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Monday Night Raw Review - August 23, 2021

8/23/2021

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By Graham "GSM" Matthews

United States Champion Damian Priest def. WWE Champion Bobby Lashley (Non-Title); Priest and Drew McIntyre def. Lashley and Sheamus

MVP spoke so much about Goldberg that you have to know that their issues aren't over yet. I expect WWE to revisit that rivalry for October's Saudi Arabia pay-per-view, which is terrible given how horrid their SummerSlam match was. Priest interrupting him was a pleasant surprise and I was excited to see that match for the first time, but it was quickly cut short and predictably turned into a tag team match also involving McIntyre and Sheamus. Thank the lord it appears McIntyre and Priest are headed for a match eventually. The tag team matchup was solid, but the overall segment lasted way too long.

Karrion Kross def. Ricochet

Kross is no longer NXT Champion as of Sunday night, so nothing is stopping Vince McMahon now from molding Kross into his own image. The new headgear and ring attire is ridiculous. I can't imagine many people will see that and think he looks like a star. I'm honestly shocked Vince didn't do that as soon as he called him up a month ago, which was pointless as they should have just waited until after he lost the NXT Championship. This was a total squash for Kross, though, so at least he won. I've pretty much given up on the idea of WWE ever doing something meaningful with Ricochet.

John Morrison and The Miz Hosted Moist TV with Logan Paul; Xavier Woods def. Miz

Raw's answer to SmackDown bringing in Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch was... Logan Paul, I guess. I have no idea how WWE wants people to react to him. He got booed out of the building during this segment only to shake Woods' hand as he walked to the ring. The Moist TV stuff was abysmal and the match that followed was fine. All of it built to Miz turning on Morrison afterward. I was a big proponent of WWE putting the two back together when Morrison returned to the company at the onset of 2020, but their run has largely been awful. Morrison being the babyface, assuming that's the direction they're going in, makes sense.

Mansoor def. Jinder Mahal by Disqualification

I've actually enjoyed what they've been doing with Mansoor and Mustafa Ali lately as it's a simple story and it's been getting both guys in regular roles on Raw. I assumed this would be a straightforward squash for Mahal, but I appreciated that wasn't the case. Granted, the non-finish was lame, but it prevented Mansoor from eating defeat. We'll probably see Veer and Shanky vs. Mansoor and Ali next week on Raw.

Alexa Bliss Interrupted Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair

I don't hate the idea of Flair being the Raw Women's Champion. She's the biggest star in the division and is obviously over, so I get it. My issue is, why bother putting the belt on Nikki A.S.H. for a month and rush her whole underdog story? The superhero shtick was going to suck no matter what, but they should have given it more time before putting the belt on her. Vince probably saw it as a failure and now we're back to Flair as champion. Oh well. This was the standard stuff from Flair, but it was well-delivered. I can't say I'm excited at all that Bliss is next in line for a Raw Women's Championship opportunity.

Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. def. Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax

On paper, Ripley and Nikki teaming up seemed strange because you'd think they'd want to remain focused on the Raw Women's Championship, but the commentary team heavily pushed how strong their chemistry was here. It was an entertaining affair and even Baszler and Jax played their roles well, and I don't ordinarily say that about their teamwork. Thankfully, this loss looks to set up their split, which is long overdue. I don't know if it's too late to make Baszler a singles threat, but time will tell.

Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle def. AJ Styles

​I was looking forward to the RK-Bro celebration and thought it would be something along the lines of "This Is Your Life" from back in the day (not the horrendous recreation WWE did with Bayley back in 2017), but it ended up being fairly tame. Instead, they devoted a lot of television time to the rematch between Riddle and Styles. Hey, I'm not complaining as it was excellent stuff. Riddle got his win back from last week, but it didn't leave me wanting to see Styles and Omos get a rematch for the Raw Tag Team Championship. Rather, I want to see Styles and Omos go their separate ways, or at least see Styles return to the singles ranks.

Overall Show

I'm glad they advertised three matches in advance for next week's Raw (though there's no telling if they'll actually happen because WWE is notorious for false advertising), but why give away Eva Marie vs. Doudrop (I hate that she's keeping the name) and Miz vs. Morrison after one week of build? At any rate, this was a pretty ho-hum edition of Raw, definitely nothing notable despite coming off a newsworthy pay-per-view (for SmackDown, anyway). The best thing going on the red brand right now closed the show, and I like that Priest vs. McIntyre appears to be on the horizon, but the rest of Raw is a chore to sit through. I doubt a Draft will be enough to shake things up, either. The program in general needs a hard reset because it feels like I'm watching the show on repeat most weeks.
SEE MORE: Raw Reviews
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