Happy Labor Day, one and all. "WWE Raw" was live from Paris, France, on Monday, for a special afternoon edition of the show (at least for the people in the States). The show was laser-focused on the fallout from WWE Clash In Paris, to the point that it was more epilogue than next chapter.
It's time to break down the good and the bad from Monday's follow-up to Clash In Paris. It won't be a literal recounting of "what happened," as Olivia Quinlan already did that on the results page. Instead, we will be discussing what we loved, what we didn't, and doing our best to make a case to you, the loyal reader. There was plenty to love, and plenty to hate, just as there was every week. From Becky Lynch's disheartening shift to cheerleader to the ending of the Intercontinental Title match, there was plenty of bad. From the crowd to the, well, the Intercontinental Title match itself, there was also plenty of good.
Let's get into the best and the worst of the Labor Day edition of "WWE Raw."
I can't let the long weekend or the WWE European tour slip by without mentioning how amazing the crowd was, both yesterday for Clash in Paris and today for "Raw." The crowd was loud and invested in a good portion of this show, and if the energy was coming through that well on my TV screen, I can't even begin to imagine what it was like in the arena.
The crowd YEETed along with Jey Uso to open the show and WWE's drone and camera work for the entrance was incredible and helped show off just how packed the event really was. Somehow, I always forget about the crowd count along of "one, two, sacrebleu!" when someone kicks out, and every European tour that I'm reminded of it, it still makes me laugh. It's a unique thing to French crowds, and honestly, I love that for them.
AJ Styles was by far the most over performer in France tonight, and it was really fun, from the chants to the songs for him. It also helped his Intercontinental Championship match against Dominik Mysterio get started, with a heel "Dirty Dom" attacking him before the match even got started to quiet the crowd. Throughout the match, they were on their feet jumping and dancing when Styles had any successful offense, which was a really cool visual you don't normally see stateside.
The set, which WWE carried over from the premium live event, was also incredible. I loved seeing a unique set for Paris, and I hope WWE continues to build a few new ones here and there throughout the year. The set, complete with huge Eiffel Tower, really helped both Clash and Paris and "Raw" today feel like a big deal. The giant screens around the tower, despite really only showcasing a wrestler's symbol, were a nice touch. They really caught my eye during the Kabuki Warriors and Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch's entrances.
I know it's easy to love European crowds, but it's also easy to get excited along with them and be happy they're getting to experience a live WWE show, and their energy helps me to enjoy things a little more from my couch.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Part of the appeal of Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins is that the two feel like individuals. They are not a weird amalgam of two people, created by their marriage. They are two successful people in a relationship. Which is why Monday's promo from Becky Lynch was incredibly disheartening.
Lynch's repeated cheerleading for her husband felt wrong in a big way. Lynch's pivot to devoted wife, here to tell CM Punk how good her husband is, might be opening the door for a mixed tag match down the line, but it also undercuts one of the strongest female characters that WWE has. It suddenly felt as if Lynch was the Harley Quinn to Punk's Joker, despite being a multi-time world champion. Her reason for having it out for Punk, that people chanted his name during her match 10 years ago, barely works. The whole segment just made her feel flimsy, I don't know how to put it.
It's a problem a lot of writers face, Aaron Sorkin especially. "The West Wing" would often introduce and develop a strong, professional character like CJ Cregg, and then eventually get stuck making every other story she was involved in some kind of high school romance. "The Newsroom" had this problem on steroids, where seemingly every female character was somehow there to prop up one of the dopier male characters. Between that and the oddly verbose promo from Punk and Lynch, I legitimately wondered if the Acadamy Award winner had taken some moonlighting work to pay for his sequel to the Social Network.
Written by Ross Berman
While I was hoping for Dominik Mysterio to somehow get a clean victory over AJ Styles during tonight's Intercontinental Championship match, that was, of course, a pipe dream. Even though he won with some help, at least it was El Grande Americano and not anyone else in Judgment Day, and the weeks of little secret backstage conversations between Mysterio and El Grande Americano have paid off.
It also looks like their alliance is going to go through to the reason why I loved this match, Worlds Collide. Mysterio's win, dirty or not, makes him look good ahead of his match against El Hijo del Vikingo next Friday. It would have looked pretty stupid to have Mysterio lose the IC title, then challenge for the AAA Mega Championship, and a disqualification or no contest finish, despite WWE using them over and over again, would have just looked stupid. I really think that Worlds Collide is where WWE and AAA put the title on Mysterio.
Further establishing El Grande Americano as an ally of Mysterio's who will come to his aid during a match is a smart move ahead of Worlds Collide. Both men are extremely over in AAA, so that Las Vegas crowd should be really into it, whether or not Mysterio wins the title from Vikingo.
The fact that Mysterio got yet another victory over Styles was a good look for him, and the match was a good one. Mysterio did look to have things won at one point with a Three Amigos followed by a frog splash, all clean, but Styles kicked out and the match rolled on until the sneaky interference. While I'm not entirely sure what's next for Styles, I also wasn't sure if putting the IC gold on him was the right idea at this point in time.
Overall, I loved how this seemed to set some things up for Worlds Collide while WWE was still over in Paris, and now, things can hopefully ramp up a little bit more for the show when they get back to the States.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Dominik Mysterio retained his Intercontinental Championship on Monday over AJ Styles in a run-of-the-mill TV match, complete with interference though that would not come from the wellspring of Dusty finishes known as the Judgment Day, since Adam Pearce stipulated that they would not be ringside for the match; he must be new around these parts, bless his soul. Instead, it would be the childish affront to lucha libre, El Grande Americano, providing the interference for reasons by emerging from under the ring and headbutting Styles with that pesky plate beneath his mask.
The Americano character, as worn by, to date, Chad Gable, Ludwig Kaiser, Tyler Bate, and Pete Dunne, is random and confusing by itself. So having him provide help to Mysterio relatively out of nowhere sure, they were seen having a discussion in a backstage segment, but that is effectively it only adds to the confusion and reads as a cheap excuse to pull the rug from the SummerSlam rematch this week.
Styles had the match won, so either the idea is to extend the feud and have a third bout further down the line, or it makes Styles and Mysterio look pretty bad coming out of it. Grande Americano doesn't really stand to gain anything and is already tied to another faction in the American Made, which really needs addressing at some stage sooner rather than later. Everything just feels a little random and an excuse to prolong the story rather than letting it find its natural conclusion. And it makes the weekly shows feel entirely inconsequential and offers no reason to tune in beyond the promise of five to fifteen minutes of subdued wrestling.
Written by Max Everett
In the past, WWE has had a tendency to break up tag teams with little to no warning (especially in their women's division). It's a nice change of pace to see that not be the case for the inevitable breakup between IYO SKY and the Kabuki Warriors, with so much of tonight's episode of "Raw" being dedicated to showing various backstage segments of the three women and SKY's newfound ally, Rhea Ripley.
WWE has admittedly done the jealous best friend storyline a million other times before that they seem to be doing with Asuka and SKY, but it's a formula that's very effective and is once again proving to be just that in the context of their ongoing storyline. Rather than leaving the allegiances of Kairi Sane up for debate after pulling the trigger, as typically tends to happen, there is already room being built into this storyline to leave fans wondering who she will ultimately side with when things between SKY and Asuka eventually boil over and create intrigue in a storyline that seems to have a fairly obvious end goal. As long as WWE keeps heading in the direction that they're currently going in and continues dedicating this much time to building up the tensions between Asuka and SKY, then this could easily be one of the more notable and interesting storylines currently featured on the red brand.
Written by Olivia Quinlan
Tonight's main event to follow Clash in Paris saw Jey Uso and LA Knight teaming against Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker in a 'Can they co-exist?' tandem versus heel muscle tandem, and while it was a fun match that most certainly carried a seen-before quality, the finish and closing angle saw much of what has been par of the course for the past few months; Breakker and Reed won after a spirited performance from the faces, proceeding to do exactly what they did to Roman Reigns on Sunday and have been doing to any of the top performers on "Raw" as of late, beating Uso down, then Knight when he valiantly tried to make the save, and then returning to hit Uso with another spear and a Tsunami splash. Then, and only then, might one add, did Jimmy Uso emerge to make the save and close the show.
Questions: If "Big Jim" was at "Raw," which admittedly there would be no expectation for him to, pray tell, why was he just at ringside or in any way supporting Jey up until that point? Why did he wait until after his brother had been beaten to emerge? Furthermore, why did he wait until after he, then Knight, then he again was beaten down by Reed and Breakker after the match? Does any of this actually matter?
It really should, this writer would posit as an answer to that last one. The performances from the competitors itself is worth their weight in gold, but it feels as though the thinking going into everything is severely lackluster and designed just to occupy time until the next big set piece. Also, neither Uso or Knight was pinned by Seth Rollins to end the World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday, yet they had to go through Reed and Breakker while not even getting a chance to address the champion; the man who was pinned, CM Punk, had the opportunity to simply call out Rollins and assert himself as the primary challenger, getting slapped ad ouch-eum by Becky Lynch and being sent packing. For Uso, at least, it makes sense that he would want some form of retribution for his cousin, but again, it's just lacking the cohesion for everything to feel like it matters. How many times can wrestling, let alone WWE, deliver a faction on the verge of doing some very bad things, only for a babyface or collective of the coming out to make the save? It just feels like a foregone conclusion that at least one of those will happen every week, and it can get jarring.
Written by Max Everett
