The WWE Raw Reaction for August 8, 2022
Welcome to the WWE Raw Reaction, where I offer my take on this week’s show in Cleveland as we head on the road to Clash at the Castle coming up on Saturday, September 3rd.
As always, you can check out John’s full, in-depth review here.
We kick things off this week with Promo Time with Bayley, Dakota Sky, and IYO SKY. The promo was pretty good at laying the groundwork for the new group. With all of this control talk, I’m surprised that they don’t come out to Puddle of Mud. Bayley, at times, seemed like she was trying to think of an insult to hurl at the crowd. Kai and SKY are in the Women’s Tag Team Championship tournament and that brings out Asuka, Alexa Bliss, and Bianca Belair. Bliss and Asuka are n the tag title tournament, as you would expect them to be. Bayley issues a six-women tag challenge for Clash at the Castle and Belair accepts. Another pull-apart fight breaks out and I’m left wondering why Vince didn’t see anything in this. This story has been great so far and I’m rather excited to see where it goes.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship title tournament brackets are flashed on the screen. I’m going with Dakota Kai/IYO SKY v. Raquel Rodriguez/Aliyah in the finals with Kai/SKY winning.
Our opening contest is Seth “Freakin” Rollins taking on Angelo Dawkins. Last week, Rollins took on Montez Ford in a fantastic match. This week, Dawkins is looking to avenge his partner’s loss. The match was action-packed from the opening bell. Ford at one point gets booted from ringside. Dawkins continues to impress but Rollins picks up the W in a really good match.
We get a quick shot backstage with Edge and the Mysterios. Dominik is upset over Edge accidentally spearing him and plants more seeds for a heel turn.
Kevin Owens takes on Ezekiel next. Owens demolishes Ezekiel to send him out on a stretcher to end the feud and character. They could have taken Ezekiel further than they did, but don’t know why they didn’t. I think it is time for Owens to move on.
The Judgement Day is backstage before their match with Damian Priest challenging Edge in two weeks at Raw in Toronto. Edge told Rey he has his back if needed. Rey said he hasn’t been able to talk to Dominik since.
The match is Finn Balor vs. Rey Mysterio. Priest is at ringside for Balor and nobody is with Mysterio. The match is really good as you would expect from these two. It was back and forth with each of them getting some really good believable nearfalls. Priest gets involved so Edge runs him off. Rhea Ripley appears to have beaten Dominik up so Balor can use the distraction to pick up the win. There’s a couple of flaws here. We know the women can beat up the men but not the other way around, so who’s going to counter Ripley in all of this? Also, what does Ripley have with Dominik? Maybe he’s into the dominatrix stuff with her? The whole Ripley can’t be touched by the guys thing just feels out of place for Judgement Day.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship tournament kicks off with IYO SKY and Dakota Kai taking on Tamina and 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke. They neglect to announce Brooke from Cleveland. They must be afraid of giving her the hometown pop. The match was good and did not feature any 24/7 Title hijinks. The outcome was given the second the bracket was announced but at least the hometown girl did not eat the pin.
Kevin Owens was interviewed backstage on his way out the door briefly and we pretend that a car did not crash into a barricade 20 feet away.
The United States Championship is up for grabs next with Bobby Lashley defending against Ciampa. Another Clevelandite, The Miz, is at ringside. This was a great match between two veterans. The match could have gone either way. AJ Styles shows up along the way to run off The Miz. Lashley picked up the win after getting Ciampa to tap out to the Hurt Lock. I think Ciampa is the one to take the title from Lashley, but let’s let Lashley build the title back up first. The Way Ciampa might not get the title is if #DIY reunites to face The Usos.
Omos still knows how to obliterate two scrubs like it is 1989. Good to know.
Chad Gable faces another Cleveland product in Dolph Ziggler. Keeping with the theme, he is not announced from Cleveland. The match was good for the time allotted. Ziggler popped off his superkick finisher outta nowhere like he was Randy Orton or something to pick up the duke.
There’s an odd backstage sequence with Alexa Bliss/Asuka and Bayley’s group. As they are talking, you can see the wrecked car getting loaded up onto a flatbed tow truck in the background and then security runs by, causing everyone to leave. Bayley’s crew bumps into AJ Styles as he heads towards the ring.
Main event time has AJ Styles squaring off against The Miz in a No DQ match. The match was pretty good given the stipulation. Ciampa made an appearance and got beat up before going through a table. Styles eventually picked up the win with a few minutes remaining. As Styles was celebrating, there was some commotion in the crowd with the cops hauling Dexter Lumis away from the front row. The announcers mentioned Lumis by name in the closing shot.
Let’s take a look at tonight’s highs and lows.
The Highs
We had a solid night of action through the full three hours. Everything felt like it had a purpose and there were no pointless spots, even with the 24/7 Champion making an appearance.
The weird stuff backstage leading to the Lumis reveal was pretty clever. I wonder if they’ll acknowledge any of it next week.
The Lows
Do we really need an Omos match on Raw? Can we trade him to Main Event?
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That’s all I’ve got, until next time.