Monday Night Raw Review - May 31, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Miz and John Morrison Hosted Miz TV with Raw Women's Champion Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair; Nikki Cross def. Flair in a Beat the Clock Challenge Match

Miz confirmed in this segment that he suffered an injury at WrestleMania Backlash. I was going to say I liked that he could still make appearances while out injured, but this wasn't very good. The subsequent match between Flair and Cross was also completely pointless as I fail to see how this benefited Cross. I'm glad she's back on the show after many months away, but she's celebrating these "wins" like she won the title even though all she did was try to avoid them the entire time. Needless to say, this did nothing to leave me looking forward to Flair vs. Ripley at Hell in a Cell.

Randy Orton def. Xavier Woods

This is your weekly reminder that you need to stop sleeping on Woods. He's great in the ring but rarely gets to showcase his skills in singles competition. He had that chance here and once again made the most of it, having a fun match with Orton. Meanwhile, the R-K-Bro stuff with Orton and Riddle continues to click. It feels like WWE does the oddball tag team shtick a lot, but in this case, it works and has made for one of the better things on Raw right now. Surely they'll be in the Raw Tag Team Championship picture before long, though I would hold off until fans return. Orton hitting Riddle's finisher for the win was another nice touch.

Reginald def. Shayna Baszler

Reginald did his usual act where he jumped around for a few minutes and avoided Baszler's offense. The only reason I was interested in this match was because I was hoping Baszler would destroy him and go back to being the killer she was pre-Nia Jax. Instead, fire came out of the turnbuckle and Reginald rolled her up for the win. Ugh. I'm not convinced a program with Alexa Bliss is enough to get her back on track at this point. I think it'd do more damage to whatever credibility she has left if anything.

Mace and T-Bar def. The Lucha House Party

It's about damn time Mace and T-Bar returned. Trust me, I haven't missed them, but it was bizarre that they were taken off the show coming off their back-to-back wins over Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman. The next step is giving them a hard reset by ditching the dumb names and giving them new looks because the face paint is goofy. The match was fairly basic while it lasted. By the way, where the hell did The Viking Raiders run off to?

Ricochet def. United States Champion Sheamus (Non-Title); Humberto Carrillo def. Sheamus (Non-Title)

Sheamus has had issues with Ricochet and Carrillo for weeks and I guess the idea in giving them both wins over Sheamus was to give them a title shot. I mean, both of them have lost twice to Sheamus in the last month, so this wasn't too impressive. Plus, although the matches were decent while they lasted, this just felt like lazy booking because neither victory was decisive. I'm sure a Triple Threat is coming and that'll be fun, but Ricochet and Carrillo feel like they're nowhere near Sheamus' level.

Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke def. Lana and Naomi

I'm all for the women getting television time, but the three matches involving women on this show were below-average. Flair vs. Cross was way too short to be anything out of the ordinary, Baszler's match against Reginald was a waste of time, and this wasn't interesting to me whatsoever. It wasn't the smoothest encounter in the ring and there's nothing exciting about these two teams fighting for a future shot at a pair of pointless titles. Rose and Brooke vs. Natalya and Tamina looks to be the next WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match and I couldn't care less.

Cedric Alexander def. Shelton Benjamin

I was pleasantly surprised when these two were given as much time as they were last week for their match and it ended up being very enjoyable. Well, it was back to reality this week with the two getting all of 30 seconds to work with. Alexander once again cheated by thumbing Benjamin in the eye before winning. I'm glad their rivalry has played out on Raw and not Main Event, but this was disappointing if it was meant to be the blow-off.

Raw Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos def. Elias and Jaxson Ryker

Styles and Omos never actually turned face, so I was under the assumption that both of these teams were heel and therefore I found it difficult to care. Styles and Omos have turned into a nice team, but Elias and Ryker do nothing for me at this point. There wasn't anything technically wrong with the match, but I never once bought into the idea that the titles were in jeopardy and Elias turning Ryker felt so random. Was this supposed to set up a feud between them? And we're supposed to give a shit? Yikes.

Drew McIntyre def. Kofi Kingston in a WWE Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

I don't think the outcome was ever in doubt, but there were some strong nearfalls down the stretch and it was an excellent outing on the whole. I really hope Kingston's performance turned some heads in the back as I'd love for Kingston to get another important singles run coming out of Hell in a Cell. He and Xavier Woods have done all they can do in the tag team ranks and this proved Kingston can hang with the main event players (though we knew that years ago). I appreciated that there were no shenanigans this time around and that McIntyre won clean (with an awesome-looking Claymore, too). Lashley vs. McIntyre should definitely be a Hell in a Cell match given how long their rivalry has gone on for.

Overall Show

First and foremost, I thought Jimmy Smith did a wonderful job on the whole in his first night as Raw's new play-by-play commentator, replacing Adnan Virk who parted ways with the company last week. He has the basics down, and if he can continue to familiarize himself with the product, he can be a natural. The rest of Raw was fine but a step down from last week. The main event delivered and I enjoyed Orton vs. Woods, but everything in the middle as well as the opener were a chore to sit through. There's nothing you need to make time for outside of McIntyre vs. Kingston. The creative direction on this show is so lifeless and uninspiring.