 Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens Brawled with The Judgment Day and JD McDonaghRhodes' mic work has been pretty basic since his storyline with Brock Lesnar ended. He was cutting some great promos during that feud, but he's clearly killing time right now until his next feud kicks off. He even alluded to someone being traded to SmackDown soon in exchange for Jey coming to Raw, so perhaps that was meant to plant the seeds for Rhodes being that person. The brawl that ended this segment seemed to hint at the WarGames match we've all been expecting for a while. Bronson Reed def. OtisAs Wade Barrett put so eloquently, this was a case of big, meaty men slapping meat. This wasn't quite Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Miro from AEW All Out earlier this month, but it was still a fun, hard-hitting hoss fight while it lasted. Reed already owns a victory over Chad Gable, so here's hoping he has an Intercontinental Championship opportunity coming his way and he isn't just treading water like he has been for the better part of the year. Tommaso Ciampa def. Ludwig KaiserCiampa defeated Giovanni Vinci last week, so it was logical that he'd knock off Kaiser here as well before he challenges Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship (Fastlane would make the most sense for that match to happen). This was a competitive, well-wrestled contest. Vinci accidentally costing Kaiser the win was an intriguing development. Vinci's (second) exile from Imperium seems to be inevitable. Tegan Nox def. NatalyaDuring Nox's interaction with Becky Lynch backstage earlier in the episode, Lynch alluded to Nox almost answering the NXT Women's Championship open challenge last week. Apparently, that was actually the plan before Vince McMahon made the change. If the idea is to start pushing Nox going forward, then I'm all for it. The crowd was quiet for her here and the match was nothing special, but beating an established star in Lynch is a nice start. World Heavyweight Champion Seth "Freakin" Rollins Accepted Shinsuke Nakamura's Last Man Standing Challenge for FastlaneRollins coming out in party mode at this stage of their storyline will never not annoy me. His promo picked up when he got more serious and showed good intensity once Nakamura made the challenge for Fastlane, so that was a plus. I like the Last Man Standing stipulation as the blowoff for this feud because of Rollins' hurt back and how Nakamura could realistically win without pinning Rollins. NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio def. Dragon LeeThis was a vast improvement over their original encounter from last month. It felt like Lee carried through most of the match that time, but both guys had strong showings in this rematch and the crowd was into the action. The main roster introduction of Lee last week was not well done, but I have to imagine new viewers were impressed by him here. Part of me was hoping Lee would win the title, but I can't complain about Mysterio winning clean. Does this mean the NXT North American Championship won't be defended at NXT No Mercy on Saturday now that Mustafa Ali's been fired? Nia Jax def. Zoey StarkMichael Cole was interviewing Jax in the ring about her return so far when she was interrupted by Stark. The promo was fine, but I still don't care about Jax immediately being a focal point in Raw's women's division. It doesn't help that Stark is also a heel (the last time I checked, anyway), so it was hardly shocking that the crowd sat on their hands. Raw really needs to build up more female babyfaces because it feels like there's an abundance of heels. The New Day Interrupted Drew McIntyre on Miz TV Hosted by The Miz; McIntyre def. Kofi KingstonMiz spoke to McIntyre about how The Bloodline cost McIntyre the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship last year at Clash at the Castle and McIntyre reiterated how Jey can't be trusted. We didn't learn anything new, but it did further McIntyre's slow-burn heel turn (along with how he didn't save New Day afterward McIntyre beat Kingston). The subsequent match between McIntyre and Kingston was entertaining as expected. Ivar distracted Kingston by attacking Xavier Woods at ringside, so that rivalry rolls on. I'm ready for New Day vs. Viking Raiders to be over, but they still need to have the two-out-of-three falls match that was originally scheduled for last week. Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and Damian Priest) def. Sami Zayn and Kevin OwensNothing was going to top the Street Fight these teams had at Payback earlier this month. I can also understand fans being of sick of seeing these four working with each other by this point. That said, this was a hot main event once they picked up the pace and delivered some suspenseful nearfalls down the stretch. Outside interference once again led to a Judgment Day win. It's become tiresome, but they need to be built up if them getting their comeuppance eventually is going to mean something. Overall ShowThe road to Fastlane has largely been tame (which is par for the course for the fall season in WWE), but Raw does remain a solid show most weeks. This was another adequate edition of Raw with the usual storyline progression and above-average wrestling. The three hours are fairly formulaic, but the top storylines have my interest. On a side note, the fact only two matches are announced for Fastlane so far doesn't leave me overly optimistic about the event. The company tends to better about not confirming cards at the last minute.
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