Survivor Series may be in the rear view mirror, but every feud from Saturday night continued in full force on Monday Night Raw. Becky Lynch opens up the show by having fun with the crowd, bravely going out amongst them with a live mic. Well, nah, they couldn’t be giving fans a chance to speak their mind on live TV, could they? She chats with fans named Bob and Zachary – and seriously, while on TV, Bob can’t get off of his phone.
One thing is for sure, Lynch is in full babyface mode, doing her best to put the last year or so as a forced heel to rest. Bayley interrupts the fun party, talking trash to distract Becky until Dakota Kai and IYO SKY attack her from behind. They brawl throughout the arena, with Lynch doing well to hold her own. They trash a merch area until security arrives to break it up.
Having a 3-on-1 attack end up as a draw is not a good look for Damage Ctrl. This, by the way, would be where we’d normally go to commercials — but not tonight as the first hour is commercial free.
Mia Yim VS. Rhea Ripley (w/ Dominik Mysterio)
Yim and Ripley circle around one another until Mia takes the early advantage with an arm drag, sending Ripley to the floor to chat with Dom. Returning to the ring, Ripley takes the advantage for herself with a shoulder drive in the corner, moments later hitting a hard clothesline in the second spot where there would normally be a commercial break.
Ripley slows down her attack to talk some trash, opening the door for Yim to fight back with a series of kicks, letting her know that she “talks too much.” A couple of DDTs send Ripley rolling to the floor for a break, and for some reason Yim turns her attention to Dominik, pulling him into the ring.
Ripley gets back in to the ring and takes Yim down, and AJ Styles rushes in to tackle Dominik. For some reason, this causes the ref to call for the bell.
Match result: No Contest
The rest of Judgment Day and the O.C. join the fight. You know, it’s almost like there are enough on both teams to have had a Survivor Series match on Saturday. As the fight settles down, Styles grabs a mic and has a brilliant idea two days too late: how about a fight between both teams?
The O.C. (Mia Yim, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, & AJ Styles) VS. The Judgment Day (Rhea Ripley, Dominik Mysterio, Damian Priest, & Finn Balor)
After some more scrapping, the bell rings with Styles and Balor back in the ring with one another. A snap suplex by AJ has Balor reaching out for a tag, but instead he’s dragged back to the O.C. corner where Anderson and Gallows take turns beating on their old buddy, followed by several quick tags and a continued beatdown of Balor.
Priest finally enters, trading hard shots back and forth with Gallows until the Judgment Day starts their own quick-tag attack in their corner. The pace of this match is impressive, but it has to slow down at one point and it’s Anderson who endures a series of rest holds.
The crowd boos as Dom hits Three Amigos on Anderson, but they might just be booing because it’s past due as a bit and has been cheap heat for a while. Styles finally tags in again, facing off against Balor once more as Gallows tackles Priest onto the announcer’s table. In the end, we’re back to the women as Yim and Ripley tag in and we finally finish their match, with Ripley pinning Yim after a Riptide.
Winners via pinfall: The Judgment Day
The Bloodline, minus Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman, look back on WarGames and the unity it brought to their faction, proving it with a group hug until Kevin Owens emerges. KO says he’s not here to fight Sami, and seems downright pensive as he says he totally understands why his sometimes (kayfabe) friend did what he did. That being said, Owens says he doesn’t want anything to do with Zayn any longer. He warns Sami, though, that he’s not a real part of the Bloodline, and never will be.
Jey stands up for Sami, and it leads to a fight booked for later on between Jey and Kevin.
Backstage, Candice LeRae looks forward to her match with Dakota Kai as a means to re-introduce herself to the fans.
Some sort of unholy alliance is born backstage as Matt Riddle offers Elias a chance to team up and go for the tag titles. The Bloodline march by and accept their challenge.
The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) VS. The Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis)
It’s been a while since these two teams have squared off, but they pick up right where they left off with a lot of trash talking and quick action. Gable rolls Dawkins around roughly by the neck, but Angelo responds with a hard, mid-section clothesline before they trade arm drags. Ford enters and both Profits dive over the top rope to take out the Academy on the floor.
After ads, the ref misses a pinning attempt by Ford on Gable as she tries to get Otis out of the ring, and soon afterwards Dawkins is in and hitting a spinning elbow on Gable. When Chad responds with a bridging suplex pin, Ford kind of breaks up the pin, but Dawkins wisely gets his shoulder up before three just to be sure.
Ford gets the highlights of the match, first with a bodyslam of Otis and then with a super-high frog splash, even by his own standards.
Winners via pinfall: The Street Profits
Out comes the new United States Champion Austin Theory and … what? Where’s his Beyblade video? Or Bakugan? Even marbles or jacks? Theory promotes himself, finally interrupted by former champion Seth Rollins in an outfit that Prince (not Balor) would have approved of. Rollins claims continued ownership of Raw, and offers his insincere congratulations before goading Theory into a fight … some other time, according to Austin.
Backstage, The Miz claims that his injured hand will keep him from fighting tonight, but Adam Pearce lets him know that his match is definitely on.
The Miz VS. Dexter Lumis – Anything Goes Match
Lumis attacks Miz on the entrance ramp, but Miz plants him with a DDT as they enter the ring and the bell sounds. Lumis recovers and beats Miz all around the floor. As we come back from a break, Miz has a vice on Lumis’ head, which doesn’t seem to bother Dexter at all. Miz tries to escape into the crowd, but Lumis’ attack continues with an elbow drop onto Miz, perched on a table.
Dexter carries Miz back into the ring, where he applies an Anaconda Vice and wins the match, plus a contract to wrestle.
Winner via pinfall: Dexter Lumis
On the way out, Lumis hands out some of the money he also won to kids at ringside until the Miz attacks and takes off with the money (including one bill right out of a kid’s hand). Wait, Johnny Gargano emerges and superkicks Miz out cold, returning the money and the bag to Lumis.
Candice LeRae VS. Dakota Kai
We join the match in progress as Kai boots LeRae to the mat. Candace tries a series of pinfall attempts to follow, but Kai just has another big boot for her soon afterwards. The fight goes to the apron where she plants Kai headfirst, getting back into the ring with a missile dropkick. A sort of straightjacket suplex by LeRae gets her a two-count, and a superick by Kai gets one for her, too.
The end comes with an avalanche neckbreaker by LeRae for a three-count.
Winner via pinfall: Candice LeRae
Another backstage interview sees Bayley looking beyond Damage Ctrl, with a distracted Alexa Bliss seemingly distracted by some other thoughts.
Kevin Owens VS. Jey Uso (w/ Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa, & Sami Zayn)
Jey looks to be in rough shape right away, favouring his right hand. Being thrown into the barricade and hit with a senton won’t make him feel any better, either. Owens tries a Swanton Bomb to follow up, but Jey gets his knees up to block before sending Kevin running hard into a corner soon afterwards.
Sami gives Jey some advice to go after Owens’ back, which is clearly bothering him, but Jey is happy to slug it out with KO instead. Owens reverses a superplex attempt with a spinning fisherman’s suplex, and a frog splash by Kevin gets him a two-count.
Two superkicks by Jey still only get him a two-count — and a third gets the same result. Owens tries a pop-up powerbomb but his back gives out, so Jey tries a fourth superkick … for another two-count. Jey misses a powerbomb and Jey lands a stunner for the victory.
