Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that gave us another SummerSlam match in the form of Dominik Mysterio vs. Danhausen! Do we here at WINC have thoughts about all things Danhausen vs. Judgment Day this week? You bet we do! We also have thoughts on the tag team match that opened the show, the tag team match that came a little later in the show, and as you might expect, this episode's total lack of women's wrestling.If you missed the show, remember, you can always check out our "WWE Raw" 7/20/26 results page, which tells you everything that happened on the program and is free of the WINC staff's commentary.For this column, on the other hand, the WINC staff's commentary is kind of the point. We won't touch on everything here, but we will provide our opinions on everything that made us feel something, be those feelings positive or negative. Which is to say, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/20/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"
I realize it may be a bit of a stretch to say that there were absolutely NO women on this show at all since there were technically a handful of women who did make various appearances. With that being said, the women who did appear on the show including the likes of Maxxine Dupri, Liv Morgan, and IYO SKY were only used to either help further storylines in the men's division or in appearances during commercial breaks on Netflix that not everyone was even able to see.There is no shortage of women on the "Raw" roster alone who could be used in storylines against one another to actually build up something that makes the division feel important and creates some interesting content for the fans to watch in a captivating manner. Instead, it felt like the women were pushed aside and treated like an afterthought which is definitely not the way that things should be with a Premium Live Event as big as SummerSlam right on the horizon that has two nights worth of matches that need to be sorted out for both the men and the women. It wouldn't have been that hard for WWE to add just one women's match or in-ring segment to this show, especially with Lyra Valkyria coming off her win against Bayley at Saturday Night's Main Event and Morgan and SKY both being on the show anyways as they prepare to face one another at SummerSlam for the Women's World Championship.Written by Olivia Quinlan
"Raw" was advertised to kick off with Seth Rollins over the last few days, and that's something I remember, because I was dreading hearing him talk for what I assumed would be 20 minutes, with no Roman Reigns in sight. Surprisingly, when the beginning of the show rolled around, after the now-seemingly obligatory arrivals, the red brand actually began with a tag team match. A non-title match involving the World Tag Team Champions Bron Breakker and Austin Theory, but a match nonetheless, and I can't even begin to remember the last time that happened on "Raw" or "WWE SmackDown."The Vision faced off against Je'Von Evans and Dragon Lee, two exciting stars who did a fantastic job of getting the crowd hyped up tonight. The "This is awesome!" chants rang out, as they should have, as their in-ring action was some of the best work on the show. I love seeing Lee on my TV, and thankfully, that's been happening more often. The pair started things off hot with bouncy and flippy lucha things, taking it to The Vision before the bell rang.I am also loving the subtle aggressiveness that Evans is starting to show. He's getting a bit more serious, without losing the easy-to-love babyface aspect of his character, especially as his matches go on. You could see it in his face after he dodged what looked to be a super spear attempt from Breakker, which was impressive, then again when he about took himself out in an attempt to knock Breakker down again in the timekeeper's area when he flew over the barricade.Like anything in WWE right now, this loved comes with a lot of "at leasts." Meaning, I hate that Breakker and Theory won, but at least it wasn't a title match, since Evans and Lee aren't an official team, and they don't need a run with the tag gold, in my opinion. Of course there was Vision interference throughout the match, but at least Otis and Tozawa waited until after the match so we didn't get yet another DQ finish. Or even worse, another Vision vs. Alpha Academy promo segment like we got last week.Otis and Tozawa took down The Vision and cleared off the commentary desk, and I would have loved this even more if Otis hit his powerbomb on Theory to send him through the desk. Instead, he ate a spear from Breakker. If this turns out to be a title match, that's fine, but I don't think I need to see it at SummerSlam. I just enjoyed the fact we actually got some wrestling to start off this wrestling show, even if it was non-title with plenty of Vision interference.Written byDaisyRuth
Just as I had decided I hate Danhausen's feud with Judgment Day continuing after his victory over JD McDonagh at Saturday Night's Main Event, of course, WWE would announce that he's now set to face Dominik Mysterio at SummerSlam. It's not that I dislike Danhausen whatsoever, and I don't even mind most of Judgment Day too much, I'm just extremely tired of WWE dragging some of its feuds on and on.It feels like Danhausen's victory at SNME, complete with help from New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, should have been the end of things. Getting a major name alongside Danhausen at Madison Square Garden really feels like the payoff for the entire feud. Judgment Day paid Danhausen to curse Oba Femi, but in the midst of Danhausen's cursing and uncursing of the Knicks, that's kind of a hard fact to remember. If I was Mysterio and McDonagh, I'd just assume that after Towns chokeslammed me to hell, through a table, in Mysterio's case, I wasn't getting my money back, even if it was completely unrelated to the Knicks.But, nope, things continued with Judgment Day demanding their money back, and Danhausen giving them a case of fake money. That fake money led to McDonagh throwing the case backstage, hitting Oba Femi, leading to two matches, McDonagh and Femi, and Mysterio and Joe Hendry, who helped up Danhausen earlier in the night. The matches were fine, at least we got a bit more wrestling on the show, even if Femi squashed McDonagh.Danhausen interfered in Hendry and Mysterio's match, and brought out IYO SKY on the Danhausen mobile to face off against Morgan, which would have been cute if they had their own segment tonight ahead of SummerSlam, and now, we're getting Mysterio and the "Very Nice, Very Evil" one at the "Biggest Party of the Summer." I guess WWE couldn't pivot fast enough for something more interesting for Danhausen between SNME and SummerSlam.That's just not a big money match that belongs on the SummerSlam card, one that's thin of big matches as it is. I'm all for Danhausen getting goofy little spots and segments on big shows, like his spot at WrestleMania, but a match against Mysterio just isn't interesting. I'm more curious about the "body" back in his lab, now that we know it's not Big Cass or Baron Corbin. I guess that's going to be yet another dropped WWE storyline we'll forever ponder over, unless Danhausen and WWE creative pull out something crazy and that "body" rises to even the odds against Judgment Day on August 1 or 2.Written byDaisyRuth
I'm once again here to love the one positive thing about WWE programming: "The Ruler."Oba Femi has been mostly preparing for his third match against Brock Lesnar by calling him out on the mic. To be honest, he has been verbally obliterating both Lesnar and Paul Heyman. His last televised match was at Night of Champions when he defeated Jey Uso. On "Raw," he had a warm up match with JD McDonagh, if you can even call it that. He squashed him in 54 seconds. Both of their entrances lasted longer than the match itself.Femi should be having squash matches, especially against the likes of McDonagh. Femi was on a winning streak prior to WrestleMania with a string of squash matches. He defeated Lesnar in under five minutes, which ideally should've been a one and done. WWE continued booking him in dominant squash matches until Lesnar got his win back at Clash in Italy in just over six minutes. Since then, Femi mostly competed on house shows while cutting promos on TV. Ideally, Femi defeats Lesnar in quick fashion before his opponent gets too winded and they keep him on a streak of wins until he eventually faces Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 43. But this is WWE creative, so I don't expect a straight line to the"OTC."Written by Samantha Schipman
Everything from this show, top to bottom, felt like an abyss of inspiration or any semblance of creative. A lumbering main event between LA Knight and Jacob Fatu that even the "Samoan Werewolf" couldn't drag to being interesting. A closing segment with the Bloodline standing tall. It has beenhalf a decade, it's getting old.Seth Rollins negotiating with Solo Sikoa for an Anti-Bloodline pact. Segments stepping around the fact that a core component is missing: Roman Reigns himself, ahead of their World Heavyweight title match at SummerSlam.In his absence came a video package running back the 2016 Money in the Bank bout where Rollins defeated Reigns to reclaim the WWE Championship; all while stepping around the fact that Jon Moxley cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win the title when all was said and done. So the story is missing a third because the company refuses to acknowledge anything it can't embed its claws into. And even then, it's missing another third because he isn't there. So then comes alliance talks that don't go anywhere because the Bloodline be lurking, so as to drip feed every tiny development to obscure the fact there is nothing else in the thinktank.At the very least, the night started with a match. Though it was the Vision's Austin Theory boo and Bron Breakker yay? against Je'von Evans and Dragon Lee YAY! and thus Logan Paul and Maxxine Dupri were ringside to definitely not get involved. To make a long story short, the Vision won. Then came Otis and Akira Tozawa to put a hurting on them because Theory is now Dupri's boyfriend and that is in itself a steaming hot mess.For a fleeting moment, Otis and Tozawa seemed credible, powered by the masculine Neanderthal rage that only a woman not being romantically involved with you can yield. Otis looked to put Theory through a table, a bit of heat for the man that surely doesn't stand a chance whenever the company decides this shall be settled in a ring. But then Breakker speared him and the segment closed with the Vision standing tall.Between the Vision, the Judgment Day, and the Bloodline, the show is almost entirely factions and those who wish to fight the factions. The segments are, individual or random pair of superstars takes on faction, wins or loses, faction stands tall anyway.And when they're not, they're squash matches for Oba Femi because his own SummerSlam opponent was not there to do anything with.The show was boring and it didn't give any incentive to tune in again.Written by Max Everett
I'm gonna be honest; as my colleague just expressed, this wasn't a very good episode of "WWE Raw." There were no women's matches and nearly all the men's matches involved the Judgment Day, the Vision, or LA Knight. We're not working with the best of the best here.That said, there was one match on the show that (a) was not a squash match, and (b) didn't involve any outside interference, and that's enough for Rusev and Ethan Page vs. Chad Gable and Penta to win match of the night honors. It was honestly a pretty entertaining eight and a half minutes of bog standard tag team action, with the heels isolating Penta until he could make the hot tag to Gable, leading to an action-packed final sequence that involved numerous suplexes, a tope con hilo, the Accolade, and a sick final moment that saw Penta leap off Gable's back to hit the Mexican Destroyer on Page while Gable had the ankle lock applied to Rusev. That final spot illustrated another nice thing about this match as well despite being SummerSlam opponents, Gable and Penta worked just fine as a team, as WWE resisted use of any and all overdone "can they coexist" tropes.Was it a spectacular match that would stand out on an AEW PPV? No, I'm afraid not. Is Gable's music and clapping mannerism still extremely unfortunate? Yes, it must be admitted. But this was the best match on "Raw" this week, and that counts for something. If nothing else, it reminded me that Gable and Penta are both very good at what they do, and that made me more excited to watch their match at SummerSlam. From that perspective, mission accomplished.Written by Miles Schneiderman
