Monday Night Raw Review - October 26, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Drew McIntyre Attacked The Miz and John Morrison

I really, really hope McIntyre won't lose his main-event status despite no longer being WWE Champion. I hated what happened to Kofi Kingston after he dropped the title last year and thus McIntyre shouldn't suffer the same fate. He cut a pretty standard promo here addressing his defeat at the hands of Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell and Miz and Morrison also played their roles well. They did a decent job of setting up Miz vs. McIntyre for later in the night, but McIntyre getting the better of the two with ease at the end of this segment didn't do much to make them feel like threats.

AJ Styles def. Jeff Hardy to Qualify for Raw's Men's Survivor Series Team

These two have been at odds since the summer when they were feuding over the Intercontinental Championship and I was happy they had the chance to have the match they were capable of here. Better yet, Styles' new bodyguard Big Jordan (who has yet to be officially named) wasn't as much of a distraction this week as he was last week. Both guys are great and had a quality contest. Either one of them would have been nice additions to Raw's men's team at Survivor Series, but Styles was the right choice to qualify given the recent roll he's been on.

Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik def. Drew Gulak and Akira Tozawa

Dorado and Metalik came out to Kalisto's entrance theme here and still had Lucha House Party in their graphics, but I hope they aren't going by that name anymore now that they're on their own. I guess it doesn't even matter as long as they're a part of the 24/7 Championship picture, as seen here. The match itself was whatever, but anything involving the 24/7 title is a total waste of time to me and is an immediate channel-changer. By the way, poor Drew Gulak.

Keith Lee def. Elias to Qualify for Raw's Men's Survivor Series Team

Considering how aggressive WWE was pushing Lee when he first arrived on Raw, I was certainly surprised this lasted as long as it did and was as competitive as it was. Then again, Elias just returned from injury, so I get it. It took a distraction from Hardy for Lee to win, which just felt strange. Hardy and Elias have smashed so many guitars in the past two weeks that it's officially at the point of overkill. As for Lee, there was no sign of his rival Braun Strowman here despite laying him out last week, though I still expect that feud to continue.

The Hurt Business (United States Champion Bobby Lashley, MVP, Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander) def. RETRIBUTION in an Eight-Man Elimination Tag Team Match

How anyone could bring themselves to care about this one-sided feud is beyond me. I'm glad Hurt Business continue to go over strong, but RETRIBUTION are such losers that these matches mean nothing. The elimination stipulation just dragged this thing longer than it needed to and none of was interesting in the slightest. Ali got himself disqualified, so all of this was practically for nothing. Can we skip to the part where WWE pulls the plug on RETRIBUTION like Raw Underground?

Drew McIntyre def. The Miz

Now that Miz is Mr. Money in the Bank (again), WWE seriously needs to do a better job of portraying Miz as being on the level of McIntyre and Raw's other top talent. I have my doubts he'll cash in the contract successfully, but unlike with Otis, WWE could at least try to make the effort. He and McIntyre had a well-wrestled match, and although I didn't expect Miz to win, nothing he did here would make you think he's being groomed for a WWE title run. Maybe that will change in the coming weeks, but the way he's been booked this year doesn't give me a lot of hope.

Lana def. Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce in a Fatal 4-Way to Qualify for Raw's Women's Survivor Series Team

Adam Pearce and Pat Buck announced beforehand that Raw's women's team at Survivor Series will consist of Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke and the winner of this Fatal 4-Way. I can understand the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions automatically qualifying for the squad, but what the hell did Brooke and Rose do to earn their spots over these other women? The Fatal 4-Way was decent, but the worst possible choice went over and that's Lana. No, Jax putting her through a commentary team yet again doesn't endear her to the audience as a babyface. It simply makes me care even less about her than I did before.

Sheamus def. Matt Riddle to Qualify for Raw's Men's Survivor Series Team

I thoroughly enjoyed the encounter these two had on SmackDown a few months ago and this was equally entertaining and hard-hitting. Both guys need wins right now, so it was genuinely unpredictable who would win. Yes, this marked the second straight loss for Riddle since coming over to Monday nights in the Draft, but he had such a great showing that I don't think he lost anything in defeat here. As for Sheamus, he's been underrated for a while and it's cool he'll be on Team Raw at Survivor Series.

Drew McIntyre and "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt Interrupted WWE Champion Randy Orton on Moment of Bliss with Alexa Bliss

You had to know The Fiend was going to pop up at some point during this segment given the well-documented history between Wyatt and Orton. Orton's interaction with Bliss was kept short and sweet and everything that followed with Orton, McIntyre and The Fiend was well done. As tired as I am of the Orton vs. McIntyre rivalry, getting Wyatt in the mix could freshen things up. I was left wondering whether we'll be getting a Triple Threat with these three for the WWE Championship at some point, though it may have to wait until the TLC pay-per-view in December with Survivor Series being all about brand supremacy for the fifth consecutive year.

Overall Show

I appreciated that WWE wasted no time in setting up several matches for Survivor Series next month. Unfortunately, we're getting the Raw vs. SmackDown stuff again, and without any stakes, it's difficult for fans to get invested in the brand warfare nonsense, especially when NXT being a part of it last year was the best part about it. There's no NXT at the event this year and it was never explained why. Nonetheless, this edition of Raw featured some above-average wrestling and solid storyline developments, but the three hours were a chore on the whole. The red brand has a stacked roster, but the creative side of things isn't that much better than it was pre-Draft. Granted, I can remember worse eras in Raw's history, but there is zero doubt that SmackDown is the superior show at the moment.