Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of WWE Monday Night Raw.
This week's show did not have any matches advertised before the show, but WWE.com did give us a preview for some of the segments.
Following the brutal attack he suffered at the hands of Kevin Owens last week, Big E responded to The Prize Fighters on this week's show.
With Liv Morgan breathing down her neck as the next apparent challenger to the Raw women's title, Becky Lynch reacted to the new threat facing her.
We also saw Bobby Lashley continue carving a path of destruction after he beat Dominik Mysterio last week, forcing the younger Mysterio to lose his spot on Team Raw at Survivor Series.
Let's take a look at everything that happened on this week's show.
Raw opened with a recap of what went down between Big E and Owens before the WWE champion made his way out to a great reaction from the crowd.
Big E spent some time talking about how The Bloodline crossed the line when they went after Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. He promised to take a piece of Roman Reigns that he can never get back.
He called out Owens and didn't have to wait long for an appearance. KO said he had something to get off his chest and brought up how Big E cost him his match against Seth Rollins and called him a liar. He said he snapped but didn't seem to regret it.
Big E dared him to come down for a fight, but Owens just walked away. The champ tried to give chase before The Usos attacked him from out of nowhere.
Riddle ran down to help Big E even the odds and clear the ring. Sonya Deville came out and booked all four men in a tag team match to start immediately.
We returned from a break to see Big E and Jimmy Uso start for their teams while Rollins joined the commentary team. Riddle came in and hit a stiff kick to the gut before Jey made a blind tag and took The Bro down with his brother for a two-count.
E tried to throw Jimmy into Rollins. This led to The Messiah interfering to cause a disqualification. Randy Orton came down to make the save for his partner. The match was turned into a six-man tag after the break.
Both teams got in their usual offense before the finish saw Rollins nail a huge forearm and roll Riddle up for the pin.
Grade: C
Analysis
With one quick promo, Big E hyped his upcoming match with Reigns more than WWE has in the weeks since we knew this would be the Survivor Series main event.
The short exchange he had with Owens was good and helped pause this feud for a week while Big E focused on his match at Survivor Series.
KO and Big E are both great on the mic, so their promos between now and their eventual clash for the WWE title are going to be the biggest selling points of this storyline.
The tag match and six-man tag bout that followed the promos were fine but way too predictable. As soon as Rollins got involved, it was clear as day that Orton would make an appearance. The only thing missing was Teddy Long to make the announcements.
This put The Usos and RKBro in the ring just six days before they do battle again at the PPV. It seemed unnecessary. Nothing we saw in the first 40 minutes of Raw was bad; it just wasn't especially good.
Bianca Belair gave a quick backstage interview about Survivor Series before heading to the ring to take on the former women's tag team champion, Tamina.
Tamina rushed Belair and pushed her to the corner, but The EST quickly turned the tables and fired back with some big right hands. She hit some mounted punches in the corner before Tamina put her down with a clothesline.
The powerhouse kept the upper hand and got a quick two-count after an elbow drop. She climbed to the top rope, but Belair cut her off and threw her down to the mat.
Tamina blocked a moonsault with her knees, but Belair countered a Samoan drop and hit the KOD for the win.
Grade: C+
Analysis
It was hard to tell if Tamina was supposed to be a heel here, but with her tag team with Natalya being dissolved during the draft, it wouldn't be shocking if she was back to being a villain again.
This match had some decent energy but ultimately did not do enough to make either woman look better than they did going into it. It seemed more like filler than something meaningful.
Teasing a feud with Doudrop and Belair is somewhat interesting because it would appear Doudrop is playing the heel in this equation, which seems like a sudden shift for her character after being well-received in recent weeks. We'll see what happens after the PPV.
Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins took on Chad Gable and Otis in a tag match after the Profits had a quick backstage interaction with Riddle.
Dawkins and Gable started for their teams with a standard exchange of counters and takedowns. Dawkins was able to keep up with the smaller and quicker Gable before he brought in Ford to hit a beautiful dropkick.
Gable wrestled Ford to the mat, but Ford was able to tag Dawkins for a double-team combo. Otis used his power to take out both Profits at ringside before the show cut to a break.
We returned to see Gable and Dawkins going at it again. Otis got the tag and dropped an elbow to keep Dawkins grounded.
Ford eventually got the hot tag and failed to take down Otis with four clotheslines. He unloaded on the big man until Otis popped him up for a huge slam. Dawkins saved his partner but was taken out in the process.
Gable tagged in and tried to set up their finisher. Dawkins prevented it, and Ford was able to secure the win by reversing the momentum after a crossbody from Gable.
Grade: B
Analysis
The first few seconds of this match set the pace for everything that followed. Dawkins and Gable had a great exchange that showed off how much Dawkins has grown as a grappler.
These two teams have established great chemistry in their recent meetings. If either team had the tag titles, this feud could produce some of the best matches on Raw.
It's nice to see WWE putting a little effort into rebuilding the division following the draft. Both brands have tried to feature more than one tag match in recent weeks, and it has allowed multiple duos to gain some momentum.
Nikki ASH and Queen Zelina faced off in singles action before Rhea Ripley and Carmella did the same.
Nikki quickly took control, but Zelina didn't take long to turn things around. She hit a running kick for a one-count as Carmella cheered her on from ringside.
The Almost Superhero hit a Michinoku driver for a two-count before climbing to the top rope. Mella distracted her so Zelina could trip her off the top rope and hit her trademark Code Red for the win.
We returned to see Ripley throwing Carmella around the ring after they got going during the break. Mella kicked Ripley's head into the ring post for a two-count.
She mocked Ripley's usual pose before putting her in a headlock. Ripley got angry and started dishing out punishment to The Most Beautiful Woman in all of WWE.
Mella avoided a dropkick and hit a pair of low superkicks for a near-fall. Ripley scored the win with the Riptide a few seconds later.
Grade: C-
Analysis
The women's tag team division is all but nonexistent these days, but at least WWE is using this feud to give four deserving talents more screen time. The problem is the time they are getting is not being spent in meaningful ways.
The first match with Nikki and Zelina was too quick to be memorable. The second bout between Ripley and Mella was slightly better but still on the short side.
This whole segment was the definition of 50-50 booking. WWE should either commit to giving one team a boost or not have situations like this at all.
Finn Balor informed Owens that since Rollins was no longer his opponent for the night, it would be him and KO facing off instead. The Prize Fighter didn't seem to mind this one bit.
They locked up and struggled until Balor made a clean break. KO had the same chance, but he took a cheap shot instead.
The Prince tried to fight back, but Owens kept finding ways to thwart his offense. KO tried to powerbomb him into the apron, but Balor avoided the impact. Owens still took him down with a spinning side suplex for a two-count.
The Prize Fighter ran into a pair of boots as Balor started to find his footing again. He threw Owens out of the ring and hit a huge dive over the top rope to take him down.
We returned to see Owens hit a huge somersault slam from the middle rope for a two-count. He caught Balor in a crossbody and swung him around for another slam to get a near-fall.
They went outside the ring, where Balor drilled KO with a dropkick into the barricade. Owens avoided the Coup de Grace and hit a massive powerbomb for a close two-count. A few moments later, he hit a Stunner for the win.
Grade: A-
Analysis
Balor and Owens have been having great matches for years going back to their time in NXT, so they can probably put on a good performance in their sleep at this point.
This match was fun even if it didn't come close to some of their bigger matches in terms of exciting spots, but it was still a good one to put in front of the live crowd because everything they did looked smooth. We can't expect every match between two people to be the best thing ever.
The crowd was hot for this one, especially during the second half when they started hitting bigger and bigger moves as they built toward the finish. This is the kind of match WWE should have advertised ahead of time to hype the show.
Last week, Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler were in a team with AJ Styles and Omos. This week, they were opponents because of Omos being pissed that Ziggler stole the win for the alliance on the last episode of Raw.
Omos started off against Roode and threw him to the corner with ease. He hit a big head-butt to take The Glorious One down and crushed him in the corner.
He brought Roode to his corner and allowed him to tag Ziggler. The Showoff talked some trash and tried to apply a sleeper, but Omos threw him off his back like it was nothing.
Styles finally tagged in and hit a Phenomenal Forearm for the win.
Grade: C+
Analysis
The way WWE uses Omos is interesting. He rarely gets to work the majority of any tag match he is in, but this week saw him carry the lion's share of the workload.
It's always fun to watch the big man throw dudes around like sacks of garbage, but there is only so many ways he can do it before it becomes clear he doesn't have many other options.
This helped make Omos look dominant but fell short of giving us an actual good match. If you like watching giants destroy regular guys, this is for you.
After destroying Dominik last week, Lashley got a chance to do the same to the elder Mysterio on this week's show when they met in the main event.
Rey tried to avoid the powerhouse with his speed, but The All Mighty eventually got his hands on the legendary luchador when he ran him over.
Rey avoided having his head driven into the ring post and sent Lashley into it instead. He hit a modified 619 followed by a sliding splash out of the ring to the floor.
We returned from a break to see Lashley catch Rey in the air and slam him to the mat. He threw The Master of the 619 out of the ring with authority as Dom looked on with concern on his face. The All Mighty ran Rey's head into the ring post and posed for the crowd.
Lashley hit a one-armed vertical suplex for a near-fall as he stared right at Dom. Rey managed to get him in position for the 619 and hit it, but when he hit the splash, Lashley just stood up with him and put him in the Hurt Lock for the win.
Adam Pearce came out and told Rey that he was off Team Raw after his loss. Austin Theory attacked Dom, so Pearce named him as Rey's replacement.
Grade: B
Analysis
Rey and Lashley have been in the ring before, but they aren't opponents who have been paired together so many times that we are bored with the combo. That's kind of rare among top stars in WWE these days.
Rey's ability to adjust on the fly is one of his best assets. There was a couple of times when he had to improvise when he and Lashley had timing issues, and he managed to save it almost every time.
The dominance of Lashley and the underdog appeal of Rey will always be a good pairing, but it felt like they were holding back a bit. They got to second gear and then never upped the intensity.
This was a pretty average episode of Raw. We saw some good stuff, some bad stuff and a few things that were right down the middle. It didn't feel much like the go-home episode before a PPV.
