WWE Monday Night Raw Review: 27/07

Hell in a Cell Weigh-In, The Vision VS Alpha Academy

The final Monday Night Raw before SummerSlam kicked off with Triple H and Adam Pearce in the ring to host a Weigh-In ahead of the Hell in a Cell clash between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi! Oba came out first, weighing in at 302lbs, whilst Brock had no interest in entering the cell as he locked the door with everyone but himself and Paul Heyman in it! Paul then attempted to cut a promo about how dominant his client is inside of a cage, but it didn’t exactly go to plan as Heyman’s mic kept cutting out! Heyman did make me laugh when he said that Brock had weighted himself at 303lbs, as The Beast walked away to the anger of The Ruler! Oba would then go on to destroy some police officers before he picked up a microphone, only to say nothing! As great as this feud has been, this segment didn’t exactly click!

Grade: C

After a recap of Roman Reigns VS Seth “Freakin” Rollins from the 2022 Royal Rumble, we went into the first match of the night, which saw Alpha Academy look to get some revenge on The Vision! Alpha Academy are a good team; they don’t perform too often, but they’re always fun when they do! Otis in particular plays a wonderful Babyface, to the point where Maxxine Dupri comes across as one of the biggest Heels on Raw! In fact, this whole Maxxine-Austin Theory angle has done a lot of good in making The Vision feel enjoyable again, even if Bron Breakker’s stardom has whimpered in recent months! Eventually, a Spear to Akira Tozawa was enough for Breakker to score the win, whilst The Vision would continue their assault post-match after Dupri distracted Otis! The segment then ended with Theory delivering a nasty chair shot to the head of Otis onto the ring post; a move that Austin has used to great effect in the past!

Grade: B-

Je’Von Evans VS Rusev, Joe Hendry and Danhausen: Live in Concert, Ethan Page VS Rusev

LA Knight seemed delighted to be back in his hometown, whilst Raquel Rodriguez and Sol Ruca had promos to hype up their Main Event match for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship! Chad Gable then had a video package talking about all of the work he’s done to get back to fighting for the Intercontinental Championship, whilst Iyo Sky intends to leave SummerSlam as the brand-new Women’s World Champion! We then headed back into the ring as Rusev was looking to punish Je’Von Evans! I thought this was an enjoyable match; I think I’ve said in the past that the style of these two performers allows there to be a strong amount of chemistry! The only problem I had is it feels like I’ve seen Je’Von and Rusev fight each other loads recently, to the point where both men need something else to do! Anyway, I really liked the last couple of minutes of this match, with Rusev intercepting an O.G. Cutter into the Accolade, only for Evans to escape it and this time nail the O.G. Cutter to score the win! I wonder if WWE would ever consider bringing back the Cruiserweight Championship?!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

After the next part of the Roman Reigns-Seth Rollins “documentary” focused on the epic ending to WrestleMania 40, Joe Hendry and Danhausen joined us in the ring for a Live Concert! Joe and Danhausen sang a song called “I Believe That… You Are Cursed”, which included a cameo from the Minihausens and the LA Clippers dance squad! Even the current WBC Welterweight Champion Ryan Garcia got in on the action, although that was just so he could smash Hendry in the back with a steel chair, allowing The Judgment Day to deliver a beatdown! I’ve seen a lot of people saying that this was the worst segment in Monday Night Raw history… it was not! I enjoyed it; that doesn’t mean that it was great, but it made me laugh, so that’s a good thing!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Big Cass is officially returning to WWE next week, whilst Ethan Page made his way down to the ring to go one-on-one with Rey Mysterio! I can almost copy and paste exactly what I said about the Rusev-Je’Von Evans match, as I’ve seen Ethan and Rey fight on multiple occasions (with Mysterio winning every time)! Again, though, that doesn’t mean that this match wasn’t good, because for me, this was probably the match of the night! Rey can still go in the ring, whilst you’ve got one of the best Heels in the business in the form of All Ego! Eventually, that smart brain would help Page, using the outside covering to shield the 619 attack, opening the door for Ethan to drop Rey with the Egoplex to score the win! This was a big win for Ethan Page, and I appreciated its uniqueness!

Grade: B

Solo Sikoa Interrupts The Usos, Sol Ruca VS Raquel Rodriguez: Women’s Intercontinental Championship

Liv Morgan made it crystal clear that Iyo Sky isn’t in her head, whilst Danhausen requested a “Human Monies on a Pole” match to Adam Pearce after Pearce said he needed all of this mess to end! Wowzers! The Usos were then out next to talk about their upcoming SummerSlam contest, but I don’t really care about what they said as this brought out Solo Sikoa to win over everyone! Solo got a great reaction as he said that he has no intention of returning to The Bloodline as he’s in a great place right now! If WWE had plans for Solo to cost his team this weekend, they need to be scrapped as Babyface Solo could be a goldmine! Sikoa then brilliantly welcomed out LA Knight, who was in the mood for fighting after cutting his own hilarious promo! Whilst Jacob Fatu’s arrival would make things harder, Royce Keys showed up to even the odds as the good guys eventually stood tall! I’ve always believed that Solo Sikoa could be a great Babyface, and by the looks of it, the crowd are allowing him to be so!

Grade: B-

Credit: WWE

It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Sol Ruca put her Women’s Intercontinental Championship on the line against Raquel Rodriguez! Just as Sol and everyone else expected, The Judgment Day would try and enact the numbers game, with Roxanne Perez and Liv Morgan taking it in turns to distract the referee! Iyo Sky would then run down to somewhat even the odds, with her doing a decent job, only for the referee to get distracted by all of this, allowing Roxanne to take out Sol as Raquel delivered a Tejada Bomb to score the win! Yes, you read that right, Raquel Rodriguez is the brand-new Women’s Intercontinental Champion, and I’m delighted for her!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Close the Show

After a recap of the brilliant Night 1 Main Event of WrestleMania 41, the go-home segment ahead of SummerSlam saw Roman Reigns and Seth “Freakin” Rollins come face-to-face for one final time! Seth immediately got into Roman’s head, interrupting his acknowledgement request to request his own piece of acknowledgement from the WWE Universe, before he reminded Reigns how he always beats him, like every time! Whilst Roman’s demeanour didn’t really change throughout this, it did when Rollins started to bring up his kids, with The Visionary taking shots at how Reigns’ kids are going to view their father as both “a fraud and a loser” after this weekend! This is when The Tribal Chief completely snapped, dropping Seth Rollins with a right hand, but once again, his obsession with changing the past came back to haunt him... again! See, after Reigns wasted time grabbing a steel chair from the timekeeper’s area, Roman got met in the ring with a Stomp (onto the chair) from Rollins, with Seth once again standing tall to close the show! I always enjoy Roman Reigns as World Champion, but him winning this weekend would be a mistake!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B