Rhea Ripley Opens RAW & Challenges Liv Morgan For The Title

RAW was live from the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio, a fitting venue considering this episode would clearly revolve around the nuttiest throuple in WWE history—women’s champ Liv Morgan, Dominik Mysterio, and Domy’s Mami and former women’s champ Rhea Ripley.

Priest Needs A Prayer/Mami Does Not Do Sloppy

Rhea Ripley opened the show and, well, not much was really “developed” by way of the storyline. Sure, we got the match booked, shedding light on the former champs’ return date, though reports that she is already recording “radio promos” and advertising media for specific events leading up to SummerSlam.

In the end, the match is what matters, but they cannot maintain the heat from now until then, especially if the challenger is restricted physically, without delivering more storytelling elements. Liv admitted that she started all of this to ‘take’ from Rhea, but in doing so, she fell in love with Dom. So, if everything that has taken place ends with Rhea wanting the title and not Dom, and Liv wants Dom and to keep the title, then the Dom angle to it all is meaningless.

A match between Jey Uso and Dom later in the evening delivered the same routine as in past weeks: Dom and Liv ‘accidentally’ fell into intimate positions in the ring, and Mami came out again this week. Liv ran off as Jey had all he needed to put the distracted Dom away. All of this surrounds the bigger issue of Priest as champ. He feels directionless in this limbo between heel and face. He later had a promo with Gunther, and while the promos themselves were excellent, they fell on deaf ears for a storyline that has no real pulse.

It is not the fault of Priest, and it certainly is not the perfect wrestling specimen that is Gunther, but the issue is that heel vs. face is the timeless plot that every successful story in wrestling is based upon, and without it, you cannot tell an adequate story. It is great that the females are leading the charge regarding RAW’s most successful storyline, but it is coming at the cost of Priest’s title reign.

Mountain Drew

Drew McIntyre and CM Punk inch ever closer to the FIRST match in a storyline that has been going on as long as anyone can remember—not that anyone remembers why or where it started. So, this week, RAW GM Adam Pearce told CM Punk to stay home and brought Drew back in hopes of booking the match. The problem is that the side routes seem so unnecessary, and the WWE Universe is not dumb. We understand that the lack of physicality is because of Punk.

Pearce dangled the match with Punk in front of everyone, and the fans responded, but it was again a big wet noodle of misdirection as the RAW GM demanded Drew apologize to the refs he manhandled. Of course, Drew did no such thing, and then he once again assaulted the officials before Seth’s music hit, and he came to try to tame the Scotsman.

WWE is missing a potentially great side storyline here, as fans seem to react well to Pearce himself getting or almost getting physical with Drew. Why not work Pearce into the angle in a physical role, and have him pick his “champion” to ‘domesticate’ Drew? Hell, if Pearce is up to a 5 min match, he can do it himself.

Wyatt Sicks… The Patient List Grows

The next installment of the Wyatt Sicks video library was handed out on the Pat McAfee show, and it was awesome. Incorporating these WWE things into the mainstream outlets their staff works within is always brilliant marketing but doing it for the Wyatt Sicks offers something more.

Erick Rowan got his time to shine this week and shine he did. He spoke candidly about the pain he has had to face in the last several years after the loss of his brothers, speaking to the need for ‘family’ right now and the vulnerability of every member within this group.

While there were no specific name drops, his vignette felt visceral and he promised to make this version of the Wyatt’s as beautiful as art can get, and likely with both Bray and Brodie Lee as muses.

Other Tidbits/In-Ring Action

• Sheamus and Bronson Reed squared off after exchanging words last week, but the real storyline of it all was Sheamus’s former faction member Pete Dunne attacking Sheamus from behind in what is likely to be Pete’s first major solo storyline in WWE since cutting from the group effort.
• The Sonya Deville faction of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark took on Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. Deville had been recruiting and she unveiled the ‘complete’ faction last week. Stark and Baszler kept momentum and tempo as the faces found moments to get spots off, but they were never very close to winning the actual match.
• Still, the faces kept it closer than expected, but in the end, it was Baszler and Carter that took home the victory. I’m not sure how long they’ll have to get over, but the MMA shared interests offers promise.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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