Monday Night Raw Review - July 6, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre def. Heath Slater (Non-Title)

While none of this made me any more excited for McIntyre's WWE Championship defense against Dolph Ziggler at Extreme Rules than I was before, it was a strong segment with Slater (who was legitimately released from the company back in April) delivering the best promo I've probably ever heard him cut. I loved how they weaved reality into the storyline and McIntyre made up for not keeping in touch with Slater by saving him from Ziggler afterward. The match itself was over in under 30 minutes, but this was an excellent use of Slater assuming it was a one-off.

Kairi Sane def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks by Disqualification (Non-Title)

This marked Sane's first appearance on Raw in a while and it was great to see her back. There have long been rumblings that Sane could be returning to Japan sometime soon, so hopefully this means those rumors aren't true. She was well protected here, which was surprising since I figured Banks would win decisively. This was a quality contest while it lasted that set up the obvious WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match next week's Raw.

Rey Mysterio Crashed The Kevin Owens Show with Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins; Mysterio and Owens def. Rollins and Murphy

I didn't think Owens would be back on WWE TV so soon with there still being people testing positive for COVID-19 at the Performance Center. At any rate, the talking segment served its purpose in building to the subsequent tag team match, where the winning team would choose the stipulation for Mysterio vs. Rollins at Extreme Rules. It was an entertaining affair that saw the babyfaces win with some help from Aleister Black (who was ambushed by Rollins and Murphy backstage earlier in the evening). That "Eye for an Eye" stipulation, though? Yikes. I guess it makes sense with the story they've been telling, but I have no idea how the hell that's supposed to work and I doubt WWE does, either.

MVP Unveiled the New United States Championship Belt; Bobby Lashley and MVP def. Ricochet and Cedric Alexander

I'm sad that the old United States Championship belt design is no more as I've always been partial to it, but the new one looks sweet. I can't say I'm thrilled for MVP challenging Apollo Crews for the title at Extreme Rules, but it's clearly filler ahead of Crews vs. Lashley, likely at SummerSlam. This was a fun match with the babyfaces shining while on offense before the heels picked up the victory as they should have. As for Ricochet and Alexander losing again, I've basically accepted them in the enhancement role by this point, so the outcome hardly bothered me.

Randy Orton, Andrade and Angel Garza def. Big Show and The Viking Raiders

Orton attempted to fire up Andrade and Garza and get them on the same page, which was desperately needed. It isn't as cool of a trio as FTRKO from late last year, but I wouldn't mind Orton forming a temporary alliance with Andrade and Garza to help get them back on the right back. Thankfully, Big Show's role was kept limited here and thus it was a decent match on the whole. Orton vs. Show appears to be all but set in stone for Extreme Rules.

Billie Kay def. Ruby Riott

I didn't care about Riott vs. Peyton Royce last week, but at least Royce had a chance to impress for a change and her finisher looked terrific. Billie Kay's? Not so much. I'm honestly stunned that she has hardly improved despite being with WWE for over five years now. At least this appears to be leading to Riott reuniting with Liv Morgan to take on The IIconics. I wasn't never the biggest fan of the faction, but it's best for everyone involved.

Raw Women's Champion Asuka def. SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley (Non-Title)

It's a bummer that champion vs. champion matches don't mean as much nowadays as they should, but this match was logical in that Banks is feuding with Asuka at the moment and this essentially served as a preview of that. They worked wonderfully together and put together a top-notch main event. I could have done without SmackDown's Nikki Cross showing up and costing Bayley the victory, but it protected her in defeat I suppose. I hate when champions lose in non-title action, but I guess it isn't as bad when it's to a fellow champion. As previously noted, The Kabuki Warriors will get their shot at Bayley and Banks' tag titles next Monday night.

Overall Show

Although this edition of Raw was a bit more bearable than last week, the three hours were far from exhilarating. The hype for Extreme Rules has been well done so far and the card is coming together nicely, but it feels like a filler pay-per-view on paper and that hasn't helped at all. It doesn't look like there were a ton of segments/matches on this show, but that's because most of them either bled together or were given plenty of time, or both. It was a serviceable main event, but outside of the champion vs. champion clash in the main event, there wasn't anything must-see about the episode in my opinion.