Monday Night Raw Review - September 2, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Damian Priest Saved Rhea Ripley From The Judgment Day

The interaction between Ripley and Damian Priest made me want to see them have a match more than Ripley challenging Liv Morgan for the Women's World Championship. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with Ripley vs. Morgan again, but Ripley vs. Mysterio feels like the bigger focus. This was a simple segment to put heat back on the heels following their loss at Bash in Berlin.

American Made (Ivy Nile and The Creed Brothers) def. Alpha Academy (Maxxine Dupri, Otis and Akira Tozawa)

I'm pretty sure American Made has won all of their matches against Alpha Academy but has lost all of their matches to The Wyatt Sicks. By the way, I don't think that changes when they face The Wyatt Sicks again next week, this time in an eight-person tag team match. At any rate, this was a nicely-paced match to give American Made a victory they desperately needed.

Shayna Baszler def. Zelina Vega

Baszler was credited with "injuring" Vega a few weeks back. I appreciate the effort to establish an issue between the two because the women's divisions on both brands need more interesting non-title stories, but this crowd did not care. This was a decent match from what we got to see of it, though. Pure Fusion Collective stood tall over Vega and Lyra Valkyria afterward. Sonya Deville got good heat for her promo, but it's still to difficult to invest in the group.

Drew McIntyre Attacked CM Punk

This played out almost exactly how many of us expected it to with Punk shifting his focus to the World Heavyweight Championship only to get attacked by McIntyre. We've seen it several times this year, so at least it was a brutal assault. McIntyre taking Punk's handmade bracelet and breaking it was a great touch. It's safe to say we'll be getting a Hell in a Cell match between them at Bad Blood.

Ilja Dragunov def. Dragon Lee and "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match

Priest showed up and chased off Mysterio about halfway through, essentially turning this into a singles match between Dragunov and Lee. What we got early on was enjoyable, but the match was actually better after Mysterio left. I wish Dragunov and Lee received more time to do their thing, but it was very fun while it lasted. Dear WWE, please feature both men on Raw more consistently.

The Unholy Union def. Damage CTRL (IYO SKY and Kairi Sane) in a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the women's tag team scene still doesn't do much for me personally, but at least they're trying to make these matches matter. Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair just won the belts back at Bash in Berlin, so they were ringside. I understand wanting to do them again Unholy Union one more time, though I'm ready to move on from that feud. Cargill and Belair vs. Damage CTRL would probably be a much better bout, too. This was a well-wrestled tag team affair.

Sami Zayn Confronted World Heavyweight Champion Gunther

I was curious who would be next for Gunther once McIntyre took out Punk earlier in the episode, but Zayn makes a ton of sense. He's the only person to pin Gunther since Gunther debuted on the main roster over two years ago, and Zayn doesn't have anything going on at the moment (especially with Jey Uso taking part in the Intercontinental title tournament). This was a strong segment with quality mic work from both men.

Braun Strowman def. Ludwig Kaiser and Sheamus in a Triple Threat Match to Qualify for the Intercontinental Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match

Strowman replaced Bronson Reed due to Reed testing positive for COVID earlier in the day. Best wishes to Reed for a speedy recovery. I assumed Sheamus would advance because his rival Pete Dunne qualified for the Fatal 4-Way last week, but Dunne cost Sheamus the win instead. Thus, Strowman advancing was a certainly a surprise, but maybe Reed will be back next week to prevent him from winning. This was a solid Triple Threat, but I preferred the first one.

Jey Uso and Damian Priest def. World Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day (JD McDonagh and Finn Balor) (Non-Title)

This felt too similar to when Uso teamed with Zayn against Balor and McDonagh a few weeks back. It was an entertaining main event that also effectively furthered Priest and Ripley's feud with Judgment Day, but these wins need to mean something. It's the second loss Balor and McDonagh have suffered since becoming champions and they have yet to defend the titles on television. As a reminder, they won them in late June. On the bright side, the crowd ate up everything the babyfaces did.

Overall Show

Coming out of Bash in Berlin, I was hoping for a hotter show. It was an adequate edition of Raw that followed up on the events that transpired on Saturday and gave us idea of where certain storylines are headed with Bad Blood next on the event calendar. They also announced several matchups for next week's "season premiere" as part of "WWE Week" on USA Network. This was a perfectly acceptable episode, but Raw has done better in recent months. On a side note, I thought Joe Tessitore impressed on his first night as a Raw commentator. There's plenty of room for improvement, but the potential is there for sure.

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