Welcome to Bleacher Report’s live coverage of WWE Raw on October 9th in Omaha, Nebraska.
After this match should have happened a few weeks ago, Becky Lynch finally got in the ring with Tegan Nox to defend her NXT Women’s Championship.
But that wasn’t the only action we got from the women’s division this week. We also saw Nia Jax face off against one of the few women in WWE who is her equal in terms of power: Raquel Rodriguez.
In addition to these matches, we also saw Kofi Kingston take on Ivar in a Viking Rules match in hopes of ending the New Day and Viking Raiders feud once and for all.
Let’s take a look at everything that happened on Monday’s episode of WWE Raw.
Raw opened with a video recapping the action from Saturday’s Fastlane pay-per-view. Seth Rollins kicked things off in Cruella de Vil’s favorite fur coat to do a promo.
He said winning the world title was the greatest honor of his life, but it was just getting started. He almost made it sound like he was injured to tease the audience, and the fans chanting “Thanks, Rollins” certainly helped him sell the trick.
Drew McIntyre’s music hit and he waved to the champion as he entered the ring. The Visionary correctly assumed that the Scottish Warrior wanted a title match and was apparently full of energy, but McIntyre told him that he wanted the match, but only when Rollins was back at full strength. He suggested “Crown Jewel” as the time and place.
This was perhaps the warmest segment leading to a title shot ever, but as soon as McIntyre left the ring, Damian Priest attacked the champion from behind and called for Judgment Day to bring his Money in the Bank briefcase.
McIntyre grabbed Dominik Mysterio’s suitcase and hit him with it before throwing him back to the stage. This gave Rollins time to recover and throw The Archer of Infamy out of the ring.
Booking the world title fight for Crown Jewel and telling us to get a MITB cash-in was a fun way to open the show, especially because it showed that Priest was no longer asking for Rhea’s permission Ripley asks to use his contract.
Degree: b
Notable moments and observations
- WWE has been using the term “greatest of all time” a lot more lately for John Cena.
- Rollins’ jacket was unremarkable compared to what he wore at Fastlane, but it’s still something you’d expect to see on a runway and not in public.
The first match of the night was the Viking Rules match between Ivar and Kingston. This match came after Ivar lost to Xavier Woods last week and then destroyed both members of The New Day.
It wasn’t long before they took the fight out of the ring and started using weapons. Ivar threw Kingston into some of the wooden shields surrounding the ring, but the former WWE Champion was the one who brought a table into play moments later.
As Kingston began to take control after throwing Ivar through a table, Valhalla jumped at him out of nowhere. Woods came out and lured her into running into the barricade, but then Ivar pushed him into the barricade too.
As Kingston went for Trouble in Paradise, Ivar caught him and slammed him into a table. He defeated the former WWE Champion with a moonsault and secured the victory.
This was more entertaining than expected, but these Viking Rules matches exceeded expectations every time WWE used the stipulation. Ivar has looked great in his solo performances lately and it’s great to see WWE using him while Erik is injured instead of just putting him on ice.
Result: Ivar nailed Kingston with a moonsault
Degree: B+
Notable moments and observations
- The kick Ivar did right as the bell rang looked great.
- WWE didn’t use the large wooden ship piece like we’ve seen in previous Viking Rules matches. It’s probably a hassle to get the thing from one venue to the next.
- Kingston using Ivar’s beard to slam him into a table from the top turnbuckle was a great spot.
Two of the most powerful women in WWE collided when Jax and Rodriguez met for a match. This came after Jax had been randomly attacking women on Raw for weeks.
They wasted no time in turning this into a physical fight. They weren’t looking for lockups and headlocks. They tried to cut each other’s heads off.
The fight escalated after Jax slammed Rodriguez into the ring post so hard that she fell through the ropes and out of the ring.
One of the most famous points in a match like this is the babyface trying to pick up the bigger heel, failing, before finally successfully lifting him. They did that in this match, but the moment they succeeded was with a powerbomb instead of the body slam.
The match was going well until Rhea Ripley attacked Jax and caused a DQ. Shayna Baszler eventually came to the ring and ended the segment by kneeing Ripley in the face. Even though this match was between Jax and Rodriguez, Baszler and Ripley ended up having a bit of an edge by setting up a possible title shot.
Result: Rodriguez was disqualified when Ripley attacked Jax
Degree: C+
Notable moments and observations
- The way Rodriguez hit the ring post when Jax threw her in looked great.
- The knee that Baszler hit Ripley with looked nasty.
- WWE goes to the DQ way too often. Nothing has been resolved here yet, so there will likely be another match between Jax and Rodriguez at some point.
Michael Cole was in the ring after a break to greet the new undisputed tag team champions Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes.
Cole asked Rhodes if he still planned to “finish the story.” The American Nightmare said Fastlane was a great moment for him and Uso and he was looking forward to being tag team champions.
Before Rhodes could address his pursuit of the Universal Title, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens came out to discuss whether they could have a shot at the tag titles. Zayn said that he and Owens should hold the belts, but he is still happy for the new champions.
KO had no mixed feelings and said he wasn’t at all happy about them holding the titles. Rhodes said that not only do they accept the match, but they can do it on this show. This was a pretty straightforward segment, but the four men involved are all professionals so it was entertaining enough.
Degree: B-
Notable moments and observations
- If you didn’t see Jey and Cody at the Fastlane press conference, you should check them out. It’s hilarious.
- They showed Otis chopping up Chad Gable backstage as part of his preparations for a match later in the show.
- Ricochet was about to enter the ring for a match when Shinsuke Nakamura attacked him, which was a continuation from earlier in the show when Ricochet attacked him backstage.
After Ricochet recovered from Nakamura’s attack, he, Reed and Gable competed in a No. 1 Contenders match to determine the next challenger for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship.
Although Ricochet and Gable were opponents, they often worked together against their much larger opponent.
These are three very different types of wrestlers. Gable is the technician, Ricochet is the overachiever, and Reed is the powerhouse. They were able to work together and utilize each of their unique styles to create a highly entertaining triple threat fight.
The moments involving Gable and Ricochet were entertaining, fast-paced exchanges, but Reed used his strength and size to attack both opponents at the same time, and that was the best part of the match.
The Australian powerhouse secured victory with his patented tsunami splash from the top rope.
Result: Reed pins Ricochet with the Tsunami
Degree: A-
Notable moments and observations
- The way Reed used his weight to throw Gable and Ricochet out of the ring at the same time was a great touch.
- Things looked great when Gable hit a full nelson suplex and sent Ricochet crashing onto Reed at ringside.
- Maxxine Dupri was at ringside, but Otis stayed backstage.
- Gable gave Reed a nice German suplex to show his strength. He didn’t just outsmart him. He initially held it in the air for a few seconds.
JD McDonagh wanted to prove his worth on Judgment Day by taking out the man who had stopped Priest from making money earlier in the series: The Scottish Warrior.
McIntyre easily dominated his smaller opponent until Dominik Mysterio caused a distraction that allowed McDonagh to aim for his knee.
The former cruiserweight champion relied on Dom’s help to stay in the fight on more than one occasion, but whenever McIntyre had more than a moment to recover, he defeated the Youth Day wannabe.
He hit McDonagh with the Future Shock DDT before setting up for the Claymore and decapitating him.
This was exactly what it needed to be: a glorified squash match that showcased McIntyre’s dominance and exposed McDonagh’s weaknesses. It wasn’t a very long or memorable game, but it accomplished exactly what it needed to.
Result: McIntyre defeated McDonagh with a claymore
Degree: C+
Notable moments and observations
- McIntyre sent McDonagh into the spotlight with a huge back body drop.
- It would have made more sense for Finn Balor to accompany McDonagh to the ring than Mysterio.
Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa gave Barrett an interview to talk about DIY’s reunion. Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci attacked her out of nowhere and took her out to end the interview.
The next match on the card was the NXT Women’s Title match between Lynch and the woman she was scheduled to face a few weeks ago, Nox.
Since both of these superstars are currently babyfaces, this match started off clean. They were all about takedowns and counters, not about punching each other in the face.
Fights like this can be a breath of fresh air as the actors have to rely on their technical skills more than usual. Both women are great at what they do, but you never know how a first encounter will go.
This was a solid game that made Nox look better than they have in a long time. The man always makes her opponents look good, but Nox clearly put all her effort into it because she knew this opportunity was her chance to prove her worth on the main roster.
After enduring everything Nox put her through, Lynch defeated her and retained the NXT Women’s Championship.
Result: Lynch defeated Nox to retain her title
Degree: B+
Notable moments and observations
- The way Barrett scurried out of the way when Imperium showed up was hilarious.
- Lynch posted a picture of the stitches she received on Twitter. Here is this shortcut about the post, but we won’t post the image here because it’s not easy to tell if you’re squeamish about something like that.
- It’s nice to see that Nox’s injuries have healed to the point where she no longer needs the giant knee braces she used to wear.