victorious! We really didn’t want to make the AAA stars look strong, huh?!

Grade: C (once again because of poor booking)

In the Main Event match of the night, Chad Gable put his Intercontinental Championship on the line for the first time against WWE and AAA Hall of Famer, Rey Mysterio! This was another pretty good match, but unlike some of the previous ones we’ve mentioned, this didn’t have any stupid booking decisions (other than Chad having his entrance during an ad break)! Both guys are good guys; nobody tried to cheat, but the crowd was automatically more behind Rey simply due to his legendary status! That meant that when Mysterio delivered a 619, the crowd in Buffalo, New York, was going absolutely crazy, with them then getting disappointed when Gable got his knees up following a top-rope Splash! Gable would then get the best of Mysterio in a back-and-forth exchange, escaping away with a roll-up victory! After the match was over, Chad and Rey acknowledged each other, with the crowd showing their appreciation to both!

Grade: B

Solo Sikoa Returns to Roman Reigns

The closing segment on this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw saw The Usos return Solo Sikoa back to Roman Reigns! Rather surprisingly, Roman was annoyed to see Solo, with him even getting a video package created to show why! Apparently, when Reigns beat Sikoa on the Raw on Netflix premiere, Solo never acknowledged his Tribal Chief, and that angers the reigning World Heavyweight Champion! Roman was also annoyed over the fact that Solo was standing face-to-face with him, with Jacob Fatu taking care of that with a Superkick/Tongan Death Grip combination! Reigns would then hand black Ulafala’s to both Jimmy and Jey Uso, crowning them as his “captains”, before LA Knight would run down to try and make the save! This didn’t go very well for LA, with Roman demanding that Solo drops The Megastar with a Samoan Spike! Instead, Sikoa decided to deliver said move to Roman Reigns, with Sikoa and Knight then fighting off The Usos as Jacob Fatu just watched on, having previously been talked down on by Reigns! Roman would then attempt to deliver a Superman Punch, only to get dropped by a BFT, and I have to say that this was a very well-done segment! If the crowd doesn’t understand that Roman Reigns and The Bloodline are massive Heels, they never will!