-If you thought CM Punk was going to be a heel after costing Drew McIntyre the world championship for a third time at Money in the Bank, think again. Punk kicked off the show this week and got a huge babyface pop, solidifying himself as the babyface in his blood feud with Drew. Punk was good out there this week. He articulated his reasoning for torturing Drew the way he has and although he certainly rewrote history at times, the collective story being told made sense.
“I’m higher than you”
-In addition to dealing with the Drew stuff, Punk also juggled a promo battle with Seth Rollins. This was compelling. Punk and Rollins have a palpable tension between them whenever they are in the ring together and it makes for strong drama and intrigue. Clearly, WWE is planning on going with that match in the somewhat near future. Rollins won the battle with his “I’m higher up than you,” line, but didn’t embarrass Punk either. That’s the balance he’s going to want to continue to strike as their feud moves forward and toward a major match on a major stage.
-Kind of a nothing match between Jey Uso and Chad Gable, eh? More of a backdrop to Gable’s angle with The Wyatt Sicks than it was a real match. Disappointing.
-As for The Wyatt Sicks material, it was good across the show once again. A third tape was played and it was the most compelling of the three so far. Bo Dallas showing up and waiting for Adam Pearce in his office adds a significant amount of layers and directions their storyline can go. Really good and a fresh take on this style of act from what we saw with Bray Wyatt. There seems to be a recognition that they have to better connect the Uncle Howdy character into the real WWE ecosystem.
Squash City
-Squash City. Reed took nearly 10 minutes to beat poor Pete Dunne, but it was a near 10 minute slaughter. The thing is, are they going to push Reed or not? That’s been the question since he made his return to the company. Next week he’ll face Sheamus and he’ll probably win. What does it mean? Who knows. The starts and stops with him have hurt momentum and perception.
-You see that? A reasonable exchange this week between Seth Rollins and Damian Priest led to Priest lifting Seth’s title challenge restriction against him. I loved this. It was so simple, but the straightforward nature of the story made sense and was easy to believe. Nothing convoluted, but they got exactly where they needed to go. Sidebar — this was a babyface move by Priest. The slow burn turn continues.
-Breakker owned his loss this week unlike any other heel has in years as a part of WWE storyline. He just owned it straight up. “I don’t deserve a rematch.” Boom. Now, the attack on Zayn clearly means he’s going to get one, but it’s an example of WWE going out of the way to make their product logical. Is Breakker vs. Zayn a good idea? Remains to be seen. Breakker had a strong match with Ilja Dragunov this week on Raw — a match that was much better than the bout with Zayn over the weekend. A bad night at the office perhaps? We’ll find out at Summerslam.
-Nothing wrong with giving the tag champions a win over a hodge-podge team like Awesome Truth and Braun Strowman. Smart.
Dominik = Triple H
-Liv Morgan stretching with Dominik Mysterio was reminiscent of Trish Stratus and Triple H back in the day. More a comedy sketch than true storyline development, but it worked for what it was. The build throughout the night was about WWE laying a foundation for Liv to help Dom beat his Dad, so that he could start truly falling for her. This served that purpose. Carlito’s work was icing on the cake.
-WWE aired hype vignettes for both Gunther and Damian Priest ahead of their clash in a few weeks at Summerslam. They’ve got a lot of work to do to get the match into a position where it feels Summerslam worthy. Both of these videos helped.
Who is Lyra Valkyria?
-Yikes. You could hear a pin drop for Lyra Valkyria’s entrance. Look, Valkyria doesn’t have a character right now. Nobody knows what or who she is and that’s a problem for anyone in WWE in 2024.
-After weeks of teasing, Sonya Deville is finally connected officially to Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler. WWE needs teams in the women’s tag division and this pairing with Deville gives them a spot near the head of that table. Thumbs up.
-I really liked the main event. It seemed like everyone involved understood the mission to make Dom beating Rey thanks to Liv feel like a really big deal, so that they could have a moment before the Rhea Ripley return. They delivered. It was executed exactly like it needed to be in order to have the biggest impact and Ripley’s return getting such a big reaction is the biggest indicator that the match was a success.
Mami’s home
-As for Ripley, she’s now a top two babyface in the company. She got a thunderous pop and immediately has stories with Liv Morgan and Dom to keep her busy. There was an argument for Ripley to get physical with one or both of Morgan and Dom this week upon returning, but after seeing everything play out, they were smart to hold off on that. As long as Ripley doesn’t appear gullible and needlessly loving toward Dom, the moment of her destroying him remains intact.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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