Monday Night Raw Review - April 24, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cody Rhodes Challenged Finn Balor

This was the WWE opening segment specialty: Rhodes came out addressing the audience, Balor interrupted him, and Rhodes challenged him to a match. There really wasn't much else to it, but the mic work was solid and it accomplished what it needed to, so I have no complaints. Balor going out alone was interesting, leaving me to wonder if WWE is preparing to split The Judgment Day in the WWE Draft.

The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa and The Usos) def. LWO (Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde)

You had to know LWO were losing as soon as this bout began. It's strange because this is the most over Escobar, Del Toro and Wilde have been since arriving on the main roster, ​but they've lost virtually every match they'd had as the LWO. On the bright side, this was a blast and the crowd was into the action. All of the backstage segments throughout the night with The Usos, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were excellent as well.

The Street Profits def. Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin​

MVP previously appeared in the corner of Alexander and Benjamin during their tag team matches, but that was at least two months ago. It happened a time or two on Main Event, but not since WrestleMania 39. In other words, the Hurt Business reunion angle does appear to have been dropped and that's a shame. What a waste. This was a nice little sprint while it lasted and it honestly did feel like Street Profits' swan song with the Draft coming up. I'm guessing this will finally be the year that they get split up.

Triple H Unveiled a New World Heavyweight Championship

Triple H's big announcement was worth the hype, but I actually didn't want a new title to be announced. In fact, I was hoping they'd announce a new world title after Rhodes beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, but that didn't happen and that was how this issue could have been resolved. I just don't think it's wise to introduce another top title while Reigns is still champ. I mean, how "undisputed" can he really be? I'm happy the stars of one of the brands (whichever show doesn't land Reigns) will finally have something to fight for, but this whole thing could have been avoided, as it simply sends the message that Reigns is unbeatable and thus the return (?) of the World Heavyweight Championship is a consolation prize. At the very least, it has a cool design and I love the nod to the Big Gold.

Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair and WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai and IYO SKY)

For the love of God, can this please let this be the last six-woman tag team match we get from Damage CTRL? I feel bad saying that because I'm a fan of all three women and it's not a reflection on their talent, but their collective booking has been so poor that it's impossible to care. This was a well-wrestled affair, but more should have been done to spotlight SKY before her Backlash title match with Belair.

Bronson Reed Attacked United States Champion Austin Theory and Bobby Lashley

I continue to love how Reed has been used since WrestleMania. Putting him in a program with a popular babyface like Lashley and giving him the vignette treatment the past two weeks were both smart moves. Lashley and Theory have interacted so much since last summer that I'm sick of seeing it at this point, but Reed being added freshens up the United States Championship scene. This segment was well done and left me looking forward to the Triple Threat at Backlash. Personally, I'm pulling for Reed to become champ as the belt hasn't done Theory many favors as of late.

Mustafa Ali def. Chad Gable

This came together following a backstage interaction between them from earlier in the day. This was the definition of filler, as I don't get the feeling WWE has any meaningful plans for the heel Ali coming out of the Draft. After all, a win over Gable doesn't mean much since everyone beats Gable these days, but this was a really fun match for the two minutes they got. Ali winning in his hometown probably the biggest shock of all.

Cody Rhodes def. Finn Balor

These two originally faced off on the post-Royal Rumble Raw back in January. They worked well together then and this was another entertaining outing from them. Rhodes winning was never in doubt, but I appreciated that he won in clean fashion. Much like in the opening segment, the rest of Judgment Day was nowhere to be found. It's encouraging that Rhodes is still receiving such loud babyface reactions despite his WrestleMania loss.

Omos Confronted Seth "Freakin" Rollins

Could WWE not wait until this show to announce Rollins vs. Omos for Backlash? I realize it wouldn't have made much of a difference, but from a storyline standpoint, why would the match be booked without there being an issue between the two and nothing at stake? I applaud their effort to make people care by having Rollins basically say in this segment that he's going carry Omos to a quality match, but the bigger takeaway was that he teased winning the World Heavyweight title at Clash of Champions as that seems like a strong possibility. 

Rey Mysterio def. Damian Priest by Disqualification

These two have had a few matches in the past and this was as enjoyable as their other encounters, but it was clear that it was slotted as the main event solely because of Bad Bunny's appearance afterward. The biggest surprise was that Balor, Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley didn't accompany Priest and that he got himself disqualified. The Chicago crowd loved Bunny and popped big when he announced he'll be facing Priest in a Street Fight at Backlash. I thought for sure we were getting Bunny and Rey vs. Dominik and Damian, but Priest vs. Bunny also very much feels like an attraction.

Overall Show

I feared the worst when I read shortly before the show that Vince McMahon was responsible for major creative plans being changed at the last minute, but this ended up being a thumbs-up episode. Both Raw and SmackDown have been a lame duck period due to the upcoming Draft, so not much matters, but the World Heavyweight Championship announcement was obviously noteworthy, the Backlash hype was decent, the Chicago crowd was hot, and there was some worthwhile wrestling. Let's just hope the Draft does some good and both brands benefit.

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