RAW REVIEW 7/15/24: 
A MATTER OF RESPECT

This week, Monday Night Raw came to us live from Dayton, Ohio in front of yet another sell out crowd. Throughout the evening, the theme of the night was clear: This was a night to show respect, or disrespect, to your friends, adversaries, and lovers. 

 

This week’s episode of Raw opened with a Rhea/Dom/Liv recap as we see Mami approaching the ring. It’s important to note she has “R R” on her cheek, as opposed to the usual “D+R”, letting us know right away she’s still upset with Dom. She calls out Liv Morgan, because Liv has something she wants. Not Daddy Dom, but the Women’s World Heavyweight Championship. 

 

Instead of Liv, Dom comes out, carrying a single black rose (VERY Eddie Guerrero). Liv quickly appears on the screen to say that while Mami may be “home”, Liv is on top. Honestly, I was hoping Liv was going to say she was here to wreck the home, but we’ll take what we can get. Rhea challenges Liv to a title match at Summerslam and Liv accepts.

 

SHEAMUS VS BRONSON REED

 

Set up by last week’s confrontation, the X factor in this whole storyline is Pete Dunne. The match was extremely physical, as one would expect between these two. The match ended when Bronson Reed missed a moonsault and Sheamus was able to catch him with a running knee. 

 

Post match, Reed goes on to attack Sheamus, but Pete Dunne makes the save…temporarily. Sheamus goes to shake Dunne’s hand, but Pete backs out of the ring, only to attack Sheamus once he finally turns his back. Pete Dunne clearly has lingering feelings about Sheamus walking away from the Brawling Brutes all those months ago. After the blindside attack, Reed adds insult to injury by hitting a Tsunami on the downed Sheamus.  

 

Backstage, Rhea and Damian Priest chop it up in the Judgment Day clubhouse. Rhea asks why Carlito is there, before Dirty Dom interrupts. He tries to talk things out with Rhea but she’s having no part of it.

 

Elsewhere, Ilja Dragunov and Sami Zayn are talking backstage. Sami agrees to give Ilja an Intercontinental title match tonight because he respects Ilja’s fight and his spirit. 

 

ZELINA VEGA VS SONYA DEVILLE

 

Speaking of respect, Zelina shows absolutely no respect to either Rhea Ripley or Liv Morgan, asserting that whenever they’re done with their squabble, Zelina will be waiting at the front of the line for the title. She’s quickly interrupted by Sonya Deville and her new cronies, Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. Zelina doesn’t back down and wants a match right now. Side note: Zelina’s Hair and Makeup game is second to none. 

 

During the match, it doesn’t take long before the numbers game to take effect. Zelina’s hot start is thwarted when Zoey distracts the ref and Shayna delivers a nasty attack to Zelina’s arm. Sonya hits a sort of inverted DDT for the quick pin. This new faction has a lot of potential, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the trio moving forward.

 

MOVING IN ON MAMI

 

Backstage, Jey Uso says to Damian Priest that is appears Mami is single again, and he’s itching to get a shot with her. This is completely disrespectful to Dom, who is standing right there. Priest reminds Dom that he’s been to prison, and Dom needs to handle this the way they’d handle things in the prison yard. 

 

CLASS WARFARE

 

World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest is now in the middle of the ring, and he calls out his Summerslam opponent, Gunther. Gunther comes out and says he’s been watching Priest. “Your reign has been nothing. No prestige. No contributions…We are not cut from the same cloth.” Gunther so generously offers to let Priest just surrender “my title” and take the weight off of Priest’s shoulders. 

 

Priest fires back. He says that he’s fought on the streets for 20 years, to scratch and claw to get to where he’s at. This is something Gunther would never understand, given that Gunther has been recruited and handed every opportunity on his journey. Gunther counters that the reason he was handed so many opportunities is because WWE was afraid and embarrassed to have someone like Priest representing their company. He’s street trash and will always remain street trash. Full transparency, I was really hoping this was going to segue into an Aladdin musical number, but we aren’t so lucky. 

 

Backstage, Bron Breakker promises to interrupt the main event match between Sami Zayn and Ilja Dragunov. Adam Pierce tells “security” to escort Bron out of the arena, but we all know that’s not going to actually happen. 

 

BRAWN STROWMAN VS DAMIEN PRIEST

 

Despite Strowman using his size to control most of the match, Damian Priest is able to get the upper hand on his larger opponent when he side steps his “choo choo train” running assault, and Strowman injures his knee on the barricade after his missed attack. This allows priest to get Strowman back in the ring and hit a South of Heaven for a clean 1-2-3 pinfall victory! Believe it or not, this is the first clean pinfall victory Priest has gotten since becoming champion. While it wasn’t for the title, it’s nice to see Priest get this kind of victory. His character needs it, especially going into a “class warfare” angle with Gunther.

 

Backstage, Chad Gable hears Alpha Academy talking about having their friend’s back. He assumes it’s about him, and tells them he’s happy they’re all on the same page again. That’s when Maxine Dupree breaks it to him that they’re actually referring to Xavier Woods and his ongoing feud with The Final Testament. Otis makes it clear that they no longer respect Gable as a friend or a leader. 

 

KAYDEN CARTER AND KATANA CHANCE w/Lyra Valkyria VS ZOEY STARK AND SHAYNA BASZLER w/ Sonya Deville

 

This was a quick, fun match that was really just meant to be a showcase for the new Women’s stable of Deville, Baszler, and Stark. The match was a styles clash to say the least. The athleticism of Carter and Chance was going up against the stiff striking ability of Stark and Baszler. The crowd was mostly subdued for this match, which is a shame because there were some very nice high spots delivered by all four women. Stark and Baszler get the victory and the new stable continues to roll. 

 

DEFENDING MAMI’S HONOR

 

Dirty Dom is excited to tell Rhea that Jey Uso was talking very disrespectfully about Mami, so Dom got a match made between him and Jey to defend Mami's honor. Rhea thinks it’s a stupid idea, so Dom offers to cancel the match, to which Rhea asks if Dom is a coward. Rhea is clearly having fun making Dom feel bad and jump through hoops, and it’s hard to feel bad for him, even with his “lost puppy dog” look that he does so well.

 

Back in the ring, Drew McIntyre comes out smiling, confident that he’s going to be reinstated by Adam Pierce. Pierce asks Drew point blank “How bad do you want this match? We need to leave the pettiness and unprofessional behavior behind.” Drew says he’s willing to do anything to get the match. 

 

Pierce has one simple request. All Drew needs to do is apologize to the two officials who he attacked at the Money in the Bank post-show. It’s a pretty reasonable request, all things considered, and if Drew really wanted the CM Punk match so bad, he should be able to apologize, whether he means it or not. However, Drew is not capable of such a facade, and refuses to show Pierce or the officials any respect. Instead of apologizing, he attacks the officials AGAIN and is about to attack Pierce until Seth Rollins’ music hits and he comes to the rescue. 

 

We cut to the newest Wyatt Sick6 video, this time, it is Eric Rowan explaining why he is with this new group. “I used to have a family. We were unstoppable, we were inseparable” but Rowan lost both of his brothers. Now, hes vulnerable. Now, he’s unstable. He even cries. For the first time in a long time, Rowan has hope, thanks to this new group. While this Wyatt Sick6 storyline is very much still a “slow burn”, it was nice to see a new wrinkle, pivoting away from Bo Dallas and moving on to Rowan. 

 

DOMINIC MYSTERIO VS JEY USO

 

As the match begins, Dominic is focused, determined, and actually spends much of the match on the offensive. He hits a series of impressive moves, including the patented Eddie Guerrero “three amigos” suplexes. Jey finally starts to turn things around with a series of “yeet” inspiring strikes. He sets up Dom for the Uso splash when Liv Morgan appears out of nowhere to pull Dom outside of the ring. A baseball slide from Jey puts Dom in another compromising position with Liv. Much like last week, as Dom is mounting Liv, Rhea’s music hits. Liv wisey runs away, but the distraction ultimately costs Dom and Jey Uso wins the match. Mami seems very disappointed. 

 

Backstage, Rhea confronts Dom. She responds to his earlier assertion that she “belongs” to him. Rhea states “I don’t ‘belong’ to anyone. I’m not yours…you are mine” and she hands Dom the black rose back. Dom can’t hide his excitement and grins ear to ear. It appears the lovebirds have patched things up…for now. 

 

Back in the ring, Chad Gable wants us all to know he’s cracked the Uncle Howdy code. Turns out, it’s been Bo Dallas this whole time! Gable seems like the kind of guy who would be genuinely shocked by a surprise party that he threw for himself. He calls out Dallas, and as Bo is headed to the ring, he gets attacked by the Creed Brothers. They beat down Dallas, but he just keeps smiling and laughing. The whole thing is very “Bray-esque.” The laughing enrages Gable, and as he loses his cool, Bo smiles at him and says “there you are”, the same thing Uncle Howdy says to Bo every time he leans into the dark side of himself.

 

The lights go out again, and the Wyatt Sick6 actually appear on the stage and head into the ring. However, once again, Gable and now the Creeds are able to escape without any damage being done to them. This group seems content in just playing mind games and not actually attacking anybody.

 

ILJA DRAGUNOV VS SAMI ZAYN FOR THE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE

 

It’s great to see titles defended on TV tapings. While they may very seldom change hands, it’s always a nice treat for the audience to see a match with direct stakes on the line. Dragunov looked like a million bucks in this match, but ultimately would not secure the championship, because to absolutely nobody’s surprise, Bron Breakker appears to attack both men and cause the match to end in a disqualification. Dragunov keeps looking good, but also keeps losing. He seems to be the mirror image of Carmello Hayes on Smackdown. However, Dragunov was the 15th pick for Raw, as opposed to Hayes being the second pick for Smackdown. I’d say Raw has gotten the better value out of their NXT pick thus far.

 

The conclusion to the main event was very predictable and a little disappointing, but overall it was a solid show and did a good job of moving a lot of storylines forward.