Let's go to the latest Raw:
-The Bloodline meets Judgement Day -A fun starting point to the show with The Bloodline announcing future plans for next week before Judgement Day arrives to play up next week's match which is a fine counterpoint to talk about Dom's hardness being quite comical to bring up. The tease with Rhea and Solo looks great but if they're not going through with it which is a point we'd be repeating from The OC feud so unless it results in Naomi coming back to join the feud I'm not a fan of the tease but it sets the match up rather well.
-Mustafa Ali vs. Solo Sikoa-A rather short but fun match, getting Solo a win he doesn't need against Ali who has been sacrificed enough so that doesn't really have much impact. The main gist is the appearance and post-match brawl that arises when KO jumps the Usos, not selling the powerbomb through the announcer's table from Friday and making that look weak, and trying to gain the upper hand again. The match itself is all fine but the order of events here is a bit off.
-Bobby Lashley is ready-Nothing too important, just a brief bit about him being the one to win and take out Theory.
-Elias meets MVP-Backstage bit where Elias announces his Rumble intentions before upsetting MVP who issues a challenge to dim his hopes for later tonight.
-Street Prophets vs. Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin-Rather fun match that had some nice spots, several close calls, and some fantastic athletic displays from all involved. Could've used more time and has some intrigue with MVP arriving and trying to get involved but I don't mind this too much.
-The Judgement Day and Alpha Academy backstage-After trying to brag about Finn's upcoming match tonight and the tag match next week, Alpha Academy arrives and tries to make good on squeaking past them last week which leads to a war of words between the two of them.
-Becky and Bayley confront each other-After a rough start here with the name-calling being immensely cringe-inducing, the in-ring confrontation was incredibly moving and spelled out quite a bit about the two. The years of jealousy at the heart of this and the callbacks to their personal history in the company were great to see. The setup for next week's Cage Match is a great ploy and a bit of an underhanded strategy but makes this quite a rebound from the beginning.
-Dolph Ziggler and Ali backstage-A rather short but fun bit continuing to stir the pot between these two about the constant bits of dissent and screwed opportunities from the past few weeks.
-Elias vs. Omos-RIP Elias, it was fun while it lasted.
-Adam Pierce talks next week-Short segment involving several tidbits about the anniversary Raw before Tozawa requests a match to get into the Rumble.
-Alpha Academy vs. Damien Priest/Dom-Quite fun as expected with the quality of the workers involved with great action, tons of back-and-forth battles, and the perfect type of chicanery to end things on.
-Mia Yim vs. Io Skye-Given their history, this was a serviceable match that didn't really get out of second gear but was still overall enjoyable for what it was. Seemed to involve more of a means of solidifying the friendship between Mia and Candice around their own problems with Damage CTRL which could be setting the seeds for a title shot down the line.
-Bianca Belair confronts Alexa Bliss-I'm not sure what this was supposed to prove as the attack from two weeks ago being the featured part of the feud while the interactions with Alexa seemed far more enjoyable than the past few weeks which led to a varying segment before the brawl which again looked odd as Alexa got nothing in as Bianca had way too fast and aggressive a tone for one of these types of arena-wide brawls so it moved way to quick to get a sense of what's going on. More stuff with Uncle Howdy allowing Alexa to get the upper hand means more to come with that combination.
-Akira Tozawa vs. Bronson Reed-Hoss push for big guys before the Rumble, nothing else to see here.
-Seth Rollins backstage-Short but about his eccentricities giving him an advantage leading to one more shot at the title next.
-Six-Pack Challenge-A solid, lengthy match here to end things on with lots of fun action here. Somewhat surprised by some of the elimination order as knocking off someone like Miz so early who's such a good worker while keeping Corbin around so long simply because of a push that's dying on the grapevine when he can't work like the others is a bit disappointing but the action here is fine. Using Bobby one more time to play off this potentially-reforming Hurt Business stable is a move, I don't like this as it's likely going to be heel/heel by then as Lashley should turn by the match and I would've preferred one more chance for Rollins but I can be swayed if this gets some decent build beyond Lashley using the stable to cheat his way into it that I fear they're going with.
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