Raw: Becky Lynch recaptures gold, Damien Priest needs nobody

Arin De Castro

Becky Lynch celebrating with the crowd after winning the WWE Women's World Championship. Photo: WWE
Becky Lynch celebrating with the crowd after winning the WWE Women's World Championship. Photo: WWE

The Paul Levesque era has definitely started. The arrival of new title designs and more bloody violence has returned. It has drastically changed since WrestleMania XL — today was no different.

Pat McAfee and Michael Cole started the show off by delivering a beautiful promo of tonight’s main event, a battle royal for the vacant WWE Women’s World Championship.

This is then followed up by ‘Main Event’ Jey Uso. Like always, he’s got the entire crowd pumped up — YEET!

The number one contender says he has much to prove, trying to live up to the ‘Main Event’ part of his identity. He was then interrupted by the one he will challenge at Backlash, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damien Priest.

Señor World Heavyweight Champion, starts giving Jey credit, giving him the respect he deserves, and starts looking back at a memory. Priest recalls Jey saying, “We’re next.” Then, he changes the claim to “I’m next,” not “we’re.”

Before Priest tries to leave, he counters by saying that the only reason he is the current leader of Judgement Day is because Rhea Ripley is out. He also tells him that he is Dominik Mysterio’s bitch. Jey says he’s being fed to him because he’s next.

JD McDonagh tries to sneak attack Jey, but Jey sees it coming and superkicks Priest, leaving the two Judgement Day members speechless.

WWE World Tag Team Championship: Awesome Truth vs. #DIY

Like always, Awesome Truth does their entrance rap bit — which, to be honest, The Miz needs better timing syncing his “wassup” with R-Truth’s.

The group of friends starts off with hyping up the crowd and exchanging fist bumps. R-Truth is in control starting the match against Johnny Gargano. The Miz and Tommaso Ciampa exchange words, both realizing that even if they are friends, they are fighting for the titles.

#DIY begins generating their own momentum by punishing The Miz in and out of the ring.

R-Truth is later tagged in, and gets some punishment of his own. The Miz then tags back in getting some revenge on Ciampa with kicks and a clothesline on the turnbuckle. Ciampa then counters The Miz with a knee. R-Truth then tags in and sets up a five-knuckle shuffle but is met with a pedigree by Ciampa.

1-2-NO!

Ciampa and Gargano then team up against R-Truth, nearly ending the fight before The Miz drags Gargano out of the ring.

The Miz then takes over and finishes the fight with his Skull Crushing Finale. Awesome Truth retains.

Winners: Awesome Truth via pinfall

After the match concluded, #DIY and Awesome Truth exchange hugs, but not Ciampa, who leaves the ring in frustration.

Backstage, Damien Priest is arguing with McDonagh, complaining that he doesn’t need help. ‘Dirty Dom’ shows up with Santos Escobar and apologizes that he couldn’t compete. In frustration, Priest continues to raise his voice towards the members of Judgement Day — even refusing to fist bump McDonagh. A chink in the armour is being shown; could this foreshadow the end of Judgement Day?

Tag Team Match: The New Day vs. Imperium

After the WWE World Tag Team Championship match concluded, Gunther and Imperium made their way to the squared circle.

The former WWE Intercontinental Champion says he won’t bad mouth Sami Zayn; instead, he had a monologue about his legacy. He says there is a weight lifted off his shoulders and thanks Zayn for removing the target on his back.

Gunther then declares his participation in the King of The Ring event, hinting that he is determined to be the new King of The Ring.

However, The New Day had something to say about it. The current King of The Ring, Xavier Woods, says he looks forward to going back-to-back.

The New Day then makes fun of Gunther for no longer wearing the gold around his waist. Gunther then demands that Giovanni Vinci and Ludwig Kaiser take care of Woods and Kofi Kingston. Woods then says he’ll settle their business at the event but will have a tag team match against Vinci and Kaiser tonight.

Kingston seemed to have taken charge, but Kaiser turned the tide, forcing him into Imperium’s corner. After Vinci gets tagged in, Kingston retakes the driver’s seat with an absurd amount of chops.

Tagged in once again, Kaiser has his way with the former WWE Champion. Kaiser and Vinci then team up, nearly capturing victory, but Kingston kicks out.

Returning from commercial break, Cole stated that Imperium is putting on a clinic against The New Day. Woods and Vinci then get tagged in. This leads to Woods having an onslaught on Vinci. Just an all-out brawl.

The action concludes with Woods ending it with assistance from Kingston.

Winners: The New Day via pinfall

Gunther then leaves the ring in a tantrum and is disappointed in his fellow Imperium members. In what seems to be like the two coping with a loss, Kaiser unloads punishment onto Vinci. Kaiser constantly throws, kicks, and chops Vinci. He then avoids listening to officials and bashes Vinci’s head into the metal staircase, mimicking a previous incident with Kingston.

Kaiser makes his way backstage and finds Gunther, saying, “he’d get it done.” Gunther is left satisfied.

Andrade makes an appearance, saying he is nobody’s fool. He says Judgement Day wasn’t looking for a business partner but a servant, leaving off by saying no one tells him what to do.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sheamus

The frustrated Drew McIntyre shows up to talk about his next moves. However, he asks why the crowd chants ‘CM Punk’ whenever he shows his face. He goes off saying CM Punk doesn’t like the WWE fandom. He then proceeds to call Priest, CM Punk and Jey Uso cowards.

Although he claims to focus on the King of The Ring, ‘The Celtic Warrior’ provides his input on the situation.

Sheamus says that McIntyre isn’t taking accountability. He then tells McIntyre that blew his moment all because of social media. Sheamus ends his speech by saying the truth is a one-handed CM Punk had whooped his butt.

McIntyre returns a speech of his own, saying that instead of banger matches, once Sheamus got injured, it was burger after burger — this made me chuckle out loud.

The Scottish Warrior then proceeds to say he is Sheamus’ only friend, and he will sit beside the commentary table to have his back.

That’s when the Japanese superstar, Shinsuke Nakamura, makes his way to the ring.

‘The Celtic Warrior’ starts the match showing a little ring rust he hasn’t gotten rid of. Nakamura takes charge early. He lands many combinations until Sheamus counters and starts playing drums on Nakamura’s chest.

Nakamura then proceeds to find an opening; he roundhouse kicks Sheamus, dribbles his head onto the commentary table, and connects a knee onto Sheamus’ neck, leaving McIntyre to shake his head.

Back in the ring, Sheamus and Nakamura continue to have a banger of a match. After constant back-and-forths, Nakamura holds Sheamus in a rear-naked choke. It doesn’t end well for Nakamura, as ‘The Celtic Warrior’ takes him to the top rope and slams him.

Sheamus takes the driver’s seat and throws multiple combinations, ending the fight with a Brogue Kick — it wasn’t an easy fight, but it was a really entertaining one.

McIntyre then applauds for his friend.

Winner: Sheamus via pinfall

Behind the scenes, WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn gets interviewed about what Chad Gable did to him last week. Zayn then gets confronted by Bronson Reed. He tells him, any place, anywhere. Zayn thinks Reed left, but he’s bombarded with punches from Reed and telling Zayn that he is looking at the next WWE Intercontinental Champion.

That’s when Chad Gable makes his way to the squared circle to address why he turned his back on Zayn.

Before Chad Gable gets to speak, a clip from the Pat McAfee show is shown. It was NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley complaining that Gable did it.

Once Gable gets to speak, he says he did it because it was supposed to be his moment. He then goes off to Alpha Academy. He basically calls all of them useless.

He says that Alpha Academy will shift their focus to getting Gable the WWE Intercontinental Championship, no matter what. He forces them to say it. Otis is then singled out with being forced to say “no matter what.”

Ricochet and Andrade vs. JD McDonagh and Santos Escobar

‘Dirty Dom’ confronts Ricochet before his match. Ricochet says he’s disappointed that he won’t be able to face Mysterio. Once Ricochet leaves, ‘Dirty Dom’ is face-to-face with the women who injured Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan — we don’t see any conversation.

The bell rings, and the action gets started right away. Andrade makes easy work of McDonagh, forcing him to cowardly tag in Escobar.

Ricochet gets tagged in. Andrade and Ricochet seem like long-time partners, as a synchronized team-up gives Escobar trouble. Ricochet almost ended the match early twice.

‘Dirty Dom’ once again pulls some tricks, forcing Ricochet to become distracted after he pulls his leg. McDonagh and Escobar take advantage and turn the tides.

Escobar and Ricochet continue to torture Ricochet. The high-flying highlight reel finally creates space and tags in Andrade. Andrade takes out McDonagh and does multiple Dragon Screws on Escobar.

Another war tonight continues as all four combatants take each other out.

Andrade and McDonagh hammer each other with elbows, but Andrade gets double-teamed. Nothing but chaos continues.

Andrade takes control and ends up on the top, ending the match via pinfall.

Winners: Andrade and Ricochet

However, it’s not over. Damien Priest shows up and takes out the winners. He then goes toward Mysterio and McDonagh, saying he doesn’t need them; they need him — this is setting up for one hell of a baby face turn.

WWE Women’s World Championship Battle Royal

Now time for another chaotic match. 15 women are competing to become the next WWE Women’s World Champion.

Before the match even started, Nia Jax and Liv Morgan began the chaos backstage. Lynch gave a pep talk to the other contenders, said she’d be waiting for Ripley to return, and then proceeded to make her entrance — there was way too much going on.

Just announced, WWE United States Champion Logan Paul will appear next Monday Night Raw, as well as a 6-man tag team match. It will be Jey Uso, Ricochet and Andrade vs. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damien Priest, JD McDonagh and Santos Esocbar.

Finally, the official action gets started. Nia Jax and Piper Niven get all the attention from the contenders. Both make a strength difference known by pushing all of them away. The two then go at each other.

Candice LeRae gets eliminated first, followed by Indi Hartwell. Both were eliminated by Maxxine Dupri- maybe Chad Gable really motivated her to unlock a different side of herself.

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter have their tag team moment in the match. However, Shayna Baszler takes both of them out.

After Ivy Nile gets eliminated, Dupri goes off on Nia Jax and almost takes her out until the power difference becomes too much and he gets eliminated.

Becky Lynch eliminates Niven. Upset, Piper drags Lynch out of the ring and starts to punish her outside the ring. Niven then drags Jax out of the ring, which she chokes and slams her onto Lynch on the commentary table, then Samoan Drops Niven again onto Lynch.

Chelsea Green escaped elimination as the referees were distracted. However, this was short-lived, as she was eliminated shortly after, followed by Natalya, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark.

Lynch finally makes her way back into the ring. Three remained. Nia Jax, Liv Morgan and Becky Lynch.

Jax Samoan Drops both Morgan and Lynch. The two then team up against Jax but are later double-suplexed by ‘The Irresistible Force.’

A Morgan Code Breaker and a Becky Lynch Leg Drop end up eliminating Jax.

The two then release onslaughts on each other. On the edge of the ring, Becky Lynch recaptures gold by Man Handle Slam’s Morgan, taking her out.

Winner: Becky Lynch

Tonight was pure chaos and dialogue. It was a good balance. Not much to complain about. — a good twist was implemented with Imperium, leaving many of us questioning where their story will go. I can’t wait for the WWE Draft either — see you next time!

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