Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage and recap of WWE Raw on October 24.
With Crown Jewel less than two weeks away, management has been hard at work setting up the feuds that will occupy the card.
Last week saw Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley engage in a massive battle that destroyed part of the ringside area. The two powerhouses have been in the ring together before, but a high-profile singles bout is something fans have wanted for years.
We also saw the return of Elias, a rebranded Baron Corbin was introduced by JBL, The Miz took out Dexter Lumis before their scheduled match, and Damage CTRL continued their quest to dominate Raw.
Let's take a look at how WWE followed up on all of that on Monday's show.
Finn Bálor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley opened Raw with a promo about how great they are.
They bragged especially about Dom beating AJ Styles last week.
They were soon joined by Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows. The Phenomenal One mocked Dom for comparing himself to Eddie Guerrero and said he was more like James Ellsworth. The whole thing eventually led to Anderson and Bálor starting their match.
The former Bullet Club allies locked up, and after the Irishman got in the first bit of offense, Anderson took control as the show went to a break.
Machine Gun began focusing on Bálor's leg, but it didn't take the leader of The Judgment Day long to make a comeback. This promo segment and match combined to fill up the first half-hour of the show, so The Prince and Anderson had plenty of time to work.
Bálor was able to score the win after some mayhem at ringside caused a few distractions.
This bout had some great spots and lots of energy, and it was a great way to kick things off. The promo was nothing special, but the match was tons of fun.
Winner: Finn Bálor
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Highlights
Ripley got some heat when she said Dom was "all man." WWE is doing a lot of implying about the nature of their relationship without stating they are a couple.
It would be nice if WWE did more with New Japan Pro-Wrestling so it can fully acknowledge the history of The Bullet Club without just making minor allusions to it.
Anderson is one of those guys who can do a bit of everything, so it's hard to classify him as a particular kind of wrestler.
The dragon screw Anderson hit over the middle rope looked nasty.
Anderson has a great spinebuster. Arn would be proud. He also hits a nice flying neckbreaker from the middle turnbuckle.
Ripley hitting Gallows with a textbook body slam was an impressive feat of strength.
The Miz came out to talk about his feud with Dexter Lumis. He mentioned how nobody has seen Tommaso Ciampa in weeks and claimed he has been tormented by sleepless nights.
Johnny Gargano arrived to tell Miz he is full of it. He revealed Ciampa is injured and not missing. He said The A-Lister just has to tell the truth if he wants all of this to stop. This brought out R-Truth...for some reason.
After some banter that didn't really do much other than create a few easy joke opportunities, this led to the former Awesome Truth partners having a singles match.
The Miz took control early by pretending to let Truth play to the crowd a bit, but that did not stop Truth from winning with a roll-up after The A-Lister was distracted by Gargano wearing clothes that made him look like Lumis.
This was somewhat entertaining, but it didn't do much to advance the storyline. Truth won't gain any momentum from this win, so the only thing it did was make The Miz look scared.
Winner: R-Truth
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
Gargano trolling The Miz is top-tier television.
It's great to see R-Truth still getting good reactions from the crowd. He is one of those guys who does everything at 100 percent no matter how bad it might be.
Commentator Kevin Patrick acknowledging that The Miz and Truth used to be partners was nice. Sometimes it feels like WWE just ignores stuff like that for no reason.
Austin Theory and Mustafa Ali met for a singles match, but they were not alone. Seth Rollins joined the commentary team to watch the action.
Mr. Money in the Bank showed off his power by immediately shoving Ali to the ground. The high-flyer was able to get in a little offense before Theory regained the upper hand.
The rest of the match followed that pattern as it repeated. Theory used his power to throw Ali around while the former 205 Live standout employed his agility and speed to counter when he could.
Rollins distracted Ali so Theory could trip him on the top rope and hit his finisher for the win. This match had its moments, but if it was supposed to help Ali in his feud with The Visionary, it didn't accomplish its goal.
Rollins and Ali fought after the match until the U.S. champ retreated to the back.
Winner: Austin Theory
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
Ali's new shirt has a cool design. You can't immediately tell it's a WWE shirt, and that makes it more likely to sell.
Ali was wearing shorts instead of tights this week. He has had a few different looks since coming to WWE, but this one seems to fit him the best for some reason.
Theory is somehow a little less annoying with a full beard instead of whatever kind of goatee he used to have.
Rollins acknowledging his history with Theory from the ThunderDome era was a nice bit of continuity.
The spot when Ali interrupted Theory's selfie was funny and will probably look great if WWE gets the footage from the phone.
This week's show featured another squash match for Omos, but this time it was four local competitors instead of the usual two.
MVP asked the four men what chance they thought they would have against The Nigerian Giant if he could so easily push Braun Strowman out of the ring.
At this point, these bouts aren't doing anything to help Omos. We know he is big and strong, so these repeated squash matches are just pointless filler.
Unsurprisingly, he easily destroyed all four men to score the win.
While this was unnecessary, the one good thing that can be said was that Omos looked decent, especially compared to how green he looked at this point last year.
After a backstage segment earlier in the show, Elias and Chad Gable met for a match to settle their differences.
The Olympian had control right away by outwrestling the crooner, but Elias was able to use his significant power advantage to turn the table eventually.
Otis helped Gable by pulling the rope down so Elias tumbled to the outside as the show cut to a commercial. When we returned, the leader of Alpha Academy was still in the driver's seat.
This match could have just been a quick win to give Elias some momentum, but there was enough time to make this a competitive fight.
Elias hit his finisher for the win, but it was a bit rough. Other than that spot, the rest of the match was solid and gave Elias a chance to show us what he can do again.
Otis and Gable attacked Elias, but Matt Riddle made the save and helped take out Alpha Academy.
Winner: Elias
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
It's so weird how Elias and Ezekiel are the same person but Elias has 100 percent more charisma.
The backslide is one of those moves that is hard to do with a person who is smaller than the one performing the move. The one Elias used on Gable was a bit awkward.
Gable has so much more power than it looks like he should have. It's wild.
The knee Elias hit on Gable as he was going for a backflip off the top rope was an awesome spot and probably should have been the finish.
JBL and Baron Corbin ran into Johnny Gargano backstage, and their interaction led to the current wrestlers agreeing to a match.
Johnny Wrestling used his speed to stay one step ahead of Corbin for the first couple of minutes, but the former Golden Gloves boxer nailed him with one big right hand to send him crashing from the apron to the floor.
Gargano began to build a head of steam as he hit a series of quick moves, but Corbin caught him flying off the apron and slammed him onto the announce table to send us into a commercial.
This was a good match with a steady pace and some great spots. These two work well together because they both know how to make each other look good with their respective styles.
JBL tripped Gargano on the apron to give Corbin the setup to hit End of Days for the win.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
Gargano calling JBL "MC Hammer Pants" had no right being as funny as it was.
Corbin's entrance music is somehow so bad that it's kind of perfect. It's too bad the fake boos were louder than most of the melody.
You have to give JBL credit for always being one of those guys who puts other people over on commentary even when he is supposed to be an antagonist.
Gargano dancing with JBL's hat on the announce table is one of those moments you will either think is very funny or very dumb.
Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky were with Bayley as she came out for her match against Bianca Belair. Candice LeRae was attacked earlier in the show, so The EST of WWE was without anyone to stand in her corner.
The two rivals know each other well, so they were quick to lock up and get right into the action. Their chemistry was on full display throughout, as they demonstrated why they deserve to have one of the most high-profile feuds on the red brand.
They were given three full segments to work, so they put on quite the show. This match never slowed down, but it didn't feel rushed, either. They struck the right balance of quick sequences and moments of selling.
Without the commercial breaks, this match might have felt like it was just a bit too long, but the breaks helped. After Sky and Kai cleared off the table, Belair was able to powerbomb Bayley on top of it before slamming her into the ring post and the apron.
The women's tag champs took The EST down while the ref was distracted, but he saw enough to boot them from ringside. Then, out of nowhere, Nikki Cross took down the ref and both women at ringside with a huge crossbody from the top rope.
She also took out Belair before a new official ran down to make the count and declare Bayley the winner.
While we saw a few too many screwy finishes during this show, seeing Cross brought back and put into a big storyline right away is a great sign. She attacked Bayley just to show she has no allegiance to anyone. The show went off the air with her staring into the camera.
Winner: Bayley
Grade: A-
Notable Moments and Observations
Belair's back handspring always looks good, but the way Bayley laid her out with a running forearm after she did one was awesome.
The EST did a good job selling the moment when her rival yanked her arm over the top rope.
Bayley is an underrated striker. Her hits don't make much of a noise, but they always look good.
Belair should start having Hair vs. Hair matches after she loses the title. It would be a cool storyline if she was able to keep successfully defending the one thing her opponents always use against her.
