It’s been fun seeing Jey Uso go through some inner turmoil while attempting to stand up to The Vision, particularly when it comes to his brother Jimmy getting caught between him and LA Knight. The WWE Raw writers could have just made the four letters, one word guy do a standard heel turn, but they’ve opted for something more nuanced and interesting instead.
That said, this ongoing saga has sucked a lot of the air out of the last hour of Raw as of late, to the point where it felt like it was the Usos, Knight, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in some combination during the main event for weeks. Last Monday was a refreshing break, but we’re right back at it again tonight on Raw from Raleigh, NC (yes, Flair Country and all that), as The Usos take on The Brons in a Tornado Match. Hopefully the writers have a plot twist of some sort prepared.
Other matches advertised for tonight’s show include Dominik Mysterio defending his Intercontinental Championship against Rusev, Bayley going up against Raquel Rodriguez, and AJ Styles teaming with Dragon Lee to battle Los Americanos.
Which Americanos, you might ask? That’s a very good question. Let’s watch and see how the answer to that and other pressing queries play out together.
But first, a highlight package of the storyline that did play out at the end of last week’s Raw, with the Kabuki Warriors turning on Iyo Sky. OK, more like Asuka turning and Kairi Sane assisting out of fear, but the result was the same.
Rhea is mad, Iyo is conflicted, and Asuka is a step ahead once again
Oh yeah, someone else was involved in the Kabuki Warriors drama too, and that someone is Rhea Ripley. She is really upset that Asuka and Sane would turn on someone they called family and says they will settle things in the ring.
Instead of summoning the Kabuki Warriors, however, Mami gets a visit from Sky. Iyo hears the chants of support from the fans but still looks like she is about to cry as she admits, “You were right about Asuka and Kairi.” A tortured Sky says despite that truth, they are still her family and she still loves them.
Asuka appears on the big screen to claim she made Iyo what she is today and thus is the one who got betrayed instead of the other way around. She suggests Iyo apologize and be more like Kairi so they can be a family today. Not Rhea though!
Ripley isn’t about that life, but Sky says she is still conflicted and walks away. Once she does, Asuka and Sane sneak in from behind to attack Ripley When Iyo finally returns to the ring, she gets a face full of green mist for her trouble.
“That stupid stuff,” my wife chimes in from the other end of the couch. “That’s just disgusting.”
With Sky blinded, Ripley is pretty much helpless to fight both the Warriors alone, and Asuka holds her in place for Kairi to land the Insane Elbow. Asuka and Kairi finally leave so officials can tend to the battered heroes.
We flash back again to last Monday, where we see Rusev running wild on poor JD McDonagh and Dominik Mysterio too shook to help, leaving that task to Finn Balor. Might that play out in the title match we are about to see? It just might.
Rusev vs. “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio (c) – WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Wade Barrett says that with a European vs. an American, this might end up like the Ryder Cup. Too soon, man, too soon.
Also Rusev certainly isn’t playing golf but instead tossing Dom all around the ring. The champ tries some hit and run tactics to fight back but soon finds himself hurled over the announce table.
Maybe Mysterio can use his AAA championship belt or take a page from Eddie Guerrero’s book and make it look like Rusev laid him out with it. Neither of those tactics work, but Dom has yet another trick up his sleeve, waiting until the ref is unable to see and using a mule kick to hit Rusev “right in the man parts,” as Joe Tessitore puts it. Dom got you, bro.
Winner … and still WWE Intercontinental Champion: “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio by pinfall
Knight and Adam Pearce have a difference of opinion about LA’s recent referee performance, and their talk about a title shot against Seth Rollins probably won’t go much better. The New Day crashes that meeting, which leads to a fairly predictable outcome: Kofi Kingston unwittingly talking his way into a match he doesn’t really want against Knight. As one does.
A video package takes us through the rivalry between Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, mostly in their own words. It’s a pretty cool segment, the kind that WWE does so well.
Lyra Valkyria’s Bayley odyssey is replayed, but does Lyra want to go through it all again this week? Even though Bayley says she isn’t sure if she can do it without Lyra, Valkyria says she can’t give Bayley any more second chances and she’s on her own.
Bayley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
Barrett notes that if WWE had an award for most improved Superstar, Rodriguez would be a top candidate for it. He might be right about that, come to think of it. Roxanne Perez is also at ringside, taunting Bayley with “Where’s your friend?” barbs.
Even worse for Bayley is Rodriguez catching her during an attempted rana on the apron, spinning her around and smashing her into the barricade. Commercial breaks are the best time to rally though, right? Right.
Bayley gets the crowd even more behind her by executing a Figure Four, just like that one guy from North Carolina did so many times in his career. But Perez is able to rake Bayley’s eyes while the ref is distracted, setting her teammate up for a Tejana Bomb that ends it.
Winner: Raquel Rodriguez by pinfall
As The Judgment Day duo is wont to do, Rodriguez and Perez beat down Bayley after the bell. Valkyria tries to mount a rescue but is quickly given a beating of her own. Fortunately, Bayley is able to dig down and access her darker side to drive them off, then flips the switch back and celebrates with a once again confused Lyra.
After a replay of last week’s Usos-Knight drama, Jimmy asks Jey what was up with last week. Jey says “helping LA Knight gets us nowhere, uce” and he isn’t thrilled that Jimmy feels differently. Jey might have touched a nerve when he suggests that if he concentrated on handling business more, maybe he’d still be world champion, which is something that Jimmy wouldn’t get. Man.
Iyo won’t accept an apology from Kairi, screaming to leave her alone as she cries over a picture of herself and the Kabuki Warriors together. In happier times, naturally.
LA Knight vs. Kofi Kingston
My wife chimes in again with some mild surprise: “Oh, they’re immediately doing this? I didn’t know that was tonight.” Why wait, I say. Kingston is out here in AE 1’s again, which seem like his current go-to kicks for in-ring action.
Sometimes I think fans might like it if every Knight match was just a nonstop series of strikes by the Megastar so they could keep chanting “Yeah!” after each one. Actually they also like getting after the New Day, so there’s that.
Xavier Woods is able to be a continual pain, but once Knight takes care of him, he’s able to pull off a cool sequence where he ducks a Trouble in Paradise and connects on a Blunt Force Trauma to grab the dub.\
Winner: LA Knight by pinfall
A highlight package from the most recent SmackDown shows Randy Orton coming to the rescue of Rhodes against The Brons.
Becky Lynch is in a bad mood even by her standards and ends up taking it out on both Akira Tozawa and Maxxine Dupri. Rollins asks his wife is she feels better, to which she says “a little.” How about him? Seth says we’ll see, but he needs to go out and do whatever he has in mind on his own.
Seth Rollins tells Cody Rhodes he will “cleanse the timeline” at Crown Jewel
Has there ever been someone who gets as immediate yet as large a mixed reaction as Rollins? People still can’t get enough of singing along with his entrance theme, yet as soon as they are done, they start the “CM Punk” and “OTC” chants. Then they start singing his song again. It’s wild.
They finally get around to the “Cody Rhodes” singsong chant so he can launch into his promo. Musing about his three losses to Rhodes, Rollins says they don’t matter because they are in the past. Those versions of both men were trying to get to the top, whereas now it’s champ vs. champ with the future of the entire industry for the next 10 to 20 years at stake.
Rollins is confused about why anyone would want Rhodes in that top spot. He insists that he is the one to lead WWE into the future as he’s done everything someone in his position could possibly do. Rhodes soon joins him in the ring and asks what they are talking about.
His stance is rooted in his belief that neither of them has any control over the future of the industry, because the fans have that. Cody really digs the knife in by suggesting that Paul Heyman is the mastermind of The Vision, not him. Rollins fires back that every decision goes through him, which in turn has Rhodes reminding him that Heyman announced Brock Lesnar. “Every decision runs through me,” insists Rollins.
Props to the fans for getting a “no it doesn’t” chant going in response. Rhodes talks about what happened between them at WrestleMania 40, causing Rollins to declare that they were never friends and that “you were just the lesser of two evils.” Seth rants that they will never be friends and he will never call Cody his equal.
But what he will do is to cleanse the timeline, writing a new history after Crown Jewel. Only one person will lead that future … and that person is Seth “Freakin'” Rollins. Well alright then.
When Ripley checks on Sky, Iyo informs her that she talked to Pearce to get a match against the Kabuki Warriors at Crown Jewel. Noting that she saw Iyo speaking to Kairi earlier, Rhea wants some reassurance that she can trust Iyo. Sky says Sane is lost and that Ripley can trust her, so Mami says she’s in. Also she’s going to get Iyo some water since she’s still all misted up.
Before they team up, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee talk up their respective matches at Crown Jewel, with Styles thanking the fans for giving him the chance to beat up John Cena.
AJ Styles and Dragon Lee vs. Los Americanos
Joe Tessitore and Barrett are amused by the fact that the Americanos now have names: Ryo and Bravo. How to tell them apart? Bravo has the blue mask, so ‘B’ for him, while Ryo has the red mask. See, it’s easy.
A friend says this might be the point where the El Grande Americano story jumps the shark, and admittedly it is kind of less interesting than when they were just running around without names. One thing I can almost guarantee is that they aren’t winning this match.
Sure enough, once the good guys take care of Grande, Bravo ends up eating a Styles Clash, sensing Los Americanos to a defeat in their debut.
Winners: AJ Styles and Dragon Lee by pinfall
Jackie Redmond asks Stephanie Vaquer about her confidence level facing Tiffany Stratton so early on in her reign as champion. She seems plenty confident, but Tiffany arrives to say she respects Stephanie but she has no intention of losing to someone who has been a champ for two weeks. They exchange a few more pleasantries before Stratton walks away.
Before The Brons head to the ring, Heyman asks Rollins if he’s OK. Paul tries to reassure him that he will beat Rhodes at Crown Jewel, but Seth cuts him off and says, “No, Paul. I have to.” Bron barks a little bit and they head to the ring.
The Usos vs. Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed – Tornado Match
Just when I was wondering when Breakker would do something crazy, it happens: Bron leaps from the timekeeper’s area onto the announce table, sending Big Jim through it. Great camera angle for that spot too.
To no one’s surprise, that move puts Jimmy out of commission for a while and leaves Jey going it alone against both of his opponents. That is not likely to work out well. Fortunately for him, Jimmy recovers in time to save his brother and nail Breakker with a pop-up Samoan drop.
Just when things start to turn against the Usos again, all those OTC chants pay off: Roman Reigns is headed to the ring, chair in hand. He uses it liberally, because of course there are no DQs in this type of match, eventually leading to a double Uso Splash that ends it.
Winners: The Usos by pinfall
Roman isn’t done, treating Breakker to more chair shots after the bell. Jey and Roman have a “smash ’em all” talk while Jimmy seems a little less enthusiastic in the background as Raw fades out for this week. More family drama ahead? We’ll find out next week!
