Monday Night Raw Review - April 10, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Finn Balor def. Rey Mysterio

Rey and Dominik exchanged words beforehand to further their feud, and it wasn't Dominik's smoothest outing on the mic as he flubbed his words a few times. Perhaps the promos were put together on the fly because the circumstances surrounding this show with segments and matches having to get changed due to the talent travel issues? On the bright side, the subsequent match between Balor and Mysterio was very good and received an ample amount of time. The fact Balor is already back wrestling after that gruesome head injury he suffered at WrestleMania is wild to me.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Trish Strauts and Becky Lynch to Win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Stratus defended the tag titles on behalf of Lita, who was found attacked backstage beforehand and couldn't compete. As soon as that angle happened, you knew exactly where this was going, and that's not necessarily a bad thing because it's the route I wanted them to take. The match itself was solid but not the best match I've seen any of these ladies have. Morgan and Rodriguez becoming champs was an afterthought compared to Stratus' heel turn, but they have nice chemistry as partners and I'm fine with them in that role for now. I'm looking forward to Lynch vs. Stratus because it's refreshing to have another storyline in the women's division that isn't over a title.

Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed Ended in a Double Count-Out

This came completely out of nowhere in the sense that it wasn't advertised in advance, though they did have that interaction backstage on last week's show. I would've appreciated this being hyped a week out, but I realize this probably happened because of the circumstances with the show. Sure enough, they went out there and had a fun hoss fight. The non-finish was smart because it extends the program and Reed shouldn't have been losing at this point, anyway.

Cody Rhodes Challenged Brock Lesnar to a Match at Backlash

Rhodes addressing his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania was interesting because he blamed himself and not on the interference that cost him the win. It was a unique approach that I'm honestly not totally against. If anything, it was refreshing. He cut an excellent promo on Lesnar and did an effective job of setting the stage for their match at Backlash. Speaking of which, Rhodes did call it WrestleMania Backlash, which was hopefully just an accident and not another sign Vince McMahon could potentially be back.

The Usos def. Alpha Academy

Both teams are technically heel, but Alpha Academy are so beloved that they're basically babyfaces at this point, so it hardly mattered. More importantly, this was a really fun match. Chad Gable seriously never ceases to shine and you can always expect great stuff from The Usos. I'm fine with Alpha Academy splitting up soon if the idea is for Gable to get an actual singles push, but seeing is believing because I feel like I've heard that countless times in the past and it's amounted to nothing.

IYO SKY def. Michin and Piper Niven in a Raw Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Match

Bayley was originally supposed to compete in this match but gave her spot to SKY after SKY and Dakota Kai complained to her backstage about not getting enough opportunities. I assume they were talking about the Raw Women's Championship because they just failed to become number one contenders to the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship a week ago. Nonetheless, this was a great match that the crowd was quiet for early on but got into by the end. All three women worked hard, but SKY in particular shined and showed she has breakout babyface potential.

Solo Sikoa def. Kevin Owens

These two have proven in the past that they work really well together, so unsurprisingly, this was an enjoyable main event. I could have done without so many shenanigans toward the end, but I understand they were designed to protect Owens in defeat, so I get it. The Bloodline continue to get heat with these cheap finishes, so hopefully it's leading to the babyfaces giving them their comeuppance soon, possibly in the teased six-man tag team match at Backlash.

Overall Show

This show was night and day compared to last week's weak effort. I mean, it's not even close, and what's funny is that (as previously noted) this show was affected by several star either arriving to the building late due to travel issues or not being able to make it at all, so a bunch of stuff had to be changed reportedly. Sure, there was filler throughout the episode in the form of video packages and replays, but not that much more than usual. I really liked this show and thought it was a needed palate cleanser coming off that abysmal post-WrestleMania edition.

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