WWE Monday Night Raw recap: The Beast is back in town

Monday Night Raw pivoted away from last week’s Raw Reunion and toward SummerSlam and put forth a well-paced show that reminded us that The Beast should never be underestimated.

WWE Monday Night Raw had some road-to-SummerSlam ground to catch up after spending last week focused on the Raw Reunion. And the good news is that it did so exceptionally, in a well-paced episode that managed to surprise. Here’s the big takeaways from July 29’s show.

A pregnant pause

As has been the case since its inception, the WWE 24/7 Championship was a unifying thread on this week’s episode. That started immediately, with 24/7 Champion R-Truth teaming with Carmella against longstanding rivals Drake Maverick and his wife, Renee Michelle. This was a “mosh pit” mixed tag match and should either Truth or Carmella be pinned, would result in Maverick (or Renee) winning the title.

The “mosh pit” conceit was a little odd; basically, it was a lumberjack match, featuring the typical faces who have been pursuing Truth and Maverick for the belt. The only difference, apparently, was that Maverick did a little crowd surfing outside of the ring. While Truth wins, the “pit” then piles on him. The referee makes the three count and it’s revealed that Mike Kanellis was the one to actually pin Truth, making him the new 24/7 Champion.

Mike runs off — and, coincidentally into the referees’ locker room — and his wife, Maria, arrives, making all of Mike’s would-be challengers run off. Once Mike lets her in the room, he expects her to be happy and proud of her husband’s new championship. But, given the past weeks of Maria needling Mike to death (and emasculating him throughout), she’s not pleased. Instead, she orders Mike to lie on his back while she puts her foot on his chest and the referee makes the count. That leads to Maria becoming 24/7 Champion.

This also makes her the first pregnant 24/7 Champion, a fact that she loudly rubs in all potential challengers’ faces. The question is obviously where this championship goes from here; ostensibly, no one can attack or pin Maria (or would want to) and there’s also the matter of actual medical clearance by the WWE to consider.

Does this mean the belt is on hiatus until Maria gives birth? Or will Mike scheme some way to get the championship from his wife? At least these questions add some intrigue to a storyline that has emerged as one of the more creative in WWE at the moment. One just wishes that someone in WWE would realize the “edginess” of Mike and Maria’s interactions are actually just cringe-y.

Running the gauntlet

In order to get Ricochet a rematch against AJ Styles for the WWE United States Championship without falling back on the automatic rematch clause of the past, Raw featured a gauntlet match to determine Styles’ opponent for SummerSlam. The participants: Rey Mysterio, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Andrade and Ricochet.

Mysterio is up first, taking on Cesaro in what was the best match of the gauntlet. The two have natural chemistry and know how to work the speed vs. strength in-ring story, mainly because that’s been the crux of both men’s respective careers. It also accomplishes another one of pro wrestling’s major goals — making fans wanting more.

Mysterio picks up the win and takes on Zayn next in a match that lasts perhaps all of 10 seconds. Why, exactly, WWE has a staunch refusal to have Zayn win (or even look competitive) this year is anyone’s guess, but it’s yet another example of their struggles to enhance some of the best workers on their roster. Anyway, that leads to a quality matchup between Mysterio and Andrade, reprising their early-year feud. Ultimately, Andrade counters Mysterio’s 619 attempt and picks up the win.

The final gauntlet match then pits Andrade against Ricochet, and given a) Ricochet’s unfinished business with Styles and The Club (or The O.C.) and b) WWE not wanting to pit heels against heels, even in title situations, it was clear what the outcome would be. So yes, Ricochet pins Andrade following a 630. The only surprising thing? That The Club didn’t deliver a post-match beatdown on Ricochet.

And new!

Perhaps Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows weren’t concerned with Ricochet because they had their own title match to consider. The Club/O.C. faced The Usos and The Revival for Revival’s Raw Tag Team Championships in a triple threat match.

This was another good, fun match — as it should be, given the pedigrees of all six men in the ring. WWE too often forgets that it has one of the best tag team divisions in terms of talent and lets it languish or turns the teams into unfocused comedy acts (something we’ve seen with all three of these teams this year).

Even the finish made logical sense given the gravity of the match and the inherent chaotic nature of a triple-threat. The Revival seem primed to retain via Shatter Machine until The Usos hit a splash. Then The Club take advantage of the brief recovery time from said splash to hit The Usos with a Magic Killer to win.

This means the whole O.C. — Styles, Gallows, Anderson — are gilded up, making them a heel faction of champions, one of the more entertaining conceits in pro wrestling. This match also featured wrestling during the commercial break something that Vince McMahon had recently rendered taboo.

In fact, it wasn’t the first occurrence of this on the night; it also happened during the Mysterio-Cesaro portion of the gauntlet match and later, during Seth Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler. This strongly contributed to Raw being a more naturally-paced show than we’ve seen in recent weeks, and the seeming reversal of the policy also means that maybe WWE is listening to its fans for once. It might not be a big win, but a win is a win is a win.

Tonight in the women’s division

So, there was only one women’s division match on Raw this week — Becky Lynch taking on Alexa Bliss. That match doesn’t last long, with Bliss begging off with an “ankle injury.” That leads to Bliss’ … friend … Nikki Cross becoming upset with Lynch and then challenging her to a match. Eventually, Lynch wins, which leads to an actually-not-hurt Bliss attacking her.

This is all just to set up Natalya attacking Lynch, a move done in retribution as Bliss, on A Moment of Bliss, reveals that Lynch attacked Natalya (and trainer Fit Finlay) before Raw to try to gain the upper hand before Lynch defends her Raw Women’s Championship against Natalya at SummerSlam.

Post-match, Natalya kinda-sorta challenges Lynch to a submission match at SummerSlam (Lynch’s Dis-Arm-Her vs. Natalya’s Sharpshooter) but then walks it back, saying that Lynch would never agree to it. Expect her to agree to it.

Dolph Ziggler, red herring

Supposedly, Seth Rollins wants to defend the honor of Shawn Michaels, who was unceremoniously superkick’d by Dolph Ziggler last week and thus will face Ziggler one-on-one. This match, though, was just a vehicle for what came next: A surprise appearance by Universal Champion Brock Lesnar to deliver a vintage Lesnar beatdown on Rollins.

Here’s all you need to know about that:

So yes, a fighting Beast has returned. See, the main critique of Lesnar as Universal Champion isn’t simply him being Universal Champion, but rather his unwillingness to show up on Monday nights, to defend said title on the regular, to show any interest whatsoever in doing the job of a professional wrestler. Lesnar being an absentee champion just going through the motions is never going to thrill.

What does thrill, though, is Lesnar as The Beast Incarnate, laying waste to his challengers — in this case, Rollins — using maximum violence. That’s what Lesnar is: Maximum violence. That’s his primary appeal. All hail Paul Heyman (whose fingerprints were all over this episode) for steering Lesnar’s character back in the right direction.

The Samoan Summit

Interestingly enough, a “Samoan Summit” between Roman Reigns and Samoa Joe was set to be Raw‘s main event this week. The plan was for the two men to try to resolve their differences sans violence, owning to their shared Samoan heritage.

Joe immediately said no to that, and yes to a fight. Reigns comes out and the brawl is on, with Reigns upping his aggression to meet what is typically Joe’s baseline level of fuming rage.

With Reigns getting the upper hand, Drew McIntyre comes out to assist Joe. That leads to Cedric Alexander, who has built himself a little alliance with Reigns, to hit the ring to even the odds. That draws out The O.C., and then, The Usos. The brawl makes its way from ringside and up the ramp, where it all culminates with this:

Expect The Usos, Reigns and Alexander to team up against The Club, Joe and McIntyre in an eight-man match next week.

Raw was successful this week, building appropriately to SummerSlam but, even more importantly, made that build more compelling than it had been ahead of most of their other pay-per-views this year. Stakes feel higher simply because the level of violence in some of the most important feuds has escalated exponentially. When things feel like they have gravity, they do have gravity. Raw succeeded in making us want more.

What are your thoughts on this week’s Raw? What do you think comes next for the 24/7 Championship? Let us know in the comments below!