Monday Night Raw Review - July 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

United States Champion Bobby Lashley Attacked Theory

Kicking off the Fourth of July show with the United States Champion was a smart call. Lashley continues to be over big with the audience and it's cool to see when you consider his last few babyface pushes didn't exactly work out. Theory also got great heat from the crowd with his promo and that hasn't been happening a lot with him lately, so that tells me his push is working. This segment not only set up the six-man tag team match for later in the night but also their rematch for the United States Championship at SummerSlam.

The Mysterios def. The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) by Disqualification

Judgment Day have been an absolute afterthought went down with an injury, so I'm hoping this program with The Mysterios can help get them back on track. A loss isn't ideal, obviously, but I'm actually happy The Mysterios didn't lose in their hometown of San Diego. The finish was done in a way where the heels didn't have to take the pinfall loss, which I appreciated. Okay, so the latest Eddie Guerrero tribute didn't make much sense because the referee rang for the bell despite not actually seeing Balor hit Rey with the chair, but oh well. This was a hot opener and a vast improvement over their encounter on Main Event two weeks ago.

AJ Styles def. The Miz

This whole storyline with Styles and Miz. It's painfully apparent WWE has no idea what to do with Styles, and now it appears he may be teaming with Logan Paul against Miz and Ciampa at SummerSlam. I mean, is that seriously the best they can come up with for Styles at one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year? And before anyone tells me how big of a name Paul is, the match will be more about him than Styles, who has been wasted for a while now. Plus, if they really want to make Miz look like a threat, why would he lose clean here? It was a quality contest while it lasted, but I question the booking.

SmackDown Women's Champion Liv Morgan and Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair def. Natalya and Carmella

Before the impromptu match was made official by Adam Pearce, Morgan addressed the audience and thanked them for their continuous support leading up to her SmackDown Women's Championship victory at Money in the Bank. I loved the passion in her promo because you can tell how much it means to her to finally be a champion. Natalya and Carmella interrupting and attacking her led to Belair making the save. The match was well worked albeit basic. It was a good win for the babyface champions. All signs point to Morgan now being a member of the SmackDown roster, as she should be.

Seth Rollins def. Ezekiel

This came together after Ezekiel accidentally squirted ketchup on one of Rollins' extravagant shirts. That's WWE's holiday campiness for you. I've actually enjoyed a majority of what they've done with Ezekiel since he "debuted" after WrestleMania, but with Kevin Owens out injured right now (according to Corey Graves), he feels directionless. Crowds aren't really into his matches, either, and I don't blame them because he isn't the most exciting to watch in the ring. This was a solid match, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about it. Riddle getting revenge on Rollins afterward with an RKO out of nowhere indicates that will be the SummerSlam match.

United States Champion Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits def. Theory and Alpha Academy

Street Profits are coming off a stellar performance against The Usos at Money in the Bank. The Usos weren't on this show, but I assume we're still getting that rematch at some point based on how it ended at the pay-per-view. This was an entertaining six-man tag team affair designed to further the feud between Lashley and Theory and I thought the babyfaces had strong chemistry together. Theory has history with Alpha Academy from before Money in the Bank, so this worked really well. I could have done without Otis "throwing up" afterward, though (along with the multiple replays).

Intercontinental Champion Gunther def. R-Truth (Non-Title)

Truth was out in the ring celebrating the holiday dressed as Uncle Sam (and with the state this country finds itself at the moment, I don't know it's that anything worth celebrating) when Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser interrupted him. They previously appeared on Raw as part of Imperium in late 2019, but not since both men were called up to the main roster a few months ago. Thankfully, Gunther made short work of Truth and kept this short and sweet.

Becky Lynch def. Asuka in a No Holds Barred Match

These two have had a handful of matches in recent months, and as enjoyable as they've all been, I'm ready for them to move on. They already had their rubber match before Money in the Bank, but I liked that they (hopefully) blew it off with a sense of finality here by having Lynch win decisively in a gimmick match. It wasn't anywhere near as violent as what we saw in AEW's Blood and Guts matchup last week or Anarchy in the Arena before that, but as a WWE No Holds Barred match, it was a thumbs-up main event. This was obviously Lynch's biggest win since losing the Raw Women's Championship at WrestleMania 38.

Overall Show

This Fourth of July edition of Raw had all the usual holiday campiness you'd expect, but that stuff aside, this was a fairly straightforward post-pay-per-view show. Were they trying to kill television time per usual? Of course, but this was a better episode than I thought it would be with some above-average in-ring action. There were a few SummerSlam developments, but I hope they kick the build to the pay-per-view into high gear near week with it coming up at the end of the month.

SEE MORE: Raw Reviews