Welcome to POST Wrestling’s live coverage for tonight’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw. Keep an eye on this article throughout the night for the latest news and results from this evening’s busy show from Rosemont, Illinois. Make sure to hit the refresh button in your browser to see the newest edition of the page!
Still to come
- Sami Zayn vs. ??? (Undisputed WWE Championship)
Results
- Bron Breakker & Austin Theory def. Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins (WWE World Tag Team Championships) (8:46)
- Sol Ruca def. Raquel Rodriguez (WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship) (10:15)
Gunther risks altering tonight’s main event
This week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, live from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, opened with the arrival of the new Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn. Shortly after pulling into the venue with a top-down BMW, he had a face-to-face backstage with his expected opponent tonight, Cody Rhodes. Zayn said Rhodes probably thinks tonight will be a cakewalk, and that he’ll easily take the title right back from Zayn.
“I actually came up to you just to say good luck,” Rhodes said.
Suddenly, Gunther, who has been the third man in this Smackdown title picture mix, jumped into the frame and attacked Rhodes! He powerbombed the ex-champ through a table set up nearby. The “Ring General” got in the face of Zayn and warned that he’s soon to be his next big challenger. “Cody is not your problem anymore,” he said.
Gunther kicked the door of Zayn’s BMW, slamming it into the head of a bloodied Rhodes as the segment came to an end. Before we went to a live shot inside the arena, our main event tonight was put in doubt! We’ll see what happens on that front later…
Seth Rollins makes a promise to LA Knight
We went to the ring, where, as announced ahead of time, Seth Rollins came out to get the program started. It was confirmed last week that Rollins will challenge WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns at Summerslam.
Before Rollins could get started, the expected “CM Punk” chants started to echo through the venue. This crowd is aware of the rumors that Punk, who we haven’t seen since April, could very well return tonight.
Rollins successfully turned the crowd’s attention back to his current storyline with a blunt line: “To be honest with you, I couldn’t care less about that guy right now. Look, he’s just not my business.”
Rollins addressed Reigns, causing the crowd to shift into “OTC” chants. He broke some news: Reigns won’t be appearing tonight. He said Reigns was the “chosen” member of the Shield from the start, and that never sat right with him.
Rollins started pointing out children in the crowd. “I was that boy,” he said. “I sat in these stands, and all I ever wanted to do, my entire life, was to walk down that ramp.” He said his dreams were handed off to someone, Reigns, who didn’t deserve it. After the Shield, Rollins said every move he made in his career was so he could take Reigns’ spot. “I believed Reigns and I were running the same race. But, Chicago, boy, was I wrong.”
Rollins said that Reigns once admitted to him that he works “10 times” less than him, but makes 10 times more than him. “He said that bulls*** with such bravado that it made me want to puke!”
Rollins said it was never about the money for him; it was the grind (Anyone who recently took those reported TKO pay cuts feels the same way, it seems). So, why does he need to beat Reigns? “I need to prove to myself and that five-year-old Seth Rollins that’s sitting in the stands, that through hard work, that through sacrifice, through dreams, you can still achieve greatness,” he said.
This promo wasn’t interrupted by any of Reigns’ Bloodline henchmen, but instead LA Knight. He came out with a quite jaded approach to this Reigns and Rollins feud. Each week, he says, getting into the ring and boring the crowd with their speeches.
Knight had some sour grapes about how Rollins simply talked his way into a title shot: “I happen to remember a time when you had to win matches, you had to win tournaments [to get a title shot].” Well, to be fair, the people who are winning the tournaments are just tossing away their title shots.
Knight cut a long-winded promo about how Rollins and many from his generation have tried to hold him down, and that they won’t be able to. Rollins said he doesn’t like Knight, but he respects him. And, respectfully, he has to focus on Reigns right now. Once he gets the title, he says, he’ll happily give him the title shot first.
After Rollins left the ring, Jimmy Uso emerged from the crowd and dropped Knight with a superkick to end the segment.
The exchange was maybe some nice foreshadowing if Rollins wins the title at Summerslam, although I find that unlikely. Surpassing the 15-minute mark, this segment felt a little too long. It feels unintentionally fitting to Knight’s character that he felt overlooked by the end of this. I think Rollins had a nice speech further explaining his motivation to face Reigns, though.
Backstage, we saw currently suspended Nick Aldis help push Gunther out of the building. We briefly heard Gunther take a knock at Aldis and his “failed” wrestling career (foreshadowing about a match?). Adam Pearce, who is overseeing Raw and Smackdown currently, got in the face of Aldis and said he’s risking losing his position forever.
The Vision gains gold… And a new member
The first match of the night saw Austin Theory and Bron Breakker of The Vision try to retake the WWE World Tag Team Championships, battling in a rematch against The Street Profits. Before The Vision walked out, Paul Heyman approached them backstage and expressed frustration about how unsuccessful the group had been. Breakker never took out Seth Rollins, and Austin Theory couldn’t even beat Joe Hendry last week. He said if they lose tonight, he’s no longer supporting them: “Come back with something worthy of your wise man, or don’t come back to me at all.”
Ford got a hot tag after the show returned from a break and went on a run of moves against Breakker. Breakker tagged Theory in after giving Ford a pop-up powerslam. Street Profits gave Theory a Doomsday Device Blockbuster. A near fall was stopped by Breakker, who got into the ring.
After a quick sequence, all four men were laid out. Logan Paul attempted to slide a pair of brass knuckles into the ring, but was stopped by the referee. As the ref tossed one pair of knuckles, Paul successfully tossed a second set into the ring (veteran move by Paul here).
Breakker put on the knuckles, but had them knocked out of his hands. Ford wiped out Breakker at ringside with a huge dive over a ringpost. It seemed like Dawkins was about to put away Theory… But then Maxxine Dupri, who has been caught between her Alpha Academy buddies and Theory in backstage segments as of late, hit the ring and dropped Dawkins with a low blow! Theory rolled up a hurt Dawkins for the pinfall win in eight minutes to reclaim the WWE World Tag Team Championships.
There was a lot of speculation about whether Dupri was an understudy of Theory, possibly a girlfriend? We got our answer after the bell, as she hopped into Theory’s arms and kissed him on the lips.
Well, there we have it: Dupri has gone all-in on the heel turn and officially joined The Vision. All the hints that we were right around the corner from a Vision split were simply a swerve. Not only is the group still around, they’ve also grown in size.
This was a short match. This little bit of it we saw on TV was fine. I’m a little bored with The Vision and was honestly itching to see some of the group’s members strike out on their own, but maybe this change will add something interesting to the midcard act. We’ll see.
Backstage, we saw a heartbroken Otis and Akira Tozawa see Maxxine Dupri leave with her new crew.
Backstage, a doctor told Adam Pearce that he doesn’t feel confident letting Cody Rhodes fight tonight. That doesn’t sound good…
Sol Ruca retains with help from IYO SKY
It was revealed that a seven-man gauntlet next week will determine the opponent for WWE Intercontinental Champion Penta at Summerslam. Those competing next week: Dragon Lee, Chad Gable, Joe Hendry, Je’Von Evans, Dominik Mysterio, Ethan Page, and Rusev.
It was revealed in a backstage segment that the damage Rey Mysterio suffered last week in his match against Ethan Page explains why he isn’t in the bout, despite having wins over some names involved.
The second title match of the evening was next: Sol Ruca put her WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship up against Raquel Rodriguez. Commentary said that Cody Rhodes was sent to the hospital for tests to see if he could compete tonight. I feel like if someone from my show needed to go to the hospital for tests, I wouldn’t have them scheduled to compete in an hour – but I’m not Adam Pearce.
Rodriguez dodged a moonsault to the floor early in the match, but was hit with a springboard corkscrew just moments later. Back in the ring, Rodriguez folded Ruca with a hard lariat following a series of reversals. The challenger had the advantage as the show went into a break.
Ruca connected with a springboard crossbody as the show returned. The champ battled back into the fight, getting a near fall with a knee strike. A springboard frogsplash was countered by Rodriguez. It was at this point that Roxanne Perez showed up at ringside to cheer on her Judgment Day teammate.
Perez got on the ring apron to distract the referee. As this happened, Liv Morgan grabbed a leg of Ruca to prevent a Sol Snatcher. Rodriguez took Ruca from the corner and slammed her down, but it wasn’t enough for a three-count.
IYO SKY, who will be facing Morgan at Summerslam, appeared at ringside and her and Perez out with a springboard moonsault. This was a scary moonsault, as she had to land in a narrow space between the commentary table and a podium set up for Ruca’s belt. Credit to her, she nailed it.
This sequence distracted Rodriguez, who was hit with a Sol Snatcher for the pinfall finish in 10 minutes. It’s lame that we got two matchups back to back that end with an interference angle, but that’s how it goes on Monday nights usually. Otherwise, this was a fine episode. The story here is that Morgan’s issues are getting in the way of others and arguably caused Rodriguez to lose in this matchup.
The latest – 9:36 p.m. ET: Oba Femi, Paul Heyman trade words & a change to the main event
The next segment saw Paul Heyman, representing Brock Lesnar, come to the ring and address Oba Femi.
Heyman warns that Femi’s actions and comments have motivated Lesnar, and that accepting a Hell in a Cell match against him is the “biggest mistake of his life.” Just as Heyman was about to leave the ring, Femi’s music hit.
Femi joked that he came out so Heyman would have a face to talk to. Heyman reminded Femi that the saying goes “talk s***, get hit.” So, instead, he’s going to talk facts. He talked about Lesnar’s career of success in Hell in a Cell. There was a line about how Femi was entering the “Brocktagon,” what?
Femi said that the fact that Lesnar showed up last week proves that his comments got under the skin of “The Beast.” Femi tried out some wordplay here, saying Heyman is just a mouthpiece for Lesnar: “Mouths need to be fed. But how can you feed if you have no head?”
Femi thankfully refocused on this match, saying he plans to beat Lesnar in front of his own children, Beyond The Mat style, at Summerslam. “You have to walk through hell in order to get to heaven. So tell your client, I’ll see him in hell.”
Femi had a nice line at the end here. The rest of this was kinda lame. I’m gonna chalk this segment up to an off night for both these men.
Backstage, Sami Zayn was informed that Cody Rhodes can’t compete tonight. Trying to hide his smile, Zayn said: “He’s out? That’s terrible … I don’t wish ill upon Cody, or anybody upon that matter.” CM Punk chants became deafening from the crowd.
Zayn said that he should delay his title shot to Friday. Adam Pearce entered the shot and said he promised Chicago a title match tonight and will deliver it. Against who? We’ll find out!
