Monday Night Raw Review - November 21, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch) def. The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio)

Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre and Brawling Brutes opened the show discussing coming together to take on The Bloodline in WarGames and they successfully got the crowd hyped up. Hell, even I'm more hyped for Survivor Series after what we saw at the end of SmackDown last week and they followed that up nicely here. The subsequent six-man tag team match was fun and I was pleasantly surprised it didn't end in a disqualification or a count-out, though The O.C. and Mia Yim did prevent Dominik from walking out right before the finish to further that feud.

Omos def. Johnny Gargano

I thought it was weird Gargano vs. The Miz wasn't advertised in advance, but it made sense once we found out it was a bait-and-switch with Omos taking Miz's place. We haven't seen Omos on WWE TV since Crown Jewel and his appearance here made it clear he's not going to simply fade off into obscurity. Gargano did what he could to get a passable match out of Omos, but he's no miracle worker. The best thing I can say about this is that they kept it on the shorter side. By the way, Gargano getting a remixed version of "Rebel Heart" is damn disappointing.

Corey Graves Interviewed United States Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins

Despite now being a babyface, Rollins hasn't changed much about his character, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since fans were already cheering him for a reason. This was solid stuff from him here, setting up the Triple Threat for the United States Championship at Survivor Series. I'm glad they didn't needlessly shoehorn Mustafa Ali in there after all the losing he's been doing lately. Speaking of Ali...

Austin Theory def. Mustafa Ali; Theory and Bobby Lashley Brawled

I still don't know what they're going for with Ali. Obviously, the idea is that he's supposed to be showing heart in defeat, but because he constantly loses and gets his ass handed to him more often than not, it's impossible to care about him. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way based on how quiet crowds have been for him over the last match or so. This was a nice little match while it lasted and Theory winning was the right call as he continues to show more of an edge. I understand why Theory and Bobby Lashley would go at it, but the crowd didn't have an incentive to cheer for either guy.

Matt Riddle and Elias def. Alpha Academy

Did I miss the part where Riddle and Elias finally joined forces? Elias was hesitant for a while, but it looks like he's come around to the idea to teaming with Riddle. I hope it isn't for the long haul, though. I have zero desire to see Riddle back in the tag team ranks unless he's reuniting with Randy Orton. That said, this was an enjoyable affair that was given more time than I would've expected. Is the rivalry over now that Riddle and Elias have overcome Alpha Academy?

Drew McIntyre def. Baron Corbin

It was way too soon for these two to be rekindling their rivalry. I know WrestleMania was seven months ago, but I'd be content if I never saw another McIntyre vs. Corbin match. Their WrestleMania 38 encounter exceeded expectations, but this didn't reach that same level. In fact, this really didn't serve much of a purpose other than killing television time, and they killed a ton of it. Akira Tozawa ditching the ninja crap is appreciated, but I'm not sure if a Corbin vs. Tozawa feud is going to get fans invested in either of them.

Rhea Ripley def. Asuka to Earn the WarGames Advantage

This was the usual quality contest from Ripley and Asuka. Despite there being something at stake, the crowd didn't sound like they were too into the action until the final stretch. Ripley winning to give the heel team the WarGames advantage was logical, which probably means McIntyre and Sheamus are getting the advantage for their team when they face The Usos on Friday's SmackDown. The post-match brawl involving all of the women in WarGames was fine, but I think the crowd was expecting for the fifth person on Team Bianca to be revealed and it never came. We're left waiting for SmackDown for that instead, so at least that's a good hook for that show.

Overall Show

Aside from the last-minute hype for the men's WarGames match, the build for Survivor Series has been fairly tame and not nearly as important as it should've been. That said, I feel part of the problem is that WWE only had three weeks in between pay-per-views, so some stuff had to be rushed. It should be a strong card come Saturday, so here's hoping it delivers. As for this edition of Raw, it was decent on the whole, but it wasn't the most energetic effort. The crowd was as lifeless as they have been for weeks now and it's becoming a recurring problem with Raw.

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