Monday Night Raw Review - September 6, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Bobby Lashley and MVP Confronted Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro

RK-Bro are without a doubt one of the most acts on the Raw roster right now. They were beloved by the Miami crowd, even though their promo was fairly basic stuff. The Lashley and Orton exchange led to Lashley vs. Orton for the WWE Championship being made official for Extreme Rules, as well as Lashley and MVP entering Tag Team Turmoil. I'm looking forward to Lashley vs. Orton as we haven't seen it since 2007, but it's sad that WWE has no other options to put in the main event scene at the moment. Maybe take this time to start building some people up?

The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) def. Mace & T-Bar, The Lucha House Party, Jinder Mahal & Veer, and The Viking Raiders in Part 1 of the Raw Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Turmoil Match

It's a typical WWE formula to take a Gauntlet match and give it a ton of time, but personally, I liked how this was formatted with New Day lasting the entire time because the crowd was behind them throughout. New Day vs. Viking Raiders was a blast and the other mini-matches were well worked. The fact it ended in a non-finish only to continue later in the night was bizarre (and I'm not sure I've ever seen that before), but I didn't have an issue with it. If anything, it created a hook for later in the night.

Sheamus def. Drew McIntyre in a United States Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

One of the biggest complaints about Raw from fans is that it features the same matches week after week (which is absolutely true), but I had no problem with McIntyre and Sheamus running it back here for two reasons: they work exceptionally well together and it's also been almost six months since they last went one-on-one. This was another excellent match that could have gone either way. I figured McIntyre would win to set up McIntyre vs. Priest at Extreme Rules, but Sheamus ended up picking up the victory instead. McIntyre was protected in defeat with Sheamus holding the tights, but I'm curious what this means for McIntyre's future. Is he turning heel? Is he going to SmackDown? As for Priest vs. Sheamus, hopefully that gets a stipulation at Extreme Rules.

Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H. def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Natalya and Tamina in a Championship Contender's Match

Ripley and Nikki tried to explain in a pre-match interview why they're a team. I appreciate the effort, but it still feels too much like RK-Bro to me. I guess it's better than neither of them being on the show at all, and to their credit, they have chemistry as partners. This was a well-wrestled match. Ripley and Nikki will get a title shot eventually, but if they get one before Shotzi and Tegan Nox (who have beaten Natalya and Tamina three times now), I'll be a bit baffled.

John Morrison Hosted Moist TV with Karrion Kross; Kross def. Morrison

I realize Kross appearing on Morrison's dumb talk show was designed to set up their subsequent singles match, but the Moist TV stuff is absolutely awful. I was slightly optimistic when The Miz betrayed Morrison two weeks ago and Morrison cut a serious promo later that night, but he's been acting goofy ever since then. He was destroyed by Omos last week and then by Kross this week. In other words, his immediate future without Miz around doesn't look bright. As for Kross, I'm happy he's been winning a majority of his matches, but I have no idea why he lost in his debut to Jeff Hardy all these weeks later.

Raw Women's Champion Charlotte Flair def. Nia Jax

Last week's match between these two was one of the worst I've seen all year, so I had no desire to see a rematch so soon (let alone at all). On the bright side, this was an improvement over last week's atrocity (which isn't saying much) and wasn't saved for Extreme Rules. Jax is terrible, but Flair did what she could to get a passable match out of her. More tension was teased between Jax and Shayna Baszler, but seeing as how they've been at odds for months, it's difficult to care until they finally go their separate ways and Baszler is finally on her own again. The team overstayed its welcome long ago. Post-match, Alexa Bliss interrupted Flair's victory celebration, so they will presumably do battle at Extreme Rules for the Raw Women's Championship after all.

24/7 Champion R-Truth def. Akira Tozawa

I find it hilarious that WWE bothered to advertise this match in advance for the show and delivered on it after not delivering any of the three matches that were advertised for last week's show. At any rate, this was exactly what you'd expect it to be. I appreciated that it was kept short and sweet, but I still can't bring myself to give a crap about anything involving Reggie. Worse yet, Jeff Hardy was spotted among the losers chasing Reggie for the title afterward. How long was that recent contract extension he signed again? Drake Maverick also resurfaced, which was interesting, but if their plan for him is to go right back to the 24/7 Championship silliness, he's probably better off doing jobs on NXT.

WWE Champion Bobby Lashley & MVP def. AJ Styles & Omos, The New Day, and Mansoor & Mustafa Ali in Part 2 of the Raw Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Tag Team Turmoil Match

The rest of this Gauntlet match was as enjoyable as the first half. New Day showed great heart by besting Mansoor and Ali before finally falling to Styles and Omos. You'd think Lashley and MVP vs. Styles and Omos would have that weird heel vs. heel dynamic, but the crowd was very much behind Lashley and MVP, likely because MVP is a Miami native. The crowd was especially into Lashley and Omos facing off. I'm curious if that will lead anywhere or if WWE will want to do more with that because of the reaction it got. Personally, I hope not as Omos is still very inexperienced. With the win, Lashley and Omos will challenge RK-Bro for the Raw Tag Team Championship next week on Raw.

Overall Show

Not to sound pessimistic, but I absolutely came into this show expecting another awful three hours like last week, but I was pleasantly surprised for that not to be the case. Okay, so it didn't hold a candle to AEW's All Out pay-per-view from the night prior and they didn't do anything out of the ordinary to combat all the buzz AEW has been getting, but I really liked what they did with the Tag Team Turmoil match and McIntyre vs. Sheamus. The middle was mediocre for the most part, but I wasn't completely bored by the three hours for a change. Granted, part of that might have been because I didn't watch live, but it's still a slight improvement over recent weeks. I'll take whatever I can get with Raw at this point.

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