WWE RAW 6/26/2023: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

With just five days to go before Money in the Bank, "WWE Raw" had a lot of ground to cover this week, putting the finishing touches on the red brand's various storylines heading into London's O2 Arena. A confrontation between Cody Rhodes and Dominik Mysterio, a health update from World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, a "summit" between the participants in the women's Money in the Bank ladder match, and a match between Raquel Rodriguez and Ronda Rousey were all announced for the episode — though reporting of further Vince McMahon meddling prior to the show potentially put all of that in jeopardy. The fact of the matter was, until "Raw" went on the air, we simply had no idea what to expect.

As it turned out, all those things actually did happen! McMahon's influence was definitely felt in other ways, but "Raw" overall was — in keeping with recent trends — a decent show, if not an utterly spectacular one. Those only interested in the cold, hard facts can check out Wrestling Inc.'s live coverage, but for those who want to know our opinions of everything that went down, this column is the place to be. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about this week's "WWE Raw."

We're already getting tired of giving the women a "Hated" on every show, but it's not our fault that neither WWE nor AEW seems to give much of a damn about their respective women's divisions right now. Things have been particularly egregious on "Raw," where Rhea Ripley has seemingly had no interest whatsoever in defending her championship against anyone credible since winning it from Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania (and is ... kind of feuding with Natalya? Sort of?) To be fair, at least Becky Lynch called her out for that in an excellent backstage segment this week, and the "summit" involving the women's Money in the Bank competitors was fine (though why such a summit was necessary in the first place remains unclear). But as far as women actually wrestling is concerned, we got a single match between Raquel Rodriguez and Ronda Rousey that lasted just over two minutes, and that's it. For a three-hour show, that's unacceptable.

Granted, it seems possible, perhaps even likely, that Vince McMahon's interference is kneecapping the women's division — it's been reported that McMahon has been particularly heartless toward the women's division when making creative changes of late. But let's not pretend things were much better while Paul Levesque was supposedly running the show solo. The fact of the matter is, we're a long way from the heights the WWE women's division reached in 2019, when Lynch, Flair, and Rousey main-evented WrestleMania 35. At least AEW has never highlighted its women's divison; WWE seems to have actively backslid, and now it often feels like we're fighting the same representation battles we were fighting a decade ago.

Maybe it's just because "Raw" went down the night after AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, but it was more jarring than usual to see the watered-down version of NJPW legend Shinsuke Nakamura appear on WWE TV for his match with Ricochet — especially because the match itself seemed stuck in the slow lane at first. Ricochet, for his part, is another former independent superstar who has had to scratch and claw for every inch of respect in Vince McMahon's company, and for a few minutes there, it was a little depressing to watch these two wrestle a paltry shadow of the match we knew they were capable of. To make matters worse, Bronson Reed was at ringside, presumably to further the counterintuitive feud between the three — counterintuitive because it makes little sense for Reed, who is not in the men's Money in the Bank ladder match, to be feuding with two men who are.

Fortunately, when Reed actually got involved in the match, things started to turn around. It was fun to see Ricochet and Nakamura briefly put aside their in-progress singles contest to team up against Reed on the outside, and after the referee tossed Reed from ringside, the proverbial business began to pick up. The match almost immediately ascended to new heights, literally — both men started pulling out spectacular moves and counters, but it was Ricochet who grabbed the spotlight and eventually picked up the clean win. It felt like a big deal for him, as WWE has seemed to be actively reinvesting in Nakamura lately, and it would have been easy to make it look like Ricochet didn't belong in "the King of Strong Style's" company. Instead, Ricochet's stock is up, Nakamura didn't lose anything in defeat, and the men's MITB match seems that much more must-see.

Can we maybe get Reed in that match, though? If for no other reason than narrative logic? Just asking.

We are so glad to see Tommaso Ciampa back on WWE TV, and we're even happier to see him as something resembling his "WWE NXT" character, rather than the guy who hung around with The Miz all those months. We're even fine with Miz being his first feud upon returning — it makes sense, and it gives Ciampa someone to beat up. We liked his backstage promo before he came out to the ring, and as card-carrying torchbearers for "NXT" Black & Gold, we're still very much hoping that he ends up back at the side of perennial "NXT" frenemy Johnny Gargano. For the most part, all of this fine.

And yet, there's this weird feeling in the pit of our stomach that we just can't shake when we think about what happened on "Raw" tonight. While Ciampa was making his way to the ring, Miz blindsided him and spent a good few minutes tossing him around the outside area. It was a very one-sided attack, with Ciampa not getting the opportunity to respond with any offense whatsoever, and neither Gargano nor anyone else came out to help him. Miz showed up, beat Ciampa down, and left. And yes, it would still be utterly shocking to see Miz actually win this feud, and yes, we're expecting a ferocious response from Ciampa sooner rather than later, and yes, there's still plenty of time for Gargano to arrive — Miz doing an angry version of one of Ciampa and Gargano's signature taunts was (hopefully) a dead giveaway. It's probably going to be fine.

We're just ... slightly unnerved, that's all. It's been a while since WWE presented Miz as a serious threat, so the fact that he was presented such here seemed notable, and with Vince back in the picture, you never know what's going to happen to any given former "NXT" star. We remain optimistic, but there's a part of us (a part that has been traumatized by McMahon for decades) that saw tonight's events and recoiled in dreadful recognition.

With seven matches announced for WWE Money in the Bank, the show seems full up at this point, which is probably why Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are defending their tag titles against Pretty Deadly the night before on "WWE SmackDown." On "Raw," however, the pair remain embroiled in a feud with Imperium, something that continues to result in both great matches and great comedic moments.

If you rarely read criticism of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions in this space, it's only because they are so, so good at what they do. Owens, in particular, steals absolutely every scene he's in these days, a hilariously unhinged rage machine who reluctantly allows the only person on the roster he cares about to drag him into surly altruism. This week, they find themselves aligned once again with Matt Riddle, who Owens can't stand, but whose challenge to Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER has gotten himself and his ankle on Imperium's bad side. As usual, Owens is on point, hesitating when he learns he and Zayn are confronting Imperium on Riddle's behalf (because he doesn't care about Riddle) and responding to GUNTHER's line about having taught Owens a lesson during their recent singles match with a defiant "I LEARNED NOTHING!"

This ultimately leads to a singles match between GUNTHER and Zayn, which had a precisely 0% chance of not being great. Putting Owens on commentary for the match was an inspired choice, and while some are surely still upset that Zayn didn't beat Roman Reigns back in February, it remains truly remarkable to have witnessed his transformation from comedy jobber into a man who's nearly impossible to keep down. GUNTHER managed it with some clandestine help from Imperium, but the tag champs remain the best part of any show on which they appear, and we'd put money on seeing them at some point during the GUNTHER/Riddle match on Saturday.

Look, we're fine with Cody Rhodes taking on Dominik Mysterio at Money in the Bank. In terms of crowd reaction, they occupy strangely similar territory in WWE's creative hierarchy at the moment, and the match on Saturday should be a ton of fun. That having been said, this week's Cody/Judgment Day content just felt like treading water, and that's a problem considering how much of it there was.

We probably should have known we were in for a long night with this storyline when "Raw" opened with a promo segment that featured Cody attributing the quote "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind" to the Dr. Seuss book "The Cat in the Hat," rather than to early 20th century financier Bernard Baruch, who actually said it. That was a red flag. We followed that up with a completely inconsequential match between Dom and Akira Tozawa, and then with Cody defeating Judgment Day member Damian Priest clean in the main event, because ... reasons?

Of everything that took place on "Raw," this storyline felt the most like Vince McMahon had gotten hold of it. Or maybe the creative team just completely ran out of ideas for this feud one week too early. Either way, it's done now; let's get to the fireworks factory at Money in the Bank and forget this week ever happened, shall we?

It's funny how, in wrestling, a few stellar performances can make a match that originally felt routine and predictable suddenly feel dramatic and exciting. Case in point: Finn Balor, another member of The Judgment Day, who takes on Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship this Saturday in a match he's almost certainly going to lose. He has to lose, right? Rollins has been champion for a month, there's no way he's dropping the title in his very first major feud following its inception. And yet ... after this week, we find ourselves wondering.

Part of the issue here is that nobody in wrestling is better at creating video packages than WWE, and Balor's video package this week was sensational. His acting was tremendous, his motivations make sense, there was weight and gravitas that enhanced the existing drama stemming from Balor's vicious attack on Rollins last week, and for all that Balor's actions were despicable, he kind of made us want to see him win the title. Rollins' own in-ring promo later on was, surprisingly for him, significantly less substantial and not delivered with any sort of punch — but he did do one excellent thing, in that he furthered the budding friendship that's been building between himself and "NXT" Champion Carmelo Hayes, which ultimately led to Hayes' "Raw" debut in a singles match against Balor himself.

Balor did win that match clean, which some might disagree with, but for us, it wasn't a problem. It would be counter-productive to have Hayes go over Balor five nights before the latter challenges for a world title, and while he could have lost via shenanigans, Balor just straight-up beating him made him look strong on a night that was all about Balor looking strong, and Hayes, who put in an excellent showing for himself, can easily survive his first main roster loss to a main roster star. In fact, Hayes losing to Balor the night before he's set to defend his title against another main roster star, Baron Corbin, adds an extra narrative element to that match that didn't exist before, and even strengthens the connection between Hayes and Rollins, as both will be battling through injuries to try and keep their championships. All told, it made the entire tapestry richer, and it heightened our anticipation for both Money in the Bank and Tuesday's episode of "WWE NXT."

We really do want Balor to win now, though. It's a shame that he won't. Probably.