Drew McIntyre opens Raw

The challenger to Damian Priest’s World Heavyweight
Championship made his way to a great reaction from the crowd
as commentary recapped the end of Raw last week that
featured McIntyre getting laid out by Priest and a South of
Heaven chokeslam through the announcer table.

As the crowd chanted “CM Punk” at McIntyre, the man himself
said that he was not focused on anything else other than
being the new World Champion in five days at Clash of the
Castle. He said that wherever Priest went, Judgment Day was
scurrying right behind him. Before he could continue, the
music of Damian Priest interrupted McIntyre. “Say his name
and he appears,” said Pat McAfee of Priest’s arrival.

Priest walked down the ramp, flanked by Finn Balor and JD
McDonagh. He started by saying that McIntyre was still
making excuses and that he made things personal right now.
Priest said that the title he was holding was not the
Judgment Day’s world title. He declared that he was going to
put McIntyre down at Clash, and that he didn’t need any help
from Judgment Day to remain champion. “I’m Champion, because
I’m Damian Priest,” said the World Champion.

McIntyre fired back by claiming that the only reason Priest
has a chance of retaining was because of Balor and
McDonagh’s intervention. This prompted Priest to issue the
challenge: McIntyre versus Finn Balor tonight on Raw, with
the stipulation being that if McIntyre beat Balor, the
Judgment Day would be barred on Saturday.

McIntyre seemed to accept the challenge, telling Priest that
he had better be ready to shake his hand next Monday after
McIntyre humiliates him at Clash at the Castle. McIntyre
walked off to his music as we went to the commentators.

**********

Cole and McAfee recapped the happenings with Liv Morgan and
Dominik Mysterio’s apparent romance on Raw last week as we
went to the Judgment Day’s corner of the arena, where Morgan
was seen being confronted by Dominik.

Morgan said that maybe Dominik needed a girl who wasn’t
afraid to call him “daddy” as she walked away and left a
card with her hotel room number for Dominik.

IYO SKY (w/ Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane) defeated Lyra Valkyria

Valkyria opened the match by battering SKY in the corner
before the referee broke it up. This allowed SKY to take
advantage as she went on the offensive with repeated stomps
and punches.

SKY’s running charge was avoided by a somersault from
Valkyria, as she followed that up with a dropkick and a
bridging suplex. SKY had a somersault dodge of her own, but
Valkyria caught her in a modified pretzel clutch submission
in the middle of the ring. She went for a bridge pin and the
two-count. SKY rolled outside, and stopped a dropkick from
Valkyria before soaring with a moonsault that took us to the
commercial break spot.

We returned to Raw with Valkyria taking SKY down with a
springboard crossbody. With the advantage on her side,
Valkyria floored SKY with a nice top-rope missile dropkick
for the near-fall.

SKY regained momentum when she sent Valkyria into the middle
turnbuckle, as she then hit a backbreaker. Moonsault attempt
by SKY avoided by Valkyria, who went for a flash rollup for
another near-fall. Valkyria hit SKY with the Nightwing, but
Dakota Kai broke up the count behind the referee’s back.

Valkyria took out Kai and Sane. This allowed SKY to hit the
corner meteora and put Valkyria in position for the
moonsault. Valkyria blocked that with her knees as she tried
again for the Nightwing, but SKY pulled at Valkyria’s hair
as she then rolled her up for the one, two, three.

Post-match, Kai and Sane attacked Valkyria in the ring as
SKY got to her feet and continued the assault. Before Damage
CTRL could continue their attack, Katana Chance and Kayden
Carter ran in to even the odds. Damage CTRL backed off, with
the odds now even.

Fantastic opening bout from Valkyria and SKY. I enjoyed the
chemistry the two showed and we should be in for an
interesting feud with Damage CTRL vs. Valkyria and Carter &
Chance that will likely lead to a six-woman tag match in the
near future.

**********

– Back again at the Judgment Day corner, Dominik was met by
Finn Balor, Carlito, and JD McDonagh. Dominik showed the
trio the hotel room card that Liv Morgan left him. “That’s
cool,” remarked Carlito. A poster of Rhea Ripley was seen
behind Dominik during this segment for some nice symbolism.

– We were shown Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair walking
backstage as the commentators switched gears to recapping
the ongoing saga between Sami Zayn, Chad Gable, and the
Alpha Academy.

– The Miz was looking for R-Truth backstage and asked Sami
Zayn where he was. As Miz left, Zayn walked around and met
with Maxxine and Akira Tozawa. Zayn apologized for what
happened last week to Maxxine. Otis walked in and tried to
apologize for his actions last week, saying as he “lost it”.
As Zayn said that he understood Otis’s plight, Otis talked
about how he lost everything: his “peach” (Mandy Rose), his
“Tucky”, (Tucker from Heavy Machinery) and his Money in the
Bank briefcase. Otis said that without them, he was nothing,
and that Chad Gable and Alpha Academy brought him new
meaning. Zayn answered by saying that Otis didn’t have to
keep taking Gable’s abuse and to think about it hard as he
then left Otis and Alpha Academy to their thoughts.

– We once again returned to the Judgment Day as Damian
Priest entered the scene. Priest wondered about the hotel
card that Liv left for Dominik. The card in question was
gone as Priest wondered where it disappeared to. Dominik
acted sheepish about the card’s disappearance.

– Ludwig Kaiser talked about how he beat Sheamus last week
on Raw, as he boasted that he deserved to be to the top and
that anyone who dared to oppose him would be “illuminated”.
He officially staked his claim for the Money in the Bank
ladder match at the end.

Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee & Braun Strowman defeated The
Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh) and Carlito

As the LWO made their entrance, another Uncle Howdy QR code
flashed on the screen, which the commentators made note of.

Carlito tried to attack Strowman, but got a Biel throw for
his troubles. Carlito tagged in Dominik, but McDonagh got
tagged in after his dad Rey entered the match.

Mysterio worked over McDonagh as he tagged Dragon Lee into
the match. Lee had the momentum, but Dominik dropped him on
his head behind the referee’s back before getting tagged in
himself. Blind tag by Mysterio allowed for him and Lee to
send Dominik to the outside. McDonagh also got sent out of
the ring. Mysterio caught by Judgment Day on the outside, as
he’s used as a battering ram to clothesline Lee when he
tried to go for a dive. This sent us to a commercial break.

Back in the ring with Mysterio and Carlito the legal men.
Both men down and out as they attempted to reach their
respective corners. Carlito managed to make it to tag
McDonagh in, which allowed for him to stop Mysterio at the
pass and take control for his team.

Mysterio tried to mount a comeback on Carlito, but that got
snuffed out quickly. Carlito punched out Lee in the corner
as Mysterio again created separation by removing McDonagh
and Dominik from the equation, which finally allowed to try
and tag Strowman in. But, McDonagh and Dominik took down
Strowman from the apron and rammed him into the corner.

Judgment Day took over in the match with Mysterio completely
isolated form his partners for the time being. That
advantage was stopped cold as Mysterio hit a DDT on
McDonagh, which gave him time to tag in Dragon Lee into the
match.

Lee utilized his high-flying offense to briefly keep Carlito
on his toes. Lee had Carlito trapped in a tree of woe
position and stomped right on him. McDonagh broke up the
two-count. Dominik dropkicked his father to the outside and
his attention was caught by Liv Morgan, who was on the
apron.

Dominik tried to shoo away Morgan, but she got sent into him
after Zelina Vega shoved her off the apron. While Morgan was
on top of Dominik, she looked at him lustfully. As things
broke down, Braun Strowman finally got tagged in and he ran
through Judgment Day like a freight train at ringside.

Running powerslam by Strowman was then followed by Dragon
Lee leaping off of Strowman’s shoulders for a splash on
Carlito, which gave his team the victory.

Pretty standard six-man tag match, but the continuing
situation between Dominik and Liv Morgan got a bit more
intriguing near the end, so the aftermath on that will be
one to watch.

**********

– The commentators talked about Bron Breakker vs. Ilja
Dragunov as they threw it to a promo from Dragunov. The Mad
Dragon talked about how he was going to make Breakker suffer
and that he wasn’t going to stop until he was done breaking
him.

– Backstage, Ricochet appeared to give Dragunov a bit of a
pep talk. Dragunov said that he was going to slay the beast
tonight, then promising to go another round with Ricochet
once he was done with Breakker.

– A promo for SmackDown this Friday hyped a confrontation
between Cody Rhodes & AJ Styles ahead of their I Quit match
at Clash at the Castle, as well as Kevin Owens vs. Solo
Sikoa.

**********

– Damage CTRL were backstage as it appeared that IYO SKY was
once again completely frustrated after what went on
following her match against Lyra Valkyria. She stormed off
screaming in anger while Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane looked on
in concern.

Sami Zayn addresses the Chad Gable problem

Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn walked to the ring and
grabbed a mic. He talked about how the past couple of weeks
have been a “messed up couple of weeks” ahead of his Clash
at the Castle IC Title defense against Chad Gable.

Zayn said that something so personal got turned into
something he can’t quite describe after all of Gable’s
machinations and manipulations of Alpha Academy. He said
that on Saturday, he was going to defeat Gable and put an
end to all this.

Before Zayn could continue his piece, Chad Gable and Alpha
Academy interrupted him . Gable got strong “you suck” chants
as he entered.

Gable said that this was “typical Sami Zayn” by trying to
interjecting himself into everyone’s business without
asking. Gable spoke for Alpha Academy’s behalf by claiming
that they were happy, and that by winning the
Intercontinental title on Saturday, that would make them
even happier.

Zayn incredulously asked if Otis, Akira Tozawa, and Maxxine
if they were happy with Gable’s claims. He bluntly said that
Gable didn’t care about the three of them, and that the fans
cared about them the most. Zayn told the Alpha Academy that
they would be happiest once they left Gable once and for
all.

Gable angrily replied that he was going to unleash the
version of Otis that didn’t care about showing any remorse
for anything right at this moment, or rather, after the
commercial break.

Sami Zayn defeated Otis (w/ Chad Gable)

The match started from the break with Otis battering Zayn in
the corner as Gable barked out orders at ringside. Otis went
for a running splash on Zayn, as he then repeated the move
on Gable’s orders.

Gable got on the apron and shouted at Otis to listen to him,
but that opened him up to a Helluva Kick by Zayn for the
quick victory.

Post-match, Gable attacked Zayn and held him up for Otis to
hit him. Otis hesitated as Gable shouted and slapped Otis
some more for refusing to listen to him. Otis hyped himself
up and ran into Zayn in the corner before he dropped him
with the World’s Strongest Slam.

Gable tried to stand side-by-side with Otis, but he quickly
turned to him as Gable began cower in fear. Otis raised a
fist and stopped himself before he left, conflicted.

Surprisingly short match, but it did the job well in
building up the Gable vs. Zayn title match on Saturday and
the prospect of Alpha Academy finally turning against their
oppressive headmaster. The uncertainty with Gable’s contract
status adds another element of intrigue to the proceedings.

**********

– The Miz finally found R-Truth, who told his championship
partner that they were supposedly defending their Tag Titles
against the “APA” tonight on Raw. It turned out, that they
were set to take on the Authors of Pain tonight as Scarlett
gave the Awesome Truth the “Death” tarot card.

– They showed a tweet from Cody Rhodes regarding the NXT
Battleground main event, as we found out that Rhodes will be
on NXT tomorrow night. The commentators then congratulated
Kelani Jordan for being the first ever NXT Women’s North
American Champion.

– A recap of Jey Uso’s declaration for the Money in the Bank
ladder match was shown.

Zoey Stark & Shayna Baszler defeated Unholy Union (Alba Fyre
& Isla Dawn)

Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill were
ringside for this match.

Before Dawn & Fyre’s entrance, they were interviewed at the
Gorilla position by Cathy Kelley.

Dawn started the match by dropkicking Baszler right in her
injured knee from last night’s NXT Underground match. Dawn &
Fyre had the upper hand on Stark early on.

Stark fought back and flattened Dawn with a clothesline and
tried to go for a tag to Baszler, but she was down and out
for the moment. Fyre & Dawn hit a double team move on Stark
as Baszler finally returned to the match and got tagged in.

Roll-up by Fyre got kicked out by Baszler as she stomped on
Fyre’s shoulder. Fyre kicked at the injured knee of Baszler,
but to no avail. Ultimately, it was the Kirafuda Clutch by
Baszler on Fyre that put an end to this match via referee
stoppage.

This match didn’t really last long enough for me to get a
full impression, and I thought it was an odd choice for it
to be this short. Hopefully the triple threat tag team match
at Clash at the Castle has more time to cook, so to speak.

**********

– A hype package for Bron Breakker played just before he
made his way to the ring for his match against Ilja
Dragunov.

– A tweet from former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III
talking about how Breakker was one to watch was shown
heading out of the commercial break.

Bron Breakker defeated Ilja Dragunov

As the bell rang, Breakker and Dragunov exchanged blows in
the middle of the ring as Dragunov got the better of his foe
with repeated chops. Breakker bounced back and tackled
Dragunov, followed by a series of hard punches to the face.

Dragunov regained the advantage and trapped Breakker into
another corner of the ring with repeated chops to the chest.
Dragunov paintbrushed Breakker with a running boot in the
corner. Breakker stopped Dragunov’s momentum by sending him
careening into the middle rope. Raw went to a break in the
action with Dragunov on the outside.

Raw returned with Breakker having Dragunov trapped in a
chinlock. Dragunov fought out of it but got dropped with a
standing powerslam by Breakker for a two-count.

Breakker continued the attack on the back of Dragunov’s head
with repeated strikes followed by another chinlock. Dragunov
escaped and booted Breakker in the head. Dragunov went on
the offensive with multiple clotheslines, then landing the
Constantin Special on Breakker.

Dragunov dove off the top rope with a knee to the forehead
of Breakker. German suplex barrage by Dragunov hits the
trifecta for the near-fall. Breakker fought out of a
powerbomb attempt by Dragunov with a back body drop.

Dragunov lifted Breakker up on his shoulder for a Death
Valley Driver right into the bottom turnbuckle. With
Breakker stunned in the corner, Dragunov went Coast to Coast
with a dropkick onto him. Diving senton splash by Dragunov
wasn’t enough to put Breakker away.

As Dragunov had a full head of speed, he got his head near
taken off by a vicious Steinerline by Breakker. The Spear
attempt got stopped by a knee from Dragunov, who then caught
Breakker with the H-Bomb. The action spilled outside the
ring as Dragunov kicked Breakker over the commentary table.
Dragunov attempted a suplex, but Breakker blocked it and
dropped Dragunov ribs-first onto the table.

Breakker lifted Dragunov on his shoulder and proceeded to
target those injured ribs of Dragunov with slams onto the
barricade and ring post. In the ring, Dragunov tried to
fight back, but he got surprised by a Spear out of nowhere
by Breakker. Dragunov rolled out of the ring, but got
bulldozed by another Spear on the outside. Breakker pulled
down the stripes as Dragunov pulled himself into the ring,
then putting an end to this incredible match with one last
Spear.

After the match, Breakker tried to hit yet another spear on
Dragunov through the barricade, but Ricochet intercepted him
with a diving kick out of nowhere.

Excellent, hard-hitting TV match between Breakker and
Dragunov. This had my attention from start to finish. Both
Breakker and Dragunov are great at a smash mouth style of
wrestling and we got a great showcase of it here. I find
myself enjoying this whole angle with
Dragunov/Breakker/Ricochet.

**********

– The Judgment Day were huddled together again discussing
Liv Morgan and the hotel card she left Dominik. Priest said
that he trusted Dominik to take care of business and put his
foot down as it related to Morgan. While the group were
fistbumping one another, Finn Balor took Liv’s card and put
it in his pocket while nobody was looking.

– Sheamus and Drew McIntyre were backstage talking about
their future plans. McIntyre told Sheamus to be there for
Saturday as he looks to become the World Heavyweight
Champion. Sheamus talked about how Ludwig Kaiser had the
“mother and father of all receipts” coming to him after last
week and that he was ready to win Money in the Bank.
McIntyre then said Sheamus had better warn him in advance of
a cash-in should he win the briefcase. The two men agreed
that it would end up being “banger after banger after
banger” if they ever met with the title on the line.

WWE World Tag Team Championship: Awesome Truth (R-Truth &
The Miz) defeated Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar)

Prior to the match, the Final Testament were asked about
AOP’s upcoming match, as Kross talked directly to Xavier
Woods, stating that maybe once AOP won the World Tag Titles,
he’ll realize that he may better suited for the Final
Testament, especially after how Kofi Kingston supposedly
“abandoned” him.

Miz & Rezar opened the match before Akam got tagged in and
the AOP had the upper hand as Raw went to an abrupt
commercial break within the first minute of the match.

We returned with Miz in trouble as Akam tried to stop him
from tagging Truth in, to no avail. Truth entered the match
and hit the John Cena tribute set on Akam. Rezar got thrown
over the top rope as Miz and Truth tried to go for the
double Five Knuckle Shuffle. Scarlett’s distraction allowed
Karrion Kross to pull down Miz & Truth.

Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods ran down and attacked Kross,
which gave Awesome Truth the opportunity to roll up Akam
after a failed attempt to hit him with the World Tag Team
Championship belt. Miz got the pin to help his team retain
their Tag Team titles.

Not really much to say here, as the only development we got
was the New Day attacking Karrion Kross. Final Testament’s
presence honestly does not do anything for me at this point.

**********

– Backstage, Ricochet was helping Ilja Dragunov up when
Breakker speared Dragunov through a production crate.
Breakker and Ricochet fought their way to the parking lot,
where Breakker lawndarted his foe into the side of the WWE
production truck. Breakker lifted Ricochet up and hit a
nasty powerslam onto the front windshield of a nearby car.
As officials and referees shooed Breakker away, Ricochet was
left writhing in pain.

– Following a replay of what happened before the break,
returned to Ricochet being loaded onto an ambulance as
fiancee Samantha Irvin looked on in tears. She joined
Ricochet by his side in the ambulance as it left, apparently
leaving us without a ring announcer for our main event.

Drew McIntyre versus Finn Balor (if McIntyre wins, Judgment
Day is banned from ringside at Clash at the Castle)

As McIntyre entered, Pat McAfee volunteered to be the ring
announcer, calling him “a big handsome bastard”. McAfee also
introduced Finn Balor, announcing him as “representing the
bum-ass Judgment Day”.

McIntryre tried for a slam on Balor, but he countered it
into a takedown. An attempt at a bulldog was stopped by the
sheer strength of McIntyre, who punched Balor out to the
outside.

Balor drove McIntyre into the ringpost at ringside before
smashing his taped-up arm against the post before he threw
him back in the ring. Balor continued to go after
McIntryre’s hurt arm before he got sent outside. Balor
regained the advantage for a bit but he got dropped face-
first into the apron by McIntyre. Balor unable to avoid
calamity as McIntyre threw him over the announce table with
a belly to belly throw as we went to our final commercial
break of the evening.

Raw returned from break with McIntyre asserting himself
against Balor right up until he got trapped in an armbar
submission hold. McIntyre fought out of it as Balor
continued the attack in the corner.

McIntyre caught Balor for an attempted powerslam, but he got
reversed into a neckbreaker for the two-count. Balor once
again applied the armbar, which forced McIntyre to lift him
up for the powerbomb. McIntyre roared back with clotheslines
and belly-to-belly throws, followed by the neckbreaker.

McIntyre kipped right back up and had Balor in his sights
for the Claymore Kick. Balor countered it into a Slingblade,
as he then flew over the ropes with a tope on the outside.
Balor felled McIntyre with repeated dropkicks and looked to
have him in position for the Coup De Grace. McIntyre stood
himself back up and hit the Glasgow Kiss headbutt, followed
by the superplex for the close two-count.

Future Shock DDT by McIntyre as he once again had Balor
targeted. Damian Priest walked down the ramp, while Carlito
& JD McDonagh tried to run interference. Balor hit his
dropkicks and missed on the Coup De Grace, as McIntyre ended
the match with a Claymore Kick to earn an even playing field
for his World Title Match against Priest.

Raw concluded for the night with champion & challenger
staring each other down.

**********

Great main event to cap off an entertaining Raw from start
to finish. McIntyre winning this match was all but certain
to remove Judgment Day from the equation, but, a certain
Chicago native might have a chance to ruin the hometown
hero’s big moment if he decides to show up on Saturday.

Raw’s midcard scene continues to be a key highlight as the
Liv Morgan/Dominik Mysterio drama got some good developments
this week, plus the story with Bron Breakker, Ilja Dragunov
and Ricochet. With tonight apparently being Ricochet’s final
appearance in WWE, look for that angle to turn into Dragunov
attempting to avenge Ricochet as he goes after Breakker once
again. The Chad Gable/Alpha Academy/Sami Zayn story looks
like it’s going to reach a big moment on Saturday and I
can’t wait for the payoff that’s been building for weeks.

Meanwhile, Uncle Howdy and the group being teased being QR
codes is all but certain to make their debut next week on
Raw, so it’ll be interesting to see where they fit in on the
red brand in terms of story.

All in all, Clash at the Castle on paper seems to be a
killer show and with WWE’s current momentum, it’s a show
surely not to be missed.

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