Monday Night Raw Review - September 20, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Bloodline (Universal Champion Roman Reigns and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos) def. The New Day (WWE Champion Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)

Quite a few fans were upset when this was announced for this show during Friday's SmackDown. I'm typically not one for hot-shot booking, and this easily could have been saved for a bigger stage, but it made sense given Big E's ongoing rivalry with Reigns. It was enjoyable for a television match and what we got was good, but obviously they're capable of much more. I loved how much of a badass Bobby Lashley came across as attacking everyone before and after the finish, setting the stage for the Triple Threat main event with himself, Big E and Reigns. By the way, shouldn't the referee have thrown the contest out when Lashley attacking everyone at ringside even though they weren't legal at that point?

Doudrop def. Eva Marie

I think the video packages recapping their rivalry that aired beforehand were longer than the match itself. Seriously, what was the point of this? I got the feeling that Eva might win to even the score and set up a rubber match with a stipulation for Extreme Rules, but I'm actually glad Doudrop scored a second straight win and won in a matter of minutes. Needless to say, Eva is awful in the ring and would be better off in a managerial role.

Raw Tag Team Champion Randy Orton def. AJ Styles

We've definitely seen these two go one-on-one at least a dozen times since WrestleMania 35. Hey, I'm not complaining as they always work well together and this was another quality contest from them. They were given plenty of time and the crowd was into it because they're the big names. What's funny is that Lashley and MVP won a lengthy Tag Team Turmoil match a few weeks on Raw to become the number one contenders to the Raw Tag Team Championship, but they didn't get their shot last week as advertised and now Styles and Omos are being groomed for a rematch one of these weeks. That's WWE for you.

Shayna Baszler def. Nia Jax

Coming into this match, there was no doubt in my mind that Jax was winning, so I couldn't be happier to have been wrong. I looked it up and this was the first televised singles win for Baszler since February. That's awful for someone that reigned as the NXT Women's Champion for over a year. The match was wisely kept brief and I appreciated that Baszler went over in decisive fashion. The post-match angle was weird, though. I'm all for making Baszler a force to be reckoned with, but I have no desire whatsoever to see Jax as a babyface.

Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza def. Mansoor and Mustafa Ali

Carrillo and Garza teamed up for the first time in WWE on last week's episode of Main Event. That must have been a test run that they passed with flying colors. The only difference is that Carrillo worked as a heel this time, so it appears they'll be a heel team moving forward. Like I just wrote about Ripley and Nikki, WWE has a knack for putting people together in the tag team division when they have nothing else for them to do, but at least it actually makes sense in this case because they're legitimately cousins and work wonderfully as partners. This was a ton of fun while it lasted and Garza and Carrillo are off to a solid start as a tandem.

Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. def. Natalya and Tamina to Win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

As soon as Ripley and Nikki spoke beforehand about Connor's Cure and dedicated their win to the kids affected, there was no way they were losing. It's better than Natalya and Tamina continuing to hold the gold, but Ripley and Nikki are the definition of a makeshift team and are no different than RK-Bro, except significantly less entertaining. The match was fine, but I'm still left wondering what the hell happened to the title shot Shotzi and Nox were supposed to get and should have gotten months ago. They did beat the champs in three non-title matches after all.

Alexa Bliss Hosted Alexa's Playground with Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair

I take back what I said last week. This is officially the best thing Bliss has been involved in with her current character so far, though I realize that's a relatively low bar. Between this segment and what we saw last week, I really think this is the direction WWE should take Bliss in going forward with her speaking more normally and don't relying on the supernatural stuff as much. She's been killing it with her performances, but the supernatural shit is what kills my interest in most of her matches. However, I'm far more intrigued by Bliss vs. Flair at Extreme Rules coming out of this than I was previously. Their mic work was terrific and they got some strong lines in there.

Jeff Hardy def. Sheamus

Hardy has been added to the United States Championship match with Damian Priest and Sheamus at Extreme Rules as a result of this win. He was in his home state of North Carolina win, so it was refreshing that WWE gave him a rare win and put him on the pay-per-view. This was the usual above-average encounter from these two. The Triple Threat actually feels fresher than Sheamus vs. Priest again, which we just got at SummerSlam and on Raw prior to that.

Universal Champion Roman Reigns def. Bobby Lashley and WWE Champion Big E in a Triple Threat Match (Non-Title)

This easily could have headlined a major pay-per-view, maybe even WrestleMania. Alas, WWE wants to give Raw that "anything can happen" vibe now to boost ratings now that we've entered football season, so I can understand why they made this official earlier in the evening. Granted, I would've given it a bit more build and time to advertise it, but that's just me. I'd love to see these three run it back again because this was tremendous stuff. They got great time, they constantly kept things moving, the crowd was hot for the nearfalls, and Reigns pinning Lashley was the right call. Part of me thought Lashley might beat Big E to earn himself another shot at the WWE title, but it would have been weak for Big E to get pinned a week after becoming WWE Champion, and it would have been booking malpractice for Reigns to get pinned after all this time in a random Triple Threat. Seeing Reigns back on Raw for the first time in almost two years was special, though.

Overall Show

I've seen plenty of praise for this show online. Once it was over, the thought of it being a blow-away show didn't immediately come to mind, but on the whole, it was definitely an upgrade over most editions of Raw we've gotten this year. Of course, that's not saying much, but I'll take a thumbs-up episode whenever we can get one. The opening and closing segments carried the show and there was some solid stuff in the middle as well. It just didn't sound like the crowd was too lively throughout. My only issue with the episode was that it hardly sold me on Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view, especially with no WWE Championship match announced and none of the advertised matches featuring any sort of a stipulation. Seriously, what the hell is the point then?!​

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