Monday Night Raw Review - September 12, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Matt Riddle and Seth "Freakin" Rollins Brawled; Finn Balor def. Riddle

Rollins started the show with a quality promo establishing his championship aspirations, and as we found out later in the night, he will challenge Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship next week on Raw. Riddle will obviously cost him the title to set a rematch between them for Extreme Rules, likely with a Falls Count Anywhere or Street Fight stipulation based on their brawl here. The transition to The Judgment Day confronting Riddle was well done and the subsequent Riddle vs. Balor bout was solid stuff. Rollins distracting Riddle from ringside was logical so Riddle could be protected in defeat.

Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai and IYO SKY) def. Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah to Win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

This was a rematch from the finals of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament two weeks ago and came about because Aliyah pinned Kai when she wasn't the legal woman. I've been willing to give Rodriguez and Aliyah a chance as a team, but they simply do not have strong chemistry as partners and Aliyah still sucks. You'll get no complaints out of me about their tag title reign being cut short, but it is pretty silly they won that tournament in the first place.

Johnny Gargano def. Chad Gable; Kevin Owens and Austin Theory Brawled

Gable was the perfect first opponent for Gargano in his first match as a member of the main roster. He's credible and can go, so I had no issue with this being a competitive contest. It was as enjoyable of an outing as you'd expect from these two and the crowd was behind Gargano early on as well as toward the end. He's off to a strong start on Raw. Austin Theory attacked him on the stage afterward to further that feud, which led right into his verbal exchange with Owens. Owens' promo was fantastic and proved he may very well be the best talker in all of WWE right now. That will likely lead to a rematch between the two even though Owens won clean last week.

Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair def. Sonya Deville

This was an open challenge from Belair, apparently explaining why Deville was able to appear despite being a SmackDown Superstar. I suppose it was better than Tamina or Dana Brooke facing Belair, but as much as I like Deville, she was a disappointing option, especially since Belair already beat her to retain the title back in April. The crowd didn't buy into her as a legitimate threat to the title, but it was a decent match. Post-match, Asuka and Alexa Bliss saved Belair from Damage CTRL. Belair vs. Bayley is all but confirmed for Extreme Rules at this point.

Omos def. Khash Morazzi and Ryan Tombs in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match

The show experienced technical difficulties during Omos' entrance and part of me hoped it would cut out the match completely, but no such luck. In all seriousness, this was a waste of time. It was only the second time Omos has appeared/competed on Raw since Triple H took over Creative, and it doesn't serve much of a purpose unless he's being built up for something (and I have no desire to see it). I could see Braun Strowman besting him one of these days, but that's about it. I'd rather see his television time devoted to someone like Veer or Robert Roode. Hell, give me AJ Styles over this meaningless crap.

Edge def. Dominik Mysterio by Disqualification

Edge wrestling a rare match on Raw is certainly an attraction and deserves to be in the main event, but Dominik simply should not be wrestling in main events. He's certainly skilled, but like Aliyah, his progress/development isn't where it should be at this point, but unlike Aliyah, he totally bypassed NXT. A run there could do him a lot of good, but WWE obviously didn't go in that direction and opted to turn him heel and put him in Judgment Day instead. It has added an interesting wrinkle to Edge and Rey Mysterio's rivalry with Judgment Day, but personally, I'm ready for it to be over. Judgment Day kick their asses every week but lose whenever it matters most, so it's difficult to care. Edge and Dominik had a well-worked match and the non-finish made sense to protect both guys, but the beatdown on the babyfaces from Judgment Day felt like a flat ending to the show.

Overall Show

I realize some of the segments bled together and I lumped them into one paragraph instead of splitting them up individually, but I continue to appreciate the less-is-more approach Triple H is taking with the show. This episode was an improvement over last week and a nice effort on the whole. Even the angle with Dexter Lumis and The Miz filmed at Miz's house was well done. Raw needs to be a strong show consistently as football season gets underway and the ratings unavoidably take a hit.

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