WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 24/08

LA Knight Starts the Show, Stephanie Vaquer VS Roxanne Perez

After a recap of last week’s epic ending, this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw kicked off with LA Knight coming down to the ring to question why Roman Reigns could win on his own at both WrestleMania and SummerSlam, and yet he keeps sending his entire family after The Megastar! However, one of those members turned rogue, with Solo Sikoa arriving to say a ton of LA’s catchphrases! The Usos would then arrive to say that they wanted to take both guys out, with Knight and Sikoa agreeing to team up in tonight’s Main Event! This was pretty standard stuff, but Knight and Solo continue to be over!

Grade: C+

Credit: WWE

We then headed straight into the opening match of the night as Stephanie Vaquer returned to in-ring action for the first time since WrestleMania to take on Roxanne Perez of The Judgment Day!  Stephanie and Roxanne are two of the best female wrestlers in the entire world, so every time they face off, it tends to be good! I do have to question why we keep putting Roxanne in the “road bump” role; Perez is just here to lose to whoever eventually challenges Liv Morgan! As expected, that happened again, as after Becky Lynch arrived to deal with Liv, Vaquer dropped Perez with one of her many finishers to get the win on her return!

Grade: C+

World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament (Semi-Finals): Rey Fenix VS Dragon Lee, Bron Breakker and Oba Femi Contract Signing

Credit: WWE

Rey Mysterio wished Rey Fenix good luck backstage, whilst Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh quickly wanted to drop “the deadbeat”! Speaking of dropping, Je’Von Evans would do as such to The Judgment Day, before Rey Fenix and Dragon Lee faced off in the first Semi-Final of the World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! This was great; the match of the tournament so far! I’ve praised Rey Fenix massively since he first arrived in WWE last year; I think he’s absolutely terrific, whilst the number of great matches that Dragon Lee puts on compared to his place in the card is insane! Whilst the winner was fairly obvious, that didn’t stop me from staying engaged in the battle, with that one dive from Lee onto Fenix on the table being totally insane! In the end, Fenix would score the win to advance to the Final, and this is the perfect reason why people should be watching AAA!

Grade: B+

After a video package hyping up the upcoming debut of Lola Vice, Adam Pearce and Paul Heyman hosted a Contract Signing between Bron Breakker and Oba Femi ahead of their massive clash at Sunday Night’s Main Event! Bron was incredibly fired up for this promo, talking about how he had everything in control when it comes to being the future of WWE, only to get himself injured! During that break, Oba Femi slipped in and stole his spot, with Breakker looking to simply take back what belongs to him! Oba then responded by saying that in any other era, Bron would be the future of the business (even mentioning John Cena and Roman Reigns), but the problem for The Badass is that in this era, nobody’s ahead of The Ruler! Bron would then sign the contract before he got in the face of Paul Heyman, only to then jump Oba! However, even with the help of Austin Theory, Femi didn’t come up short, putting Theory through a table as we move a step closer to Sunday Night’s Main Event! This was a really good segment, particularly as the things that Bron Breakker was saying felt real!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Big Cass VS Je’Von Evans, Penta VS La Parka: World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament (Semi-Finals)

Jacob Fatu rightly explained to The Usos that he didn’t get involved last week as Roman Reigns had told him to stand down, but Fatu wasn’t going to listen to Jey, despite the fact that they’ve been appointed as “captains” by The Tribal Chief! Big Cass then returned to in-ring action in a WWE ring for the first time in over 8 years as he went one-on-one with Je’Von Evans! Je’Von actually got a lot more offense in during this match than I expected him too; he plays the underdog Babyface role well! However, the entire decision to bring back Big Cass makes zero sense to me, particularly as he keeps attacking smaller talent from behind. That doesn’t make him look intimidating at all! I will say that Cass scoring the win after his mouth got busted open was a good visual, but I don’t care to see Big Cass wrestle when we’ve got guys like Johnny Gargano laying down every week! After the match was over, Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh attacked Je’Von Evans, making matters even worse for The Young O.G.!

Grade: C

Sol Ruca thanked Iyo Sky backstage for helping her get another opportunity at the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, whilst Lyra Valkyria’s request to take Sol’s place was quickly denied! La Parka was then on Raw as he took on Penta in the other Semi-Final of the World Heavyweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Tournament! WWE didn’t learn from what I said last week, with La Parka having his entrance during the ad break, which continues to be stupid in my opinion! The match itself was alright; it wasn’t anything special, and it ended with a rather straightforward victory for Penta following a wonderful Mexican Destroyer! Penta and Rey Fenix would then come face-to-face at the top of the entrance ramp, with The Lucha Bros set to collide next week!

Grade: C+

LA Knight told Solo Sikoa that the only thing he owes him is to make sure he doesn’t regret his decision to team up with him, whilst we then got a random video package for Zilla Fatu (ahead of NXT Heatwave this Sunday)! Chad Gable was then speaking to Adam Pearce about finding out his next challenger for his Intercontinental Championship, with Ethan Page feeling like he’d earned as such! Chad said that he was willing to give Ethan an opportunity, until he opened his mouth, before Stephanie Vaquer said she’s coming to take Liv Morgan’s Women’s World Championship in two weeks’ time!

LA Knight and Solo Sikoa VS The Usos

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of Monday Night Raw, LA Knight and Solo Sikoa teamed up again to take on The Usos! It was nice to see Solo get his entrance on TV; it shows that WWE is listening to the fans, but that was probably the most notable thing until the end of the match, as not a ton happened during the actual contest! However, to my surprise, Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa got put through the barricade by Royce Keys before OTM (of all people) attacked LA Knight and Jimmy Uso! This came out of absolutely nowhere, with Keys, Bronco Nima, and Lucien Price destroying all four men to send a statement to Roman Reigns and the rest of the roster! Firstly, awesome; OTM have been doing great work recently, but I will say that this was a bit shocking given that surely, they were going to win the NXT Tag Team Championships at some point! Secondly, I love that Jacob Fatu didn’t show up, as he can once again say that he was just listening to his orders!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B