Monday Night RAW Season Premiere Graded

Following a very successful Extreme Rules premium live event on Saturday came a highly anticipated season premiere of Monday Night RAW last night. The scheduled card suited this and was set out to be a great show with the 25-year reunion and celebration of D-Generation X. An appearance from The Bloodline, a match between Johnny Gargano and Austin Theory and a showdown for the United States Championship with Bobby Lashley defending against Seth Rollins.

Raw opened with DX, Triple H, X-PAC, Road Dogg, and Shawn Michaels in gorilla backstage with Triple H telling them to “be nice tonight” so what followed was some bleeped swearing and inappropriate jokes which wrapped up with some innuendoes involving rubber chickens.

DX Backstage

B: A little corny in another context but worked perfectly here and was an amusing way to kick things off

The Bloodline then came promo starts the show. Roman came down to do his usual “acknowledge me” stuff but this time Reigns talks about how he would like to move forward. This leads to him calling out Jey as the weakest member of The Bloodline. Sami interrupts Roman and tells Jey to be “Cool” and “more Ucey” this leads to The Bloodline being cut off by Matt Riddle coming out and challenging Roman to an Undisputed Universal Title match, Reigns declines and after being egged on by Jey, Zayn challenges Riddle to a match later in the show which is accepted. As Reigns was leaving, he demanded that Jey stay at the arena with Zayn and insisted it was Jey's responsibility to guarantee Zayn a victory over Riddle in the main event.

Bloodline Promo

A: This segment was fun; The Bloodline are a great draw and feel like a big deal. Roman’s presence is terrific and the reactions to Zayn interrupting him were class, especially Paul Heyman’s. Sami Zayn is so over with the fans right now they were chanting his name during this promo.

First match of the night was the rebel heart Johnny Gargano vs Mr Money in the Bank Austin Theory. A short and good match. Notable spots include, Theory locking Gargano in a Gargano Escape which he would break out of. Gargano nailed a stunning diving DDT and finished of Theory with One Final Beat for the win.

Johnny Gargano defeats Austin Theory via pinfall

Grade B-: Solid in ring action. For me could have been a little bit longer. I think Theory as Mr Money in the Bank has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle since Triple H took over, he hasn’t been booked strongly in recent weeks and part of me thinks this is leading to either him losing the briefcase or failing to cash it in…

Next up we got another short match between Rey Mysterio and Chad Gable. During the initial stages of the match, Rey nailed Gable into the barricade with a sliding sunset bomb and that is where we see Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio of the Judgement Day. This match ends shortly after the ad break with Rey hitting a 619 and Slingshot Splash for the win. But this segment was far from over. Following the match Dominik and Rhea surrounds Rey in the ring with Dom demanding for his father to hit him, when he refuses, he gets a slap himself. The rest of Judgment Day then come out, but Rey fights them off. When he goes to hit a 619 on Balor but Dominik saves him and once again demands Rey to hit him. He refuses again but when he goes to walk away, Dominik take him down and hits him with a 619.

Post break, Finn Balor cuts a promo, and the rest of the Judgement Day are in the ring with him. He brags about making Edge say “I Quit” at Extreme Rules. They show a recap of that match and continue bragging. Balor calls out AJ Styles and he comes out. Styles says, “he needs friends to help him, if not family”. AJ drops to a knee then embraces Balor before saying “I wasn’t talking about you”. Cue the return of the OC, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson join AJ to brawl with The Judgement Day driving them away.

Rey Mysterio defeats Chad Gable via pinfall and The OC return

Grade A-: The match was purely filler to get Rey in the ring. Chad Gable has been featured regularly on WWE TV as of late but never wins, he is so good and deserves more. I really enjoyed the heel work of Dominik and the heat he has from the crowd is great. Good teasing AJ joining The Judgement Day before the return of The OC which was unexpected, and I am excited how they will do under Triple H. We have not seen them in WWE since April 2020.

Next up we get a small interview with Damage CTRL who promise punishment is coming for Belair after she beat Bayley at Extreme Rules. This leads to a match between Bayley and Candice LeRae. Some notable spots include Candice focussing in on the injured ribs of Bayley. And that is it because the match ended quickly when LeRae countered the Rose Plant into a cradle pin to get the sneaky win. After the match, the rest of Damage CTRL come out and beat down Candice, standing tall to conclude the segment.

Candice LeRae defeats Bayley via pinfall

Grade C-: This match was fine. Bayley losing at Extreme Rules was fine because it was a Ladder Match and did not need to eat a pin but taking one tonight was strange. Massive win for Candice and having Damage CTRL beat her down afterwards keeps them looking strong.

Next up was Maryse hosting a birthday celebration for her husband The Miz. There were presents, a cake and even an ice sculpture in the ring. Maryse gave Miz his presents, one being a signed baseball bat allowing him to make an American sports related insult to the audience that I did not understand. When Miz lifted one of the gift boxes on a table underneath was Dexter Lumis. Startled Miz tried smashing up the boxes with his bat and lifting the table but was Lumis was gone. He came from behind and grabbed Miz leading to them knocking Maryse into the cake.

Miz’s Birthday Celebration

Grade C: I was not a huge fan of this at all. The Miz and Maryse stuff was pretty cringey, but I loved Lumis in this. He was obviously going to show up and it was done to perfection. It was funny when the crowd popped when he ate some of the cake. Looks like we are getting a match between the two next week, looking forward to that.

After this we got Omos batter some local talent

Omos defeats Local Competitors via pinfall

Grade F: Omos’s character is just big man. He is still sloppy in the ring at times and these squash matches for me do not achieve anything.

The United States Champion Bobby Lashley was next out for his scheduled title defence against Seth Rollins, but no one came out. Lashley cuts a small promo about being a fighting champion. He was eventually interrupted by Brock Lesnar; the second big return of the night. Lesnar nailed Lashley with 2 F5’s, multiple suplexes and locked him in a Kimura. Bobby was being helped to the back when Seth comes out and demands his title match referring to what he said before about being a fighting champion. Lashley gets in the ring still clutching his arm and asks for the referee to ring the bell. The match starts quick with lots of near falls but ended with Seth hitting two Curb Stomps for the win becoming the new United States Champion.

Seth Rollins defeats Bobby Lashley (c) via pinfall for the United States Championship and Brock Lesnar return

Grade A+: This was excellent. Brock coming back to set up a match with Lashley is an exciting prospect. I love how Seth still demanded his title match and got in the head of the All Mighty to get it. Seth catching Bobby’s Spear into a Pedigree was a nice spot. Rollins has been amazing as of late and this title run is long overdue and makes Seth a two-time WWE grand slam championship.

We got to see a bit of Bray Wyatt after his unbelievable return at Extreme Rules getting a recap of that moment as well as a few other things. We got another QR Code in the background of a backstage segment which showed a puzzle of his new logo teasing him to appear on Friday Night Smackdown. Later in the night we saw Bray on the screen in his new mask repeating the phrase “revel in what you are”. Lastly Wyatt’s appearance on Smackdown this week was confirmed promising to reveal what Bray has in store for us.

Bray Wyatt Stuff

Grade A+: Would have liked to see more but anything with Wyatt right now is perfection. I could watch that Extreme Rules return on repeat and now I cannot wait to tune into Smackdown.

Main event time and Sami Zayn was accompanied to the ring by The Usos for his match against Matt Riddle set up earlier in the night. This was a decent fifteen-minute bout where the two basically played their hits with the overarching story of Jey trying to cheat to help Sami because Reigns told him to but Zayn telling him not to saying he can do it himself. Notable spots include Sami hitting an Arabian Moonsault, Riddle hitting a springboard Floating Bro, and catching Zayn in mid air with a knee that was sold brilliantly for a near fall. Matt ended this with an RKO for the win.

Matt Riddle defeats Sami Zayn via pinfall

Grade B+: Very solid match with two fantastic in ring competitors. Jey not being able to do what Roman ordered him to add to this sensational story which will be good to see how it develops on Smackdown. After the opening segment and this match, it is so clear how over Zayn is when The Bloodline eventually turn on him, he is going to be one of the biggest babyfaces in the company. Riddle getting booked extremely strongly with two major wins on the trot. Maybe a future match against new U.S Champion Seth Rollins is on the cards.

The show closed with D-Generation X in the ring running down their famous catchphrases to close off their 25-year celebration.

DX Closer

Grade C+: Not sure why but this segment felt a little awkward at times. It was a nice way to get some nostalgia for fans but was maybe a little anti-climactic to people who expected someone to interact with them.

Overall, this was one of the best Monday Night RAW episodes of the last year, had some memorable moments especially with the returns of The OC and Brock Lesnar as well as some class in ring action.