Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of WWE Raw on October 31.
Crown Jewel takes place this Saturday, so Roman Reigns was on hand to hype up his match against Logan Paul for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
Nikki Cross made her shocking return last week with a brand-new look and attitude, and she stepped into the ring with Bianca Belair on Monday.
Matt Riddle battled Otis in a Trick or Treat Street Fight, and Brock Lesnar addressed his upcoming match against Bobby Lashley.
Let's look at what went down during Monday's show.
Raw opened with Belair making her way to the ring for her match against the returning Cross. The former Almost Superhero came out looking more like the Nikki we remember from NXT, though slightly more fashionable than she was during her Sanity days.
The EST of WWE backed her to the corner and started to unload. Cross tried to bring her down with a sunset flip, but Belair was too powerful to succumb.
Whenever the Scot started gaining some momentum, the Raw women's champion would use her strength advantage to hit back. Cross began to focus on attacking Belair's legs as the show went to a break.
Damage CTRL showed up to distract the ref and take out Belair, but Cross did not want their help. She took out all three women before The EST hit her with the KOD as soon as she got back into the ring.
The EST got the win, but Bayley and her cohorts attacked her immediately.
Having Cross lose her first match back would usually be seen as a poor booking decision, but the way this was done made it easier to handle. The match was energetic and made both competitors look good.
Winner: Bianca Belair
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
The look of confusion on Belair's face when Nikki started to yell was perfect.
The music WWE made for Cross was good. It sounded similar to Sanity's theme but different enough to be distinctive.
Belair's vertical suplex almost always looks great.
We were supposed to get a side-by-side interview with Bobby Lashley and Lesnar, but The Beast Incarnate decided he would rather go to the ring than sit in a chair backstage.
He called The All Mighty out for a fight, and Lashley was more than happy to oblige. It took a few dozen officials to break it up.
After a break, Austin Theory came out to take on Seth Rollins in the second match of the night. The Visionary was the clear favorite judging from the crowd's response, so he played into it quite a bit.
Rollins was big-timing Theory a lot during the first half of the bout. His experience allowed him to control the pace and his opponent until Mr. Money in the Bank took the reins right as the show cut to a commercial.
The 25-year-old had the upper hand when we returned, but the champ was beginning to show signs of life. The second half of the match was far more competitive than the first, and the crowd was eating up every big spot and near-fall.
After several close calls, Rollins was able to secure the win with his trademark Stomp.
This was solid from top to bottom.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
Lesnar and Lashley having a pull-apart brawl is almost always going to produce good results, so it's not surprising to see WWE go to that well again.
The crowd was singing Rollins' music for a few minutes after the match began.
It's hard to tell if The Visionary is still supposed to be a heel. He was high-fiving fans and got a positive reaction throughout the match.
Reigns and Paul Heyman came out to talk up The Tribal Chief's match against Logan Paul at Crown Jewel, but The Miz decided to interrupt.
The A-Lister said he acknowledged Reigns and was only there to help because he knows Paul better than everyone else. The dual champion ended up knocking him out to end the segment.
Dominik Mysterio, Rhea Ripley and Finn Bálor accompanied Damian Priest to the ring for his match against Karl Anderson.
The Machine Gun tried to use his speed to keep Priest off balance at first, but The Archer of Infamy took him down with one big back elbow.
These two worked well together, especially for two guys who have little experience as opponents. Anderson showed a lot of versatility throughout and was able to score the win with a backslide. This match was alright, but it didn't stand out much.
The Judgment Day attacked The O.C. after the bout was over, and Ripley helped her group end the segment standing tall.
Winner: Karl Anderson
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
Can we please stop with the jokes about The Miz's balls?
WWE showing people dressed up as WWE Superstars during their entrances was a fun little detail to add to the show. Some people had some great costumes.
Let Ripley fight men. It's time.
Anderson is one of those guys who can do a bit of everything. It makes his style hard to define, but it makes his matches fun.
JBL and Baron Corbin had a promo segment that ended with the latter taking out R-Truth. It felt like these promos were recycled from the 1980s. Even Truth couldn't save it.
To celebrate Halloween, WWE had Otis and Riddle compete in a Trick or Treat Street Fight this week. Chad Gable and Elias were also present to support their respective allies.
The match was only going for about 30 seconds before the show went to a break. This match had all of the usual comedy spots for a stipulation like this. They had a few fun moments, but as a whole, this was nothing that could be considered required viewing.
Riddle won after Elias put a pumpkin on Otis' head so The Original Bro could hit the RKO for the pin.
Winner: Matt Riddle
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
Riddle was dressed as Ezekiel, which seemed to amuse Elias.
Gable and Otis were dressed as Chippendale dancers from the Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990, which featured Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze. They are so good that they can take a really bad idea and make it passable.
Otis did the Worm, which is yet another sign that he is becoming more like his old self again.
Otis countered an RKO into a slam. It was a fantastic spot. The RKO that Riddle ended up hitting looked awful because his opponent dropped too early. But he had a pumpkin on his head, so he didn't know what was going on.
The Miz failed to get his match against Mustafa Ali canceled after Reigns attacked him earlier in the evening, so he was still trying to sell an injured jaw as the ref called for the bell.
While the high-flyer was able to get in a few moves right away, The A-Lister turned things around. But he only had control for a moment before Ali hit an atomic drop.
We returned from a commercial to see The Miz hitting the It Kicks, but Ali delivered a backstabber out of nowhere to give himself a little breathing room.
As they fought at ringside, Dexter Lumis tried to grab The Miz from the crowd. He was chased away by security, but the distraction was enough to give Ali the opportunity to hit a superkick followed by a 450 splash for the win.
Ali had some nice high spots, but the rest of the match was relatively tame. It wasn't bad in any way, but it could have used something more to make it stand out.
Winner: Mustafa Ali
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
The way Miz pulled Ali into the middle turnbuckle looked brutal.
The way The A-Lister slammed his head into a different turnbuckle a few minutes later looked even more painful. Ali sold it like he hit a brick wall.
We already asked this on a previous page, but can we please stop making jokes about The Miz's balls?
Johnny Gargano revealed in a pre-taped segment that The Miz had actually hired Lumis to stage the first few attacks, but once he stopped paying, Lumis began attacking him for real.
It was a funny segment, but time will tell if this new direction will make the storyline any better.
The main event of Monday night saw Asuka and Bliss challenge Kai and Sky for the women's tag team titles. This bout was made official after the challengers threw down the gauntlet earlier in the show.
The first half of the match featured the usual tag team formula we see in WWE all the time. The babyfaces were in control at first, but the heels then began to dominate.
All four women became much more aggressive as the contest progressed, which made it a lot more entertaining. Sky and Asuka were particularly fun to watch.
Bayley and Belair fought at ringside as the match was getting close to the end, and they ended up crashing through two tables. Bliss and Asuka ended up scoring the win to become the new women's tag team champions.
The match had some pacing issues toward the end, but overall, this was a fun outing from everyone involved.
Winners: Alexa Bliss and Asuka
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
WWE missed out on not having more Superstars wear costumes for Halloween.
Bliss and Kai have similar aesthetics in some ways. They might make a better tag team than either of the tandems in this bout.
The crowd popped a little when Sky and Asuka had a staredown. This is a singles feud WWE needs to explore at some point.
The Code Red that Bliss hit from the corner looked great.
Sky is great at almost everything, but her punches don't always look good.
