WWE Raw: May 27, 2024 - 3 Things We Loved And 3 Things We Hated

Another "WWE Raw" has come and gone and this week's Memorial Day edition of the flagship program was packed with action, leaving plenty for the staff of Wrestling Inc. to love and hate. There was an emotional scene between Sami Zayn and Alpha Academy. There was the woeful booking of Carlito and the LWO. There was a major development in the relationship between Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio. If you want to know more, that's what the results page is for.

Here's three things we loved and three things we hated from tonight's "WWE Raw."

If you watched Paul "Triple H" Levesque's "WWE NXT," then you know that this guy loves Akam, he loves Rezar, he loves the crazy BJJ antics of Karrion Kross and his wife Scarlett (with two Ts), and he's going to shove them down our throats as much as possible. I don't even really have a problem with Akam and Rezar, the Authors of Pain are smashmouth badasses and their less-than-reputable shenanigans with the World Entertainment Series suggest that they have a little of that carny con-man edge that all great wrestlers have. However, the whole "Final Testament" experiment is dead in the water for me already.

They've beaten up The Street Profits on SmackDown. They bullied the rookies of NXT. They're now on Raw, treating The Creed Brothers like local geeks. I am sick to death of The Final Testament. Whatever reckoning they are promising is taking for-f***ing-ever. Maybe I've missed the mark. Maybe their presence is a torture. Maybe the cruelty is the point and I just have to sit back and watch the inevitable rise of a faction that is seemingly sauceless, juiceless, devoid of that spark that makes a good wrestling act.

It's possible that each and every part of the faction would work in enhancing separate talents or factions, but this specific combination feels like it cancels itself out. Kross, Akam, and Rezar have all seemingly had chance after chance to be "the guy" and every one of them has seemingly ended up "a guy." It's like watching the sunk cost fallacy in one group.

I wish I had a less holistic opinion but there's just a vibe to this thing we call wrestling. Some things jive and some things don't. Some factions put your teeth on edge, some factions make you taste blood, some factions terrify you, excite you, enrage you, some make you laugh, some annoy you, some hold you, thrill you, kiss you, kill you, and some factions make you feel nothing at all, and for some indiscernible reason, The Final Testament isn't hitting for me. 

Paul Ellering is innocent, though, he literally just stands there and looks terrifying. No notes for Paul Ellering. 10/10.

Written by Ross Berman

During RAW, Chad Gable was seen chastising Akira Tozawa for not being in Saudi Arabia to help him win his match against Sami Zayn and Bronson Reed. Later, Gable was ringside when Otis took on Reed. Once again, Otis was encouraged by the crowd to do "The Caterpillar". As he ripped off his shirt, Gable yelled "No!" and got in the ring to stop him. Gable called for Tozawa and Maxxine Dupree to come to the ring. To set Alpha Academy straight, Gable was prepared to spank Otis with a belt. As he lifted his hand in the air, Dupri grabbed Gable's hand to stop him. After he asked if she was going to cry, he banished her from the ring. As she was walking up the ramp, Zayn stopped her to ask if she was okay. We love a supportive king.

Zayn confronted Gable and called him a "weak little man". As Zayn and Gable fought, Otis once again became conflicted. He pulled Zayn off of Gable like he did a couple of weeks ago. This opened the door to Zayn getting suplexed by Gable, leaving Otis feeling conflicted once more. The fans began chanting "Let's go Otis!", encouraging him to turn on Gable. Alas, he didn't. Yet.

This segment was executed very well and sent the viewer on a roller coaster of emotions. Gable has been thriving in this new role. Zayn is as beloved as ever. Otis wants to stay loyal to the man who has helped him so much but realizes that Gable has become abusive to everyone in Alpha Academy. An upset Tozawa grabs at his gear and headband because he can't put his hands on Gable. Dupri has been solid in her role as well. Once we finally get the payoff of Otis standing up for himself, the crowd is going to be ecstatic. The story has been building to a fever pitch and the more they nail the segments, the better the story becomes.

Written by Samantha Schipman

I have no idea how WWE is trying to book Carlito at the moment, and frankly, I don't think that they do either.

See, Carlito turned on LWO when he was exposed for being Dragon Lee's mystery attacker and took him out of the tag team match between him and Rey Mysterio against Dominik Mysterio and Santos Escobar at WrestleMania. This has led to the LWO looking to get revenge on Carlito for the betrayal and Rey's match against him tonight. It may be a little bit of an overdue match, but it makes sense given that the feud between LWO and Carlito should be given time to be built up. What makes much, much less sense is having Judgment Day be involved with everything.

To WWE's credit, they did have Judgment Day get involved in Carlito's match against Rey Mysterio by having Balor interfere on Carlito's behalf and Priest get involved later in the post-match brawl that ensued. However, Carlito's alliance with Judgment Day already came a bit out of nowhere. Judgment Day already has enough established members who are over, and there doesn't seem to be a need to add anyone else to the group at the moment.

Carlito's current presence within the group is very likely to rope LWO into a storyline, especially after the events of tonight's show. While it's great to see LWO getting television time and be given a bigger spotlight, Judgment Day already has enough ongoing stories as is between being unable to handle business and the impending implosion of the group upon Rhea Ripley's return, Priest's World Heavyweight Championship storyline with GUNTHER and Drew McIntyre, Dominik Mysterio being involved in the women's division and his storyline with Liv Morgan is, and Finn Balor and JD McDonagh interfering in the rest of Judgment Day's matches on a weekly basis (when they aren't losing their own ones of course).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

I know I already gushed about what appears to be some kind of affair between new Women's World Champion Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio this weekend after King & Queen of the Ring, but tonight's main event and what happened after the broadcast went off the air cemented my love for this. When Mysterio slid the chair into the ring to seemingly help Lynch retain her title in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, I started to give in to the internet rumors that something was going on between him and Morgan. The rumors circulating amongst the Internet Wrestling Community are that Morgan and Mysterio have a "thing," and it's all about Morgan getting back at Rhea Ripley for putting her on the shelf. She not only stole Ripley's championship, but she's stealing her man, too.

Tonight, Mysterio ran down to the ring and opened the cage, ushering Lynch on to escape through the door. After some shenanigans between Judgment Day and Braun Strowman at ringside, Mysterio hit the cage door, slamming it into Lynch's face, allowing Morgan to get the upper hand and eventually escape the cage herself. What we saw at home as the "Raw" broadcast went off the air was Morgan, with her championship, staring down Mysterio on the ramp. Apparently, after the show was already over for those of us watching from our couches, Morgan planted a kiss on Mysterio. Usually, I would hate the fact that we didn't get to see that. However, for something that has been circulating mostly through internet rumors and social media sleuthing, finding out about this on X after it happened made perfect sense, and I absolutely love it.

Now, WWE can do their own social media teases or whatever ahead of next week's episode and say that Morgan is going to be live on Monday addressing what's going on between them, or, even better, nobody says a word and everyone remains confused throughout the next few days. Thankfully, WWE already has the video uploaded to their YouTube channel, probably a play for more views, which is genius on their part, but of course, I had to check it out for myself. In the video, Mysterio looks uncomfortable as Morgan basically attacks his face in front of the crowd, but also doesn't pull away from the pretty aggressive kiss. The video ends with Morgan seemingly skipping back toward the ring, but Mysterio doesn't even do as much as to wipe his mouth in disgust. I love this love triangle-like angle, and it's only going to get more interesting. I absolutely loved this angle going in the show and still liked it as "Raw" went off the air, but it's what we didn't see that I loved the most. It's reminiscent of some kind of Attitude Era angle, so of course, it's intriguing to me.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Running back Ilja Dragunov versus Ricochet this soon after their King of the Ring first round matchup shouldn't have bothered anyone as those two will put on a show every time they hit the ring together. Even with Ricochet selling the injured ribs before and during the match didn't take away from another excellent showing for both men. And Bron Breakker interrupting the match and causing a no contest doesn't blemish anything either. If anything, that detail helps keep everyone looking strong so they can revisit this thing time and again moving forward. But what was most encouraging from this match and everything surrounding it is the treatment of all three men of late, with promising futures afoot for all.

Dragunov's start on the main roster has been solid with a win over Shinsuke Nakamura at the "Raw" after WrestleMania, a win over Ricochet in the King of the Ring opener, and the proverbial get-over-without-going-over performance in losing to Jey Uso in the quarterfinals. Aside from his next-level in-ring prowess, Dragunov's charisma and character presence is already a hit with crowds and his work on the microphone and in backstage segments stands far and away above others who have been at this on this stage quite a bit longer. He's going to be a star for this company for a long time to come. And Ricochet hasn't had a run of consistent success and prominence on the card like he has since his involvement with The Judgment Day and his work with the "Speed" title (like it or not), along with a palpable uptick in on-screen confidence — the kind of thing that comes when those in charge truly believe in your abilities. I imagine that's what he's feeling of late anyway.

As for Breakker, I wasn't sold on the pissed off newcomer, mad about being left out of the King of the Ring and whatever else he's peeved enough about to tear through anyone and everyone around him since his arrival. Not until tonight anyway, when I saw enough to think they're positioning him as enough of a malcontent to be the stick in the craw of "Raw" GM Adam Pearce until further notice. That will give him storyline direction and a consistent adversary to play off of for the foreseeable future. And hey, we've seen talents flourish when they have beef with authority figures once or twice in the past, have we not?

Written by Jon Jordan

For the King of the Ring being made out to be a tremendously huge deal in WWE, from the very beginnings of the tournament through the finals that pit GUNTHER against Randy Orton, the fact that GUNTHER has to take a back seat until Summerslam is something I didn't even expect going into tonight's "Raw," as GUNTHER has been such a dominant powerhouse on the show in recent months. Especially with the controversy of Orton's shoulder being so blatantly up and "The Ring General" still being declared the winner at King & Queen of the Ring, with Paul "Triple H" Levesque addressing the incident after the fact, I thought GUNTHER's victory would be a much bigger deal to start out the show than it actually was. "Raw" starting with Ludwig Kaiser front and center to announce the new king down to the ring, complete with GUNTHER carrying his crown, was excellent and exactly how things should have kicked off. Things started to go downhill very quickly, however. The crown showered GUNTHER with "we want Randy" chants, so I thought that would end up being a bigger deal and also thought maybe more allusions to a future rematch would be made.

The potential botch with Orton's shoulder being up wasn't entirely ignored, thankfully, with World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest mentioning it after he came down to the ring when GUNTHER said he wasn't a legitimate champion because of the Money in the Bank briefcase, but that was about it. No mentions of a rematch, no word from Triple H (maybe that was a long shot, but, hey, it would have made sense in my mind), nothing. GUNTHER's back-and-forth promo battle with Priest was great, but there was, of course, one glaring thing standing in GUNTHER's way of the champion, Drew McIntyre. When McIntyre came down to the ring to address Priest, his opponent at the upcoming Clash at the Castle premium live event, GUNTHER seemed to just kind of slink out of the ring as an afterthought.

While of course, it makes the most sense to have McIntyre at the forefront ahead of his match against Priest in Scotland, I don't think that GUNTHER needs to take so much of a backseat. If there was a reason for him to get out of the ring and let them do their thing instead of offering his two cents or getting in both their faces, I didn't see it. I turned my attention away for one second, and then GUNTHER and Kaiser were gone.

GUNTHER has been such a force in WWE, especially with his historic Intercontinental Championship reign. Him being King of the Ring and continuing to be a thorn in the side of not only Priest but McIntyre as well, ahead of Clash at the Castle would make sense. GUNTHER doesn't seem like the type who is scared of anything or anyone, so him just kind of leaving the ring to let the other two men feud was just so lame to me. If you're going to be pushing GUNTHER to the moon, whether it be against Priest or McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Championship at Summerslam, let him be more involved, no matter what, from now until August 3.

Written by Daisy Ruth