Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was treated to an absolute delight of a first “WWE Raw” after WWE Night of Champions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The four-match lineup was stellar, starting with a title change and integrating some major storyline developments in between.

Spoiler alert, gang. This was an outstanding show.

🎋 Intertwinement of the night

I was sports-entertained, gang. Gunther’s promo on this “WWE Raw” looked like it was just going to be more of the same we’ve seen since his face-to-face with Goldberg, but it quickly broke down into more than could have ever been expected.

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The World Heavyweight Champion continued to poke at Goldberg with the mentions of his quick three-minute match style. It was good as always from “The Ring General,” but there’s nothing more that can be added. On a side note, fans still chanting “You tapped out” is hilariously dumb when he won the last Jey Uso match.

Business picked up when Gunther questioned who would be next after he beats Goldberg, and Seth Rollins emerged with only Paul Heyman. Gunther immediately landed a great line, telling Rollins he went all the way to Saudi Arabia to achieve absolutely nothing at WWE Night of Champions when he failed his attempt to cash in on WWE Champion John Cena. That’s when Rollins explained he wasn’t trying to cash in, and instead called back to his promise that he’d never allow CM Punk to hold gold “as long as I have breath in my body.” Although it felt like a heel-move cop-out, since he called for the referee on the night, it was completely justifiable.

That’s when Punk sprinted out from the back to continue the forever feud with Rollins, attacking him out of the ring and up into the concessions. Gunther just watched the whole thing unfold. That was another funny moment, but then, when Punk was walking out of the ring to leave, Gunther grabbed him, and Punk somewhat awkwardly pushed him to the ground. It looked like Gunther didn’t mean to fall over because he just kind of sat there like Vince McMahon after his infamous double hamstring tear at Royal Rumble 2005. Regardless, there’s the seed plant for Gunther and Punk, as the latter mouthed “stay out of my way” on his way out.

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We weren’t done there.

Rollins had the camera on him up atop the crowd, akin to Becky Lynch’s birth of “The Man” scene. That’s when LA Knight returned, creeping up behind Rollins with popcorn and attacking him through the concessions. I love the continuity with Knight there, and I’m looking forward to the match. It’s official for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event.

At this point, it also feels like Punk is going to find a way to cost Rollins in whatever cash in he goes with. It’s bordering on impossible position where someone is going to have to die for them to stop getting involved with the other, so it’s a bit of booking into a corner, but there’s so, so much to chew on after this — even between Punk and Knight after all the dust in the arena settled.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

“WWE Raw” decided to open with an absolute banger and our Uncrowned Gem of the Night. We have new tag team champions, folks. The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and JD McDonagh are once again the World Tag Team Champions after beating The New Day.

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This match felt like these teams were trying to prove and remind the audience what this show’s tag division is capable of. And stunningly, I mean stunningly, this was the first Judgment Day match in who knows how long that had a clean finish, which was a massively pleasant surprise.

All four were banging on all cylinders, meshing together perfectly. This match was awesome, and more opening matches like this would be welcome. That moonsault to Coup de Grace finish from Balor and McDonagh is pretty sweet, too. All around A+.

Mighty meatdown

What a night for matches on “WWE Raw.” Rusev vs. Sheamus after a phenomenal tag team match? And they get time? This was an excellent two-piece, and Rusev picked up a clean win, too. Rejoice!

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Sure, it came via a very creative spot where Rusev exposed the turnbuckle and pulled Sheamus into it from the other side. Sheamus hit his upper neck on the steel before taking a Macha Kick and the pin. Instinctively, that felt like a DQ was about to commence with the referee watching it all unfold, but that’s just smart environmental awareness as far as I’m concerned. If wrestlers can throw each other into the steel steps without a DQ, that shouldn’t be either. It all worked wonderfully, and the near countout before it was a nice finish tease as well.

This ruled on all fronts.

This feels like a set-up to continue their feud, which is fine, as long as it’s short. I mean, Sheamus did a double diving knee drop from the top rope. What? This dude is 47. And very heavy. It will be a tough match to top.

Three for three

I might have pissed off Triple H or something because he decided to cook with this show. Bayley vs. Lyra Valkyria followed Rusev vs. Sheamus, and, surprise, surprise, it also slapped.

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The friendship element between Bayley and Valkyria hasn’t been working for me, and it shouldn’t for anyone who remembers how thrown together they were as a team. They literally had a match for the Intercontinental title weeks before that. However, they’re obviously breaking away from that as evidenced by this match’s conclusion, which was a double pin to create a draw.

OK, it was a somewhat unusual way to end the match, but hey, it was different, rare and most importantly, not a disqualification or interference (or both). So, massive points for that, and the whole match had a lot of great sequences, leading to their brawl post-match afterward. This has to lead to a triple-threat match with Lynch at Evolution. As all the Uncrowned loyalists will know, I’m all the way here for that.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. Iyo Sky will defend her Women’s World Championship against Rhea Ripley at Evolution. This gets a plus purely because these two always deliver magic together. Otherwise, it feels like a relatively lazy and fairly predictable audible after Liv Morgan’s injury.

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Expect Ripley to take back the championship and set up that previously teased Stephanie Vaquer feud for SummerSlam. At least that’s what should happen if Ripley wins.

2. Alright, the latest Goldberg video package was pretty sweet. Primarily for the massive nostalgia hit, which is again, mostly all it is with Bald Bill at this point. It is funny in that respect though, because how many current young fans even know who he is?

3. Balor implored general managers Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis not to strip Raquel Rodriguez of the Women’s Tag Team titles, and instead let Roxanne Perez fill in for Morgan’s place alongside her. They agreed and set up a four-way tag team title match at Evolution, featuring teams from “Raw,” “SmackDown” and NXT.

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This is a nice and easy call for the story progression within The Judgment Day, and the inevitable collision between Morgan and Perez. But as for the match, where are they going to get these non-existent teams? Nonetheless, Perez is now officially in the stable.

4. Karrion Kross gave Sami Zayn a proper beatdown backstage, hitting him with a steel pipe and demanding he admit he told the truth. Overall, I’m not sure how to feel about this, considering Kross lost their match, but him getting more time and taking action of sorts is a plus.

5. Despite Zayn’s damage, he still had a main event match alongside Penta to take on Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. The latter duo won after Breakker hit Zayn with the spear.

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It was probably the weakest of the four matches on this “WWE Raw,” but that doesn’t mean it was bad. They all played their hits, resulting in the big, tough, bad guys coming out on top and remaining strong. Jey Uso made the save with a chair afterward when Reed looked to hit his wave of Tsunamis on Zayn, and that’s fine continuity.

Honestly, Breakker and Reed should go for the tag titles sooner rather than later.

6. Chad Gable is injured, which sucks. However, Ludwig Kaiser was seen backstage walking by Alpha Academy, dressed as El Grande Americano. I mean, the more Kaiser, the better, and this whole concept is only getting more ridiculous in a pretty fun way.

👑 What a stunning turn of events from this “WWE Raw.” Really, little to no issues, and NO DQs OR INTERFERENCE! This was fun, quality WWE programming from top to bottom. You love to see it. I give this show a Crown score of: 10/10. 👑