Monday Night Raw Review - July 24, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens Interrupted The Judgment Day

This followed the same formula that most recent Raw opening segments have with Judgment Day, Owens and Zayn, but the crowd was hot for everyone and they all played their roles well. The NXT North American Championship got a ton of attention and it was made clear that Zayn would challenge for the title later in the show. This was simple stuff, but it accomplished what it needed to and was never boring.

Becky Lynch def. Zoey Stark

I don't think there was any doubt who was winning this rematch, especially when they showed the replay of Trish Stratus saying last week that Lynch would have to get a chest tattoo if she lost, but they had another damn good match, nonetheless. I appreciated that Stark was made to look credible in defeat. WWE has a nice job of handling her on the main roster. Maybe I missed it and it was made official, but I assume Lynch vs. Stratus will happen at SummerSlam.

Cody Rhodes Addressed Brock Lesnar

If Lesnar isn't attacking Rhodes, then Rhodes is addressing Lesnar or calling him out. It's been the same pattern for months, which is why I'm ready for this rivalry to be over. I've said before that they've sold me on the rubber match and they have, but it'd be nice if Lesnar showed up more often and cut more promos (or explain why he attacked Rhodes to begin with back in April, but we all know that's not going to happen). Rhodes' mic work here was once again strong, but we learned nothing new and a stipulation has yet to be added.

NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio def. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Sami Zayn

This was the third time the NXT North American Championship has been defended in the last week. I'm all for Mysterio raising the profile of NXT's secondary title, which will ideally get more eyes on NXT once this experiment is over. This was the best of his three title matches in the last week, which should come as no surprise given who his opponent was. This was fun stuff. Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest dragged an injured Owens out on the stage to distract Zayn and cost him the win. Reportedly, Owens is legitimately injured and hopefully he's not out for too long.

Bronson Reed def. Tommaso Ciampa

Ciampa has multiple enemies at the moment between The Miz, Reed and now Shinsuke Nakamura. If he didn't cause Nakamura to lose by disqualification last week, he wouldn't be an issue! The crowd was quiet for this early, but they came alive for the final few minutes. This was a very well-wrestled match and I appreciated that they got as much time as they did. Ciampa was protected in defeat as a result of being distracted by Nakamura. My only nitpick is that it shouldn't have happened right after Mysterio vs. Zayn because they had similar finishes.

World Women's Champion Rhea Ripley Attacked Liv Morgan

Ripley and Morgan were scheduled to go one-on-one, but Ripley attacked Morgan before the bell and it never happened. Instead, she spent several minutes unleashing a brutal beating on her. Similar to Owens, Morgan may be actually hurt and thus this was designed to write her off the show for now. That's a bummer, especially since she just returned from an injury (maybe it's the same one?), but I do look forward to them feuding when she's ready to come back. This put a ton of heat on Ripley before she defends against Raquel Rodriguez. Presumably, that'll be at SummerSlam, but it hasn't been added to the card yet.

Logan Paul Accepted Ricochet's SummerSlam Challenge

Ricochet has gotten more mic time in the last month than he probably has at any other point in his WWE career. He's still not the strongest talker, but I applaud his effort and I appreciate that WWE is giving him more chances to connect with the crowd. Paul obviously had to carry the segment on his end, but this was well done on the whole as they made their match official for SummerSlam. That should be a blast.

Damian Priest def. Apollo Crews

I've been saying for weeks in my Main Event reviews that I was disappointed Crews was called back up to the main roster only to be relegated to Main Event, but it was nice he returned to Raw here. Granted, it was for a squash against Priest, but I'll take that over him not appearing at all. This wasn't very competitive, but it did give Priest another win and keep Judgment Day's momentum rolling.

Drew McIntyre and Intercontinental Champion Gunther Went Face-to-Face; McIntyre def. Ludwig Kaiser

I loved McIntyre and Gunther's verbal exchange, specifically Gunther acknowledging McIntyre's losses at Clash at the Castle and WrestleMania 39. McIntyre noted that it was a Triple Threat at 'Mania and not one-on-one, so the stage has been set for SummerSlam. That's going to be a barn burner. For an impromptu match, McIntyre vs. Vinci was what it needed to be. They could've saved it for next week, but I assume they wanted to kill time. For what it's worth, I don't think any tension was teased with Giovanni Vinci and the other members of Imperium this week.

The Judgment Day Attacked World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Sami Zayn Following the World Heavyweight Championship Contract Signing

Contract signings have been done to death in WWE, but this effectively left me (and hopefully other viewers) looking forward to Rollins vs. Balor at SummerSlam. It'd be more interesting if they added a stipulation, but Balor has a higher chance of winning this time with Judgment Day seemingly back on the same page. The intensity from both Balor and Rollins in this segment was excellent and Judgment Day ended the show standing tall once again.

Overall Show

It's been apparent for months that Raw revolves around Judgment Day (similar to SmackDown with The Bloodline since 2020), but it was especially evident with this episode. I'm not complaining as they're a great group, but WWE needs to be careful to not overexpose them (apparently they'll be appearing on NXT for the foreseeable future, too). This show wasn't on par with last week's but was solid on the whole and did a decent job of continuing to build toward SummerSlam.

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