Monday Night Raw Review - April 22, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Jey Uso Attacked World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest

This was a great way to build more interest in their upcoming World Heavyweight Championship clash. I loved how genuine Priest came across in his promo and Uso was good in his role as well. It was weird that JD McDonagh was ready to jump Uso but stopped in his tracks when Uso accidentally hit Priest with a superkick. The Judgment Day teasing tension with Rhea Ripley being out injured for the foreseeable future is an interesting development.

World Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth def. #DIY

Despite this show emanating from Ohio and Johnny Gargano being an Ohio native, the crowd did not care about #DIY. Then again, The Miz is also an Ohio native, so I guess that didn't make much of a difference. It was a nice match that the crowd gradually got into as it progressed. As I've said before, Awesome Truth don't need a lengthy reign, so I was disappointed #DIY didn't win but not surprised. Are they really going to break up #DIY before they have a chance to capture gold together?

Gunther Declared Himself for King of the Ring; The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) def. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci)

I fully expected Gunther to immediately set his sights on the World Heavyweight Championship upon losing the Intercontinental Championship, but I'm a big fan of him declaring for the King of the Ring tournament first. He's such a perfect fit for that and he should win the whole thing. I appreciated Woods coming out and acknowledging that he's the reigning King of the Ring because he should be in the tourney, too. We've seen New Day vs. Imperium so many times that their match here was nothing new, but the focus was on Kaiser attacking Vinci afterward, anyway. There was dissension in Imperium's ranks for a while before they moved away from it, but this indicates Vinci will be on his own in the Draft. Whether Kaiser sticks with Gunther remains to be seen, though it's worth noting that Gunther was shown nodding in approval of Kaiser's actions when Kaiser walked to the back.

Sheamus Confronted Drew McIntyre; Sheamus def. Shinsuke Nakamura

McIntyre and Sheamus have a ton of history, so it was logical that Sheamus would take exception with McIntyre's complaining. They've way way more matches together than New Day and Imperium, but this felt fresh because we've never seen them interact with Sheamus as the face and McIntyre as the heel, so I thoroughly enjoyed their exchange here. That's a terrific feud to do until CM Punk is cleared. I was shocked to hear Sheamus vs. Nakamura was a first-time-ever encounter, but I'm glad we got it before the Draft. They beat the hell out of each other and had a quality contest.

Chad Gable Explained His Actions and Scolded Alpha Academy

This is the Chad Gable I've been waiting for! He's been in WWE for almost a decade and he's been a heel a few times, but we've never seen this serious side of him before. He did an exceptional job of trying to justify his heel turn last week and running down the rest of Alpha Academy for being pathetic losers. Gable knocked it out of the park with his first heel promo and I'm all for WWE not going back to him and Sami Zayn right away (provided they end up on the same show post-Draft, that's a must).

Andrade and Ricochet def. JD McDonagh and Santos Escobar

Dominik Mysterio was originally scheduled to team with McDonagh here, but he said earlier in the show that he was "banged up" and had his arm in a sling, so he called upon Escobar to fill in for him after they teamed at WrestleMania 40. This was very well-wrestled and had some fun action, but the crowd was quiet for a majority of it. Mysterio is obviously over as a heel, but the rest of these guys are not and that's a problem.

Becky Lynch Won a Battle Royal to Capture the Vacant Women's World Championship

I understand why everyone would have an issue with a Battle Royal determining a new Women's World Champion, but WWE clearly didn't want to drag this out ahead of the Draft and Queen of the Ring (hence why they didn't do a tournament) and we've seen a handful of Triple Threats and Fatal 4-Ways recently on WWE TV, so I was okay with it. It was a basic Battle Royal for the most part, but the final stretch was suspenseful because Lynch, Liv Morgan or Nia Jax could have realistically won it. The belt should ultimately be on Morgan before Rhea Ripley returns, and if Ripley won't be back anytime soon, it makes sense to put it on Lynch in the meantime.

Overall Show

The three hours were not terribly exciting on the whole and it was a slight step down from the last few weeks, but this was still a solid show on the whole.  Lynch winning the Women's World Championship was eventful along with Kaiser betraying Vinci. This episode was mostly carried by the mic work as I thought we got some strong mic work throughout the night. I'm looking forward to see what the Raw roster looks like after the Draft concludes next week.

SEE MORE: Raw Reviews