Monday Night Raw Review - July 5, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Raw Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos Crashed Miz TV with The Miz, John Morrison, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre and Riddle

I maintain that Miz would gain way more from being off TV while he's out injured than if he remains a regular on TV the entire time. I appreciate how dedicated how Miz and Morrison are to being goofy, but it's incredibly hard to take them seriously. This was a silly segment that may have managed to get people less excited for the men's Money in the Bank Ladder match. The Riddle stuff is hit or miss with most viewers, so I can see some hating this more than others. At least it served to set up Riddle vs. Styles later in the night as well as lead into Ricochet vs. Morrison.

John Morrison def. Ricochet by Count-Out

​I honestly wouldn't complain if we got Morrison vs. Ricochet for a few minutes every week on Raw. They work that well together. Can we get a proper Best of Five or Seven Series between them at some point? This was another enjoyable encounter from them, albeit not as hot as last week. The drip stick stuff is stupid, but the in-ring action was entertaining and made the match worthwhile. I actually didn't mind the non-finish because it means we're likely getting more matches from them in coming weeks.

Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Eva Marie and Doudrop def. Nikki Cross, Alexa Bliss, Asuka and Naomi

The team that ended up losing will be involved in the women's Money in the Bank Ladder match, and the team that won will not be. That's basically all there was to this aside from the established issues between Bliss, Baszler, Jax and Reginald. The hocus pocus crap just needs to end and I'm hoping it will once WWE is back in front of fans in two weeks. This was a well-wrestled eight-woman tag team affair and they filled the time well, and although I appreciate WWE getting all the women on the show week after week, they need more direction once we're past the pay-per-view.

Mustafa Ali def. Mansoor

I've been digging this feud because it's simple storytelling. It's nothing that hasn't been done before, mind you, but it makes total sense given their current characters and where they're at in their careers. They've been playing their roles well and, if nothing else, at least it's been getting them on the show semi-regularly. This wasn't long enough to be as good as it could have been, but what we got from them was solid. Mansoor showing sympathy for Ali was what cost him the win, which I'm sure Ali will remind Mansoor about as the latest lesson he needs to learn.

Drew McIntyre def. Jinder Mahal by Disqualification

McIntyre's mic work was strong when he was WWE Champion, but it's been pretty darn lousy in recent months with all of the Scottish folktales and whatnot. It's not exactly Roman Reigns "Jack and the Beanstalk" bad, but it may be getting there. I will bet anything that he gets booed at Money in the Bank and that's unfortunate because he carried Raw throughout the pandemic period and deserves better creative. I didn't expect this match to be just thrown out on TV, but it was decent. I'm not exactly clamoring for a feud between them, but it's logical given their history, not to mention that it gives McIntyre something to do outside of the WWE Championship picture for the foreseeable future. Could Mahal injury McIntyre before Money in the Bank and get him removed from the matchup?

The Lucha House Party def. Mace and T-Bar

I believe this was the fourth match I've seen between these two teams in the last two months (that includes the matches they've had on Main Event). I'm glad they got television time here, but there needs to be a reason why they're facing each other so often. Raw's tag team division is growing, but WWE needs to give viewers more of a reason to want to care about most of them. With all of that said, this was a fun little sprint with a surprising outcome. Whether WWE will capitalize off this win for Lucha House Party remains to be seen.

Riddle def. Raw Tag Team Champion AJ Styles

Riddle and Styles never cease to have terrific chemistry. This was the usual quality contest from them. Styles has lost so many singles matches this year that this victory doesn't mean much for Riddle, but it's a nice feather in his cap, at the very least. I'm confused as to who are supposed to be the heels in the tag team feud between Styles and Omos and The Viking Raiders, because I don't think Styles did anything to justify them coming out at ringside during this match and going after Omos. Nonetheless, they'll finally meet for the Raw Tag Team Championship in two weeks on the first Raw with fans this year.

Raw Women's Champion Rhea Ripley Confronted Charlotte Flair

This whole rivalry has been all over the place. I've seen a ton of hate for this segment online and I don't blame anyone for not liking it, but personally, I didn't mind it as much. I thought it served its purpose with Ripley making fun of Flair's "injury" and doing as Flair would, which is what Flair has wanted. Although I understood what they were going for, there's no doubt that this program doesn't feel nearly as hot as it should given who's involved. WWE managed to make viewers not care about Flair vs. Ripley and they've only had two matches so far with one of them being last year. I think that's because the babyface in this feud hasn't been defined at any point. Neither of them are currently likable.

Jaxson Ryker and R-Truth def. Cedric Alexander and Elias

What a waste of time this was. I don't know it didn't last long and that's a blessing, but there was no reason for it to happen in the first place. We were subjected to the 24/7 Championship garbage in the beginning, Ryker had to fend for himself because Truth ran off, and we got more of Ryker vs. Elias despite the rivalry presumably being blown off last week in the Strap match. On top of all that, Alexander was squashed like a loser as soon as he stepped in the ring with Ryker. Kudos to WWE for cramming so much wrong into such a short span of time.

The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) def. WWE Champion Bobby Lashley and MVP

This was originally scheduled to be Lashley and Woods one-on-one but was changed to a tag team match via an advertisement for Raw that aired on SmackDown. I guess this means MVP is medically cleared even though he wasn't moving around the best here. It ended exactly how it should have with Kingston pinning MVP and getting a momentum boost going into Money in the Bank, but how many people actually view Kingston as a threat to Lashley's title is the question. Still, this was a well-worked main event. I don't know if it needed 15 minutes, but I could think of worse ways to fill the time.

Overall Show

Raw has been slightly more bearable than usual in recent weeks due to Money in the Bank coming up, but at the same time, I feel like a lot of the divisions are in a holding pattern until WWE gets fans back in two weeks. There are no guarantees the show will automatically be better, mind you, but hopefully the crowds will give Raw the energy it's been lacking for the last year or so. All in all, this was a solid show. Although there wasn't anything too exciting, I appreciated the storyline progression and the in-ring action was entertaining on the whole. I don't have many complaints except that more effort needs to be put into certain areas of the show (Ripley vs. Flair, the rest of the tag team division, the midcard, etc).

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