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 Cody Rhodes/GUNTHER promo, the many moving parts surrounding WWE’s two singles women’s champions, and Jey Uso telling his treacherous twin where to stick it.
“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.
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.
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?