Monday Night Raw Review - October 23, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Judgment Day Attacked Cody Rhodes

This was pretty much every opening segment we've had on Raw for months except with the roles reversed as Rhodes interrupted Finn Balor and Damian Priest this time and not the other way around. We did find out that it will be Rhodes vs. Priest at Crown Jewel, though. Yes, it feels like a television match without anything at stake, but I'm glad the Money in the Bank briefcase won't be on the line because I don't want Priest losing it and Rhodes can find another way to earn a rematch with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40. The Rhodes injury established he'll be the underdog at Crown Jewel, but his shtick of fighting through "injuries" is getting old (the torn pec at Hell in a Cell 2022 was obviously legitimate, but the broken arm he had during the Brock Lesnar feud this year was not).

The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) def. Alpha Academy (Chad Gable and Otis)

I believe this marked the first match these teams have had together, which is impressive because Alpha Academy has been around for almost three years. I guess they were always separated by the Brand Split until now. This was enjoyable for what it was, even though it didn't seem to accomplish anything. Maybe this means New Day are being built back up for an opportunity at the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship?

NXT Women's Champion Becky Lynch def. Indi Hartwell

This wasn't on par with Lynch's title defense against Tegan Nox from a few weeks ago, not to mention they didn't get a ton of time, but it was a fairly average outing while it lasted. I don't think Hartwell had a strong enough showing in defeat to where she gained much from this, but I'm glad she got a rematch for the title she never lost. I like that Xia Li is being built up in the background for a future face-off with Lynch.

The WWE Women's Championship Contract Signing Descended Into Chaos

This wasn't your typical contract signing as there was no table in the ring, but that's why this worked. Instead, all five women scheduled to take part in the Fatal 5-Way at Crown Jewel entered the ring and signed the contract held by Adam Pearce one-by-one. I appreciated the simple approach, even if the mic work didn't stand out at all. Nia Jax was just abysmal, and while I'm sure that was the point, I don't think it's effective in getting her heat. The brawl served as a fine preview of the Fatal 5-Way.

Johnny Gargano def. Giovanni Vinci

Fun fact: Vinci owns a singles win over Gargano from his NXT days. I don't know that Vinci has won a singles match since. In all seriousness, this was a nice little matchup, but it was way too short to matter and the crowd did not care. This was designed to set up Tommaso Ciampa's return as he thwarted Ludwig Kaiser's interference at ringside. DIY will officially reunite to take on Imperium next week.

Ricochet Attacked Logan Paul and NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio

Being a "free agent," Paul can appear on any brand, but this was pretty pointless. Yes, Ricochet and Dominik went at it and that led to a match between the two being announced for next week, and I realize Paul brought up Dominik in his segment with Rey Mysterio last Friday on SmackDown, but he didn't need to pop up on Raw. That said, this was fun, if only because Paul and Dominik generated great heat.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Chelsea Green and Piper Niven def. Natalya and Nikki Cross

Green and Niven have been such fighting champions that they haven't defended the titles a single time since winning them. I know Piper had to replace the now-injured Sonya Deville, but the division is basically nonexistent at this point. Natalya was going to team with Tegan Nox, but we found out Nox got hurt in her match with Lyra Valkyria on last week's NXT, so Cross stepped up as her partner. However, Cross just stood on the apron entranced and never tagged in, so this turned into a Handicap match and the heels won with ease. The match was nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm intrigued by Cross' character development.

Drew McIntyre def. Sami Zayn

This was easily the best thing on the show by a wide margin. These two had a handful of matches last year, but that was back when Zayn was still a heel and thus this was better than those of the updated dynamic. They worked wonderfully together, woke the crowd up, and played their respective roles extremely well. Distraction finishes are usually lame, but it made sense in this case with Rhea Ripley distracting Zayn from the apron in an attempt to recruit McIntyre to Judgment Day. I like how McIntyre didn't hesitate to take advantage of the distraction because he's headed for a heel turn.

Bronson Reed def. Akira Tozawa

Tozawa has been hanging around with Alpha Academy the past two weeks and picked a fight with Reed backstage earlier in this episode. He'll never be taken seriously, but he's been hilarious in the comedy role recently, at least in my opinion. This was a standard squash for Reed to get him back on track following his loss to Gunther last week. He teased having unfinished business with Gunther, so we'll see if that leads to a rematch or if Gunther will move on to other opponents.

Damian Priest def. Jey Uso

I believe this match was originally scheduled to take place a few weeks ago before being bumped due to an injury to Priest if I'm not mistaken. They had a good match, but this didn't feel like it was worthy of the main event spot, especially when it featured the same shenanigans we've been getting from Judgment Day for months. Priest needed this victory more than Uso, so him going over was the right call. Rhodes and Uso are still at odds with Judgment Day, but I'm not sure how WWE can keep this interesting for much longer.

Overall Show

Similar to SmackDown on Friday, we got more interaction between Nick Aldis and Adam Pearce on this show, and although I'm in full favor of dueling general managers being back, it's way too soon to dive into any sort of brand supremacy storyline. At any rate, this was a perfectly solid edition of Raw albeit a step down from the last few weeks. Storylines progressed, but the episode lacked life and there wasn't much worth seeking out aside from McIntyre vs. Zayn. It was clearly a filler show ahead of next week's Crown Jewel go-home show.

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