WWE Raw: With a title match in his future, Priest shines

Thomas Starr

Seth refuses to team with Solo
Seth refuses to team with Solo

Monday Night Raw was an enjoyable show that continues to benefit from the two-hour format. None of the matches were bad, although Pete Dunne’s horrendous forearms nearly brought that whole match down. Damien Priest and The Bloodline drama were the biggest highlights of the show.

WWE Raw opened hot with Damien Priest’s best promo of his career. He put an emotionally broken Gunther in his place and Priest came off like a tough guy in the process. This was the first time I can remember him being so confident on the microphone. The crowd was into him as well. Priest sounded and acted like a main event star.

Throughout the night, the story was about Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso looking for a fifth member to team with them at Wargames. The approach to Seth Rollins was logical as his reaction. Why would he team with Roman? Why does Sami want to do it? Seth turning down Solo made sense as well, and it set up future interactions between Seth and Solo if they decide to go in that direction. Jimmy Uso, in the meantime, talked to Bron Breakker off camera. It was about joining them for Wargames.

Recap:

WWE Raw wheeled into the Heartside district of Grand Rapids, Michigan. WWE was live from the Van Andel Arena, a state-of-the-art arena that seats more than 12,000 people.

Show Open

Gunther entered the arena looking somber, forlorn even, after losing to Cody Rhodes at Crown Jewel. The announcers, Joe Tessitore and Corey Graves, let the viewers know that Gunther’s next title defense will be at Survivor Series against Damien Priest.

Gunther tried to ignore what happened at Crown Jewel and instead pointed out that he was still champion. He was quickly interrupted by Damien Priest, who swaggered out in a leather jacket and a t-shirt. Quite the contrast to Gunther’s suit.

Priest questioned whether Gunther believed in himself anymore. He dared Gunther to hit him. Gunther paced back and forth like a scolded dog.

Ludwig Kaiser interrupted and refused to allow Priest to speak to his mentor like that. Gunther stepped up to stop Kaiser, but Ludwig told Gunther not to stop him. Priest hit Kaiser with a punch and caught Gunther coming up behind him. Gunther sold in fear of Priest and got out of the ring.

Damage CTRL vs. Pure Fusion Collective

Dakota Kai made her return in a backstage promo with Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane. This match was not announced on WWE branded social media, but it is a long, long-standing feud on the Raw undercard.

Pure Fusion Collective were garbed all in black. Zoe Stark and Shayna Baszler had black leather jackets on, while Sonya Deville wore a long, black coat that made her look like she just came out of the Matrix.

Damage CTRL were in, well, CTRL early in the match until Shayna took a cheap shot at Kairi Sane, which turned the course of the match.

There was not much more to this match. The heels got their heat during the commercial break and when we came back, Damage CTRL took over and won clean after Iyo Sky hit the moonsault on Shayna. It was not squash, but it was a decisive victory for Damage CTRL.

Winners: Damage CTRL

They aired a recap of the OG Bloodline coming back together for Wargames. Backstage live, Sami Zayn and the Usos discussed who could be their fifth partner. Sami said he knew someone and left.

Kofi Kingston vs. Pete Dunne

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods continue to have differences in their points of view. Instead of Kofi’s power of positivity, Woods has been bitter and critical. These two have been part of the New Day for over ten years now, so the rift forming between them is heartbreaking to witness.

Pete Dunne, as a tribute to the modern style, threw the fakest forearms in the history of wrestling. He was pretending to hit Kofi in the back of his head, but was clearly hitting the mat six inches to a foot away from his head. The live crowd booed; it was that fake.

Xavier Woods yelled at Kofi at the ringside, which distracted his partner and allowed Dunne to win.

Winner: Pete Dunne

Nine o’clock hour

Bronson Reed was out to start the second hour. This was a big moment in Reed’s career. I cannot remember him being given one of these longform in-ring interviews. He called out Seth Rollins, who came out wearing green parachute pants, a black and white pleather jacket and diamond encrusted crocs.

The two men got into it and Seth and Reed took turns trying to put the other through a table. Security ran out and the big man hit a dive on the half dozen or so security guards. That is a heck of way to get paid for the night. It was chaos going into the commercial break.

Sami Zayn met up with Seth Rollins backstage. He asked Seth to be the fifth man at Survivor Series and Seth, rightly, said no. This is a guy who came out on a blown knee just to stop Reigns from beating Cody.

Damien Priest vs. Ludwig Kaiser

After a brief exchange, Kaiser took the advantage and dropkicked Damien to ringside. And they went to the break.

Not much to the match. Priest gave Kaiser a significant amount of offense, but he won decisively with the South of Heaven.

Winner: Damien Priest

A pensive Gunther came out of the entrance set, but just looked at Priest and left.

WWE replayed the ending of a WWE Speed match between Sheamus and Bron Breakker. Bron was backstage complaining that he should be the Speed Champion as well as the Intercontinental Champion. Sheamus walked up and challenged Bron to a title match. Bron, hilariously, said, “I didn’t listen to a word you just said.” He then accepted the challenge.

Miz was walking backstage when he was stopped by the most charismatic superstar in WWE history, Karrion Kross. Kross wanted to know if Miz found out where the Wyatts were. Miz said he was taking a leave of absence, which infuriated Kross. In the process, they bloodied Miz’s face.

Once they were in the ring, the Wyatts appeared. Kross is upset that Uncle Howdy beat up an elderly man. And he is the heel.

Both groups got into a brawl and The Final Testament laid out the Wyatts. Tokka and Rahzar hit their deadly finish. They lift both of their opponents up in powerbomb position, but then run their opponents’ butts into each other then hit the powerbombs. The dreaded butt bump powerbomb.

Uncle Howdy sat against the ropes laughing after his whole group was beaten down. Way to sell that angle.

Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair vs. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez – Women’s Tag Team Championship

Jade and Bianca retained the titles, but the real story came after the match. Nia Jax and Tiffany Stratton attacked Jade and Bianca. Iyo Sky and Naomi both came out to assist Jade and Bianca. This gave Iyo a chance to shine going into her match with Liv Morgan. The babyfaces all raised their hands as they faded to black.

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