With just five days to go until Extreme Rules, Monday Night Raw is one of the final two shows left to really sell out a pay-per-view that looks strong on paper, but seems to lack a bit of star power. The WWE Universal Championship is not defended, so WWE is trying to sell this event based on grudge matches with different stipulations. It will work if the two shows heading into Saturday’s premium live event do their job.
Damage CNTRL played a big part in Monday’s show, as did Alpha Academy and Judgment Day. Some surprising stars got a little push and there was another White Rabbit tease.
Here are your winners and losers from Raw, October 3, 2022:
Winner: White Rabbit Tease
Let’s leave aside the great development of the program. Fans around the world are watching White Rabbit teased with such anticipation that he has taken on a life of his own. WWE did not disappoint. The latest QR code directed fans to a painting of Samson and Delilah from the Bible. There were two versions of the photo (one on mobile and one on desktop) and each had different messages hidden via binary code and a magic eye at the bottom.
A code led to the longitudinal coordinates of the Wells Fargo Center, the location of Extreme Rules. The other led to a photo of a Japanese milk brand called White Rabbit. The magic eye paint had a code that translated to MTA4MjI, which decoded read 10822. That’s the Extreme Rules date. Interestingly, one of the clues in a code led fans to see the name Gacy, which we can only assume refers to “NXT” star Joe Gacy. Another message led to the decoding of a language from the Predator movie that read: “Eternal, and eternal I endure. Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” Clearly, these are lines that Bray Wyatt has used in his Firefly Funhouse shows.
Winner: CNTRL Damage
This group had a great night. Not only did Dakota Kai pick up a shock win over Candice LeRae, but Iyo Sky took down Alexa Bliss in the main event before the entire faction stood atop the ladder with the titles and having beaten Bliss, Asuka and Bianca Belair. . It’s clear that WWE wants fans to see this group as the most dominant group on Raw right now and they were pushed heavily towards pay-per-view.
The only drawback to all of this is that there really isn’t much to do with actual tag team titles. While the women do pick up victories in the singles matches, there is still no viable opponent for the Women’s Tag Team Champions and WWE appears to be making no real effort to build a duo that can challenge Kai and Sky. If Bayley somehow wins against Belair, the company will need realistic challengers.
Winner: Mustafa Ali
Ali was destroyed by Bobby Lashley, but there was something about the way Ali lost that could be good for her WWE career moving forward. He had an attitude of never giving up, even if he knew he was defeated. He kept kicking, coming back up to continue the fight, and refused to take advantage of The Hurt Lock. He eventually passed out and Lashley was declared the winner before Seth Rollins attacked, but this was a big night for Ali, who probably surprised a lot of fans even on the show.
Loser: WWE Crossed Over On Storylines
Instead of really focusing on preparing for the matches that would take place on Saturday, the creative team tried to weave new opponents and rivalries into pre-existing feuds. Rollins disagrees with Lashley while he should be focused on Riddle. Judgment Day takes aim at AJ Styles when they have a big problem at Edge to deal with. There have been other instances of these kinds of intertwined storylines, and while it’s not a total loss, it often takes away from the main goal, which is for fans to really feel the animosity between two future opponents.
An example is the Riddle and Rollins segment. It was fine, but almost as much emphasis was placed on Rollins having trouble with Lashley as it was on Rollins’ upcoming Fight Pit Match.
Winner/Loser: Growing animosity between Sami Zayn and Jey Uso
This feud between Zayn and Jey Uso is one of the best things to happen on WWE programming, full stop. The only problem with Monday’s Raw is that, for the first time, it felt a bit forced. Zayn constantly tried to be best friends with Solo Sikoa, while Jey pushed him out of the way and took care of his younger brother. Their bickering nearly cost Sikoa a win against Angelo Dawkins.
WWE will be better off slow-playing this and Monday’s issues between the two will have to be something Roman Reigns will have to address. This was the most these two have really been against each other and while their battle is inevitable, the longer it lasts, the better.
Raw match results:
| * Finn Balor and Damian Priest of Judgment Day defeated Rey Mysterio and AJ Styles in a tag team match. Thanks for the loss. Styles blamed Mysterio and pushed him down, but was then attacked by Judgment Day. |
| * Bobby Lashley defeated Mustafa Ali in a singles match. Ali passed out before The Hurt Lock. |
| * Dakota Kai defeated Candice LeRae after Bayley made LeRae fall off the middle rope and finally rolled up for the pin. |
| * Otis defeated Johnny Gargano after Austin Theory hit Gargno with the Money in the Bank briefcase. |
| * Braun Strowman defeated Chad Gable in a singles match. |
| * Only Sikoa defeated Angelo Dawkins in a singles match, despite plenty of outside distractions from members of The Bloodline. |
| * Iyo Sky defeated Alexa Bliss in the main event. |