Welcome to Bleacher Report’s live coverage of the go-home episode of WWE Raw before Survivor Series.
With WarGames being the theme of this year’s pay-per-view, management has booked a member from each men’s team to battle for the right to have the entry advantage during the PPV.
We also saw Chad Gable take on Shinsuke Nakamura, the powerhouse Raquel Rodriguez took on Nia Jax, and Becky Lynch faced Xia Li.
Lastly, Drew McIntyre addressed his actions from last week and his status with Judgment Day. Let’s take a look at everything that went down on Monday night.
After a quick video package, Raw opened with Drew McIntyre in the ring. The crowd was booing but he said everyone was going to listen to him.
He said anyone who has turned their back on him was never a fan in the first place and he doesn’t give a damn about those fans. He ridiculed Jey Uso for never apologizing to the people he screwed over while he was with The Bloodline.
He spoke about everything he has sacrificed for his family and how Jey’s family took the biggest moment away from him when he was finally able to perform in front of his family in Europe.
He said he isn’t joining Judgment Day but Rhea Ripley gave him the chance to get Jey inside a cage and he is going to take it. This brought Jey out to respond but Judgment Day showed up behind McIntyre to provide backup. Jey was eventually joined by his WarGames team, too.
Adam Pearce showed up and said he didn’t want anyone from either team fighting and anyone who did would cost their team the advantage at the PPV. He also told the babyface team to pick a fifth team member before the end of the night.
McIntyre did a great job with his part of this segment, but everything that came after felt somewhat forced just to get the two teams to have a standoff, which is something that would be more useful at the end of the show than the start.
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Has McIntyre’s hair slowly been getting darker? It used to be brown but it almost looks black these days.
- Pearce allowed the teams to pick which member would fight on this show for the WarGames advantage.
We got a meeting of powerhouses this week when Jax and Rodriguez squared off in a singles match.
Jax’s size gave her an advantage, so she was able to take control early in the fight. She trash-talked quite a bit until Rodriguez made a comeback and sent her out of the ring with a shoulder tackle.
We returned from a break to see Jax back in the driver’s seat after beginning to focus her offense on the back of her opponent. When Rodriguez tried, she was unable to lift Jax up on her shoulders due to the damage she had taken. When she was unable to hit a powerbomb, Jax used the opportunity to hit her finisher for the win.
This was better than expected and a decent “Irresistible Force vs. Immovable Object” kind of showdown. Rodriguez always looks her best when she is facing someone close to her size or bigger, so she was the biggest highlight here.
Result: Nia Jax defeated Raquel Rodriguez
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- We got a quick backstage moment where Damian Priest told Ripley he wanted to fight in the advantage match but Ripley said they needed to wait for McIntyre to discuss it as a group. Priest seemed unhappy about this.
- Rodriguez hit a nice crossbody from the apron to the floor.
- The corkscrew elbow drop Rodriguez hit looked more like a senton, but it still looked good.
Before she enters the cage on Sunday for WarGames, Lynch had some personal business to handle with Li this week. Lyra Valkyria was in the crowd to watch Li since they are in a feud right now.
The match started with Li taking control, but a strategic takedown from Lynch turned the tables and put The Man in charge right up until Li regained the upper hand heading into the break.
When the show returned Lynch began to show some signs of life. They traded several big moves and near-falls before The Man finally kept Li down for the three-count with the Manhandle Slam.
This was a highly competitive and energetic match that made Li look a lot better than she has on the main roster up to this point. She needed a performance like this, even if she ended up losing.
When Damage CTRL showed up in the crowd to start a fight, Lynch’s teammates showed up to turn it into a big brawl.
Result: Becky Lynch defeated Xia Li
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Li having feuds on both Raw and NXT at the same time is a big step up from not being on TV at all for most of 2023.
- WWE brought back the lightning graphics for Li’s entrance, which was great to see. It was one of the only cool AR graphics WWE has used.
- Some of Li’s face paint wiped off on Lynch’s face in a way that almost made it look like she had a huge black eye.
- Whatever Li was trying to do when she was swinging Lynch around on her shoulders probably wasn’t what we actually saw. It looked like something got messed up but it’s hard to tell what she was intending to do.
Ludwig Kaiser was looking to prove he didn’t need Giovanni Vinci’s help to defeat Johnny Gargano when the two met for a rematch this week, but just in case, Tommaso Ciampa was at ringside for backup.
These are two guys who have been in the ring with each other dozens of times over the years, so they have already developed great chemistry and know how to highlight each other’s strengths.
Kaiser did a great job selling all of Gargano’s fast-paced offense while Gargano did the same for Kaiser whenever he overpowered him.
Both of these guys are so good at what they do that people would be shocked if they produced anything except a fun match with the amount of time they were given.
Vinci came out to help and watched as Gargano scored the win. Vinci even seemed to have a bit of a smile on his face.
Result: Johnny Gargano defeated Ludwig Kaiser
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Samantha Irvin’s pronunciation of Kaiser’s name is so soothing for some reason.
- The way Kaiser countered a suicide dive looked great.
- Gargano and Ciampa having matching gear goes a long way toward making their team feel more long-term than it was in NXT.
- Kaiser’s gutwrench slam counter looked awesome.
After being set up in a backstage segment, we got a Fatal 4-Way with four women’s tag teams to find new contenders for the women’s tag titles.
Natalya and Tegan Nox, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae, and Ivy Nile and Maxxine Dupri made up the four teams.
Any match with eight competitors is going to be difficult to manage, and it’s even harder when they are split up into four teams instead of it being a four-on-four setup.
This match had some fun spots, but there wasn’t much to it. It was nice to get so many women in the ring on Monday, but this was the weakest of the matches we got from an in-ring perspective.
However, it may have been the most entertaining thanks to Chelsea Green and Piper Niven being hilarious on commentary in addition to some of the multi-woman spots.
Nox ended up getting the win for her team to earn the title shot against Green and Niven.
Result: Tegan Nox and Natalya defeated three other teams to earn a women’s tag title shot
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- The big spot at ringside when Dupri jumped on everyone looked good even if it felt a bit contrived to get everyone in that spot at the same time.
- Tag teams in matching gear FTW.
- Niven laughing on commentary every time someone got hit hard was hilarious.
The Miz and Gunther had an in-ring segment to talk a little trash and build up their IC title feud. They talked for a long time before the segment ended with The Miz hitting a low blow and his finisher on Gunther.
Next up was Nakamura vs. Gable. In recent weeks, Nakamura has been dismantling members of Alpha Academy, so the leader of the group felt it was his duty to take him down.
Gable used his amateur wrestling skills to take Nakamura down a few times at the beginning of the match. They traded control back and forth a couple of times, but the pace during the first half was controlled by the former Olympian.
Nakamura got in more offense during the second half, but Gable was still the one who seemed to be in control most of the time. Nakamura ended up getting the win, but it wasn’t with the Kinshasa. He had to use a pinning combination to beat Gable, so there may be one more encounter in their future.
This was a fun match and the best of the series of Nakamura vs. Alpha Academy. Gable looking good against other opponents is no surprise, but he needs to start winning some of these bigger matches.
Result: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Chad Gable
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Valhalla and Ivar gave a quick promo in a video package to challenge Bronson Reed to a match next week.
- Gable’s counter to Good Vibrations looked great because of his facial expression. He looked almost insulted that Nakamura would use a move like that on him.
- The full Nelson suplex from Gable was crisp.
The main event of this week’s show determined which team would have the advantage heading into WarGames this weekend, but McIntyre was also looking to take out some of his frustrations on Uso in the process.
They came face to face and Jey took the first shot to begin an exchange of right hands. Surprisingly, Uso gained the upper hand after an exchange of strikes, but McIntyre scored the first near-fall after a big back elbow.
They traded control several times throughout the match to keep us guessing and make the outcome less predictable even if it seemed like a foregone conclusion heading into this.
This was definitely entertaining, but it didn’t feel like a main event for some reason. It felt like this would have been better in the middle of the show, but the problem is nothing else on the card would fit better in this spot.
The Scottish Warrior kept talking about how he wanted to take out Uso for good but he wrestled this match like he would any other but, so the feeling of personal animosity never hit as hard as it should have.
McIntyre got a surprisingly clean win with the Future Shock DDT instead of his usual Claymore Kick. The show ended with the two WarGames teams fighting around the ring.
Cody Rhodes revealed that the final member of their group will be Randy Orton with some obvious context clues.
Result: Drew McIntyre defeated Jey Uso
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- The way Ripley keeps looking at McIntyre should make Dom jealous.
- The rules for WarGames are actually pretty easy to understand but somehow WWE makes it sound more complicated.
- McIntyre is always great at talking trash in the ring because you can hear him over the crowd noise.
This week’s episode of Raw managed to deliver some enjoyable in-ring action and a solid go-home show heading into Survivor Series this weekend.
A staggering 27 women were featured on Monday’s episode across various matches, segments and video packages, which might be some kind of record for a non-Royal Rumble show.
Every match was enjoyable on some level, but the best performance of the night goes to Gargano and Kaiser with Lynch and Li being a close second.
WarGames is always a fun stipulation and with the return of Orton set for the PPV, fans in Chicago are going to be in for a great time.
As a whole, it feels like WWE programming has hit its stride recently. It’s not perfect, but shows have been consistently more enjoyable from start to finish.
Grade: B+
