The first Raw after Wrestlepalooza left the landmark event firmly in the rearview mirror, as attention turned to building the card for Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia, on Oct. 11.
Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins went face-to-face in front of the Evansville, Indiana, crowd to continue to jockey for space at the top of the WWE food chain in the lead-up to their meeting for the Crown Jewel championship. Newly minted women's world champion Stephanie Vaquer, the first South American-born woman to hold a WWE title, delivered a heartfelt promo after it was announced she would square off with the winner of this Friday's triple-threat match among women's champion Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill and Nia Jax at Crown Jewel.
The biggest highlight of Raw was in the main event between Rhea Ripley and Asuka, two formidable performers who hadn't faced each other one-on-one since December 2022. The match was competitive and gripping, and could end up being the origin story of a future powerhouse tag team.
Here's a recap of Raw with the biggest takeaways from Monday night.
Sept. 22 Raw results
Penta and War Raiders def. Grayson Waller and The New Day
Bayley def. Roxanne Perez
Rusev def. JD McDonagh
Jey Uso def. LA Knight
Rhea Ripley def. Asuka
Is Asuka's betrayal the beginning of a new superteam?
The Evansville crowd was loving Ripley and Asuka's main event performance until Asuka's The Kabuki Warriors teammate, Kairi Sane, tried to skew the odds by distracting Ripley, only for Asuka to bump into Sane and allow Ripley to roll up Asuka for the sudden victory. After the match, Asuka snapped and spat blue mist into Ripley's face. The Kabuki Warriors' ally Iyo Sky came running in to try to stop the beatdown against her friend, Ripley, but instead, Sky ate a backfist from Asuka. Not only did Asuka turn on Sky, she proceeded to force an emotional Sane to do the same.
It appears we are on a collision course for Ripley and Sky vs. Asuka and Sane, especially since it was announced that the winner of the Stratton-Cargill-Jax triple threat women's match on SmackDown will meet Stephanie Vaquer at Crown Jewel.
More Raw takeaways
Rhodes and Rollins blended a lot of real talk in their ring encounter. At first, it felt like Rollins was asking Rhodes what he thought of him -- out of either jealousy or insecurity. But Rollins would go on to call himself the future of the WWE, saying, "you can be the quarterback, Cody, but you're my quarterback." The pair will meet at Crown Jewel for the Crown Jewel championship.
Vaquer's in-ring promo was heartfelt, her first since becoming WWE women's world champion. Her father, Hector, was in attendance again after he saw his daughter compete live for the first time at Wrestlepalooza.
LA Knight may never get a win again. Not on Raw, where Jey Uso got his revenge on Knight, who may have been biased toward The Vision in their tag team match against The Usos at Wrestlepalooza. With the spear and pin by Jey at Raw, LA Knight hasn't won a televised singles match in almost two months. It feels like a victory would do him some good right about now.
Rusev is proving to be a strong opponent for Dominik Mysterio, as The Judgment Day continues to show cracks. Rusev mowed down JD McDonagh, who was reluctant to help his Judgment Day stablemate in any way when Rusev rolled up on Dirty Dom backstage early in the show. Then, when McDonagh needed help in the ring, Mysterio refused to step in. Rusev officially gets his intercontinental title shot against Mysterio on next week's Raw.
Bayley is continuing to show shades of 1996 Mankind-esque dual personality, as she seems cheerful one moment and violent the next. Lyra Valkyria attempted to hug Bayley after her victory over Roxanne Perez, but Valkyria got shoved down for her troubles. Bayley walked back up the aisles, holding her temples.
Grayson Waller got pinned on an Avalanche Mexican Destroyer that looked unreal. Penta keeps getting more creative every week.
