WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 26/05
- Linus O'Howell
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Seth “Freakin” Rollins Starts the Show, Chad Gable VS Penta VS Dragon Lee: Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Match
After an “important” Saturday Night’s Main Event, this week’s Monday Night Raw kicked off with Seth “Freakin” Rollins and his crew! Paul Heyman started things off by saying that Bron Breakker is going to Main Event many WrestleMania’s in the future whilst Bronson Reed has done more damage to Seth Rollins in one night than CM Punk or Roman Reigns have done in their entire careers (hence why Seth wanted Bronson to join him)! Heyman then said that Rollins would sacrifice himself for anyone before Seth said he is coming for all of the power in WWE! That, in fact, starts by winning Money in the Bank and cashing in to become World Champion, and personally, I very much want that to happen!
Grade: B
Speaking of Money in the Bank, the first match of the night was a Qualifier on the men’s side of things as Chad Gable, Penta, and Dragon Lee all tried to qualify for the illustrious Ladder Match! This was a really good match, a great way to start the in-ring action, and I thought all 3 men did a really good job! Penta is definitely starting to impress me a bit more over the past few weeks whilst Chad Gable is absolutely brilliant! Also, Dragon Lee doesn’t nearly get enough credit for how good he is too, and the one dive he delivered to send Penta flying over the announce table was absolutely insane! Chad then decided to attack El Hijo del Vikingo who was watching from the crowd, and this came back to bite Gable later on in the match as Vikingo tripped Master Gable up! However, despite the fact that Dragon Lee then delivered a nasty-looking double knees to the face, Penta delivered an insane Mexican Destroyer followed by a Penta Driver to Gable to get the win and seal his place in this year’s Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match! Good stuff all-round!
Grade: B
Rusev VS Akira Tozawa, The New Day VS The War Raiders VS American Made: World Tag Team Championships, Gunther Interrupts Jey Uso
Roxanne Perez once again came into The Judgment Day Clubhouse to try and flirt with Dominik Mysterio, but this didn’t go very well as a returning Liv Morgan walked in on them! This is so weird! Anyway, Akira Tozawa was then out next to try and do the unthinkable against Rusev! I expected this match to go about 3 to 4 minutes, have Tozawa hit a couple of moves, and then Rusev destroys him! Now, two of those things happened, but the match lasted about 90 seconds, with Rusev just delivering a kick and then locking in the Accolade to get the win! In fact, the better part of this came after the match as Rusev refused to let go of the hold, but this brought out Sheamus to leave us with a stare-down to end the segment! This didn’t do anything for me, it wasn’t nearly as fun as I hoped it would be.
Grade: C
Jey Uso told Sami Zayn that he has to go and win his Money in the Bank Qualifier tonight, but that he will also have his back if Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed decide to show up! It was then time for a Championship match as The New Day put their World Tag Team Titles on the line in a Triple Threat match against The War Raiders and American Made! What I liked about this match is The New Day and The Creed Brothers worked together for the most part, they did not want The War Raiders to recapture the Titles, and that’s actually quite funny! Also, Kofi Kingston and Brutus Creed worked really well together I thought, and that’s why the ending was so good as Xavier Woods held the tights to sneak a win over Julius Creed! Fair play, this was very well constructed!
Grade: B-
Liv Morgan decided to pick on Damage CTRL backstage, resulting in Kairi Sane challenging her to a match before “Main Event” Jey Uso Yeeted his way down to the ring! Jey wanted to talk about him teaming up with Cody Rhodes to take on John Cena and Logan Paul at Money in the Bank, but he was quickly interrupted by Gunther who actually had some nice things to say about the World Heavyweight Champion! Gunther said congratulations for The Usos’ 15-year anniversary in WWE, he also congratulated Jey on his first World Title defense, and it was going pretty positive to begin with! However, Gunther wants the World Heavyweight Championship back, and he will take it back in just 2 weeks’ time! Jey fired back, saying he will once again defeat The Ring General, and yeah, overall, this was another decent segment!
Grade: C+
Liv Morgan VS Kairi Sane, Lyra Valkyria Speaks
Liv Morgan was out next for her first match in over a month as she went one-on-one with Kairi Sane! This was a decent match, I like both women, Liv is a star by now whilst Kairi should be doing more now she’s back from her injury, but yeah, this was decent stuff! Iyo Sky wasn’t out at ringside, unlike Raquel Rodriguez, and I found that interesting, but the most interesting part about all of this was Roxanne Perez arrived to try and help Morgan win, but Raquel Rodriguez didn’t take it that way as she started to bicker with The Prodigy! This distracted Liv, resulting in her failing to connect with ObLIVion before Kairi scored her first victory in ages with a surprise roll-up!
Grade: C+
Rhea Ripley sent a warning out to current Women’s Champions about the fact that “MAMI in the Bank” will be coming for them before Liv Morgan got more annoyed at Raquel Rodriguez than she did Roxanne Perez! The best part about all of these segments is just how much fun Finn Balor is having! Anyway, Lyra Valkyria then came out to cut a promo on Becky Lynch, saying the two will face off once again at Money in the Bank! Lyra’s delivery was not very good here, she’s not as comfortable on the mic as she is in-ring, and it’s quite clear! Becky came out and complained at Lyra for making things personal before she made things personal, and Lynch then agreed that if Valkyria beats her again at MITB, she won’t challenge her for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship ever again! However, when Becky wins, Lyra will have to raise her hand just like The Man did back in NXT! Yeah, this wasn’t good!
Grade: C-
Men’s Money in the Bank Qualifying Match: Finn Balor VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Sami Zayn
After Karrion Kross once again tried to get into the head of Sami Zayn, it was Main Event time as Sami, Finn Balor, and Seth “Freakin” Rollins fought for the right to head to Money in the Bank! This was a good Main Event, it wasn’t quite as good as the opener, but there were still a lot of strong moments! The transitions were great, it was closely fought between all 3 of them, and this could’ve gone either way! In fact, the best sequence came when Seth Rollins delivered a Stomp to Finn Balor, only to get nailed by a Sami Zayn Helluva Kick, and this would’ve been enough to win the match had it not been for Bron Breakker who dragged Zayn out of the ring! Dominik Mysterio then showed up out of nowhere and tossed a chair in the ring for Finn, but this just cost his Judgment Day partner as Rollins delivered a Stomp to Balor onto the steel chair to get the win! After the match, CM Punk’s music hit, and whilst Bron and Bronson waited by the entranceway, Punk came in from behind and nailed Seth with a GTS to end the show standing tall! This capped off what was a pretty good show overall!
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