Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where you already knew what happened if you really wanted to, because it was pre-taped! That didn't stop this episode from including the triumphant return of The War Raiders, which was a weird choice, but they got their old "NXT" name back, so all is forgiven.You'd better believe we have thoughts about that particular return, as well as the CodyRhodes/GUNTHER promo, the many moving parts surrounding WWE's two singles women's champions, andJey Uso telling his treacherous twin where to stick it.
Advertisement
"Raw" might be two hours now but we still don't cover the entire show here; for that, you're going to want our "Raw" results page. This column is reserved for matches and segments that made the WINC staff smile in happiness or scowl in dismay. These are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 10/14/24 episode of "WWE Raw."
"WWE Raw" has moved to two hours and is still working through some growing pains, but this week, they at least found room for two women's matches, including the main event. The show opened and closed with Rhea Ripley, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan, and Raquel Rodriguez, an angle carried over from "WWE SmackDown."Following their first segment, the show went straight into the women's tag team title match between Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill and IYO SKY and Kairi Sane, and then aired a backstage segment involved Ripley requesting a match with Morgan and Rodriguez.
Advertisement
The tag title match featured "WWE NXT" tag team Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson sitting ringside and getting involved. It was good to see the match not be interrupted like it was on "SmackDown" when Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes brawled before another women's tag title match, and it also seemed to indicate that Legend and Jackson will continue to be a presence in the main roster tag team scene.
The main event featured Ripley and Stratton co-existing against Morgan and Rodriguez; Jax came to get her lick back by taking out Ripley and Rodriguez from behind, forcing the match to end in a no contest. For a moment, it looked like Morgan would get through a whole match without involving Dominik Mysterio, but Jax attempted to have Stratton cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase on Morgan while the Women's World Champion was down, which naturally led to Mysterio saving Morgan and carrying her to safety.
Advertisement
Regardless of the involvement of Mysterio (the women's title storyline revolves more around him than the actual title), there was still advancement for the match at Crown Jewel, as well as for Jax and Stratton Jax doesn't fully trust that Stratton won't cash in her briefcase on her and Stratton has come close to doing so. When you have multiple women's matches on one card, you can move storylines and characters forward, just like with the men. Who'd have thought?
Written by Samantha Schipman
It's pretty wild to me that even though we lost a full hour of "WWE Raw," we gained what seems like an hour of video packages, video vignettes, whatever you want to call them. This week's set were absolutely egregious and took up a ton of time that could have been devoted to furthering a storyline, tacked on to some matches, or really anything other than telling me things I already knew and understood, or worse, re-introducing me to someone who has been on the main roster for quite some time. The worst of it started with former Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker explaining just why he turned on new champion Jey Uso. But... that already made sense (despite me stupidly hoping the other week this meant Breakker was set for larger things, whoops) because of his reaction following congratulating Uso after his victory. Breakker did congratulate Uso, but you could just tell by watching it he wasn't one to be trusted. And, of course, he wants his rematch for the title. Makes total sense, and I really didn't need to hear any of it.
Advertisement
Breakker's promo was also immediately (and I mean literally back-to-back) following a video for American Made, who at least had a match lined up, but their video was a waste of time as well, because we know who they are and what they stand for as heels already. I don't know if that's why I thought Breakker's video was even worse, but I can't recall a time when "Raw" was three hours that we got videos back-to-back like that. The least WWE could have done was put Breakker's promo first, then followed it up with American Made right before their match, to make things flow a little better. But, apparently that's too much to ask.
And the final video that was pretty egregious video was for poor Dragon Lee. I say "poor Dragon Lee" because this man doesn't get the respect he deserves on "Raw" to begin with, and now they're out here giving him a silly video where he turns into a dragon. Oh... kay? This was bad, in my opinion, because Lee didn't appear on the show at all. So, why was he being re-introduced to us? Make it make sense! The video didn't even end with a form of "coming soon" or "coming up next week" thing for Lee, so I'm not sure what that had to do with anything on the show.
Advertisement
Overall, I thought the pacing of Monday's "Raw" was a little bit better compared to last week, but these random video packages, in the case of Lee, and the horrible, rambling explanations, in the case of Breakker, have got to stop. I'd like to think that isn't too difficult an ask, because other than that, two hours of "Raw" is starting to be quite pleasant.
Written by DaisyRuth
Characters come and go in wrestling all the time. Some of those changes are welcomed while others aren't so much, and some of those changes happen to be better than others. Time and time again in WWE, we see changes to characters that aren't necessarily needed especially when talent are moved from "NXT" to the main roster with many of those changes not being needed. The War Raiders were a prime example of such with their characters undergoing a slow change from cool metal dudes covered in tattoos to Vikings, but it appears that is no more.
Advertisement
Prior to Erik being sidelined with an injury, he and Ivar were floundering on the main roster with their old gimmick which later continued when Ivar was a singles star stuck in the middle and low parts of the midcard. They both desperately needed a change in characters for a long time now, and the old ones had been played out for quite some time. Reverting back to their old characters upon their return to television was an excellent choice, and having them defeat Alpha Academy in very quick fashion to make them look strong.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
I didn't think much of it when Seth Rollins dropped a line about how he's "slain beasts" in the past during a backstage segment on "WWE Raw." Sure, it was a Brock Lesnar reference, but the man wasn't named and it was just one of a list of things Rollins was saying he'd done, leading up to his ultimate point about hunting monsters. Not a big deal.
Advertisement
Then something weird happened. Cody Rhodes came out to do a promo segment with GUNTHER, and at the end of it, he started talking about the things he'd done, and mentioned that at one point he had slain a beast. Only this time, far from simply being a throwaway phrase leading up to something, it was actually Cody's closing line, the last words he said before he and GUNTHER shook hands and left the ring.
There are two possible options here: either WWE meant the repetition of these lines to be a tease for the potential return of Brock Lesnar, or they didn't. If the repetition was unintentional, it's just a terrible writing choice to put that line into the mouths of two different babyfaces, especially in the exact same way, for the exact same reason. If it was intentional, that presumably means Lesnar is coming back soon, which ... why? There's no logical place for Lesnar on "Raw," "SmackDown," or any upcoming PLEs, WWE is doing booming business without him, and oh yeah, he's been accused of sex trafficking in an active lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE! Netflix just put out a documentary that certainly made it seem as though WWE is attempting to distance themselves from McMahon even more than they already have, now they're going to bring back Lesnar?
Advertisement
It makes so little sense that it actually seems more likely to me that the former option is true and somebody just accidentally inserted the same line into two different promos. And yet, if Lesnar appears at Crown Jewel, will anyone be that surprised?
Written byMiles Schneiderman
There are times in professional wrestling where the planned direction can get in the way of the immediate logic of a storyline, foregoing the intricacies of the journey to make sure the destination gets everything it needs and then some. I wrote last week, working the other way, that I enjoyed the fact that there was a deliberate sense of care being put into the way The Bloodline OGs will be reuniting against Solo Sikoa's neo-Bloodline. Roman Reigns stubbornly refused to acquiesce to Jimmy Uso's request for them to patch things up with his brother Jey, as he should given the way they parted, and the current Intercontinental Champion likewise had little reason to pine for the family that had held him down.
Advertisement
So that's why Monday night was another positive step in the simmering storyline, with Jimmy taking it upon himself to seek out his twin to hash things out. Of course, the last time they were stood opposite one another was their brother vs. brother WrestleMania clash. Since getting the win on that night, Jey has captured his first singles title and is the reigning Intercontinental Champion, so there is a valid reason for him not to get tied down by familial drama once again and curtail his success on the "Red Brand." But it was the way it was done that come across so well for me. I have brothers, and I have similarly had conflict with my brothers, so it really can get to the point where the idea of even talking things through is too much stress. It's like a wound you know you need to clean, but a mere breeze in its direction is excruciating let alone opening it back up.
Advertisement
Jey carried that sentiment forward well, first walking away from his twin and, when that wasn't enough, hitting him with a guttural "I said no!" to shut down the conversation where it stood. His time as Reigns' "Right Hand Man" and lackey of The Bloodline was characterized by themes of sly betrayal and emotional manipulation, deliberately kept at a low self-esteem because of the credible threat he posed to the "Tribal Chief." Before Cody Rhodes befell him, it was under Reigns' command that both Jey was tormented and beaten by Jimmy and Sikoa. Why would he even want to get involved now his little brother is the one tormenting Reigns? It's a case of who feels it knows it, and now Jimmy and Reigns have both felt it, but that shouldn't be enough to change Jey's outlook on things. There is a lot for them to unpack before it even gets to a point where Jey should be considering putting himself back in that position; if only there was a match of significant consequence coming up for Jimmy to get back in his brother's good books.
Written by Max Everett
It's one thing to run a title vs. title match between Cody Rhodes and GUNTHER. Is it a dumb idea? Yes, objectively. But it at least has a veneer of respect surrounding it both men are enjoying strong title reigns that have only increased their already existing legitimacy, and they've never faced one another before in singles action. On paper you could at least make an argument for it, even if the context is stupid.
Advertisement
Nia Jax and Liv Morgan, on the other hand, have wrestled four singles matches previously, including two in 2024. It's far from a fresh matchup, and it doesn't really have the feeling of prestige carried by Rhodes/GUNTHER. Morgan has zero credibility as champion considering her low frequency of title defenses and high frequency of winning due to outside interference, and both wrestlers are heels embroiled in other storylines that necessitate the inclusion of Rhea Ripley, Raquel Rodriguez, and Tiffany Stratton in basically anything they do. So we get matches like this week's main event, which basically just felt like an excuse to get everyone in the same ring so Nia can beat them all up at the same time.
Advertisement
Rhodes and GUNTHER gave us a fairly straightforward promo about two people who have never fought before wanting to prove they're the best in a match fans have been fantasizing about since the 2023 Royal Rumble. There's something there, a leg to stand on, regardless of any surround factors. Morgan and Jax gave us a barely-logical tag match with a no contest interference finish. They feel like they're here for no more creative reason than "they both won big matches last time we were in Saudi Arabia," and Morgan in particular feels overshadowed with this many players around her. She was done no favors by having Dominik Mysterio and The Judgment Day save her from a Stratton cash-in, or by the fact that Stratton pretty clearly wants Jax's belt rather than hers.
We're all set up for both a Ripley vs. Rodriguez match and a Jax vs. Stratton match, but instead we're getting a heatless match with Morgan for the sole reason that she keeps cheating to keep her title. It's ridiculous, and so is the story being built around it.
Written by Miles Schneiderman
