WWE Raw opened this week with WWE World Heavyweight Champion Gunther addressing Finn Balor who will challenge him for his title this Saturday. Finn and the rest of The Judgment Day would jump on the apron when Damian Priest would come to the aid of Gunther. Priest would take out all four members and throw Finn Balor in the ring for Gunther only for Gunther to take advantage and hurt Balor but also Damian Priest. Ultimately The Judgment Day would win the numbers game and leave Damian Priest and Gunther lifeless.
After the commercial break General Manager Adam Pearce added Damian Priest to the championship match this Saturday. He also banned The Judgment Day from ringside for that match. It’s interesting to see WWE trying to elevate Saturday’s Main Event to its prior heights with such monumental matches.
The night’s first match was an eight-man tag match featuring The Final Testament with The Miz versus The Wyatt Sicks. Erick Rowan notably had his moment to shine and looked good in his wrestling and tributes to fallen brothers. The end of the match saw Karrion Kross distract the referee while Paul Ellering threw white powder in the face of Uncle Howdy. This led to Karrios Kross hitting The Final Prayer and winning the match.
The next segment was a backstage interview between CM Punk and Jackie Redmond. “If I had to live in my shadow I’d hate me too,” Punk said when speaking about Seth Rollins. It was a short segment that didn’t deliver much more.
The next match would see Dakota Kai versus Liv Morgan. Pure Fusion Collective would come to ringside during this match and distract Dakota Kai. Liv would win and Pure Fusion Collective would attack Dakota Kai after the match. Damage CTRL would come to her aid and Iyo Sky would look great. Liv Morgan would take this moment to blindside Iyo Sky. Iyo will challenge Liv Morgan for her title this Saturday at Main Event.
Seth Rollins would come to the ring to address CM Punk and explain how Punk wasn’t lying when he said they used to be friends and that Punk helped him get into WWE. Seth would say Punk only returned for the money after he had nowhere else to go. Sami Zayn would decide to come to the ring to apologize and make sure they are still friends. Zayn will let Seth handle CM Punk however he sees fit and Seth would then tell Sami to deal with Drew McIntyre however he sees fit. Sami announced that he has a match against Drew McIntyre this Saturday at Main Event before getting blindsided by McIntyre.
The next match would be a triple-threat in the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship Tournament. This one would be Ivy Nile versus Lyra Valkyria versus Zelina Vega. This was not my favorite triple-threat as they just seemed to powder one of the women while the other two went one-on-one. Lyra Valkyria pins Ivy Nile to advance.
During the next segment Xavier Woods would take control of one of the cameras and accompany Kofi Kingston to the ring. If you missed it they turned heel at the expense of Big-E last week. They were getting some serious heat on WWE Raw this week and this seems to be a great decision for them. They got a reaction so loud that it reminded me of Dominik Mysterio or Roman Reigns a while back.
The main event of WWE Raw would be an anything-goes match between Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez. We saw garbage cans, kendo sticks, steel chairs and tables all introduced in the first few minutes. The intensity was there from both women and they were not afraid to hit each other. Liv Morgan would get involved and the no-disqualification match turned into a two-on-one. Iyo Sky came to the rescue and Rhea Ripley would put Raquel through a table to secure the victory.
That wraps up our recap of WWE Raw for this week. Stay tuned for the latest!
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