Monday Night Raw Review - October 25, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, Kevin Owens and Finn Balor Staked Their Claim for a Shot at WWE Champion Big E

This was your typical, paint-by-numbers segment with the champion being interrupted by a myriad of challengers. It served its purpose, yes, but I really wish WWE would switch up this tired formula. The mic work in this segment was fine, but my issue with it was that everyone who came out are all losers from a storyline standpoint. Rollins and Balor both lost at Crown Jewel, whereas Rey and Owens haven't won in a while. Why would any of them deserve a shot? Edge would have made the most sense, but I assume he won't be back until 2022.

The Dirty Dawgs def. The Street Profits and The Alpha Academy in a Raw Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Match

The tag team divisions on Raw and SmackDown are so thin at the moment that this match literally consisted of three teams that were just on SmackDown. Hell, we probably saw this match earlier this year when The Dirty Dawgs were the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. It was well wrestled and had a nice pace to it, but it's difficult to care about The Dirty Dawgs at this point. I'd much rather see Robert Roode branch back off on his own, but it's probably too late for that.

Queen Zelina def. Doudrop

Much like Xavier Woods last week on SmackDown, Zelina had her coronation before the bout, except it wasn't as entertaining and she was on her own. She did the dumb regal shtick, complete with an accent. She's going all in with the character and I applaud her for that, but I honestly have zero desire to see her challenge for the Raw Women's Championship at any point. I wasn't impressed at all by her matches against Asuka last year, nor was I impressed by anything she did in this outing. It was basically a shorter version of their Crown Jewel match and nothing about it was remotely memorable.

Bianca Belair Attacked Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch

In a segment like this, you think in your head of all the possible people who could come out and position themselves as a challenger to the championship. I don't think Belair was the fresh face fans had in mind. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Belair fan and it make sense to continue her feud with Lynch, but I'm anxiously waiting for other women to step up and get a shot. This verbal exchange felt like it was little lengthy, but they delivered their lines well and effectively built toward their Raw Women's Championship clash next week. Belair has lost a lot lately, so I'm curious if next week will be the night she gets the belt back and goes into Survivor Series as champion.

United States Champion Damian Priest def. T-Bar by Disqualification (Non-Title)

I know for a fact that I'm not in the minority when I say that I absolutely loathe Priest's new entrance music. Okay, it isn't awful, but his last theme was cool and fit the Archer of Infamy gimmick perfectly. The problem is that I don't think they want to do the Archer of Infamy stuff anymore, which is why he ditched everything that worked about his entrance. Instead, he's doing this angel/devil deal where he'll lose his mind when someone pisses him off. Okay, then. Priest and T-Bar had some bangers in NXT, but this was a nothing match with a lame finish. T-Bar going back to being Dominik Dijakovic is long overdue.

Carmella def. Liv Morgan

Carmella also received new entrance music when there was nothing wrong with the last song she had. She plays her role well, but I hate the dumb mask stuff is being pushed at the expense of Morgan, who was getting genuinely over at one point and she's been slowly phased down since. This feud really should have ended at Extreme Rules as none of the rematches have been given much time. Morgan should've gotten her win back already, so the constant losses aren't doing her any favors.

Keith "Bearcat" Lee def. Cedric Alexander

Even if the nickname Bearcat is meant to pay homage to a past legend, I hate how WWE is already going overboard with it. The nickname isn't enough, so they're giving him new music and new gear to go along with it, not to mention that he roared like a bear at least once or twice during this segment. I thought he was supposed to be a heel, but The Hurt Business are heels, so who knows. Speaking of Hurt Business, we have yet to get a full-fledged reunion with all of the members. Rather, Alexander and Benjamin have just been getting their asses kicked so far. Lee made short work of Alexander, so the match was nothing special. Hurt Business scouting Lee could be interesting, but we'll see where that leads.

Austin Theory def. Dominik Mysterio

This was set up backstage when Theory attempted to take a selfie with Rey and Dominik got offended so he challenged him to a match. There was no sign of dissension among the Mysterios, so we'll see if that storyline from SmackDown continues on Raw. It's quite amazing that if you add the ages of Theory and Dominik together, it still wouldn't add up to Goldberg. The match was basic yet brief and Theory keeping his winning ways alive was the right call.

Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro def. The Dirty Dawgs

Let the record show that RK-Bro vs. AJ Styles and Omos was originally advertised for this show at one point but was scrapped beforehand. No reason why was given, but I'm not complaining because I had no desire to see that again. The Dirty Dawgs are only on Raw to put other people over, so at least they do that well. This was entertaining for what it was. I'm glad WWE has resisted the urge to break up RK-Bro because it feels like there's a lot left in the tank there.

Seth Rollins def. Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio and Finn Balor in a WWE Championship No. 1 Contender's Ladder Match

Normally I'd say, "Why do a Ladder match on such short notice with no prior advertisement?" However, Raw is in such an abysmal state at this point that it hardly matters. They may as well try anything to get people interested in the show and to stick around so they don't tune out. All four guys gave it a hell of an effort and put together a terrific main event. It was pretty predictable Rollins would win, but the action itself was exciting enough that I didn't mind. It felt like they had to improvise at the end because the matchup ended early.

Overall Show

This was touted as the "season premiere" of Raw and yet not a whole lot felt fresh and new except some of the faces we saw. I'm all for switching up the rosters, but it seems like the same people who were getting opportunities on SmackDown are already getting those same opportunities on Raw. The matches were still rushed and questionable booking decisions were made. Worst of all, there was zero build or mention of Survivor Series, which is coming up in a few short weeks. This was actually one of my least favorite episodes in recent weeks and was unfortunately more of the same despite my minimal amount of enthusiasm coming into it.

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