WWE has managed to do a great job of masking the absence of Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as it tours through the Midwest after Clash in Paris. Monday’s latest “Raw” in Milwaukee continued to progress towards a stacked inaugural Wrestlepalooza event that has a lot to like on it, including the in-ring return of an underrated all-time great.
OK. So AJ Lee’s first promo back in a WWE ring after a decade was all one needed to see to know why she was the fan-favorite she was. This woman is magnetic, she is a natural, and man, does she have “it.”
Lee spoke directly to us who missed her career, introducing herself. Admittedly, her promo work may have felt extra authentic and special because that’s exactly what it was. This was April Mendez speaking from the heart, sharing her experiences and why she retired 10 years ago. She even managed to do the unfathomable and elicited a “therapy” chant after mentioning her mental health battles. It was a tremendous return to form, and I’m so curious to see how her first match goes.
Speaking of which, it wasn’t long until her enemies Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins arrived to try and reclaim Lynch’s stolen Intercontinental crown.
Lynch emerged first, wearing the most ridiculous sunglasses of all time to hide the black eye Lee gave her on “SmackDown.” She played the hypocrite role perfectly, claiming CM Punk was hiding behind his wife, as Punk said Rollins was in their previous interactions. Lynch, like Lee, said she’ll need therapy after the segment, garnering more chants. We all love some good therapy time.
“It works, I swear. It’s wonderful. I have some names I can give you,” Lee responded.
This whole thing culminated with Lee’s ultimatum, telling Lynch to come fight her for the belt or accept her challenge to a mixed tag team match at Wrestlepalooza. Rollins wound up agreeing to the latter for the couple after Punk snuck up on them for a near-GTS.
There we go, folks. The Lee comeback tour officially carries on, and this feels like one of the freshest returns WWE has arguably ever had.
The Usos are officially back together and set to take on The Vision at Wrestlepalooza. The twins kicked off “Raw” with the usual show opener promo, but thankfully, it didn’t run overly long, as they were quickly interrupted by their rivals. The segment dissolved into a brawl when LA Knight attacked Bron Breakker from behind, but that was far from the highlight.
It’s wild how much Jimmy Uso outshone his brother Jey on the mic tonight. He already demonstrated his excellence in that build to Jey’s WrestleMania match against Gunther. The dude’s delivery was just so much cleaner and natural-sounding. It probably helps that he wasn’t winded once he entered the ring, but ultimately, it makes you wonder how he performed in his world title run in an alternate universe.
I’m not sure I’d go so far as to say I wish that had happened instead of Jey overall, but if I had to choose between the two, I might say so.
Overall, it’s great to see The Usos back together, as they are needed in the “Raw” tag team division. However, this might not be a permanent reunion, considering they made their entrance with every bit of Jey’s theme.
Before the night ended, we even saw some friction between the brothers, as Jey (seemingly) left the arena early, asking Jimmy why he’d stick around to help Knight in his match against Bronson Reed. Jimmy even said his brother is starting to sound like Roman Reigns. If these two end up rematching, that would be a brutally misguided route to take.
As mentioned, the opening segment set up the main event, as is the standard formula in WWE. The stunning stretch of no DQ finishes continued, but at the expense of Knight, who lost “cleanly” again. I’m unsure what WWE is doing with the “Megastar,” as his character development is moving in the right direction, but he’s now taking pins left and right this time after being distracted by Breakker.
The match was fine, but all of The Vision stuff, particularly with the “Brons” is feeling so uninspired. It doesn’t help that they’re now separated from Rollins with Paul Heyman kayfabe injured.
The bigger picture angle revolved around The Usos, as they saved Knight from the expected post-match beatdown. The Vision maintained their control, beating everyone down until Knight grabbed a chair and took a spear from Jey. It very much felt like a heel turn that Jimmy wasn’t happy about, almost like WWE is trying to replicate a bit of the dynamic Adam Copeland (Edge) and Christian Cage have over in AEW. That very clear heel-face tag team who have such a deep connection that they get along and love each other regardless. That’s another interesting possible route to go down, but Knight, like Penta, needs some sort of serious change, and he deserves one more than anyone right now.
1. Breakker has slowly started to morph more into a loose cannon Steiner rather than the brainless henchman he was at the start of The Vision’s angle, and it’s quite entertaining.
2. Asuka beat Nikki Bella clean with the Asuka Lock. This was a better match and performance for Bella than in her title shot against Lynch, so good on her. Asuka, however, was the real star, as she’s just so, so good as this overprotective heel. At one point, she even used Kairi Sane as a shield on the outside of the ring, which was more clever than it was a heel tactic, but it’s all good fun.
1. AJ Styles defeated El Grande “Amerikaiser” with the Styles Clash after shenanigan interferences from Dragon Lee and another masked dude. The match was fine for what it was, but what is happening here? Who is this for at this point? That also might have been the first singles loss for the Americano character since it started with Chad Gable.
More interestingly, Styles cut a very, very interesting promo during the Netflix commercial. The timing of this feels intentional, considering all the Styles free agency reports afloat.
2. Penta needs help. After the former AEW Tag Team champion hilariously questioned Adam Pearce’s love (literally), he landed a match against Rusev and lost. Losing to Rusev is nothing to be ashamed of, and Rusev should keep winning. But Penta desperately needs some wins, and he looked like a bozo out there getting distracted by The New Day, who came out for no other reason than to try and mask a burial in the making.
The Penta-New Day “feud” is boring and should not continue unless, like The Usos, The Lucha Bros reunite. We haven’t seen Rey Fenix on “SmackDown” lately, after all.
1. Joe Tessitore replaced Michael Cole on this “Raw,” and he seriously has to tone it down, man. I appreciate enthusiasm, but the number of times he loses his mind to oversell a move or sequence is insane. See the Styles match finish, for example.
2. To cap off the Asuka-Bella saga on this show, Rhea Ripley came to Bella’s aid backstage when tensions thickened. From that awesome, building duo of Ripley and Iyo Sky to Ripley and Bella, huh? Talk about one hell of a downgrade, as Ripley wanders aimlessly through the division after her world title matches. Naomi’s pregnancy butchered several immediate directions for some of these wrestlers. Stephanie Vaquer has yet to be seen since her Sky title match was made official.
Lyra Valkyria and Raquel Rodriguez had something to prove tonight. It’s not that I had low expectations; I simply didn’t think much of this match’s announcement. It had also been a while since we’d seen a Valkyria match, so shame on me.
These two are great against anyone. Put them together, and they deliver an absolute must-see banger. Rodriguez scored a big, surprising, much-needed win with a counter Tejana Bomb off the top rope. (Clean!) Roxanne Perez made a brief (typical) interference attempt, but it wasn’t a part of the finish.
This is another reminder that Rodriguez needs to go back on a singles run and get some proper respect. She’s excellent, and this makes me hope for another pairing with Valkyria at some point. In the meantime, it appears Valkyria isn’t done with Bayley, as her old frenemy delivered another great psycho vignette. Before that, Valkyria will have to face Rodriguez’s other Judgment Day half, Perez, next week.
I give this show a Crown score of: 7.5/10.