Monday Night Raw Review - June 6, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Seth "Freakin" Rollins Attacked Cody Rhodes

Rhodes feels like he's on another level following his performance at Hell in a Cell. Yes, it was definitely dumb he was cleared to compete by the company considering the nature of the injury (and hopefully he won't be out for even longer because of that), but he absolutely gained something from that win, no doubt about it. The commentary team confirmed Rhodes will be undergoing surgery this Wednesday, yet he teased vying for the Money in the Bank Ladder match. I guess the idea is that he was going to compete anyway and Rollins took that away from him? I thought/was hoping Rollins would turn face of this, and it was teased, but then he viciously attacked Rhodes, which likely means we haven't seen the last of this rivalry when Rhodes returns. What more would Rhodes have to gain from beating him for a fourth time, or could it be leading to Rhodes eliminating Rollins from the Royal Rumble to earn the title shot he's wanted? I suppose there's plenty of ways they can go with this, but either way, this was a strong segment to start the show.

24/7 Champion Dana Brooke def. Becky Lynch

This started out as non-title because it wasn't until halfway through that Brooke pinned Akira Tozawa out of nowhere to win the 24/7 Championship, so it turned into a title match coming out of the commercial break. It didn't last long before Asuka distracted Lynch from ringside and caused her to be rolled up by Brooke, who retained the 24/7 title. I'm sorry but this was terrible. I know Lynch had an out for losing, but it's not like Brooke benefits at all from that win, and Lynch failing to win the pointless 24/7 title is illogical when you consider at one point she went undefeated for nearly three years. This was a weak way of furthering the Asuka vs. Lynch feud.

The Miz and Maryse Hosted Miz TV with Riddle; Riddle def. Miz

Similar to last week's Miz TV segment with The Street Profits, Miz and Maryse's back-and-forth with Riddle was way funnier than it had any right to be. Plus, Maryse being back on WWE TV is always a positive. I know she was back to promote the Season 3 premiere of Miz & Mrs. after Raw, but I'd love if she was back permanently alongside Miz on TV. The subsequent match between Miz and Riddle was mostly silliness because Miz wasn't dressed to compete, but the live crowd seemed to eat it up and I enjoyed it, personally.

The Street Profits def. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos by Count-Out in a Championship Contender's Match

Even with the the Raw and SmackDown tag titles now unified, it still feels like we're seeing the same teams facing each other. On the bright side, Street Profits and The Usos have great chemistry and this was fun, but I'm ready for The Usos to work with some new teams. That said, we're obviously headed for a rematch with The Usos with the titles on the line one of these days. It's clearly a filler feud for The Usos as well as for Street Profits as I don't know what else you do with them otherwise unless you try them out in singles competition.

​United States Champion Theory Confronted Lashley

Lashley addressed his Handicap win over Omos and MVP at Hell in a Cell and I feared we would see Omos and MVP come out to extend the feud even further. Thankfully, Theory emerged instead, but I'm not sure why. Lashley hinted at challenging for the United States Championship, which would certainly be a choice. Theory shouldn't be losing that title just yet, but it feels like they don't know what else to do with Lashley in the meantime if Roman Reigns reportedly won't be back until SummerSlam.

Veer Mahaan def. Dominik Mysterio by Disqualification

Mahaan's feud with The Mysterios has been going on for two months now, though it doesn't feel like it because The Mysterios missed a month of TV time after WrestleMania. Mahaan previously beat Dominik, but this was much more competitive. They had a quality contest and Rey's interference protects Dominik in defeat. Mahaan beating Rey one-on-one should be where this is headed because that would be a big credibility-boosting victory for him.

Finn Balor Led Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley in a Betrayal of Edge

This won't be a popular opinion, but I was not at all a fan of how this played out. It was advertised that The Judgement Day would be getting a new member, and although that did happen and it was Balor (who I was hoping would join them eventually), I didn't think it would mean he'd replace Edge as the leader. I mean, that's incredibly random. The only reason I can think of as to why they did that was because Rhodes may be out for a while and WWE wanted Edge to be their top babyface in his absence, but not push Balor or AJ Styles in that spot instead? Why boot Edge as the leader after only two months? This lacked logic and it left me very disappointed. This could end up benefiting Balor in a big way and I'm intrigued to see him as a heel on the main roster finally, but I wish it didn't have to happen this way.

Omos def. Cedric Alexander

The story was that Alexander cost Omos and MVP the win at Hell in a Cell by interfering on Lashley's behalf, so this was Omos' revenge. Unfortunately for Alexander, it wasn't much of a match. Omos hit him with his finisher almost immediately and it was over in under 15 seconds. In other words, if you see his name on the list of releases soon, don't be shocked. The Dirty Dawgs then returned for an interview with Kevin Patrick and they got into it with MVP and Omos for some reason. Uhm, okay.

Ezekiel def. Otis

Ezekiel has beaten Chad Gable on TV a few times in the last month or so, but they held off on doing Ezekiel vs. Otis for some reason. I thought it was because they were trying to protect Otis and prevent him from taking a singles loss, but then Ezekiel defeated him here in roughly two minutes. It was fine for what it was. Post-match, Ezekiel challenged Kevin Owens to a rematch from Hell in a Cell next week on Raw, and Owens said he'd only accept if Ezekiel admitted he was Elias. He did, and once Owens accepted the challenge, he went back on what he said and ensured he was indeed Ezekiel. I'm curious if next week will be it for this feud or if there's more to come, and if so, what more can they do?

Rhea Ripley def. Doudrop, Alexa Bliss and Liv Morgan in a Raw Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match

I feel like number one contender's matches are rare nowadays because WWE insists on doing Championship Contender's matches instead, but I'm glad they went this route here because Bianca Belair shouldn't be taking unnecessary losses as champion. This was a very well-wrestled main event with all four women getting time to shine. Speaking of time, I'm glad this got almost 15 minutes in the main event slot. Ripley has the most momentum of everyone involved and I'm extremely excited to see her challenge Belair at Money in the Bank, but I'm slightly surprised it's not being saved for SummerSlam. Then again, they could always do the rematch there because it should be more than a one-month feud.

Overall Show

This was an interesting post-pay-per-view edition of Raw. The three hours didn't drag for me and it was certainly newsworthy as far as what was set up for Money in the Bank and Rhodes' (apparent) sendoff, but that Judgement Day killed the third hour for me. Again, I'm going to be in the minority on that one, but it was one of my favorite things about Raw recently and they blew it up for no reason. The rest of the show was solid, though, and the news that John Cena will be returning for his exact 20-year anniversary on June 27th has me excited, even if it's for one night only.

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