Monday Night Raw Review - May 20, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Chad Gable def. Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn (Non-Title)

I liked their verbal back-and-forth to start the show and their subsequent match was good, even if it wasn't on the level of their last singles match a month ago. I'm typically not a fan of champions losing non-title matches, but I was totally fine with it in this case because it gave Gable a much-needed notable victory. That said, it makes me worried he won't win the title at King and Queen of the Ring. Otis attacking Zayn right before the finish was a surprise, but then he apologized to Zayn later in the night, so it doesn't look like he'll be turning heel after all.

Bron Breakker def. Kale Dixon by Referee Stoppage

As was noted on commentary, Dixon is a regular on NXT Level Up, and yes, he has a very dumb name. He was the perfect person to basically be murdered by Breakker here. Breakker squashed him quickly and decisively, but he continued to unleash his frustration on him afterward because Adam Pearce left him out of the King of the Ring tournament. This was excellently executed and will get Breakker over with the audience in no time.

Lyra Valkyria def. IYO SKY in a Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match

Fun fact: This lasted longer than every match in 2021's Queen's Crown tournament combined. How crazy is that? These two deserved the lengthy time they got and had a great match. The crowd was largely quiet for the action, but they worked really well together and the final stretch was very fun. Valkyria just barely beat SKY, so they can easily revisit this after the pay-per-view. WWE has done a strong job with Valkyria on the main roster so far.

World Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth def. The Judgment Day (JD McDonagh and Finn Balor)

As soon as R-Truth said backstage that he was bringing Andre the Giant as backup, I knew he was referring to Braun Strowman. It was a quality contest even up until Strowman aided Awesome Truth to victory, though. Truth vs. Judgment Day has obviously been done to death, but the crowd was into this. We found out a little later on that Strowman will face McDonagh on next week's show.

Liv Morgan Interrupted Women's World Champion Becky Lynch

Morgan is coming into her own as a heel. She's super obnoxious with the delivery of her lines, I'll say that much. I thought this was a solid segment that did an effective job of hyping up their championship clash for Saturday. Lynch keeps bringing up how Morgan has never beaten her one-on-one. That has to be setting up Morgan beating her for the belt, right? Morgan can't keep coming up whenever it matters most if she's going to be considered a credible contender.

Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark def. Maxxine Dupri & Ivy Nile, Katana Chance & Kayden Carter, and Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane)

Triple H, I know you're not reading this, but I beg of you: Find ways to crown number one contenders other than multi-person matches. It's become a weekly occurrence and it's so incredibly lazy. Why bother having the women's teams face each other in random matches on Raw if they're all going to be included in this stuff regardless? I felt bad because this was well worked and they got some time, but the crowd sat on their hands throughout and I don't blame them because WWE hasn't put real effort into this division in what feels like forever.

Gunther def. Jey Uso in a King of the Ring Semifinal Match

I was worried WWE might put Uso over Gunther and give us Uso vs. Tama Tonga in the finals, but thankfully, that did not happen. Even if Gunther doesn't win the whole thing (and I suspect he will), he should at least be in the finals. This was an entertaining main event, largely because of how over Uso is, though the crowd was quieter than I expected them to be. The finish felt a tad rushed because the show went off the air almost as soon as the bell rang.

Overall Show

There was a ton of backstage segments on this show, so it looks like less happened than usual. However, that didn't affect my enjoyment of the episode as I still thought this was a thumbs-up effort heading into King and Queen of the Ring. The right people advanced in the two tourneys and both bouts delivered. The rest of the show accomplished what it needed to and managed to maintain my interest for the full three hours.

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