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WWE Raw: Punk whips Drew on an excellent Raw

Thomas Starr

 

Raw is live from Austin, Texas.

Tonight, Bron Breakker faces Sami Zayn in a two out of three falls match. Damien Priest tries to get some retribution when he faces off with Carlito of the New Judgement Day. Odyssey Jones debuts. And Damage CTRL continues its heel vs. heel feud with Shayna, Zoey, and Sonya. Maybe tonight we will find out why Sonya joined Zoey and Shayna and what the three of them have against this other heel faction. Maybe, but I am not holding my breath.

The show opens with a highlight package of the “implosion” of the Judgement Day.

Rhea Ripley is out first. She says Dominik stabbed her in the back, but something she says he has heard before, “it wasn’t deep enough.” Ouch.

Dominik and Liv interrupt from the upper deck. They are drowning out Dom to the point Rhea asks them to quiet down so we can hear him. Seriously.

Dominik, and I am not kidding, says Liv gets him “tendies” and lets him “play video games” whenever he likes. He said that. I laughed, but these two are heat magnets.

They trade barbs. Rhea says it is a good thing Liv likes the sound of her own voice. Because it “let us know where you are.” Liv and Dom look confused, but realize Priest is behind them. Priest destroys Dom in a concession area and continues as the two make it down to the ring. At one point Liv jumped on Priest’s back and he just kept beating Dom with her on his back. That was hilarious.

Rhea chases Liv off and Priest and Dom get back into the ring. Carlito tries to jump Priest from behind, but Priest quickly turns the tables as we go to break. That was a hot start.

Damien Priest vs. Carlito

Priest wins convincingly. He is showing more fire and dropping the straps of his ring gear is starting to get over with the audience. Judgement Day jumps Priest after the match. Rhea runs out for the save. They have Finn trapped in the ring for a moment, but JD “takes a bullet” for Finn and gets kicked in the face.

Winner: Priest

Dominik foolishly tries to dive on Priest, who catches him in a chokeslam. Liv saves Dom before Priest can finish him off.

Otis, Maxxine, and Tozawa are backstage gyrating. Ivy Nile, whose name I had to look up because she has been off TV so long, tells Maxxine that she should not be out there while “the boys work things out.” What? They have been bitterly fighting for weeks now. I do not think they are working anything out, but maybe I am wrong.

Another Bo Dallas promo. He says Bray’s spirit was there last week. “Something is happening. Something big.” Then Uncle Howdy says the work must continue. Bo repeats “my life for you” over and over and over again. And that was it. What is this?

The New Day is hanging out with Odyssey Jones backstage. So, this guy is going to be a comedic act. Great. We need more comedic relief. Xavier Woods does not look happy about Odyssey Jones hanging out with them. Please tell me they are not putting Woods with Karrion Kross. That group has too many people already. Five of them, in fact. Five too many.

Odyssey Jones vs. Vincent Winey

The announcers have fun with Vincent’s last name. This is a squash, which is the best way of debuting Jones. I am not high on some of his maneuvers, but the spinning sidewalk slam was great.

Winner: Jones

Karrion Kross comes out, because this show was going so well, and we cannot have that. He is still trying to convince Woods that Kofi is not his friend. How long is this going to go on?

On a side note, Paul Ellering tried to explain this gimmick on twitter. Which is more than WWE has done, but I do not think you could get Karrion over if you put him on a plane. According to Ellering, Karrion is the messiah. Okay.

Oh yes, they made yet another match between these guys with Odyssey Jones teaming with New Day. Thankfully, I get next week off, so I do not have to watch Karrion, Tokka, and Rahzar in the ring again.

 

Otis and Tozawa vs. The Creed Brothers

This is a Texas Tornado match. What is that? I know what a tornado match is, but was it originally a Texas Tornado match? Does it matter? Well, not really. Oba Femi, NXT North American Champion, is in the crowd. Otis and Femi have a star off.

If you want to see the Creed Brothers’ potential, check out Josh Barnett’s last Bloodsport show. They are wasted here.

Chad Gable is not in the building tonight. He did a pre-taped promo saying he will be back to take on the Wyatts. Yay.

McAfee mentions that one of WWE’s NIL athletes, Masai Russell, won gold in the 100m hurdles. WWE has significantly raised the level of athlete on their roster through the NIL program.

Three of the men in this ring could stretch almost everyone on this roster. The other is Tozawa. You would never know it when you see the Creeds selling for Tozawa.

Otis does a spot where he stops Tozawa from doing a dive. Instead, he lifts Tozawa over his head and throws him on the Creeds. Tozawa screams the whole time. That was hilarious.

The Creeds put Otis on the announce table. McAfee goes crazy because they spilled his water. Tozawa tries to leap onto Julius Creed, who catches him in midair. They then just leave Otis on the table. That was odd.

The Creeds beat on Tozawa until Otis recovers and cleans house. There was a series of badly missed spots, two by Tozawa. The crowd does not care, though. Tozawa and Otis are way over. I cannot believe I am saying this but put the tag belts on Alpha Academy.

Ivy Nile comes out and attacks Maxxine. Maxxine’s selling is unintentional comedy. Including selling her stomach after being choked.

Michael Cole says it looks like Ivy Nile is part of American Made. I thought she was already with them.

This distracts Otis and the Creeds get the win.

Winners: The Creed Brothers

Jackie Redmond interviewed Pete Dunne in the empty arena. Who is finally explaining why he turned on Sheamus. He is mad about that Butch name. I guess Sheamus gave him that name? Hmm. And that is why he is mad. I mean it is a terrible name.

They have a new segment called Raw physics. They go over Bronson Reed splashing Rollins over and over. The splashes were the same impact as two elephants landing on Rollins.

Adam Pearce is with Bronson Reed in the back. Reed says he “impaled” Rollins to make an impact. I am not sure that meets the definition of impaled.

Kairi Sane and Iyo Sky try to make sense of their feud with “Pure Fusion Collective.” Damage CTRL runs Raw and PFC is trying to take that from them. Okay.

Pure Fusion Collective, not sure about that name, cut a terrific promo. Sonya was especially good here.

The Women’s Tag Team Champions, whose names I always forget, come out to watch this number one contenders’ match. Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre. I did remember! So, two heel teams are battling to face a heel team? The booking of the women’s division is suspect at best.

Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Bazsler and Zoey Stark – Number One Contenders Match

Candice Michelle is in the crowd. McAfee says she helped build the company. You have to be kidding, Pat. Damage CTRL double teams Baszler while the ref just stands there waving his arms. Is this AEW? They also go too fast and lose the crowd. If you slow the moves down just a bit and let your opponent sell, the crowd will react.

Iyo got the crowd fired up. The heels took over when Shayna threw knee up within, oh, two feet of Iyo and everyone pretended she hit Iyo. That was bad. Cole said, “She didn’t get all of it.” She did not get any of it.

The finish is a no contest after Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre interfere. So, we still do not know who the dominant faction is.

Winners: No contest.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1823174549560574326

R-Truth and Miz are in the back. R-Truth thought he got Miz an Intercontinental Title match, but really it was with Bronson and not Bron. Miz melts down, but Randy Orton shows up and gives him a pep talk. When Miz walks off fired up, Truth asks if Randy thinks Miz can beat Bronson. Randy says no. Funny.

Randy Orton comes to the ring. The crowd is singing along to his entrance theme.

Randy remarks that it has been 20 years since his first reign as world champion. Gunther interrupts. He just looks like a champion the moment he comes out. Belt or no belt.

Gunther claims Orton is both a legend and someone who has wasted his talent. Huh? That makes no sense.

Gunther continues saying Randy always screws up everything he does. He then calls his grandfather and his father screwups. Hey! It is not Cowboy’s fault. He had that arm injury that never really healed.

McIntyre interrupts, which leads to an RKO out of nowhere. I cannot believe they gave that away so quickly. Punk then jumps Drew. He lands some of the best punches you will see on a wrestling show.

Punk wears Drew out with his belt. I smell a strap match on the horizon.

Backstage, Sheamus is confused why Pete is mad at him. Well, he said it was over the Butch name. Ludwig Kaiser interrupts and says he is going to end Sheamus. Dunne attacks Sheamus with the shillelagh. He smashes Sheamus’s hand with it. Yikes.

Just when the show was going well, here is Miz. At least he is going to get destroyed. But still.

Cathy Kelley finds Punk backstage. He says he lied about his flight problems. He suddenly does not care about the bracelet. He even says Drew can have the bracelet. After all that? The reason he lost the SummerSlam match was because of that bracelet. Sigh. Cathy Kelley has terrible facial expressions. Once I saw it the other week, I cannot unsee it.

Mark Henry and his son were in the audience.

Bronson Reed vs. Miz

Reed makes a hand gesture where he makes a “C” and then that “C” floats up in the air and then crashes down. Okay.

Reed is destroying Miz. Remember when Truth and Miz were tag champions?

They come back from a commercial break and Miz has taken over. Why? You did so much to get this guy over last week and now he is selling for Miz?

I forgot Reed’s splash off the top rope is called the Tsunami. That is the hand motion from earlier. The crowd did react to the splash so last week helped.

Winner: Reed

Truth tries to stop Reed from splashing Miz a second time and Truth gets splashed. Then again. And again. These officials cannot just pull Truth out of the ring.

Finally, the officials do drag Truth away to another corner. Pearce confronts Reed. He gets down and goes to the other side of the ring and splashes Truth again. Pearce is threatening to suspend him. Reed turns around and goes for another splash. Poor Truth. This is working for me.

Jey Uso talks to Sami backstage. He pumps Sami up for his match. He also mentions the two of them going after the tag titles. Hmmm.

The New Judgement Day does a pre-taped promo. Finn is now calling himself “Backstabber” Balor. They hype the mixed tag match between Priest and Rhea vs. Liv and Dom.

Bron Breakker vs. Sami Zayn – 2/3 Falls for Intercontinental Title

As he is walking to the ring, Breakker asks McAfee “do we have any dogs barking” in Texas. The crowd responses with barks.

Sami wins the first fall with the Helluva kick.

Bron then picks Sami up for a running slam, runs to the barricade next to the announcer’s table, and lawn darts Sami over the barricade. That looked nasty.

Breakker hits two spears to win fall two.

Breakker had Sami on the announcer’s table. Bron did the leap from the ring apron onto Sami. Incredible.

Bron hit a spear out of midair for the win.

Winner: Bron Breakker

I enjoyed this episode. No long Wyatt Sicks segment and only a brief appearance from Karrion Kross helped. Everything else was clicking including the women’s tag match that they finally started to give some steam to, and Bronson Reed’s match and angle worked as well.

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