Before Monday Night Raw went on the air from Des Moines, Iowa on August 3, fans had plenty of questions about what was going to happen following the results of SummerSlam. As a reminder, here are the matches from SummerSlam that featured superstars from Raw.
Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan def. IYO SKY
LA Knight, Solo Sikoa, and Royce Keys def. The Usos and Jacob Fatu
Hell in a Cell: Oba Femi def. Brock Lesnar
Human Monie$ on a Pole: Danhausen def. Dominik Mysterio
Intercontinental Championship: Chad Gable def. Penta
World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns def. Seth Rollins
It was no surprise that Rollins was absent from Raw one day after failing to defeat Reigns. The fist bump that the former Shield members shared after their epic title fight was a sign that the book was closed on the rivalry, at least for a little while. There was no point of Rollins showing up on Raw after a clean finish that gave no reason to expect a rematch. I’m thinking that Rollins will take some time off and then emerge on SmackDown at some point to reignite his rivalry with CM Punk or whoever is holding the Undisputed WWE Championship at that time.
The other big names to not show up on Raw were IYO SKY and Solo Sikoa. SKY lost her Women’s World Championship challenge fair and square to Liv Morgan, but there was reason to believe that their feud wasn’t over, since SKY had just defeated Morgan to become Queen of the Ring a little more than a month prior. Still, SKY wasn’t on Raw, and it became clear as to why when both Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer returned to action to challenge for Morgan’s title. Suddenly Morgan, who did not have to defend her championship between WrestleMania and SummerSlam, has her hands full with worthy competitors.
As for Sikoa, it was surprising to not see him on Raw because he’s building momentum as hilarious babyface after years of playing an intimidating heel. You’d think WWE would want Sikoa in front of the camera as often as possible in order to keep showing fans his new, entertaining persona.
Here are some big questions we have after watching Raw.
Why is Oba Femi still ignoring the World Heavyweight Championship?
Femi’s massive win at SummerSlam over Lesnar appeared to be a sign that the Nigerian big man is a future multi-time world champion, but Femi didn’t seem interested in going after Reigns on Monday night. After Reigns opened the show by paying respect to Rollins, it was LA Knight and not Femi who came out to stake his claim as number one contender.
Knight seemed to have a point as he had just pinned Reigns’ cousin and former world champ Jey Uso at SummerSlam, but Reigns dismissed that because it came in a six-man tag match. Knight needed to prove himself in a big singles match, said Reigns. That is not something he could have said to Femi. Still, Knight was confident that he deserved a title shot, and he based that on never getting a fair shake back when Reigns was Undisputed WWE Champion and using The Bloodline to his advantage in every title match.
When Femi had his mic time later in the show, he didn’t even mention Reigns or Knight. He gave props to Lesnar, who now finally appears to be retired for real. We wouldn’t have a clue of what Femi’s future had in store if not for his stare down with Bron Breakker that happened as Femi was leaving the ring and Breakker was coming out to squash Joe Hendry.
Breakker is another competitor who could challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship, but he has been stuck in tag team limbo since losing to Rollins in a Steel Cage Match at Night of Champions. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of upside for Breakker in a feud with Femi. Sure, a win would be huge, but is that happening after Femi was declared by Lesnar to be the future of the business while Breakker was absent from the SummerSlam card? I hope so, but I also doubt it.
Going after Reigns seemed to be the logical move for Femi after SummerSlam, but it appears that clash is on hold until after football season.
What are we doing with Roxanne Perez?
The one known as The Prodigy is also the only woman in The Judgement Day without a championship, and she didn’t get any closer to one when she was disqualified from her match against Sol Ruca due to Morgan interfering with Ruca lining up a Sol Snatcher. After Finn Balor was kicked out of The Judgement Day weeks ago, we saw seeds being planted for Perez to be the next one to leave the faction, but those seeds have yet to bare fruit. Maybe Perez will think about defecting again given that her two best shots at a singles title are right in front of her.
As we said before, Morgan suddenly has more than enough challengers, but Raquel Rodriguez hasn’t received any inquiries on the Women’s Intercontinental Championship that she beat Ruca for last week. Maybe Ruca’s win over Perez puts her in line for a rematch with Rodriguez, but Rodriguez is also a perfect opponent for Perez to revive the underdog babyface angle that she broke into NXT with years ago.
Will Dominik Mysterio recover from losing to Danhausen at SummerSlam?
I thought it was silly to have Mysterio lose to Danhausen at SummerSlam. Sure, it was a ridiculous match with the Minihausens running amok, El Torito stealing the show, and Mysterio being cursed right before he could claim the human monies, but Danhausen didn’t need the win to retain his popularity and Mysterio is supposed to be a serious contender for the Intercontinental Championship. Raw was a great opportunity for Mysterio to get right back in the hunt, but instead he was pinned by new IC champ Chad Gable in tag team action after Penta clocked him with the title.
The good news for Mysterio is that no other challengers for the IC title emerged that night. Je’Von Evans got a win over Ethan Page, but the Young OG’s momentum was derailed by the long-awaited return of a not-so-sawft superstar.
What is Big Cass doing here?
After laying out Evans with the East River Crossing, Big Cass told Jackie Redmond that Evans was just collateral damage and that he came to Raw to “stack bodies.” That makes it seem like a feud with Evans is not imminent, but the Young OG could have other ideas. Cass seems to be an obvious opponent for Femi, but Breakker looks like he wants dibs, and a Triple Threat won’t be necessary with no gold on the line. Maybe Cass will bludgeon his way into the World Heavyweight Championship picture with Reigns being dismissive of Knight.
Beating up Evans is a strong indication that Cass will be a heel in the short term, but Jacob Fatu is another intriguing opponent if Cass ends up as a target of The Bloodline. The Samoan Werewolf bounced back from his loss at SummerSlam by decimating Royce Keys in the main event on Monday.
Inside Yolk 