Monday Night Raw Review - August 3, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

LA Knight Confronted World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns

Reigns paying respect to Rollins one more time (in Rollins' home state, no less) was a cool moment. I love how it was immediately established that Knight is next in line for a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, and their verbal exchange was very entertaining. Knight belongs in the main event mix, even if it's painfully obvious that he won't be winning that title.

Je'Von Evans def. Ethan Page

It's been clear since their NXT days that these two always work well together, so unsurprisingly, this was another entertaining outing from them. I thought Page might win since we now have a babyface as the Intercontinental Champion, but we found out afterward that Evans won because he's going to be paired in a program with Big Cass, whose return was well done. He looks terrific. It's worth noting that he was without Enzo Amore, and I'd prefer for him to stay on his own.

Sol Ruca def. Roxanne Perez by Disqualification; Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer Targeted Women's World Champion Liv Morgan

Ruca vs. Perez was fine for what it was, but it never felt like it got out of first gear before The Judgment Day interfered and caused the contest to be thrown out. The post-match angle with both Lynch and Vaquer returning was intriguing and injected some excitement that has long been missing from the division. I'm not a fan of Lynch randomly going back to being a babyface without the turn being explained, but perhaps she'll be more of a tweener.

Oba Femi Addressed the Audience

It was nice to see Femi pay respect to Brock Lesnar now that their feud is finally over and with Lesnar seemingly retired now (though seeing is believing as far as the latter goes). I wish he announced his intentions to chase after the World Heavyweight Championship here, but I figured WWE would want to wait on that until closer to WrestleMania 43. That said, he and Bron Breakker briefly faced off on the stage afterward, so that appears to be Femi's next rivalry. Sign me up.

World Tag Team Champion Bron Breakker def. Joe Hendry

This was the straightforward squash that it should have been. It's been many months since Breakker was last portrayed as someone to be taken seriously, so this was a small step in the right direction for him. As noted in the prior paragraph, it looks like he's headed for a feud with Femi, and although I'm sure he isn't coming out on the winning end of that, it's a much better use of him than whatever the hell he's been doing so far this summer.

The Judgment Day Interrupted Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable and Penta; Gable and Penta def. Judgment Day (AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh)

I appreciated Gable getting some mic time coming off his Intercontinental Championship win at SummerSlam. I feared Penta might turn on him here or after their tag match, but thankfully, that did not happen. I have to imagine they'll face off in a rematch eventually, though. Said tag match was well wrestled and enjoyable, though it's insane we have now reached a point where Mysterio is eating the pinfall loss instead of McDonagh. He truly is cursed.

Jacob Fatu def. Royce Keys in a Street Fight

This one has been building for a while, with mentions of their history on the independent scene dating back months. I appreciated that it was positioned as the main event and I thought they made the most of it by delivering a fun fight. Fatu's post-match attack seemed to indicate that Keys will be out of action for the foreseeable future. Reigns watched from the stage before running into Rey Mysterio backstage, which was an interesting cliffhanger to close the show with.

Overall Show

This was a much-needed reset edition of Raw, especially following last week's abysmal effort. We got some fresh faces thrown in the mix, new directions for certain stars and quality wrestling, not to mention whatever they're planning with Reigns in AAA or whatever as teased at the end. It was actually one of the strongest editions of Raw all year. With Money in the Bank being the next scheduled premium live event in early October (not counting Sunday Night's Main Event over Labor Day weekend), hopefully they can maintain the momentum until then.

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