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Rhea Ripley Stars on Raw

CM Punk, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed also played key roles

Noelle Perry

Bron Breakker closed out WWE Raw with a victory, which represents a key moment in his ascent. There were plenty of highlights, including a tense promo from Gunther directed at Randy Orton, as well as more destruction from Bronson Reed.

Here are the Top 10 highlights from Raw:

10.) Ripley speaks–and Priest attacks

Rhea Ripley was welcomed by thunderous applause when she entered to kick off Raw. She reflected on her betrayal by Dominik Mysterio at SummerSlam, and summed it up perfectly when she said, “You stabbed me in the back, it just wasn’t deep enough.”

Liv Morgan and Mysterio interrupted from the middle of the crowd, perhaps unwise as they are not exactly fan favorites at the present moment. Morgan handed the mike to Mysterio, who tried to explain why he left Ripley over a chorus of boos. He finally expressed himself, saying how Ripley wanted to change him instead of letting him be himself. Mysterio noted that it was Morgan who finally helped him beat his father, Rey Mysterio, and not Ripley.

Ripley said she was proud of Dom and everything he accomplished over the last couple of years. She wanted Dom to beat his dad on his own so that no one would be able to make any excuses. Morgan reminded Ripley that she had nothing, as her real family is on the other side of the world in Australia–and her found family was taken by her. Morgan took delight in stating she took Ripley’s man, her championship, and her women’s division. Ripley replied that Morgan hadn’t taken everything because as long as she is standing, she’s going after Morgan.

Ripley also told them, “We’ve been able to find out exactly where you are,” which foreshadowed Priest standing behind them in the crowd.

Priest grabbed Mysterio and the two brawled through the crowd. In the meantime, Ripley was able to get a head start and made her way up to chase off Morgan, who was trying to pull Priest off Mysterio. Priest continued to chase Mysterio through the audience and all the way to the ring.

Before Priest could chokeslam Mysterio, Carlito popped up to break it up. That wasn’t enough to keep Priest down, and he tossed both men out of the ring.

9.) New Judgment Day vs. Original Judgment Day

Damian Priest and Carlito faced each other in a match after brawling before the commercial break.

Even when Carlito gained the upper hand, he did not keep it for long. Priest dominated, and he is already connecting as a fan favorite. He won with relative ease, but JD McDonagh jumped Priest after the match.

Priest gave McDonagh a beatdown before Finn Balor and Dom Mysterio joined in, with Liv Morgan watching. Finally outnumbered, Priest got help when Rhea Ripley’s music hit. Carlito ran towards the entrance to stop her, but Ripley quickly fought him off. She came face to face with Balor, who found himself between a rock and a hard place with both Ripley and Priest. Priest went to kick him, but McDonagh pushed him out of the way and took the bullet himself.

Priest and Ripley hugged each other in the ring. That’s when Mysterio tried to jump on them from the top rope, but Priest caught him by the throat, before tossing him to Ripley. She hoisted him up for a Riptide before Morgan pulled him back to safety.

8.) Bo Dallas plays new video

A new video with Bo Dallas played. He talked about last week’s Wyatt Sicks’ match against American Made in Baltimore “where it all started”, as that is where the Wyatt Sicks had their debut and the Wyatt Family made their debut.

7.) Changes coming for The New Day?

Within The New Day, there were more hints at dissension.

After helping out the New Day last week, Odyssey Jones made his in-ring debut with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods supporting him at ringside–even if Woods didn’t seem too pleased about it.

Jones wrestled Vincent Winey, who tried to catch Jones off-guard, but to no avail. Winey is no small man, but Jones threw him around like a rag doll. Jones won the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it match with ease, but his celebration was cut short but Karrion Kross and The Final Testament.

Kross accused Kingston of using Jones to replace Big E, and told Woods that he can see the truth. The truth, Kross said, was that Kingston was actually trying to replace Woods. Woods started to challenge The Final Testament to a tag match, but Kingston interrupted and turned it into a challenge for a six-man match pitting The Final testament versus The New Day and Odyssey Jones. Woods did not seem super jazzed about it, perhaps Kross’ attempts to drive a wedge between The New Day have not been entirely in vain.

6.) Ivy Nile punishes Maxxine Dupri

Ivy Nile spoke with Maxxine Dupri, attempting to get her to join her in Chad Gable’s new group, American Made–but Dupri refused.

Instead, Dupri accompanied Otis and Akira Tozawa to the ring for their upcoming Texas Tornado bout against American Made. As Otis walked to the ring, he met eyes with the NXT North American Champion, Oba Femi, and eyed his title. 

Brutus and Julius Creed represented American Mades, and they dominated Tozawa with their strength. Once Otis got in the mix, it became much more of a different fight. Otis and Tozawa made a fantastic team, the big man used his partner as a weapon to take down the Creeds. Tozawa was no slouch either, taking down both Creeds with a double DDT. This softened them up for Otis to wreak havoc. 

The Creed Brothers got in some good offense, but Alpha Academy regained the upper hand. After a crazy feat of strength, Otis and Tozawa celebrated, but they were distracted by Ivy Nile attacking Maxxine Dupri from behind.

Nile dragged Dupri onto the announce table and brutalized her, distracting Otis and Tozawa so that The Creeds could swoop in and pick up the victory. Nile joined Brutus and Julius Creed in the ring to celebrate their victory while her former friends lay battered at ringside.

5.) Pete Dunne explains his motivation

Jackie Redmond interviewed Pete Dunne. He described his resentment towards Sheamus for nicknaming him “Butch” and “taking him under his wing” when he didn’t need any guidance. Dunne explained that he did not want to be treated like someone’s little brother when he was perfectly capable of standing on his own. 

Later, Redmond spoke to Sheamus for his thoughts on the interview, but Sheamus was interrupted by Ludwig Kaiser. Though Kaiser had been out of action with an injury for several weeks, he had not forgotten about his unfinished business with Sheamus. While Sheamus responded to Kaiser, he was attacked from behind by Dunne with a shillelagh. Kaiser stepped back to let Dunne tend to his business before officials stepped in and separated the former Brawling Brutes.

4.) Damage CTRL and Pure Fusion Collective battle for title shot

Women’s tag team champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn sat with commentary for the match between Damage CTRL and Pure Fusion Collective to determine the number-one contenders for the titles. Last week, Shayna Baszler, Sonya Deville, and Zoey Stark attacked Dakota Kai and injured her, putting her on the shelf for the foreseeable future. Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane sought to not only earn the title shot against Stark and Baszler, but also to get revenge for their attack on Kai. 

The two teams were pretty evenly matched, but Pure Fusion Collective had an advantage when Deville distracted the referee for them. Sky fell into Fyre sitting at ringside, and when Stark went to kick her, she moved out of the way. Stark’s boot connected with Fyre’s face instead, agitating the champions.

Sky brought the action back into the ring and landed a moonsault beautifully on Stark, which surely would have won her the match. However, Dawn and Fyre broke up the pin, forcing a disqualification, making sure neither team became number one contender. The champions attacked both teams, and stood tall with no challengers to their titles.

3.) Randy Orton and Gunther interrupted by Drew McIntyre and CM Punk

Randy Orton talked about his upcoming match against Gunther for the World Heavyweight Champion at Bash in Berlin. Gunther interrupted, telling Orton that he should be the greatest of all time, but he wasted his potential, and in Gunther’s era, there is no room for people who waste their potential.

Orton owned his mistakes, and said he has changed course. He reminded Gunther of his many accomplishments, calling himself unpredictable. Gunther disagreed, and predicted he would retain in Berlin because when it really matters, Orton always screws it up. He said that Orton comes by it honestly, as his grandfather and father were screw-ups as well.

The two stared at each other intensely before the tension was cut by Drew McIntyre’s music. While Gunther was distracted, Orton hit him with an RKO. CM Punk then showed up to attack McIntyre. He tried to wrestle his bracelet off of McIntyre’s wrist, but was met with a Glasgow Kiss. McIntyre took his belt off to hit Punk with it, but Punk managed to get his hands on the weapon and whipped McIntyre with it until he ran out of the arena.

2.) Bronson Reed decimates his next victims

Bronson Reed told Raw GM Adam Pearce he needed to find him an opponent, or else Reed would find his next victim himself. And that is exactly what happened.

R-Truth attempted to do something nice for The Miz by setting up a match for him against Bron Breakker for the Intercontinental Championship. Unfortunately, Truth was a bit confused, and Breakker already had a match scheduled for the night against Sami Zayn. The match R-Truth actually set up for The Miz was against Bronson Reed. R-Truth and Randy Orton hyped up The Miz for the match, giving him a sense of false confidence heading into the bout.

Miz came out of the gate strong, but Reed quickly gained the upper hand. It did not take long for Reed to win, and he was not finished when the bell rang.

Reed climbed up to the top rope in a scene reminiscent of last week’s assault on Seth Rollins. R-Truth rolled The Miz out of harm’s way, but Reed did not care who was in his way, and he delivered a tsunami onto Truth. He continued even after officials came out to stop him, and only climbed back down when Pearce yelled at him. Reed then walked over to another corner of the ring and aimed for The Miz, but R-Truth got in the way again. Pearce started to lead Reed to the back, but the crowd begged for one more tsunami, and Reed answered their calls.

1.) Bron Breakker retains Intercontinental Title in two out of three falls match

In the main event, Sami Zayn faced Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker in a two out of three falls match, attempting to get back the title he lost at SummerSlam.

Zayn picked up the first fall, much like how he won his first match against Breakker at Money in the Bank last month. 

Losing the first fall did not slow down Breakker down. After lawn-darting Zayn into the timekeeper’s area, launching him across the ring with a Breakkensteiner, and nailing him with a couple of gnarly spears, Breakker got the second fall.

With one fall each, Breakker and Zayn were both on the verge of victory. Zayn appeared to be in far worse shape, however, and Breakker tried to take advantage of it by going for another pinfall. But Zayn was only playing possum and reversed the pin. Breakker kicked out, but it was a tense near fall.

Breakker tossed Zayn out of the ring and dribbled his head on the announce table before jumping off the ring apron to drive Zayn into the desk. He rolled back into the ring, leaving Zayn on the table in hopes of a count-out victory. Unfortunately for the champion, Zayn broke the count at nine.

Zayn nearly picked up the win with a boot to Breakker’s face in the middle of the ring, almost a Helluva Kick. But it was not enough to take down the champ, and Breakker kicked out at two.

The finishing sequence was compelling. Zayn climbed to the top rope, but Breakker met him there. Zayn headbutted Breakker back to the mat, and lept from the top rope, but Breakker speared him out of mid-air. Breakker pinned Zayn, getting the third and final fall and retaining the Intercontinental title.

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Noelle Perry
NOELLE PERRY

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