Paris carried over its energy from last night’s WWE Clash in Paris for the first “Raw” of September. There was a lot to digest, and still plenty to figure out going forward. Most notably, there is now an answer to who will compete for the vacant Women’s World Championship after Naomi announced her pregnancy in recent months.
Talk about a tangle
It’s official. The Stephanie Vaquer vs. Iyo Sky trilogy match is on for WrestlePalooza in three weeks. This time, the vacant Women’s World Championship will be on the line. Finally, we can presumably and hopefully get a clean finish between the pair after two nearly perfect matches that were marred by DQ finishes.
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Let’s start with the positives of this announcement, which is that we’re getting to see Vaquer and Sky go at it again. There’s no possible way anyone can complain about a match between Vaquer and Sky without simply being a hater. They’re two of the biggest stars and best in the world at present, fitting of championship status. The pure talent and competitive aspect are all the story necessary for this to work; however, WWE clearly hard-pivoted after having no clue what to do in Naomi’s absence.
Vaquer vs. Naomi was supposed to take place at last night’s Clash in Paris PLE, and instead of some surprise replacement to keep Vaquer on the card, she was nowhere to be seen. That was a miss in its own right, but now WWE has seemingly abandoned the Rhea Ripley partnership that Sky was very blatantly heading toward. The budding start to the official start of “Rhiyo” could have come against The Kabuki Warriors, and it still could (and should), as Asuka continues to be very controlling of her friendship.
The Kabuki Warriors picked up a good win over The Judgment Day, with Asuka utilizing the Asuka Lock on Roxanne Perez. What a sudden fall the former tag team champions have had, eh? Things got more interesting — maybe even worrisome for my hopes of a clean finish — when Asuka told Sky afterward that she needs her and Kairi Sane in her corner for the title match. That, however, leaves hope for “Rhiyo,” but this feels like a case of too much messy story intertwinement.
That wasn’t the end of this saga, though. Ripley did make an appearance backstage, when she said she’ll want a shot at the title match’s winner before Asuka approached her to keep poking at this building feud. It now feels like The Kabuki Warriors will show up when Sky is close to losing, only for Ripley to take them out. It’s hard to say. This is all oddly messy, and Vaquer is taking the biggest hit by just not appearing on TV.
Please, WWE. Just don’t have anything come at the expense of a perfectly wholesome instant classic between Vaquer and Sky.
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👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
I have no idea why Paris loves AJ Styles as much as they do, but it’s [expletive] epic. Like, this may have been the most insane sustained reaction I’ve ever seen in professional wrestling.
The Uncrowned Gem of the Night couldn’t have been easier to hand out on this “Raw.” Out of everything that happened at Clash in Paris, no one received such a “Phenomenal” reaction in this city. You love to see it for a bona fide all-time great like Styles, but unfortunately, it ended there after it culminated with the…
🙄Interference of the Night
It wasn’t a DQ, but it was the same old garbage shenanigans that ruined an amazing match. With The Judgment Day banned from ringside, El Grande “Amerikaiser” aided Dominick Mysterio to defeat Styles in their Intercontinental title rematch.
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Who really wants this, man? You want your moments, Triple H. We watched Unreal. We know how it is. So good job missing something that would have been as epic as Styles winning a title in that environment. I understand keeping the title on Mysterio, but the Americano gimmick is so, so, so tired. This just feels like a waste of Styles because the rematch really wasn’t even that warranted.
Fallout in France
The World Heavyweight title picture is starting to enter some highly intriguing waters, and it all feels like the inevitable ending is CM Punk dethroning Seth Rollins in a fair, enclosed match. And I wish that during Punk’s segment on “Raw,” he would have mentioned how Rollins hasn’t been able to beat him without assistance. It’s right there.
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“Raw” started with Punk awaiting Rollins’ arrival in the arena before the champion “somehow” snuck in. That prompted an in-ring appearance for Punk, who, instead of getting Rollins, got the champion’s wife, Becky Lynch. Punk rightfully didn’t want to deal with Lynch before she explained how the ongoing feud had affected her and why she had gotten involved. This led to an incredible back-and-forth from the two, with Punk, in particular, verbally scorching Rollins in front of Lynch.
The tension was thicker than a Tennessee brisket brunch, as Rollins briefly appeared on the ramp, teasing Punk to meet him face to face. Lynch blocked Punk and slapped the taste buds right out of his mouth. This couldn’t have felt any more like a moment for either the return of Punk’s wife, AJ Lee, or Punk hitting Lynch with a GTS.
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Since we’ve time-traveled back to 2019 with Rollins and Lynch aligning, we must recall Baron Corbin’s infamous End of Days to Lynch in their match with Lacey Evans. (Remember that name?)
Dark Knight rising
Anti-hero LA Knight is coming, folks. And I’m so, so here for it.
“The Megastar” interrupted Jey Uso at the start of “Raw” to voice his frustration and how he’s sick and tired of not being champion, blaming Uso for breaking up his pin on Rollins. Under a microscope, it’s a pretty nitpicky thing for Knight to be highlighting, but a tremendously easy, good starting point for him to keep finding this edge to his character. (It doesn’t hurt to consider that Uso shouldn’t even have been in the match.
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Knight kayfabe (and shoot) should be pissed with all the booking blunders he’s endured since Money In the Bank. Having him get past Uso in a feud feels hard to imagine, but it would be a great start to a proper extension of his staggering push.
Ultimately, the promo led to Knight and Uso being interrupted by The Vision to set up their tag team main event match.
The lack of DQ finishes has wonderfully continued, as Bron Breakker scored the pin for The Vision with a spear on Uso. As per usual, the combination of these four is generally good, and Knight again continued to shine in these spotlights. However, it was still the same old ending for anything involving The Vision, which was a beatdown with Tsunamis from Bronson Reed.
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Uso took one before his brother Jimmy Uso made the save with a chair. If this leads to a reunion for The Usos, then what a wonderful outcome it will be, especially for “Raw’s” tag team division. I will like it even more if it clears the way for Knight to somehow capture gold, despite my aforementioned expectations for Punk.
👍MONDAY NIGHT MONEY👍
1. Finn Balor pulled off a clean victory over Dragon Lee. The match was great, as any pairing between The Judgment Day and LWO seems to be money. However, hopefully, all of Lee’s losses will lead him to some kind of change, because he’s great. There’s just nothing interesting about him, if there ever was. Especially as he keeps losing.
2. Penta teaming with the returning Viking Raiders against The New Day and Grayson Waller felt random. But the match was good, and Penta’s squad came out with the victory when he pinned Xavier Woods. Similar to the Balor vs. Lee match, it was a big enough positive to make the thumbs-up counter, but Penta has fallen deep into a booking limbo.
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Where did Andrade and Rey Fenix go? It’s time for The Death Triangle 2.0.
3. Rusev delivered a solid promo via vignette, still taking jabs at Sheamus. There was somewhat of a tag team tease in there, which would be sick, despite my hopes of a Rusev world title push. I know I just mentioned The Death Triangle, but consider it The Bar 2.0.
👑 Some of the problems on this show appear as more good than bad, but it will be interesting to see how WWE navigates the entanglements. I give this show a Crown score of: 7.5/10. 👑
