WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 20/10

Linus O'Howell
Oct 21
5 min read

The Vision Start the Show, The Judgment Day VS AJ Styles and Dragon Lee: World Tag Team Championships

After a recap of last week’s shock betrayal, Adam Pearce was in the ring to talk about the future of the World Heavyweight Championship, only for The Vision to arrive in a car! Paul Heyman, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed then came down to the ring, with Pearce confirming that Seth “Freakin” Rollins has been forced to vacate his World Heavyweight Championship, but Bron had no interest in handing the Title over! Eventually, Paul Heyman handed the WHC to Pearce before Heyman explained why The Vision took out The Visionary! See, it was Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed who conspired to take out Seth Rollins, and Heyman chose to side with them because that’s the only reason he aligned with Rollins in the first place! Considering all of this wasn’t planned, I thought Paul Heyman’s explanation was pretty good, and there were parts that definitely made sense! It’s just a shame that Seth’s going to be out for a while, because he’s arguably been WWE’s Wrestler of the Year (we’ll decide that properly in December)!

Grade: B

After Finn Balor and JD McDonagh made their anger towards Dominik Mysterio known, The Judgment Day headed down to the ring to defend their World Tag Team Championships against the duo of AJ Styles and Dragon Lee in the opening match of the night! This was a really good match, I thought this was very enjoyable, and it’s not a surprise given all four guys are super talented! Both AJ and Finn are highly regarded in the wrestling world, but JD McDonagh and Dragon Lee deserve so much more recognition; they’re both incredible! Whilst I expected The Judgment Day to retain here, that didn’t stop there from being a great near-fall, as Styles looked to have the win sealed, only for JD McDonagh to break things up at the last second! However, despite all of this, one Styles Clash later was enough for AJ and Dragon Lee to get the victory, shockingly capturing the World Tag Team Championships as a result! To say that this result surprised me would be an understatement, but it’s nice to see AJ Styles with some Gold, whilst Dragon Lee also deserves it!

Grade: B

Intercontinental Championship: Dominik Mysterio VS Rusev, Becky Lynch VS Maxxine Dupri: Women’s Intercontinental Championship, Stephanie Vaquer VS Roxanne Perez

After Jimmy Uso told Jey Uso that he’s going after everyone in tonight’s Battle Royal, Dominik Mysterio was looking to turn The Judgment Day’s momentum around as he put his Intercontinental Championship on the line against Rusev! I thought this was a good match, both guys have gelled well together, and the crowd were certainly behind Dominik! As expected, Penta showed up and made his presence known, getting in the face of both Rusev and Mysterio, but this allowed Dom to put another hammer into his boot! However, unlike Penta last week, Rusev was able to catch this, but this just allowed “Dirty” Dom to go low once again, before Mysterio delivered a 619 followed by a Frog Splash to retain his IC Title!

Grade: B-

After Dominik Mysterio retained his Intercontinental Championship, Becky Lynch looked to do the exact same thing as she put her Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line against Maxxine Dupri! These two had a great match a few weeks ago, it really, really impressed me, but this wasn’t that! It was still alright, I think Maxxine plays the underdog Babyface role well, but there wasn’t ever a moment where I actually thought Dupri might be about to become Champion! However, she did technically win this match, with Lynch smashing Dupri with her Title to cause the DQ finish!

Grade: C+

The Kabuki Warriors were delighted with themselves for taking out Rhea Ripley, and Asuka made it clear that she and Kairi Sane now have their eyes firmly set on Tag Team Gold! Adam Pearce then made a fool out of Paul Heyman whilst also telling The Oracle that he’s pulled Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed from the Battle Royal, before Becky Lynch made it very clear to Heyman that when Seth “Freakin” Rollins gets back, he will make him pay! I thought this was a great segment from start to finish; Heyman is just the best! Anyway, two of the best women of 2025 faced off next as Stephanie Vaquer went one-on-one with Roxanne Perez in a non-Title bout! These two women wrestle nearly every week; they’re no strangers to one another from their time back in NXT earlier this year, and that showed with a good amount of action! Raquel Rodriguez continued to get involved, trying her best to help Roxanne score a massive W, but ultimately, it just wasn’t meant to be as Vaquer delivered an SVB to pin Perez for the 1,2,3! After the match was over, The Judgment Day attacked Stephanie from behind, with Nikki Bella then running down to make the save! After this, Vaquer and Bella had a backstage segment, and it looks like we’re going to get a Tag Team match down the line! Honestly, that might be where Nikki stabs Stephanie in the back (because that’s clearly being hinted at)!

Grade: B-

World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Battle Royal

After Bayley teased a Birthday surprise for Lyra Valkyria, and Paul Heyman told Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed that they just need to be patient, it was Main Event time as we got ourselves a Battle Royal to determine who would face CM Punk at Saturday Night’s Main Event for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship! I always enjoy Battle Royals, they’re good fun, and there were some good moments here! Punk was on commentary throughout, putting people over, and I liked that Dominik Mysterio eliminated both Rusev and Penta! In fact, Dominik had the best moments in this match, being eliminated by AJ Styles whilst the referees were distracted, meaning Mysterio was able to get back into the match! The final 4 eventually came down to Mysterio, The Usos, and LA Knight, and Jimmy Uso continued to make sure his Twin brother remained in the match! However, Jey didn’t repay the favour, dumping both Jimmy and Knight out of the ring before he eliminated “Dirty” Dom to earn his way to Saturday Night’s Main Event! I have to say, Punk VS Uso definitely isn’t that exciting given some of the people that Punk could’ve faced, but I did like how we got there!