WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 20/07

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
4 min read

The Vision VS Dragon Lee and Je’Von Evans

Amazingly, this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw actually kicked off with a Tag Team match as Dragon Lee and Je’Von Evans teamed up to take on The Vision! I say amazingly because it’s incredibly rare for Raw (or SmackDown for that matter) to start with a match, but I was pleased to see it as I find that to be a far better approach to a WRESTLING show! This was also a fun match, with all four guys being super talented in between the ropes! The pairing of Dragon and Je’Von worked well; they feel very similar in style, but the problem for them was the numbers game! Particularly on the side of Maxxine Dupri, who kept being a nuisance, eventually opening the door for The Vision to score the win following a Bron Breakker Spear! After the match was over, Alpha Academy ran down to the ring to start a brawl with The Vision; a brawl that they lost! I’ve really liked Maxxine Dupri’s inclusion in The Vision; it’s working really well!

Grade: B

Oba Femi VS JD McDonagh, Solo Sikoa Calls Out Seth Rollins

The Judgment Day threatened to break Danhausen’s jaw if he didn’t give them their money back, so Danhausen ran down to the ring to try and gift his human monies to the “Fanhausen’s”! This was the final straw for The Judgment Day, who started to beat up DH until Joe Hendry ran down to make the save! Liv Morgan didn’t seem to care, though, as all of this kerfuffle opened the door for Liv to steal back their money! After a video recapped “The Heist of the Century”, JD McDonagh got angry over the fact that the bag only contained Danhausen money, meaning they’d been played again! JD then threw the bag behind him in anger, with the bag hitting Oba Femi! This led to a singles match between the two, where Oba absolutely destroyed JD, scoring the win with a Fall From Grace! Danhausen appeared in 4 different segments in about 15 minutes, and all in all, I thought this was all quite fun!

Grade: B-

After a recap of Fanatics Fest, Solo Sikoa appeared in the ring to do one thing and one thing only: call out Seth “Freakin” Rollins! The reason for this was simple; Solo knows how The Bloodline works, and that means that he knows that SummerSlam is basically going to be a 4-on-1 situation for The Visionary! As a result, Sikoa offered to have Seth’s back, which Rollins was certainly intrigued by! Seth said he’d think about it, but this wasn’t good enough for Solo, with The Street Champ telling Rollins that he can be for him what Seth was for Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40 (that was a cool line)! All of this led to Jacob Fatu coming down to the ring, with Solo Sikoa quickly running off as Rollins floored Fatu with a Superkick! I really like Solo Sikoa as a Babyface; I hope this isn’t just until SummerSlam!

Grade: C+

Penta and Chad Gable VS Rusev and Ethan Page, Dominik Mysterio VS Joe Hendry

After originally teaming up with Dragon Lee two weeks ago, Chad Gable was back facing the duo of Rusev and Ethan Page, except this time he was teaming up with the reigning Intercontinental Champion, Penta! This was a pretty decent match mostly due to the fact that all four men are very good at what they do! I think the decision to pair Rusev and Ethan Page together has been a bit of a masterstroke, although I wouldn’t want to see them become a full-time team; they work better as “allies of convenience”! Eventually, it was Chad Gable who managed to score the win after he forced Rusev to tap out in the ankle lock! Penta VS Gable is going to be so good!

Grade: B-

After we saw highlights of the WWE Championship match between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank 2016 (Dean Ambrose’s cash-in was not included), Seth riled up Jacob Fatu some more as he knew that The Samoan Werewolf was under strict instructions not to lay a finger on The Visionary! Paul Heyman then hyped up SummerSlam’s Hell in a Cell match between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi, before we got another Reigns-Rollins video, this time about the rebirth of The Shield around 2018! Kurt Angle was not featured either! The Judgment Day were then back as Dominik Mysterio was set to go one-on-one with Joe Hendry! This match was pretty much about anyone but Joe Hendry, with the former NXT and TNA World Champion feeling pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things! Instead, this was about Danhausen, as that pest once again tried to curse Liv Morgan, leading to Liv decking him! However, Danhausen would eventually be back with his Wacky Races vehicle, and more importantly than that, Iyo Sky! Iyo then brawled with Liv, getting the better of the Women’s World Champion, before Joe Hendry took advantage to score the win after Danhausen dropped Dominik with a DDD!

Grade: B-

Jacob Fatu VS LA Knight

And the Main Event of this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw saw LA Knight look to get some shots in on Jacob Fatu! Before the match could even begin, LA cut a promo about how he’s not happy with Solo Sikoa offering to help Seth Rollins out, as to him, Seth isn’t any better than Roman Reigns (which is sort of a fair argument in some ways)! Eventually, Jacob Fatu would arrive so the Main Event could begin; another match that ended up being more about outside interference than the actual in-ring action! After Jimmy Uso showed up, Solo Sikoa would deal with him, only for Jey Uso to then cause a distraction! All of this chaos allowed Fatu to beat Knight, but I can’t really tell you all that much as it was far too hectic! Royce Keys was also here; he got involved in the show-closing brawl, but he sucked as The Bloodline were the ones who stood tall as Raw went off the air! Why are we still doing the same Bloodline story?!