Hey everyone! Miss ya’ll last week, but Phonie is back for another Raw recap! What a show last night too, let’s get right into it.
MITB Qualifying Match: Kairi Sane vs. Lyra Valkyria vs. Shayna Baszler
We’ve got a qualifier full of former NXT Champions and all three delivered a stellar performance. Shayna’s frustration in not being able to secure a pivotal victory these last few months is on display in her performance. Kairi, whose been adjusting to the learning curve of being back in a WWE ring since her return, is in full form here! Reminding everyone why we fell in love with Sane in the first place. It’s Lyra though who would eventually end up scoring the win after an action packed finishing sequence. The crowd was firmly behind the action as evident with the This Is Awesome chants, another incredible triple threat to set up the women’s Money In The Bank ladder match!
Winner: Lyra Valkyria
Liv Morgan is walking backstage about to head to the ring, she’s notably wearing a “Daddy’s Girl” tee. When we get back from the commercial, Morgan is in the ring to call out Dom Dom, cooing how even though he’s playing hard to get, the end game is worth the result. She references the gifts she sent Judgment Day including the risque text she sent earlier in the night then asked Daddy Dom to come out to receive one more gift
Zelina Vega responds instead and she’s out to shut Morgan the hell up. Vega brings attention to the fact that while Liv’s out here pining for Dirty D, she’s eyeing the Women’s World Title and then we get a savage back and forth with Zelina’s quips getting a great reaction from the audience.
Dirty Dom is out next and he really doesn’t get a ton of words in as the audience refuses to let him get a word in. We get a “Sloppy Seconds” chant towards Liv/Dom, which got a cackle out of me, this promo is incredibly entertaining to watch. Zelina’s going hard on the mic but Liv is NOT wavering, she’s set on dirty D. To end the segment we see Rey Mysterio come out to Zelina aid leading Dom to “inadvertently” helping Liv.
It continues backstage too! Credit to Morgan bc she’s completely thrown herself into a character that’s really teetering on a line WWE hasn’t pushed this hard since pre-revolution days. We’ve seen glimpses of salacious “Diva” moments here and there in the modern era but to see the Women’s World Champion in this role definitely invokes a strong feeling of “Is this the kind of character I want leading the division??” Which I feel makes compelling TV. Well done by everyone involved.
Chad Gable earns his ways into the Men’s MITB match but as soon as he starts to celebrate the lights flicker and I get my first introduction to the Wyatt Sicks!! Nikki Cross (Abby the Witch) crawls into the ring, creeps Gable out enough to scare him out of the ring, presents a package to Michael Cole and then makes her way out of the arena. This is far more compelling to watch than I’m giving it justice.
Interesting to note earlier in the night when Chad Gable was entering the arena, on a WWE production truck there was an image of Alexa Bliss front and center donning her “Lilly” era attire.
Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn Vs Kaden Carter & Katana Chance
Matching gear from both teams!! That’s always a strong way to start off the match and the action picks up fast!! We get a “golden era” style match with the performer maximizing the 5 minutes they were given here but all in all, a solid showing from both teams with Alba & Isla winning the match decisively. I feel like I’ve been trained from the previous regime to expect the champs to take an L in a non-title bout, but I was happy to see the champions coming out of this match looking strong.
Winners: Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn
Damage Control is out though to wreak havoc and take over the women’s tag team division. Let’s see how this pans out for the trio, personally I was a fan of Iyo starting to move away from the group but happy to see how this plays out and it means the tag division stay active.
The Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan ends the show after getting involved in the main event on Judgment Day’s behalf, helping JD and Finn win the Tag Team Championships.
Great show all around, with compelling stuff for each of the performers that received screen time. I’m missing my girl Kiana James though, I know she took an L last week but I was hoping to see some follow up to her storyline with Adam Pearce. Always missing Nattie too who isn’t even getting a triple threat qualifier, but otherwise a great week for the women. Next week we’ll see Dakota vs. Ivy Nile vs. Zoey Stark for the final women’s qualifiers as well as a Women’s World Title Match between Liv Morgan vs. Zelina Vega. The Alexa Bliss tease definitely got my excited for her hopefully imminent return and selfishly I want to see her on the red brand. Fingers crossed Little Miss Bliss is back by SummerSlam!
Sound off in the comments and feel free to join us in the live chat tonight for NXT!
