Monday Night Raw Review - September 5, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Judgment Day Attacked Edge

​I know Edge only returned at SummerSlam, but I'm already ready for him and everyone involved in this rivalry to move on to other things. Dominik turning heel freshens things up a bit and I'm curious to see how he'll do in the role, but Judgment Day beating down Edge and Rey is getting old. That said, this segment effectively furthered the feud and I like that they didn't give away Dominik's first heel promo quite yet. It's official that he's joined Judgment Day and that might be for the best to ensure he doesn't flounder on his own. I still think an NXT run would be more beneficial, but this is an upgrade over him and Rey continuing to team and spin their wheels in the tag team ranks.

The New Day vs. Alpha Academy vs. The Street Profits vs. Los Lotharios in an Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match Ended in a No Contest

I was wondering why New Day were included in this number one contender's match and not the team that beat them on SmackDown last Friday (The Viking Raiders), but the finish made it clear why that was the case. This was going well up until Braun Strowman returned and laid out everyone in sight. The crowd was hot for him and he was made to look like a monster, but I hate that it came at the expense of the tag team division. Essentially, the match itself was a waste of time. I wish Strowman could have returned a different way, but he does appear to be in the best shape of his life.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah def. Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. (Non-Title)

What an awful last few weeks for Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. They failed in the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament twice, failed to win the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship at Worlds Collide on Sunday, and failed to beat the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions in non-title action here. Surely a split is coming, right? Nikki could be seen throwing her mask at Doudrop backstage before walking off later in the show, so fingers crossed that's where we're headed along with a repackaging of bot women. This was a decent match and Rodriguez hitting her finisher on Doudrop was impressive.

Kevin Owens def. Austin Theory

This came together the same way Owens vs. Drew McIntyre did a few weeks ago. The pre-match promo exchange wasn't as excellent, but it was still very good and the subsequent match was great. They worked really well together and I wouldn't mind this being a future feud over the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship when one of them eventually holds it. I'm not a fan of Theory taking repeated losses, but Owens is white-hot right now and the audience is super behind him.

Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair Interrupted Damage CTRL

In a slight tweak from Clash at the Castle, Bayley's crew went from being Damage Control to Damage CTRL (I like the latter more, personally). They spoke about their win at the event before Belair came out and pointed how it took three of them to beat her. I would say it was a slightly heelish response, but she did challenge Bayley one-on-one and Bayley said it would happen on her teams (a.k.a. at Extreme Rules, most likely). This was a solid segment to set that up and announce that Dakota Kai and IYO SKY are getting another shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship next week because Kai wasn't legal when she was pinned last week.

Damian Priest def. Rey Mysterio

This was a quality contest that featured good work from both men, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm quickly losing interest in Edge and Rey opposing Judgment Day, even with Dominik joining the group. Rey always loses in singles matches nowadays before winning on pay-per-view, so I don't know how much this win meant for Priest. To his credit, Dominik played his role well at ringside and now he'll face Edge one-on-one next week on Raw.

United States Champion Bobby Lashley def. The Miz in a Steel Cage Match

Yes, Lashley just beat Miz in a non-title match last week, but a rematch was made because Lashley accepted a challenge from Miz and a stipulation was added to prevent outside interference from Dexter Lumis... even though he made his presence felt, anyway. Miz attacking Lashley before the bell was smart to make it look like he had a chance of winning (even though he didn't) and it was an entertaining main event. That shot of Lumis underneath the ring was fantastic.

Overall Show

Quite a bit was advertised for next week's Raw, including a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match, Johnny Gargano's first match as a member of the Raw roster, and Edge vs. Dominik. That's because they'll be airing opposite of Monday Night Football for the first time since the beginning of the year. At least they're not stupidly calling it the "season premiere" of Raw this time around. Nonetheless, this was a fairly dull show by Triple H's recent Raw standards. Braun Strowman's return was easily the biggest thing that happened all night. I expected more from the post-pay-per-view show, though it was somewhat understandable with it being a holiday. They just seemed to phone it in and the three hours were more tedious as a result.

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