WWE Monday Night Raw: 5/9/2022

It’s the Raw following this past weekend’s WrestleMania Backlash, and it was apparent that the landscape for the red brand was changing. An almighty juggernaut seemed to have fallen, the tag team champions are still ready to unify their gold against the blue brand’s champions despite being the ones taking the pinfall loss and an American Nightmare seemed well on his way to become the NEW United States champion. It was certainly a great show nonetheless!

Match 1: Raw Tag Team Championship Match; RK-Bro (c) vs the Street Profits. (Rating: 4/5)

The show kicks off with Riddle and Orton addressing the crowd about the events that transpired at Backlash in that 6 man tag team match with Drew McIntyre against SmackDowns Bloodline. The champions said that regardless of the loss at the payperview, they were still eager and determined to capture both sets of tag team gold and it appears that they’re going to be well on their way to SmackDown this Friday to make this match official! Sadly until then, RK-Bro has to take care of unfinished business with Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, the Street Profits. The match was fast and hard-hitting and both teams looked naturally at home inside that ring. The closing moments of the match saw Riddle catching Ford in an RKO after Montez was trying to hit a beautiful Frog Splash to the original bro and thus successfully retain the tag titles for himself and Randy. Now to see where RK-Bro goes at SmackDown.

Match 2: Rhea Ripley vs Liv Morgan. (Rating:3.5/5)

Before this match got underway, Judgement Day made their way to the ring and addressed the crowd following Edge’s victory at WrestleMania Backlash against AJ Styles. New haircut for the Rated R Superstar as well but I don’t mind it due to how utterly AWESOME this entrance was! Rhea Ripley to the left, Damian Priest on the right and Edge in the center; this was indeed Judgement Day! According to Ripley, Edge had approached her during WrestleMania weekend and basically told her to get rid of Liv Morgan due to the Hall of Famer seeing Morgan as “dead weight.” That promoted Liv to come put and proceed to wrestle against Rhea Ripley and it was a great match! Despite it being mostly one sided, it served as a reminder of how Rhea Ripley used to be during her NXT UK days: strong, dominate and a force to be reckoned with. Ripley wins this match by forcing Morgan to submit to the Cloverleaf which looked absolutely PAINFUL!

Match 3: Finn Bálor vs Damian Priest. (Rating:2.75/5)

Immediately following Rhea’s match with Liv Morgan, out comes Bálor alongside AJ Styles for this upcoming match against Damian Priest. Was Priest able to bring it home for Judgement Day with a 2-0 clean victory on Raw? Well, unfortunately not because this ended in disqualification after Edge got involved and speared Finn Bálor, whom was mere moments away from putting away Damian. A brawl ensues and AJ ended up getting involved and actually ALMOST struck Rhea Ripley but with that act of hesitation, both Edge and Priest was able to take care of Styles as well; laying both former Bullet Club leaders on their backs. Shame way to end an otherwise okay match but it’s obvious where the direction of this feud is going!

Match 4: Sonya Deville vs ALEXA BLISS!! (Rating:2.75/5)

Alexa Bliss has finally returned! Not the Firefly Funhouse version of her either, it was the Goddess! With her theme song, attire and all the real Little Miss Bliss has returned. She still came out with the Lilly doll for some reason but it felt more like just a prop instead of having it be supernatural. A Twisted Bliss later and almost immediately, Alexa took care of the now former WWE official.

Main Event: Asuka vs Bianca Belair. (Rating:2/5)

On paper, this has the making of being an instant classic! Two of the best women wrestlers that WWE had to offer in this current generation going out there and tearing the house down sounds too good to be true. And with what little time we were given to this match, Asuka and Bianca showed us the potential the match itself has! But why such a low rating? Apart from being too quick and a throwaway match, Becky Lynch ended up getting involved: costing Asuka the shot to compete for the Raw women’s championship in the future. She attacked Belair and then proceeded to floor the Empress of Tomorrow as well: with Big Time Becks being the one to stand tall.

Final rating:3.75/5