WWE Raw: Sky and Priest are the new #1 contenders

Thomas Starr

Raquel pulls Bianca by her hair
Raquel pulls Bianca by her hair

Pre-taped in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This was not the most exciting show, but there was nothing wrong with it either. The Battle Royal was bad. Several spots were either botched or just killed the suspension of disbelief. The other matches on the show, however, were solid. Dragon Lee and Chad Gable was the best match of the night. Limiting things to one-on-one matches or tag matches makes everything easier to follow. Multi person matches, especially ones thrown together the week before, are messy and accomplish little.

Show open

Michael Cole and Corey Graves were the announcers for this pre-taped episode. They touted Raw coming from Riyadh.

Liv Morgan, Dominik Mysterio, and Raquel Rodriguez opened the show. Thankfully, they are not asking her to carry that ridiculous Crown Jewel belt. She does have a Crown Jewel ring, however.

Liv went over her accomplishments. Her voice is so grating. I mean that as a compliment, she is a fantastic heel. Dom tried talking, but they booed him. He then spoke to the Saudi crowd in Spanish. That was funny.

Surprisingly, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair interrupted. Liv tried to sow seeds of dissent between Jade and Bianca. Jade and Bianca challenged them to tag title matches, but Raquel and Liv turned them down. So much for the importance of tag titles.

Adam Pearce came out for no reason. He just walked out when the women were discussing things. Then he said they were having a battle royal for the #1 contender for the women’s title.

Thoughts: Awkward segment. All that just to announce Jade and Bianca were in a battle royal. Okay. Adam Pearce came out when nothing really happened. He could have announced the battle royal before the show, and we could have just skipped all that.

Women’s #1 Contender Battle Royal

The participants were Damage CTRL, Unholy Union, Maxxine Dupri, Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler, Ivy Nile, Katana Chance, Zelina Vega, Kayden Carter, Natalya, and Lyra Valkyria.

The crowd started entertaining themselves with chants. Maxxine had a large hockey jersey, which was torn off her. Is that a heel turn in Saudi Arabia? Anyways, she has a full body suit on, so I do not know what that was for.

During the break, Katana Chance did a handstand and walked back to the ring. She used her feet to pull herself into the ring. Pretty impressed. Then she was kicked to the floor. All that to be eliminated anyway.

Jade, Bianca, Lyra, and Iyo were the last four. A “this is awesome” chant started when nothing was happening.

Liv and Raquel pulled Jade and Bianca out of the ring because it was no DQ. Why did Kairi leave then? It is no DQ, so she could have stayed and helped Iyo out.

Lyra and Iyo were the last two in the ring. They were on the ring apron forever and finally Iyo won.

Winner: Iyo Sky

Thoughts: A lot of blown spots and general silliness. There were four people in the match that could have realistically fought for a title. 30 minutes in and this has all been filler.

Good news, the Wyatts are back, and they have kidnapped the Miz. At least they taped his mouth. That is always a plus. Bo Dallas tells Miz he will be returned to dust, so I am fairly sure we just witnessed a murder.

War Raiders vs. New Day

Kofi was setting up a move, but Woods told him he wanted to do something else. Woods got caught and lost.

Winners: The War Raiders

Thoughts: Not much to the match. It was more of a backdrop to the Kofi – Woods drama. It was better than the battle royal, I cannot complain too much.

Nine o’clock

Sami Zayn came out. They replayed the drama between him and the other Bloodline members. Jey Uso came out to confront Sami. Jimmy Uso also came out a couple of minutes after.

Jimmy and Sami trade barbs back and forth. Sami eventually says he is out of this drama. Jey Uso calls him back and asks him to at least talk to the OTC on Friday. He calls Sami family and refers to him as Sami Uso.

Dragon Lee vs. Chad Gable

They did a spot where each man took a belly to back suplex, no sold it, and popped up to give a suplex back to their opponent. They did this several times. Lame.

The two women caused a distraction around the ring. Rey Mysterio came out and helped Dragon Lee beat Gable.

Winner: Dragon Lee

Thoughts: Decent match. The ending was messy, but nothing else was that bad.

Damien Priest vs. Sheamus vs. Seth Rollins vs. Dominik Mysterio – #1 Contender Match

Bronson Reed interfered and put Seth through the announce table. He left Seth lying as he left through the crowd. Priest finally beat Dom for the win.

Winner: Damien Priest

Thoughts: The match accomplished what it set out to do, which put Priest back into the title hunt. My argument will always be that a one-on-one match allows both men to tell a story and to really show that the winner deserves better things. Four ways are just a series of moves that eventually ends with someone hitting that final move.

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