This week’s Monday Night Raw featured a United States Championship match between AJ Styles and Bobby Lashley, a women’s tag team qualifying match and there are sure to be some answers to last week’s questions raised by the arrival of Dexter Lumis. Would Raw continue to appease fans who like the trend of the show under Triple H?
The best part of the show was easily the wrestling. Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre put on a great match, second only to the main event which saw Dolph Ziggler and Theory put on a show. Aj Styles versus Bobby Lashley wasn’t bad either.
Here are your winners and losers from Raw, August 15, 2022:
Winner: Rey Mysterio gets a good reaction from fans
Rey has often been hired as an afterthought in WWE, used primarily to lure youngsters into what appears to be the back nine of his wrestling career. With that being said, it was clear that the fanbase is still behind him, as he took the opportunity to attack The Judgment Day in the opening segment of the night. He got the best of them for a while, but eventually, Rhea Ripley forced him to stop attacking him because Rey refused to hit a woman. That was enough to turn the tide and Rey was defeated.
It is important for WWE to showcase Rey as a star who can still rank among the best babyfaces in the business. That was evident on Monday night.
Winner/Loser: Bliss and Asuka advance
The tag team match to kick off the show took a few minutes to get going, but eventually all four women seemed to find their groove and put together a decent match that would see Asuka and Alexa Bliss move on. The chemistry wasn’t there to begin with and it seemed like the timing wasn’t right, but after the commercial break things got going. Doudrop finally tapped out as Asuka confronted her and Bliss eliminated Nikki while she was out of the ring.
WWE effectively built the match between Bianca Belair, Bliss and Asuka vs. Bayley, Iyo Sky and Dakota Kia when officials had to stop the six women from fighting each other at the entrance.
A/N: Ezekiel’s entire family appears
WWE announcers teased Kevin Owens’ personality change and in doing so talked about Ezekiel being on the receiving end of his attack. They noted that it will be a while before Ezekiel returns and then showed him in a hospital bed with his family by his side. It’s too early to tell if this is going to be a success, but it’s interesting that WWE is banking on the history of the Ezekiel family, showing off Elias and introducing the new members of the family in a very quick video segment.
Ezekiel’s dad, Ernie Jr., had a few words for Owens.
Winner: Kevin Owens vs. Drew McIntyre
Despite rumors that McIntyre was dealing with a back injury (something he confirmed in his promo on Raw), he was on the spot and called out future opponents he wanted to have matches with. That brought up Kevin Owens who declared that he was bringing The Prize Fighter back and it was convenient for The Scottish Warrior to leave Owens out of the conversation. He then talked about how he ended up playing and having fun, saying that he went after every title in WWE and that no one was safe. McIntyre responded by saying that he too knows who he is and worked hard to get back to the position he is in on the WWE roster. He said: “I don’t care if you’re a professional boxer, a sports entertainer or a superstar. We are wrestlers in a wrestling ring. We’re going to fucking fight.”
The match became official during the commercial break and the two men did not disappoint. McIntyre and Owens performed a classic and got “these are amazing chants” from the live Washington DC crowd. The match ended in a disqualification when The Usos came to the ring and attacked McIntyre, but that wasn’t a bad thing as it left both Owens and McIntyre looking strong, which is extremely important. Owens is getting a makeover and a boost as McIntyre heads into the main event of Clash at the Castle. Neither needed a loss at this point. It was a smart booking decision, two great promos to set up the fight, and an amazing fight.
Winner: Bobby Lashley
In consecutive weeks, Lashley has successfully defended the US Championship and for the second week, he took everything he had against a very competitive AJ Styles, who Lasley came close to beating on a couple of occasions. This was another really strong contest as Styles and Lashley got a good chunk of TV time to show what they could do. The back-and-forth action featuring an appearance from Dexter Lumis ended when Lashley hit a spear for the win.
Lashley getting the victory over Styles and the crowd showing how much the WWE Universe stands behind The All Mighty.
Winner: Theory vs. Dolph Ziggler
WWE ended Raw with a match blow and logically set up the decision. Last week, Ziggler bested Chad Gable in a tough match. This week he was going against Theory, but he couldn’t get the win when Theory hit an A-Town Down finisher for the win. It makes sense since Raw established Ziggler as a legitimate challenger with a win last week. This Theory win puts him up a notch.
This match was really strong with multiple Zigzags and a Famouser being unable to defeat Theory. Theory went for multiple finishers and was unable to land them until the end when it came out of nowhere on a reversal. This might have been Theory’s best in-ring performance since he started pushing him on Raw. Ziggler did indeed do his job of making Theory look legit.
Raw match results:
| * Alexa Bliss and Asuka defeated Doudrop and Nikki ASH in a tournament qualifying match when Asuka forced Doudrop to submit. Bianca Belair was there to support her teammates at the Clash at the Castle event and the three of them were confronted by Bayley, Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai. Officials had to separate the women as the camera cut to a backstage interview with Theory and Dolph Ziggler, which turned into a backstage brawl. |
| * Ciampa and The Miz defeated Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Al in a tag team match. This was a strong match between four solid workers in the ring. Ciampa was the most outstanding artist and got the victory pin. |
| * Drew McIntyre defeated Kevin Owens by disqualification when The Usos attacked McIntyre to end the fight. Owens surprised McIntyre after he finished the match and declared that Roman Reigns owed him one. McIntyre fended off an attack from The Usos after the match and left them stranded, telling them to text Reigns that he’ll see him on Friday night SmackDown. |
| * Veer Mahaan defeated an enhancement talent in a singles squash match. |
| *Bobby Lashley defeated AJ Styles with a spear to retain the United States Championship |
| * Dakota Kai defeated Dana Brooke in a singles match. |
| * Theory defeated Dolph Ziggler in the main event with the A-Town Down finisher. |