It’s Monday evening and you know what that means — it’s time for your weekly “WWE Raw”recap! A lot went down tonight but you know what didn’t? Bronson Reed’s stock.
Reed’s been campaigning for a fight with Seth Rollins and tonight he got it right off the bat, as Rollins jumped him backstage and BEAT THE MAN WITH HIS OWN LUGGAGE. It was one of those hard-shell cases too, not some flimsy fabric. Rollins went straight from aggravated assault to storming to the ring, which was, as the kids say, iconic.
A bunch of people tried (and failed) to contain Reed, so he came down to the ring for round two with Rollins. They beat the hell out of each other for a few minutes, then Reed tried to land a tsunami on Rollins, who moved out of the way, resulting in the untimely death of an announcer table. Seriously, watch it above — I’ve never seen the announce table take a blow that looks painful even for an inanimate object.
Before we continue, now’s a good time to drop the Uncrowned Gem of the Night .
If you peep “WWE Raw” highlights, you might see and hear Lillian Garcia handling announcing duties tonight. I want you to know that this isn’t a glitch in the matrix — she’s back for keeps. Earlier today Samantha Irvin announced her departure from WWE, which is a pretty massive bummer, but Garcia will be taking over full-time duties, so that softens the blow.
The first match of the night decides who will join the War Raiders in a triple threat tag team match next week for No. 1 contendership. It was damn near a lumberjack match with all the people lingering around the ring. First Karrion Kross and the rest of The Final Testament were hanging out, then the Miz dropped by to watch the match, but R-Truth attacked him, resulting in chaos that allowed Kofi Kingston to score a quick rollup victory.
WINNER(S): The New Day, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.
R-Truth celebrated the win with New Day (wholesome), but then he got jumped by The Final Testament (rude). Kofi was like, “Hey, let’s go help him,” and Xavier Woods was like, “Nah.” I’m not sure if current Woods is Lawful Neutral or Neutral Evil or True Neutral (or maybe even Lawful Evil?), but his questionable moral compass is truly one of the most compelling ongoing Raw storylines.
Anyway, R-Truth was getting stomped out until the lights went dark and The Wyatt Sicks came back to save the day. Personally can’t think of anything more appropriate for a spooky season feud around Halloween than the Wyatt Sicks and The Final Testament. This is going to be like an A24 horror flick with suplexes. Let’s get weird.
SETH ROLLINS AND BRONSON REED ROUND 2
Rollins and Reed are once again putting paws on each other backstage. This is phenomenal, grade A beef. It’s reminiscent of Peter Griffin and the Chicken’s countless wars (credit to Dustin Poirier for putting that reference fresh on the brain).
The Liv and Raquel pairing really gives off ‘90s Shawn Michaels and Diesel vibes and I hope they start being booked as such, which really just means Raquel being more dominant and not getting bodied by Rhea every time they interact.
This was an entertaining bout and I’m of the opinion that Iyo Sky is must-see wrestling every time she’s in the ring. Unfortunately for Sky, she got into it with Lash Legend, who popped her in the face resulting in the match ending via disqualification. This builds tension heading into WWE NXT on Tuesday night, where Sky and Kairi Sane will clash with Lash and Jacara Jackson.
WINNER(S): Fans of disqualification endings.
A THIRD ROLLINS AND REED BACKSTAGE SCRAP! Finally Adam Pearce angrily announces that the two will be having a match at Crown Jewel. HELL YEAH.
In a backstage segment featuring the Judgement Day, Dominik Mysterio claims he wants to beat Gunther for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and Carlito laughs … hard. We all need friends to keep it real with us, but if I tell you about an ambitious goal and you laugh like it’s standup comedy, we’re beefing.
It was a 619 from Rey Mysterio and a frog splash from Lee that earned a win, locking them into next week’s No. 1 contendership match along with New Day and The War Raiders.
Feeling like a sh*tty friend, Carlito goes to Adam Pearce and is basically like, “Hey, you should give Dominik a chance to be Gunther’s next challenger. Surprisingly, Pearce says he’ll give Dominik an opportunity to earn it with a match against a former WWE Champion.
In another quick segment, Damian Priest tells Gunther that he’s going to claw his way back to the top and regain the title. Gunther pretty much laughs it off — high-level disrespect.
Bron did what Bron does, landing a good amount of offense, but the ever-resilient Jey rallied and got himself back into the fight. Then, the Bloodline came out and distracted the defending champion. At one point Jey was face to face with Solo, and Bron sprinted toward them intending to spear Jey’s liver into an oblivion. Jey’s YEET senses were tingling, so he was able to step out of the way, resulting in BRON SPEARING SOLO SIKOA.
That was a big moment. It felt like some sort of unlikely Marvel character crossover, because Jacob Fatu moved toward Bron and it looked like we might get a dream brawl until Jey Uso wiped ‘em both out. Seemingly in control, Jey landed a pair of superkicks and an Uso Splash, good enough for a two count. With the referee distracted, Jacob kicked Jey in the face and Bron capitalized, connecting with a spear to win back the IC title.
