WWE Raw results, highlights (Aug. 4): Seth Rollins stands tall over CM Punk, LA Knight, Roman Reigns
Seth Rollins gives an explanation and gets a title defense
Regardless of how you felt about the overall SummerSlam weekend, it's impossible to deny that one of — if not the — high points of the two-night event was Seth Rollins' "ruse of the century." Here are two other near-undeniable takeaways:
1. Rollins and WWE worked nearly all of us brilliantly. It was a masterclass in protecting kayfabe at every level imaginable and will go down as one of the greatest Money in the Bank cash-ins of all time. He described how he pulled it all off during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show earlier Monday.
2. Rollins' dedication to this angle and his year as a whole further proves that we are watching a truly generational talent. He belongs every bit in the conversation alongside Roman Reigns, John Cena, and Cody Rhodes as the best WWE superstar of the past decade.
Now that that's out of the way, Rollins cut a relatively generic promo to open the show, but that didn't matter much because he remains incredibly over with the crowd. The big surprise came in the form of an LA Knight appearance. Knight was Rollins' opponent when the the whole fake injury angle started, and he was justifiably irked at the whole situation, challenging Rollins to a World Heavyweight Championship match that was made official by Adam Pearce. Pearce also seemingly evened the playing field by banning Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed from ringside.
All of this led to the main event and our...
👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑
Even with Breakker and Reed banned from ringside, there was no shot this match was going to end clean and surprise, surprise, it didn't. For those of you who read Riggs' recaps week-in and week-out, you know he's not a fan of booking every match to DQ, but it had to be done here and it all worked well.
After a very strong main event between Rollins and Knight, we got interference from CM Punk, who Rollins screwed two nights prior at SummerSlam. Punk's attack resulted in Knight being disqualified and making him understandably angry as well. All of this turned into chaos as Breakker and Reed rushed to help Rollins lay waste to his foes. The Vision (I think this is the new stable name for the crew, established earlier in the show) stood tall and the credits began to roll.
::Billy Mays voice:: But wait, there's more!
As Rollins, Heyman, Breakker and Reed stood on the ramp, Roman Reigns' music hit and the OTC attacked, leading to a staredown with Rollins before he was ultimate overwhelmed by The Vision. Rollins stomped Reigns, Breakker speared him and Reed delivered a handful of tsunamis to close the show.
Moving forward we now have Reigns, Knight and Punk all with legitimate beefs with Rollins directly and it's likely we'll get Reigns written off television for a little while and a World Heavyweight Championship triple threat between Rollins, Punk and Knight. Ultimately, I think this is our path to the men's War Games match in November.
🔥 Burn of the night 🔥
We're getting Becky Lynch vs. Nikki Bella for the Women's Intercontinental Championship at some point in the future. Bella got a decent pop and had a few moments in her promo, but it paled in comparison to Lynch eviscerating her on the mic (which ALMOST was our gem of the night).
Now, if you've watched "WWE: Unreal," you know that bringing personal relationships into promos without previously clearing it can cause some issues — a la Flair and Tiffany Stratton in the WrestleMania build. Considering Lynch and Bella have been in the company together for a decade, I'd be stunned if this promo wasn't discussed and planned together beforehand. It doesn't change how amazing it was.
Lynch will face Maxxine Dupri next week before presumably a showdown with Natalya and then Bella.
Champions of Convenience
I called Flair and Alexa Bliss during Uncrowned's live coverage of SummerSlam Night 1 and I'll be damned if the name isn't going to stick — at least in this space.
Anyway, how good are Flair and Bliss together? Flair got a "you deserve it" chant from the Brooklyn crowd — something that would have been unheard of before this run. The chemistry is there, the promo work was golden and even got hints of jelling together in the ring when they pulled off a tandem Natural Selection in a title rematch against Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez. The match was just as good as their SummerSlam bout and should be the start of a prolonged run for these two.
Let's make Rh-Iyo a thing
Immediately after Flair and Bliss retained, we got a backstage segment featuring the Kabuki Warriors, Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley. Asuka and Kairi Sane — former women's tag champs themselves — left the two longtime rivals to talk, teasing a possible tag team forming.
Ripley revealed Sky asked for and was granted a title match against Naomi and that she'd be rooting for her.
The big issue here — Naomi is already slated to put her Women's World Championship on the line against Stephanie Vaquer at Clash in Paris later this month. Here's hoping Naomi-Sky next week serves as vehicle to get Ripley and Sky to team together and build some more momentum in the women's tag division.
Big G joining the New Day?
Before John Cena's polarizing heel turn, we had The New Day pull off one of the biggest character changes in recent history. Like Cena, the New Day's run hasn't quite hit the heights of the initial shock, but there's hope — in the form of Grayson Waller.
Waller — who is going by Big G — went through a breakup of his own recently and is looking for a new crew to run with. Enter Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, who are still "mourning" the loss of their World Tag Team Championship. Waller put on a really strong match against Penta, and despite losing with Kingston and Woods watching ringside, I can't help but feel that I care a whole lot more about Big G and the New Day linked than separate.
Monday Night Meh
1. We got Sheamus versus Rusev again, which was fine, but it's about time for us to put this rivalry to bed one way or the other. The biggest reaction from the crowd came after both men were counted out and a ringside brawl broke out. Give us Sheamus vs. Rusev No DQ in a "Raw" main event and have them either team up or move on after that.
2. Rusev and Sheamus' fighting continued throughout the night, including during a backstage interview segment with Sami Zayn. Zayn said Karrion Kross is in his rear-view (thankfully) and his sights were set on becoming a world champion. He's at best 4th or 5th in line to challenge and just got interrupted by a brawl in a relatively throwaway feud. There's a lot of work to do, a match against Rusev next week doesn't get him any closer.
3. Dominik Mysterio's match against Dragon Lee was very good, but the ending got a little out of hand. Mysterio's boot slipped off in a callback to 24 hours earlier in his match against A.J. Styles at SummerSlam, El Grande Americano along with two other imposters interfered and Mysterio grabbed the bottom rope to beat Lee. That's a lot to keep track of and overshadowed the in-ring work.
🤔 Monday musings 🤔
1. Becky Lynch's new music and tron are awesome. We're so far away from the "Celtic Invasion" version of Lynch that this is a much better presentation for The Man.
2. Michael Cole announced that Gunther suffered an orbital bone injury in his match at SummerSlam against CM Punk. Work or not, this is a good thing for The Ring General, who desperately needs a reset after a topsy-turvy 2025.
3. Adam Pearce does a really great job in the on-screen GM role. He got some of the biggest pops on Monday night.
4. Whoever is running WWE's social media account must be a Tekken fan. I personally would have went the Mortal Kombat route and made a Kung Lao joke, but we're simpatico.
5. The Reed shoe thing is weird now. It was cool when he did it the first time and it inspired two awesome puns (Tribal Thief and Shoe-la Fala), but the loss to Reigns and Uso at SummerSlam takes away from it for me.
👑 A really strong showing for the 'Raw after SummerSlam.' I give this show a Crown score of: 9/10. 👑
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