Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that gave us a new match for Saturday Night's Main Event and two new matches for SummerSlam! While the SNME match set-up flew under our radar this week, the WINC staff has a lot to say about the SummerSlam matches, including Chad Gable's gauntlet match win and the latest Bloodline business, here in the column. We also have thoughts on the build for Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar, IYO SKY vs. Liv Morgan, and RomanReigns vs. Seth Rollins, among other things.As always, if you missed the show you can catch up on everything via our "WWE Raw" 7/13/26 results page, which is full of facts and objectivity. This column, on the other hand, is about subjective opinions specifically those of the WINC crew, and specifically about the matches and segments we found most notable, for better or worse. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/13/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"
I'm usually not one to be annoyed by professional wrestling tropes, but when so many are used in just one night around big matches, it gets pretty annoying. There were quite a few cliches, tropes, whatever you want to call them around some of the biggest SummerSlam matches on the card tonight, and it was noticeable and irritating. Getting "police officers" defending a star, a physically imposing one, at that, and a contract signing to start and end "Raw" just felt uninspired.First of all, Brock Lesnar, of all people, doesn't need police officers (who were actually local independent talent, I'm sure, by the way they took bumps) protecting him. Sure, Oba Femi is equally as imposing as "The Beast Incarnate," if not more so, but it looked pretty ridiculous. Instead of stopping Femi from coming to the ring at all, these guys got inside the ring to form a line to attempt to protect Lesnar, and got yeeted around for their troubles. Also, Adam Pearce wasn't too upset backstage a little later on about Femi throwing around the officers, so good thing he's a babyface, I suppose, or he'd be staring down a suspension.If the cops weren't enough, Paul Heyman made it clear that the pair's SummerSlam match contract now has a "no touch" clause, so the pair can't brawl before their Hell in a Cell match. And if that wasn't enough, he also revealed he had "restraining orders," one for himself and one for Lesnar, on Femi. I don't know if WWE was trying to really make it seem like Lesnar was scared of Femi, but we've seen two matches between them already, and we know that's not the case.I always hate a contract segment, especially as the main event of a show, and tonight was no different. While I thought Roman Reigns did a fantastic job of eviscerating Seth Rollins on the microphone, it was still a lengthy, unnecessary trope of a segment. The gauntlet match to determine the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship easily could have taken the main event spot tonight, and Rollins and Reigns could have done this next week, or the week after, as just a face-to-face.The story between Rollins and Reigns doesn't feel fresh, and WWE is quite literally replaying Shield lore in the form of video packages, awkward ones attempting to shoot around the former Dean Ambrose, now Jon Moxley. Nothing about these two segments made me any more invested in SummerSlam; I'm just still annoyed Femi gave up his title shot to face Lesnar, and Rollins got his match after doing nothing but battle Bron Breaker for months.Written by DaisyRuth
While I didn't necessarily love that tonight's match pitting Royce Keys against Jimmy Uso was made official, and started, during a commercial break, I loved that Keys continues to be involved in the secondary Bloodline storyline, and that he's now officially on the SummerSlam card because of it. The same goes for LA Knight and Solo Sikoa.I loved that all their issues with Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, and Jacob Fatu (who I'm calling the secondary Bloodline right now, since the main story is Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins) led to this odd trio team-up, one that Sikoa's been trying to form for a bit now. Keys and Jimmy went one-on-one on Friday, and their issues with each other continued tonight as they brawled down the ramp during a commercial break. Because of that animosity, I can somewhat forgive this all being underway as the show came back.I can also forgive the fact this match ended in a disqualification, because Fatu stormed down the ramp, got in the ring and started beating down Keys. I wasn't sure if their portion of the feud was going to get any more physical than it did on Friday, but Fatu pummeled Keys tonight, putting away any thought of Keys being able to reason with Fatu.It was Sikoa to come out to the ring and save Keys, and I quite liked the way he did it. He attempted to trick Jimmy and Fatu that he was "coming home to the family" after making the mistake of leaving, but when he put his "one" up in acknowledgment, he turned his wrist to set up for the Samoan Spike and nailed Jimmy with the move once again. Of course, he couldn't get the upper hand on the crazy force that is Fatu, so it was Knight who came down to help, armed with a chair.Knight was able to neutralize Fatu with multiple chair shots after throwing Jimmy out of the ring and got on the microphone to make the challenge to the Usos and Fatu for SummerSlam. Himself, Keys, and Sikoa as a team, against team Bloodline. I love that these guys are all getting on the SummerSlam card in a feud and story that makes sense. The Bloodline aren't helping out Reigns against Rollins right now, and they really needed something to do.This gets Knight and Keys, especially, in front of the crowd at the "Biggest Party of the Summer." While fans may argue they should be in much bigger matches, and I certainly agree, I'll take what I can get from WWE at this point, and I think this six-man tag match will be fun.Written byDaisyRuth
Dominik Mysterio and Roxanne Perez were wrestling tonight which naturally meant all of the Judgment Day were going to be rearing their heads at some point in the night. Again. Yet again.Perez wrestled IYO SKY, since SKY will be challenging Liv Morgan for the Women's World Championship at SummerSlam. The babyface challenger must always wrestle through the faction fodder, which is what Perez and Raquel Rodriguez (she was also there) have become.In that vein, despite having both Morgan and Rodriguez interfering to help her, Perez lost to SKY with the most dangerous finisher in all of wrestling: the roll-up. So "The Prodigy" kind of looked like a loser. Cool. Morgan then attacked SKY which meant the segment would close with "Trouble," worthy of a Hated in itself. That was all that really happened there because why even try to tell a story.Mysterio wrestled in the gauntlet match for No. 1 contendership to the Intercontinental title at SummerSlam, which meant he had JD McDonagh interfering throughout the contest. He lost, thankfully, so that was comparatively short-lived saturation. But even still, McDonagh interfered so Mysterio beat Joe Hendry, and then as the same looked to be done to Je'Von Evans, Danhausen emerged, cursed the wrong corner, and eventually Mysterio was pinned after McDonagh started chasing Danhausen. It was all so very boring and messy.Then McDonagh took to the microphone at one stage to address Danhausen ahead of their singles match at Saturday Night's Main Event (why?), making their match a No Disqualification match and opening that up to even more Judgment Day interference.Point being, the Judgment Day has succeeded the rubble that is MFT as WWE's House of Torture. There is simply too much happening every time they are on the screen, they are on the screen too much as it is, and it's all being done at the moment to prop up Liv Morgan. She doesn't need that and can be doing so much better, but so can the rest of the group. It's just a grating waste of talent and time.Written by Max Everett
Since losing his mask and no longer being a fake luchador, Chad Gable has been on a roll. He has been making amends for his cultural appropriation and nearly everyone on screen has forgiven him (except Maxxine Dupri, so she could *check notes* become Austin Theory's onscreen girlfriend). He proved he was a changed man by not stealing Rey Mysterio's mask a few weeks ago and making sure he got it back. The fans seemed to have embraced Gable as himself.Gable was the penultimate entrant in tonight's gauntlet match and eliminated Rusev. Gable eliminated the final participant, Ethan Page to become the No. 1 contender for the IC title. Following the match, Penta made his way to the ring to stare down his SummerSlam opponent. When Penta debuted on Raw, he defeated Gable. Aside from the talent of both men, this history combined with Gable's run as a fake luchador makes this an interesting match up. Gable will also be challenging for the title in his home state. It seems pretty obvious where this match is going (especially given the rumors that some within WWE have been wanting Gable to have a big push at "The Biggest Party of the Summer").Gable has gone along with everything WWE has thrown at him (remember when they tried to make "Shorty G" happen? I wish I didn't) and it's nice to see him finally being rewarded for it. It definitely doesn't make up for the fact that they put Gable in a situation where he had to wrestle in Mexico as a fake luchador, but at least he's (likely) getting rewarded for it. Since El Grande Americano got over so incredibly well in Mexico, there was a concern that Gable would be pushed aside. That isn't the case (for now). This might be the only match I care about at SummerSlam.Written bySamantha Schipman
There are some segments that you know will be good from the opening moments, and then there are those that you know are going to be a trainwreck from start to finish that you can't look away from. The Vision's segment with Otis and Akira Tozawa was a perfect example of the latter, and in something of a rare instance, had nothing positive for me to say about it at all.First off, Otis and Tozawa came off looking really terrible and naive during this entire thing. Maxxine Dupri literally turned heel just one week ago, so it would make absolutely no sense for her to immediately revert back to being a babyface. It also wouldn't make sense for her to leave The Vision after weeks upon weeks of teasing before things could really take off in any form or fashion. As characters, Otis and Tozawa should have no reason to believe that they could reason with Dupri and it made no sense as to why they would even try to do so.Second, there were several moments of awkward silences that occurred at the beginning of this segment. It's not the worst thing about this and I think it was meant to try and get across what an emotional moment it was between the former Alpha Academy members, but I don't feel that was necessarily portrayed as well as it could've been. There needed to be a lot more emotion from all three of them if there was a chance of being able to get that across, but instead, it just made for quite a bit of confusion that was hard to decipher.Third, I don't really understand the plot point of Otis all of the sudden revealing he had a crush on Dupri (or whatever that was meant to be). Not only does it feel a little senseless to me and a plot point for the sake of adding one, but WWE already gave Otis a memorable romance in Mandy Rose that was done far, far better than whatever they're trying here with this one.Finally, this was absolutely much longer than this all needed to be and ate up a lot of time on this show when it didn't need to. It wasn't so much the promo portion of this segment that dragged on, but rather the brawl that broke out between The Vision, Tozawa, and Otis that felt drawn out. If WWE is looking to set up Tozawa and Otis as potential challengers for Austin Theory and Bron Breakker, then they could do that by having them win actual matches rather than whatever all of this was.Written by Olivia Quinlan
Over the years since whacking a Shield chair into the Shield back of his Shield brother Roman Reigns, the story has very much been one of a vengeful anger towards Seth Rollins.Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to take the WWE Championship in Reigns' attempt at the title at WrestleMania 31, a night deemed to be his coronation in waiting.He was the only man before Cody Rhodes that held a singles win over Reigns during his historic title run, having gotten so far under his skin that Reigns was disqualified against him. Reigns lost that title to Rhodes only after he turned his attention away from the match to get one last Shield chair shot on Rollins.In short, Rollins has always been the one occupying the mind of Reigns. Tonight, it was the other way around. Rollins came into the affair his usual cocky, assured self, touting his record against Reigns and goading him before saying he would take the World Heavyweight Championship from him.But then, after Reigns asked if he intended on getting injured again after winning the title, he probed a little further. He asked for Reigns to say what he really wanted to say. And Reigns obliged. He buried Money in the Bank, saying Rollinsstillneeded it to win the world title, and even then he had to fake an injury to cash it in. He said that Rollins should be the one with the title considering his "work daddy" is in charge, and WWE tried and tried to make him a star but he has and always will be his number two. The rivalry has been riding so hard on the history behind Rollins and Reigns that there has been little ground actually covered in the present.This segment leaned a little more into the emotion befitting that history, with deeper cuts than have been presented aside from the initial, very inaccurate, claim that Reigns has never beaten Rollins. Now it feels a little more like there is a hatred, and Rollins is challenging for more than just the title in this bout. That's compelling. There don't have to be segments cut together going over the years leading up to this bout; there should be more of what and how they feel in this moment. It's well established that they are rivals it's segments like this that establish why they are rivals. And it's just enjoyable to watch.Written by MaxEverett
