Monday Night Raw Review - November 15, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kevin Owens Interrupted WWE Champion Big E; WWE Champion Big E and Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle def. The Usos by Disqualification (Non-Title); Seth Rollins and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos def. WWE Champion Big E and Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro

The entire first 30 minutes of the show largely existed to kill time, but at least everything made sense and served a purpose. Big E addressed Roman Reigns to start the show and went back and forth with Owens, who is absolutely a heel now. I honestly forgot that Rollins is the current number one contender to the WWE Championship until he made his entrance. The first tag team match was a total waste of time (where was Randy Orton to begin with?), but the subsequent tag team match was formulaic yet decent. Big E sending a message to Reigns by attacking one of The Usos afterward was a nice touch.

Bianca Belair def. Tamina

Yes, Tamina is now a part of the Raw roster thanks to the 2021 WWE Draft. She's even worse on her own than she is in a tag team, but much to my surprise, she was fairly competent here. I wouldn't have made the match so competitive, but it was fine for what it was. I was hoping Doudrop would change her name, music and whole shtick upon turning heel, but so far, no such luck. She said she'll take care of Belair next week and will allow her to focus on Survivor Series before then. How nice of her.

Liv Morgan Confronted Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch

Lynch continues to start her promos acting like a babyface before acting more like a heel. It's confusing and doesn't do her opponents any favors. That said, this was a terrific verbal exchange from her and Morgan. This was probably the best promo I've heard Morgan cut to date and it was smart for them to acknowledge that conversation they had with Lynch got pregnant last year. This was a strong segment and I look forward to the rest of the buildup.

The Street Profits def. Alpha Academy

As well as these teams work together, we saw it enough over on SmackDown this year, so this didn't exactly feel fresh. It was certainly well wrestled and they received an ample amount of time, but it's clear WWE has zero plans to push Alpha Academy (specifically Chad Gable) in any meaningful manner. Meanwhile, Street Profits have their sights set on the Raw Tag Team Championship and are being built up for a match with RK-Bro.

Queen Zelina def. Raw Tag Team Champion Nikki A.S.H.

Despite being one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Nikki has definitely fallen far since the summer. I realize Zelina is in the midst of a push, but Nikki losing to her would have been laughable a few months ago. The match was way too short to be anything remotely memorable, but I can't say I'm surprised they'd want to give the heels some momentum before they eventually challenge for the tag titles.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Rhea Ripley def. Carmella

This had an interesting dynamic because Ripley is such a badass and Carmella is the exact opposite. They've never gone one-on-one before, but I liked what we got from them here. Much like the last match, this was relatively brief, so it was hard to care. I'd love to see Zelina and Carmella take the tag titles so Ripley and Nikki can go their separate ways with Ripley being the one to turn on Nikki.

Kevin Owens def. Finn Balor

It's amazing to think that Owens and Balor have had only one other match against each other on the main roster, and that was back in 2018. I thoroughly enjoyed their matches in NXT in 2015 and would love to see them rekindle their rivalry before Owens likely leaves in a few months. This was a nice taste of what they're capable of and featured the right result with Owens being featured in the main event picture lately. This marked Owens' first televised win in over three months.

AJ Styles and Omos def. The Dirty Dawgs

I realize these teams teased tension in last week's eight-man tag team match, but I really couldn't have cared less about this. Styles and Omos should have left the tag team ranks after losing the Raw Tag Team Championship and Dirty Dawgs bore me to tears. There wasn't anything technically wrong with this, but I don't blame the crowd one bit for largely sitting on their hands for it. It filled a few minutes and that's about it.

Bobby Lashley def. Rey Mysterio

Rey was upset with Adam Pearce for what happened last week with Lashley and Dominik and got himself put in a match with Lashley as punishment for questioning Pearce's manhood. What a moron! I remember a match these two had back in 2019 that saw Lashley squash Rey in under a minute, but I'm glad this went a little longer and got to be what it had the potential to be. Rey fighting from underneath against the dominant Lashley made for a good story. Lashley went over decisively as he should have and Pearce announced afterward that Rey is off Raw's men's Survivor Series team in favor of Austin Theory.

Overall Show

You don't need to me to tell you that the build for Survivor Series has been downright deplorable (and nearly nonexistent at times), but I will, anyway. How anyone can be excited for that pay-per-view is beyond me, but I'm sure it will be a thumbs-up show from an in-ring standpoint based on what's being advertised. As for this edition of Raw, it was solid for the most part, but obviously failed as a go-home show for Survivor Series. Hopefully the show will be better when the brand supremacy is out of the way starting next week.

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