Monday Night Raw Review - October 28, 2019

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Kairi Sane (Non-Title)

I was wondering why Paige was back to accompanying The Kabuki Warriors to the ring, but then it became clear that she was solely there for them to turn on her and cement their heel turn (if they hadn't already). It was a bit of an awkward angle because Asuka sprayed green mist in Paige's face and that was it (due to Paige not being able to take any bumps), but at least the match that followed between Lynch and Sane made up for it. They produced a great opener and I was happy the interference from Asuka at ringside was limited.

Buddy Murphy def. R-Truth

It was weird seeing Truth come down the ring rapping by himself for the first time in forever. This really should have been a straight forward win for Murphy but instead turning into a competitive contest. There was no reason for Murphy to have to capitalize off the silliness surrounding the 24/7 Championship at ringside to beat Truth. I'm glad he won, but this wasn't the strongest start for him on Raw.

The Street Profits Addressed the Audience

This promo won't be for everyone and some will complain that it didn't serve any purpose, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was reminiscent of what they were doing in NXT and I love that they're still entering through the crowd. None of what they said was terribly memorable, but the important thing is that they're gradually getting over with the audience. The only way for them to remain popular is for WWE to book them accordingly.

Ricochet def. Drew McIntyre by Disqualification

I loved the match they had last week and thought they had excellent chemistry together, but there was no need for a rematch one week later. I realize Ricochet and McIntyre will be on opposite teams at Crown Jewel and this was basically an excuse to get Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair on TV again, but neither guys should have lost here. That said, the non-finish was a good call, especially since fans weren't as concerned with it ending in a disqualification because they were too distracted by Randy Orton's awesome RKO to Ricochet. Man, that looked sick!

Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders def. Rizzo and Bryant (Non-Title)

We were told that "Rizzo" and "Bryant" played for the Chicago Cubs. I'm not a big baseball guy, but I guess the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals have some sort of a rivalry. Even if that was the reason, it was still stupid. This was a standard squash win for Viking Raiders that allowed them to maintain momentum, but I'm beyond tired of seeing them face local athletes. I'm ready for them to enter a real rivalry with another tandem over those titles.

Andrade def. Sin Cara

I could have sworn that the graphic introduced Catalina as Carolina, but I may have been seeing things. Apparently WWE signed her over the summer, though there's no word on whether she'll be a regular on the main roster moving forward. She didn't do much here aside from thwart Zelina Vega's interference, but Andrade emerged victorious, regardless (as he should have). Their match last week was decent enough and it was pointless for them to face off again, so here's hoping Andrade beating him twice now means he can move on to other opponents.

Natalya and Charlotte Flair def. The IIconics

We still have no idea who Lynch's next feud will be with, but it better not be Flair for the umpteenth time. Rather, it looks like Flair could be teaming with Natalya for the foreseeable future. It's honestly a pairing I can get behind since neither woman should be in the Raw Women's Championship picture at the moment. The match was mediocre in the time they were given and probably only existed to establish Flair and Natalya as allies.

Universal Champion Seth Rollins def. Erick Rowan in a Falls Count Anywhere Match (Non-Title)

Rowan is formerly a follower of Bray Wyatt, so I suppose it made sense for Rollins to have to overcome him ahead of his rematch with Wyatt at Crown Jewel. This went a while, and although they took their fight all over the arena, I couldn't bring myself to care. Despite his recent strong push on SmackDown, Rowan just doesn't do much for me and I never once thought he had a chance of winning. The finish was a rehash of how Mick Foley beat The Rock during Halftime Heat 20 years ago.

United States Champion AJ Styles def. Humberto Carrillo (Non-Title)

Carrillo had a hell of a showing against Rollins last week and was able to follow that up by pushing Styles to his limit. Granted, fans are still sitting on their hands for him, but hopefully he can win them over in time. Personally, I wouldn't have had him tap out clean in his second week on Raw, but at least he scored a ton of offense before eating defeat. Street Profits making the save for Carrillo afterward should set up a six-man tag team match for next week between them and The O.C. By the way, what happened to Kevin Owens?

Lana Accused Rusev of Infidelity on King's Court

I wasn't sure how this storyline could get any worse, but somehow, it did. Lana claimed that she cheated on her husband because he's a sex addict. Then she said that he wanted her to have kids and that doing so would have hurt her modeling career or whatever. Even though Rusev admitted to all of that, she finally said she cheated because Rusev cheated on her first according to Bobby Lashley. Man, this segment was such trash. I have no idea who WWE is trying to appeal to with this atrocious angle, but it isn't working. Sure, the crowd was behind Rusev here to a certain extent, but this a career-killer right here. This doesn't help anyone and merely wastes precious television time. Rusev would be better off elsewhere at this point.

Overall Show

The fact that nonsense with Rusev, Lana and Lashley closed out the episode says a lot about the state of Raw right now. They have a ton of talent and it's encouraging to see them start to build up a handful of the young guys including Aleister Black, Murphy, Carrillo and Street Profits, but there aren't many intriguing storylines at the moment. Rollins vs. Wyatt should be ending soon (Wyatt is on SmackDown, anyway) and the love triangle stuff is downright deplorable. It's possible WWE is holding out on starting anything new until after Crown Jewel, but then again, Survivor Series is right around the corner and that's usually when the Raw vs. SmackDown crap comes into play. This wasn't the worst Raw I've seen this year, but there needs to be more worth tuning into each week.