Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show where Solo Sikoa chose to hit Roman Reigns with a Samoan Spike rather than return to the Bloodline! The WINC staff has some thoughts about that, as you might expect. We also have thoughts about the Intercontinental title match between Chad Gable and Rey Mysterio, the upcoming Bron Breakker vs. Oba Femi match at Sunday Night's Main Event, and much more!As per usual, we're not covering the whole show in this column with apologies to the World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 contender's tournament, which finished out its first round Monday night so if you want something comprehensive, be sure to check out our "WWE Raw" 8/17/26 results page. That's where you can find information on Monday's show that's both complete and totally objective, free of our commentary. This column, on the other hand, is all about our commentary specifically, our opinions on the matches and segments that stood out to us the most. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/17/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"
I think that most of us will agree that WWE has a tendency to repeat matches and storyline plot points week after week after week on their current programming. While it's not great for most people on the roster, it can be especially damaging for a returning star that WWE needs to get re-established amongst their fanbase for those who may not have seen what they did in their absence from the company. One perfect example of how damaging the storyline repetition can be is Big Cass, still fairly fresh off his return to WWE.Cass has essentially spent all of his time on WWE programming since making his return either in brief video packages or blindsiding members of the roster with attacks inside the ring. It feels like it's time to do change it up a bit with what he's been doing on screen by giving him an in-ring speaking segment, a backstage brawl, or maybe even a proper opponent for him to demolish in the ring to establish him as a threat to the current roster like WWE is trying to make him out to be.Yes, this brawl may have been a bit different in that Evans was able to get in a little offense against Cass, but that was almost instantly undone by the fact that Dominik Mysterio helped Cass to quickly regain the upperhand here. For that reason, it didn't make a big enough difference to not make this feel like it was more of the same old thing. I also found this entire thing to be incredibly long for seemingly no reason, which was made even worse by the overselling that Michael Cole and Corey Graves did on commentary and the fact that this show had also opened with a lengthy brawl between Judgment Day, Becky Lynch, and Stephanie Vaquer.Written byOlivia Quinlan
While I personally would have liked to see Lyra Valkyria go over here, it has to be said that her match with Sol Ruca was just unadulterated wrestling fun. The match quality of this week's show was actually a significant step up from the usual Monday night offering, but there was something about this bout that specifically captured the attention.There were no formal stakes given to the match, with the main precedent being Valkyria's ire towards Ruca as a fellow former Women's Intercontinental Champion. But that very thin layer of narrative was woven into the match, with Valkyria the more spiteful and, through a kayfabe lens, the one with something to prove.Even if the result wasn't what was wanted personally, it can't be argued that it played to what the match was trying to communicate; Valkyria overplayed her hand and got caught with the Sol Snatcher. That will undoubtedly feed into the spiraling arc of Valkyria's character while Ruca remains the lead runner in the race for an Intercontinental title shot.Other than that, sometimes tuning into a wrestling show with good wrestling matches is good enough. Between this, the luchador tournament, and Chad Gable versus Rey Mysterio, this was a good show for that. Roll on the rematch between these two.Written byMax Everett
I have to say, Lyra Valkyria led Sol Ruca to one of Ruca's best matches on the main roster, but Valkyria really needed the victory here. Ruca is perpetually over, and this was Valkyria's first match since defeating Bayley at Saturday Night's Main Event a month ago, and possibly taking her out entirely.Valkyria hasn't done much at all since changing up her gimmick and working heel, outside of laying out Bayley on the steel steps following their match. She's had some promos during commercial breaks, but if you're in the States, you have to catch those on social media. Tonight, she actually got a televised promo segment ahead of the match, and it wasn't the best. It wasn't anything Valkyria did, and she looked excellent and unhinged, and her delivery was excellent, but the script and contents of the promo weren't great.She mentioned that she got nothing for beating Bayley, which is absolutely true, but maybe not something WWE should be bringing up so blatantly though Valkyria, and later Michael Cole on commentary, bringing up Bayley at all is interesting. Valkyria also said that it's been "all about Ruca these days," when it really hasn't, not since she dropped the Women's Intercontinental Championship. I guess it made sense for her to heel it up on Ruca, but the line just didn't land. Thankfully, the vignette didn't overstay its welcome, and we were off to the match.Valkyria started off the match smart, as she mentioned in her promo that she can do the flips and such Ruca does, but chooses not to. She showed that by keeping Ruca on the mat in various holds to begin. Toward the end of the bout, Valkyria had an excellent counter, where she caught Ruca into a neck breaker on the ropes, then hit a scissor kick to the back of her neck off the ropes. That could have easily been a win for Valkyria, as she could have hit the Night Wing with Ruca dazed off that.There were a lot of spots in the match that could have gone in the favor of either woman, but in the end, Ruca hit the Sol Snatcher for the victory. I'm assuming WWE is going the route of making Valkyria even more unhinged off the loss, but whether Bayley is on her way back or not, Valkyria needs to get some televised wins with this new gimmick. I hated that she didn't get one over Ruca, who isn't really doing much right now, either.Written by DaisyRuth
"Raw" may not have been an overly newsworthy show tonight, outside of the final segment, but the in-ring work was great, and sometimes, that's all you can ask for when it comes to WWE. The final bout of the night saw an excellent match pitting Intercontinental Champion Chad Gable against WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio, which was easily the match of the night.While I'm pretty much over Gable's apology tour, for lack of a better term, with the various luchadores he offended, this match was solid, and Mysterio was an excellent first opponent for Gable to defend his title against. The pair had a great back-and-forth battle, and the ending portion of the match was brilliantly fast-paced.Gable very nearly had Mysterio pinned off the Angle Slam from the top rope, but the match kept rolling on for just the perfect amount of time. Mysterio rolled through the ankle lock and got the champion into position for the 619, but Gable intercepted the move and tried to lock in the submission again.Mysterio followed that up with not one, but two 619s, and Buffalo, who had been chanting "you still got it!" for the Hall of Famer throughout the match, absolutely lost their minds. For good reason, as it really felt like Mysterio could win the gold there for a moment.Gable got his knees up for the frog splash, however, then attempted to battle Mysterio into submission via ankle lock. He was kept slightly protected, however, as instead of tapping, Mysterio and Gable traded pinfall attempts, with Gable getting the challenger's shoulders down for the three-count. After the bout, Mysterio showed Gable a nice gesture of respect, when he put the title around his waist and the pair celebrated in the ring together.Hopefully now WWE can move Gable past this need to pay respect to luchadores (not saying they don't deserve a ton of respect, however!) and move him on to something else. Gable is the kind of wrestler who would do really well with issuing an open challenge, and if you want to keep the luchador storyline going a bit, you could have him open it up to guys from AAA, in addition to stars from "WWE SmackDown" and "WWE NXT." Open challenge or not, Gable will hopefully have many more strong defenses with the gold, and I have no doubt they'll be some of the best matches on episodes of "Raw" to come.Written byDaisyRuth
Oba Femi and Bron Breakker are two of WWE's hottest rising stars. Breakker was on a trajectory to be a bigger star by this point, but WWE cooled off on him and then he missed time after having hernia surgery. He's been clawing to get back to where he was. Femi has been on a meteoric rise since arriving in "NXT." On the main roster, he's beaten Brock Lesnar twice and they've kept him on a pretty steady diet of squash matches. Femi should've only faced Lesnar once and then faced Reigns at SummerSlam, but WWE has apparently decided to drag the match out until WrestleMania 43. They've resorted to pitting Femi against Breakker (even though Femi called out CM Punk after SummerSlam and Punk has referenced Femi as well).Instead of centering the feud on who is the better of the two or Breakker trying to keep Femi from taking his spot, Paul Heyman has become the central figure. Yes, Paul Heyman. Heyman is an opportunist and will align himself with whomever will keep him relevant and on TV. Any smart person can see how special Femi is, so of course Heyman wants to be in his orbit. After Lesnar passed the torch to Femi, Breakker has been obsessed with what Heyman thinks. Heyman was Lesnar's advocate for many years before aligning himself with Seth Rollins and The Vision. Breakker seems to be falling out of favor with Heyman. He keeps asking Heyman every time he sees him if he thinks Femi is the future and not him. Heyman is playing both sides, but it seems pretty clear who Heyman believes is better.Heyman brokered a match between the two at SNME with the winner being poised to be the future of WWE. They might as well have made this a Paul on a Pole match since the winner will clearly get his services. The thing is that neither of them need Heyman. They're both talented men in their own right. They both can hold their own on the mic, so they don't need Heyman as a mouthpiece. The focus should be on Femi and Breakker, not what Heyman thinks. Presumably, Femi will win and then win the services of Heyman. But for what? Femi has already gotten himself this far and beaten Heyman's former client on his own. Twice. Assuming Femi does get a shot at Heyman's other former client, Punk, he can also do it without Heyman. Heyman should be a non-factor for this match and the feud. I want to see Femi vs. Breakker like everyone else, but Heyman is completely unnecessary.Written by Samantha Schipman
Last week it didn't really feel like the right move having Solo Sikoa beaten into the Bloodline once more, considering he had just started picking up steam as a babyface. This week served to say boo to those (myself) who said that was a bad decision a week too early, with Sikoa failing to fall in line and spiking Roman Reigns.At the beginning of the show, Jey and Jimmy Uso arrived with their new Tribal offering in Sikoa. It was hilarious watching them soak in the moment, adapting Sikoa's "Pew pew" with every motion and doing their utmost to bring a smile out of him. Sikoa had been goofy in standing against the Bloodline, and now the Bloodline was goofing with him as he seemed to be back in servitude.It wasn't until the main event that things started getting serious, though, with Sikoa brought before the "Tribal Chief" as well as Jacob Fatu. Reigns showed a video package of Sikoa's defiance of him over the years until now, which managed to draw out a smirk from the rogue of the family. And then Reigns gave the order for Fatu to drop Sikoa and lock him in the Tongan Death Grip.Reigns then bellowed for Fatu to stop, LA Knight came down to make the save, and when Fatu sought to wipe him out, Reigns told him to stand in the corner and let him handle it himself.That played beautifully as the segment rolled on, with Reigns then ordering Sikoa to be the one to finish Knight off. Sikoa looked to be cornered into doing it, screaming he was sorry in the face of Knight hanging helplessly from the Usos. But then he hit the Samoan Spike to Reigns, dumbfounding the Usos while Fatu just stood there as he had been ordered.Knight and Sikoa continued to take out the Bloodline altogether, all while Fatu stood in the corner watching on, maliciously complying. For Fatu, this came after Reigns had made the Usos his captains, visibly affronting Fatu as he was spurned. This felt like defiance through compliance. He did as he was told, but he was hardly mad that Reigns and the Usos got their comeuppance while he stood the last man in the ring.Sikoa's was a more open act of defiance and fundamentally the right decision. He is just hitting his stride as a babyface and being forced back into the Bloodline would only have served to clip those wings before they had grown. Aside from all that, it was entertaining from start to finish.Written byMax Everett
