Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that's suddenly about as faction-heavy as a show can be without being produced by Tony Khan, because it's November, and that means it's WarGames season! Our loves and hates are almost entirely stable-centric this week, as we talk the search for a few good fifth men, Damage CTRL getting a member back from injury, and the hasty coming-together of something resembling a storyline for women's WarGames. We also spend more time than you might expect considering the future of The Judgment Day, which appears to be poised for a breakup sooner rather than later though of course, we've seen this movie many times before.
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There are several things that won't get our attention this week, which is a shame because we mostly enjoyed this one, but if you've missed out on any of the details surrounding the renewed GUNTHER vs. Damian Priest rivalry or the steadily-worsening New Day split or the surprisingly effective Final Testament vs. Wyatt Sicks segment, feel free to catch up via our "Raw" results page. If you want to know what we think about the parts of the show that gave us the strongest feelings, however, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 11/11/24 episode of "WWE Raw."
While I had myself completely convinced that the men's WarGames match was going to stay at four versus four, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Monday night's hunt for the fifth man, mostly for the babyface team. At the end of the show, we did get a surprise (but, is anything brand-to-brand really a surprise at this time of year?) appearance by Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu, also gunning for Seth Rollins' services in the match, just like Jimmy Uso attempted earlier in the night. I think this worked really well when you think about all the pieces throughout the show put together, from the more subtle, like just seeing Jey Uso talking backstage to Rey Mysterio, which was just in the shot of Bronson Reed walking backstage, to the segment with the "bad" Bloodline we got toward the end of the show.
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The inclusion of former SHIELD member Rollins was a really nice touch in all of this. It was perfect that Sami Zayn of all people was the member of the babyface team to talk to him, which made it seem more convincing. Zayn told Rollins he knows he's had issues with the Bloodline, specifically Reigns, before, but brings up the SHIELD, though not by name, and said he knows there's still family ties there between Rollins and Reigns. Rollins shoots him down, but pretty nicely compared to how he told Sikoa "no." When Rollins was confronted by the bad Bloodline while attempting to leave the arena, he told Sikoa that the next time he'll be in a ring with Reigns, it'll be to "stomp him into the ground." But, "he will never join forces with a wanna-be Roman Reigns." Ouch. A nice touch, and I think Rollins can officially be counted out for either time. I never considered him for even Team Babyface Bloodline, but I really liked this little story angle this week.
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I keep seeing rumors that Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes isn't scheduled to appear at Survivor Series, which I honestly don't know if I believe whatsoever. Either he's in a match with Kevin Owens for the title, or he's the secret fifth member of Team Good Guys for WarGames. Heck, Rhodes would probably even try to do both matches, if he could. Personally, I think the Survivor Series match will be Owens against Orton, and Rhodes hasn't been advertised for it because he'll be the "secret" fifth member, potentially revealed at the 11th hour before the match. I'm assuming we'll see more of this on "SmackDown," but with how good the inclusion of Rollins was on both sides on Monday, I don't know if the search will be as compelling on the blue brand.
Written byDaisyRuth
This was honestly a pretty good episode of "Raw," so this is more of a nitpick than anything else, but I really think Dakota Kai deserves to be presented as a more important wrestler than she is right now. I get that she's (a) had injuries and (b) been part of a major faction for a couple years, but she's legitimately one of the most talented women on WWE's roster, and it feels like she doesn't get nearly enough respect as far as her booking is concerned even at times when you'd think the occasion would call for it.
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Kai made her return from her latest injury on this week's episode, and it wasn't a big surprise or a big moment or anything she just showed up backstage with IYO SKY and Kairi Sane and was like "I'm back!" Normally in the ensuing six-woman tag, she would have at least gotten to be the one who picked up the win in her triumphant return, but she didn't even get that much. It was just like "Cool, Dakota is back, moving on."
Look, I'm a first generation Black and Gold die-hard; I was already irritated about how Kai's main roster career has played out so far. I watch Kai in the ring with Shayna Baszler Monday night and I start thinking about how Kai should have been the one to dethrone Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship back in 2019; instead, she still has yet to hold a singles title in the company at any level. She'd be a fantastic choice for the inaugural Women's United States Championship, just for the record, but I'm not even asking for that. I'm just asking for her to return to happen in the ring instead of backstage and maybe for her to get the pinfall in a damn tag match, and I don't think that's asking a lot!
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Written by Miles Schneiderman
Rooted within the Judgment Day fans have come to adore or abhor is an inevitability all too common with the lore of wrestling factions past and present: Betrayal. The group was founded by Edge (who looks a lot like AEW's Adam Copeland) taking newly-turned heels Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley under his wing. They experienced some success, but ultimately, they betrayed Edge in favor of bring Finn Balor into their group, instituting a leaderless structure to the faction that had until that point been led by the Rated-R Superstar.
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Through their subsequent feud with Edge, and The Mysterios by proxy, the group managed to groom a future "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio to turn on his own father and join the group. JD McDonagh's membership was a contentious one, disputed by Priest and thus Ripley, but ultimately one that Balor pushed through with his own grand plan rooted in the betrayal of "The Punisher." On the other side of things, Ripley was similarly betrayed by another she brought into the fold, with Mysterio moving on to Liv Morgan. Heck, even Carlito found himself a member by betraying the LWO. The point is, the Judgment Day has seen its peaks and its valleys, but it's ultimately become a faction of backstabbing mercenaries. As you'd hear a former Hell's Angel rider or Mob Made guy coin, the game has lost its honor through time and greed. The dynamic of the group is just that, each of them self-serving to the detriment of the other, and the cracks are beginning to show as their goals grow further distant.
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Balor and Mysterio, two of the traitors in a leaderless group, are now beginning to clash. There is no brotherhood keeping them together anymore, and aside from their joint-disdain for the Terror Twins there is far less unifying the group than there is dividing it. As they watch Priest go on to challenge Gunther, it will remind Balor and Mysterio of their failures in potentially preventing him from winning back the title they'd cost him, and this time it would be without the group and an illustration of their descent. But that's more of a Balor, and ergo McDonagh, focused beef, as Mysterio will be obligated to keeping Morgan as Women's World Champion. Carlito is just hanging there, having betrayed the one tie he had to the group, and Raquel Rodriguez is Morgan's plus-one. It feels like the route will take us to some form of Balor or Judgment Day involvement in Priest's World title shot, but it certainly seems like the faction itself is coming to its natural terminus. Time will tell, but it was a fun segment in the moment.
Written by Max Everett
The Judgment Day absolutely died for me when Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley left, and it's been floundering, stale, and cold ever since. Well, maybe that's a lie, I thought the Priest/Ripley vs. Dominik Mysterio/Liv Morgan tag team match was pretty good, but even that didn't include the rest of the Judgment Day, and I didn't really consider it a Judgment Day storyline. Which could therein be the problem, the faction isn't exactly working together anymore, anyway. The faction is all but fractured. Morgan, Mysterio, and Raquel Rodriguez are basically in a storyline all of their own, and they're only seen together in their "clubhouse" where Morgan gives orders to Finn Balor and JD McDonagh to focus on the tag team championships. Which, also sucks, because Morgan is no Ripley when it comes to being a female leader of the group. She's not a dominating presence at all, and it feels incredibly forced.
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I'm also extremely tired of Balor's obsession with Priest. Balor needs to get over the loss and focus on getting to the World Heavyweight Championship himself, if that's what he's even after. He scolded Mysterio for not winning the match last week, and Priest moving on to face GUNTHER, but why didn't Balor interfere, or better yet, try and get into the match himself? None of it makes sense and I'm really tired of it.
I think it's time for Judgment Day to end, and the splits are pretty clear already. Mysterio, Morgan, and Rodriguez can go off in one way, as their relationship storyline with Rodriguez as their bodyguard doesn't need the rest of the faction behind it. Balor and McDonagh could remain a heel tag team, and Carlito could finally get one last singles run, something he deserves and hasn't really got since coming back to WWE.
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This week's weird backstage segment with the group just felt flat, uninteresting, and had me realizing how much this isn't working anymore. Not in a bad way, I suppose, but much rather in a boring, meaningless way. No one is helping anyone anymore, interfering in matches or even being at ringside, because all the guys are trying to show they can do things themselves. Then... why have a faction? No one feels important, outside of Morgan, when she remembers she has the Women's World Championship to defend, so a faction isn't doing anyone any favors. Judgment Day had a good run, once it finally got off the ground, but it's unimportant, and time to fade off into a nice, purple sunset.
Written by Daisy Ruth
It's very rare for me to enjoy an episode of "Raw" from top to bottom, but this particular edition of the show was one of those rare exceptions for me with storylines actually progressing and it having a fun feeling to it. Despite enjoying everything overall, there was one part of the show that stood above the rest for me, and that was the massive ringside brawl between Seth "Freakin" Rollins and Bronson Reed.
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Given their rather extensive history at this point, Rollins and Reed are way past the point of talking, seeing as they've already faced each other in an official capacity at Crown Jewel, and have had numerous confrontations with one another. It was a welcomed aspect to see that reflected in this segment, with it making sense for Reed to call Rollins down to the ring and the two immediately beginning to brawl as soon as he did. Moreover, having Reed and Rollins break free from security as they attempted to separate them only for more officials to have to come out to ringside and Adam Pearce grant Rollins a rematch against Reed he demanded following the brawl were perfect touches to a segment that was already good as is. It gave it the feeling of being a bigger deal than it already was, and made it both unique and different from the vast majority of ringside brawls that WWE typically puts on.
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Written by Olivia Quinlan
One thing that WWE does really well compared to its alternative/competition is through its immensely stacked women's roster, and yet, one thing that WWE needs massive improvement on is in the creative department. It's a simple fact that the company is in a much better position when it comes to women's representation than it has probably ever been creatively speaking at least and there is more and more care and attention being directed towards those who keep it churning. Why am I writing this disclaimer? Purely to eliminate the one what about-ism that gets used to counter any and all points made to critique the contemporary booking of women's wrestling.
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But the fact of the matter is you only need to look at the builds to the respective WarGames match builds to recognize a clear disparity in the time spent putting this together. On one hand, you have The Bloodline tale, WWE's own sub-programming in its scope, and call backs to the history and arc of each and every one of the characters in the story as well as adjacent to with Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker getting their own segments this week to compound my point. But on the other, you have a hastily put together team of the last PLE's championship opponents, their plus-ones, and the Women's Speed Champion against the Women's Tag Team Champions and their plus-one alongside the leader of another faction (Which is in itself feuding with another faction), and Rhea Ripley a yet-to-be determined babyface. The story: null. All that has been done to sell this mix n' match of some of WWE's best women's wrestlers on TV have been endless, mindless scuffles and alignments like they were determined by a shuffling of each pot babyface and heel respectively and a pause on any progression for any of the characters until an authority figure says the magic word. The match itself is bound to be brilliant and fun, indicative of the job that the women do to entertain fans on a daily basis. Which is why I want to personally reiterate my belief that it is the creative behind this, the formulaic treading of narrative water every single week, that continues to let them down and show that at the level where it matters there is still much more to be desired.
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Written by Max Everett
