It’s Survivor Series week, as WWE rolled into the Desert Diamond Arena for Monday Night Raw. Gunther was again left broken at the hands of Damian Priest. The two opened the show with Priest eviscerating the World Heavyweight Champion, before putting him through a table ahead of their match this Saturday. A Triple Threat Intercontinental Championship match was added to Survivor Series, as Sheamus, Ludwig Kaiser, and Bron Breakker brawled all the way to the top of the entrance. The Judgment Day retained their tag team titles by the skin of their teeth from the vibrant and reenergized War Raiders.
Meanwhile, a new, much-requested championship was unveiled, and there will be a tournament to crown the first Women’s Intercontinental Champion. The New Day stole the night with a passionate and personal argument ahead of next Monday’s 10-year anniversary celebration. Nikki Cross attacked Scarlet Bordeaux as The Wyatt Sicks continued to stalk The Final Testament and Bianca Belair earned a victory over Nia Jax in the Main event to gain the advantage for her team ahead of WarGames, with Bayley set to replace Jade Cargill at the PLE, in what was a fairly limp show ahead of one of the traditional Big Four shows of the year, as Raw seems overshadowed by the Bloodline’s clash that is set to be one of the best Survivor Series matches of all time.
The New Day
A Landmark Segment For One Of WWE’s Most Popular Teams Of All Time
Over the course of the last few months, the slow erosion of The New Day has been gut-wrenching to watch. Future Hall Of Famers and one of the most beloved combos in wrestling history, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston hit rock bottom in the ring, losing to The Alpha Academy after an embarrassing display of ego and miscommunication. The result of the match was awful. What was to come was worse.
As Woods and Kofi could be audibly heard arguing and cursing each other out all the way to the back, an argument ten years in the making exploded for the whole world to see.
Every grievance imaginable was aired with spite dripping from every word. Kofi’s humiliating loss to Brock Lesnar was referred to by Woods as having “pissed away” the Championship, while Xavier was put on blast for being the only member of The New Day to never win a singles championship. In a career littered with unforgettable moments, this was an all-time segment and comfortably the highlight of Monday Night Raw.
Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser
The Dueling Duo WIll Challenge For Intercontinental Gold
For the second time in successive weeks, Bron Breakker’s Intercontinental Championship defense was interrupted by the never-ending war between Sheamus and his fellow European, Ludwig Kaiser. With Kaiser enjoying a breakout year and Breakker feasting on his second IC championship in his rookie year, the two were involved in a hard-hitting contest, before a rugged-looking Sheamus careered down the ramp to break up the match and began to hammer Ludwig Kaiser. Sheamus’s interference serves as payback after Kaiser foiled the Irishman’s Championship opportunity on last week’s Raw.
Breakker’s ability to work both face and heel makes him believable when he explodes at not being able to win his match for the second successive week. The three men’s brawling was magnificent, with WWE officials piling in to try and stop them (unsuccessfully) and only Adam Pearce making a Triple Threat Intercontinental Championship stopped the men from fighting. The match will take place at Saturday’s Survivor Series.
The Women’s Intercontinental Championship
The Long Rumored Belt Is Now Confirmed
All roads in WWE are currently leading towards the company’s big debut on Netflix. It will be an evening that will bring an enormous number of eyes back to the product, a lot of whom will not have sampled WWE since whatever their age dictates is “the glory days” for them. The Intercontinental Championship is synonymous with WWE and the improvement in the treatment of wrestling talent in the women’s locker room is fully deserving of an Intercontinental belt.
The first men’s Intercontinental Championship was won on September 1st, 1979, by Pat Patterson.
Perhaps one of the reasons that WWE is introducing two mid-card Championships to its women’s roster is because there is an eye-watering amount of incredible talent on the way from NXT, as well as the current crop of legends, veterans, and superstars populating WWE’s Main Roster. A tournament will start next Monday night on Raw, as soon as Survivor Series is concluded. The smart money is on the new champion being crowned during the company’s Netflix debut.
The Judgment Day
Balor’s Brigade Stay On Top Of Monday Night Raw
It wasn’t pretty but The Judgment Day held on to squeeze past a valiant display from The War Raiders and retain their Tag Team Championship. After the Raiders hit The War Machine and looked set to become the new leaders of Raw’s tag division, Dirty Dom interfered with the pinfall to stop a certain victory. The champions would make their numerical advantage count, but there is more than meets the eye with The Judgment Day at present.
Earlier in the evening, Finn Balor gave a “no leaders” speech that seemed to lose his teammates the longer it went on. Balor’s mood has been volatile for months, with nothing quite seeming right with Finn and his attitude towards those around him. Something continues to not quite smell right about him, and it’s affecting the group’s success. How much longer The Judgment Day’s unhappy clubhouse can successfully run feels like a reasonable question to ask at this juncture of this version of the group’s lifespan.
The Wyatt Sicks
A Change Of Approach Is Desperately Needed
Since debuting with a tidal wave of hype, cryptic video messages, and understandable fan sentiment, The Wyatt Sicks have been positioned as a priority on Monday Night Raw. The introduction which saw them tear up the backstage area and leave members of the roster and crew bloodied and broken was disturbing and creatively daring. It was great but after seven months since that arrival, The Wyatt Sicks are in danger of growing stale and fast.
This week, as part of their ongoing feud with The Final Testament, Scarlett Bordeaux was visited by Nikki Cross with sinister intent. When Karrion Kross and his crew returned, Bordeaux had been attacked with “everyone has something to lose” written on the room’s mirror. There is a “copy and paste” nature to these attacks and their cryptic motivations are becoming increasingly monotonous. The Wyatt Sicks are in dire need of new tricks if they are to remain a priority in 2025.
Nia Jax
The Queen Is In A Slump
Since winning Queen Of The Ring in June, Nia Jax has been one of the most dominant forces in WWE and a serious contender for the most improved performer on the company’s roster this year. That said, The Queen is currently in a rut. Nia Jax has lost three of her last four singles matches despite being WWE Women’s Champion, with her latest defeat coming at the hands of Bianca Belair on Raw. She now loses the advantage for her team’s WarGames match at Survivor Series this Saturday.
Nothing that could happen between now and January would stop this being comfortably the best year in Nia Jax’s wrestling career. It would be a shame for Nia to end the year with a whimper, but the looming threat of Tiffany Stratton and her Money In The Bank briefcase continues to hang over her head. A good showing at WarGames feels essential to arrest her current slide.
- Give whoever came up with “Seasons Yeetings” during Jey Uso’s WWE Shop ad a pay rise.
- Bron Breakker’s bump, running into the corner of the table at full speed, was the work of a mad man.
- LA Knight vs Shinsuke Nakamura for the US Title has now been added to Survivor Series.
- Bayley interfered in the Main Event and will be the fifth member of the face Survivor Series team.
- Vanessa Hudgens acknowledging Roman Reigns as her Tribal Chief. Nice.
- The Creed Brothers defeated Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee.
- CM Punk and Roman Reigns will meet face-to-face on this week’s SmackDown.
- You’re going to pay William Regal a salary and not have him shout “WARGAMES!” once?! Really??!?
