Monday Night Raw Review - February 5, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes and World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins Confronted Each Other

The two things I loved most about this segment was how "real" it felt and the attention to detail. No one ignored the overwhelmingly positive response to Rhodes or even the negative chants toward The Rock, nor should they have because they would have been tone-deaf. Rollins was even more desperate than he was last week in trying to convince Rhodes to choose to face him at WrestleMania 40, and unsurprisingly, Rhodes didn't give an answer (we still have the press conference on Thursday). Despite that, this was an exceptional exchange between the three men.

#DIY def. Imperium (Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci), The Creed Brothers, and The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) in a Fatal 4-Way Tag Team Qualifier

WWE has a lot of talented teams right now between Raw and SmackDown, and although the crowd was quiet for this, I thought it was a very fun Fatal 4-Way. They got plenty of time and everyone had a chance to shine, specifically The Creeds (who we haven't seen in action on Raw since before Christmas). I expected Imperium to over since Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne advanced last week on SmackDown, but #DIY is a perfectly acceptable choice as well. Either team could realistically win, so the outcome isn't obvious.

Becky Lynch def. Shayna Baszler to Qualify for the Women's World Championship No. 1 Contender's Elimination Chamber Match

Baszler bringing up in her promo beforehand that she won an Elimination Chamber to earn a match with Lynch at WrestleMania four years ago was a terrific touch. In fact, this was the matchup I was hoping we'd get from them at that WrestleMania. This was very good, even though viewers had zero reason to believe Baszler would qualify. I expect Lynch to win the Chamber, but Morgan has a strong chance as well given her history with Rhea Ripley.

Nia Jax Attacked Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley

The way this segment started while McIntyre and Adam Pearce were shown speaking backstage backstage was well done. WWE has really upped their production levels as of late by trying new stuff. This segment played out predictably with Ripley getting her match with Jax made official for Elimination Chamber and Jax attacking her, but it was nicely executed. I could certainly see that headlining the event with it emanating from Ripley's native Australia.

Ivar and Valhalla def. Alpha Academy (Akira Tozawa and Maxxine Dupri)

I've largely liked what WWE has done with Dupri by putting her with Alpha Academy (and to legitimately learn on the job), but it's pretty apparent by this point she shouldn't wrestling on television, at least not yet. She always has a handful of botches in her matches and they're extremely noticeable. I applaud her trying to improve, but she is quite bad at this moment. As a result, this was a flat match, in addition to no one giving a damn about a feud between Alpha Academy and Ivar and Valhalla.

The Miz def. JD McDonagh

Miz lost to Dominik Mysterio two weeks ago, so it was logical for him to win here. McDonagh probably wrestles more than anyone on any WWE roster and still loses every match he's in, but that's just his role i The Judgment Day. The match was perfectly fine, but R-Truth was once again the highlight by giving out Judgment Day shirts in the crowd while the match was going on. All signs point to Awesome Truth being the ones to take the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship from Judgment Day at WrestleMania and I can't say I have an issue with that.

Jey Uso and The New Day Fended Off Imperium

Gunther was celebrating 600-plus days as Intercontinental Champion when he was interrupted by Uso, who said he wants the next shot. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods made the save, so we're getting them against all of Imperium on next week's show. I've assumed for weeks that Uso would be next in line for a title opportunity and that Jimmy Uso would cost him the win to rekindle their rivalry ahead of WrestleMania. I assume Gunther vs. Uso happens on Raw one of these weeks as I don't think Gunther can leave the country (to travel to Australia for Chamber) right now.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors def. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter

The original encounter between these teams on the SmackDown before Royal Rumble was very entertaining and the crowd was into the action. For whatever reason, this was the exact opposite. The four women didn't click as well and the crowd was completely quiet throughout. Yes, that was the case for a majority of the show, but they were extra quiet here. At least Kabuki Warriors retained as they should have and now they can move onto other challengers.

Cody Rhodes def. Shinsuke Nakamura in a Bull Rope Match

This really should have been the stipulation match a month ago instead of the No Disqualification match they had instead. The program peaked at this point and this didn't serve much of a purpose other than killing time with Rhodes. That said, this was a well worked main event. Rhodes winning was never in doubt and nothing was at stake, so I don't blame the crowd for not being too excited by what they were watching. McIntyre attacking Rhodes afterward should set them up for a match at Chamber.

Overall Show

Right before the main event, there was a pre-taped segment with Jackie Redmond interviewing Sami Zayn while sitting in the empty arena​ and asking him about falling short at Elimination Chamber last year. It was excellent and even the way it was shot was cool. At any rate, coming into this show, all eyes were on how WWE would react to that terrible ending to Friday's SmackDown and I thought they did a decent job. That's not to excuse the company's current direction for the WrestleMania main events (especially since I don't see them changing it), but they got through it this week. I enjoyed the episode on the whole and I appreciated how they set up several things for next week's episode, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania.

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