
WWE Raw Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from June 12
Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of WWE Raw on June 12 from Wichita, Kansas.
With Money in the Bank coming up on July 1, WWE has been busy building out the same-titled ladder matches for the men's and women's divisions. This week, Matt Riddle battled Damian Priest in a qualifying bout.
We also saw Cody Rhodes battle The Miz, and Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn faced Imperium's Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser.
Let's take a look at everything that happened during Monday's episode of Raw.
Opening Segment and Cody Rhodes vs. The Miz
1 of 8Raw opened with Adam Pearce welcoming Rhea Ripley to the ring to present her with a new belt to replace the SmackDown Women's Championship. It looks just like Seth Rollins' new title but with a white strap.
Dominik Mysterio came out to join her but before he could say anything, Cody Rhodes made his way to the ring. He and Dom traded some predictable insults. The heat Mysterio was getting was unreal, as usual.
The Miz showed up to attack Rhodes from behind, but The American Nightmare saw it coming. Dom used the distraction to take another cheap shot before running away. Ripley accepted a challenge for a match at MITB on her teammate's behalf.
The match between The Miz and Rhodes got underway when we returned from a break. We saw this feud last year shortly after the latter returned to WWE, so this was nothing new.
We returned to see The A-Lister still in control after focusing on the injured arm of his opponent. It took a few tries, but The American Nightmare eventually found the comeback he needed. After a Cody Cutter, he hit Cross Rhodes for the win.
This was a decent match to kick off the show, but nobody is going to remember it. Not only was it something we have seen before, but it also didn't give us anything new with the combination.
Winner: Cody Rhodes
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- The new belt design is so much better than the big logo design.
- The dragon screw leg whip is one of those moves that either looks great or sloppy. Rhodes is good at executing that move.
- The Miz has been showing a bit more of what he can do in recent months. He has more in his arsenal than a lot of people think.
Becky Lynch vs. Chelsea Green
2 of 8Becky Lynch came to the ring to deliver a promo about wanting to get a title back around her waist. She said she wants to win the women's MITB briefcase because it would give her the power to make the champion scared.
Zoey Stark showed up and dished out some great insults about The Man. Before they could get into a fight, Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville arrived. A little more trash-talking took place before Green and Lynch started their match.
The first couple of minutes were all The Man throwing Green around before the break. Green had the upper hand when we returned thanks to a distraction from Deville.
They went back and forth a bit once Lynch started to regain some composure. After she took control, she scored a submission win with the DisArmHer.
The promo before the match was a bit rough, and the fight itself was predictable and a little on the lackluster side. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't the best we have seen from either woman.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Lynch flubbed a line in her promo but recovered well.
- Stark was good on the mic but needs to watch her levels. She got a little too loud at one point and it was impossible to tell what she was saying.
- The Curb Stomp into the bottom turnbuckle is one of those moves that looks so much worse than it really is for the person taking it.
Matt Riddle vs. Damian Priest
3 of 8Before coming out for this final men's MITB qualifying match, Priest told the rest of The Judgment Day to let him do this by himself. Finn Bálor didn't seem to like that much.
Both Priest and Riddle are avid strikers, so there were a lot of kicks, punches, knees and elbows being thrown in this bout.
This was a step up from the first two contests we saw, both from an entertainment standpoint and in regard to their intensity. Maybe having stakes made it more exciting.
We returned from a break to see The Archer of Infamy fight his way out of an ankle lock and a sleeper hold. After fighting through more offense, Priest managed to score the win to qualify for the MITB match and end what turned out to be a really fun bout.
After it was over, Priest passed Imperium in the aisle and told them to pick the bones, which they happily did.
Winner: Damian Priest
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Priest got some cheers during his entrance. The crowd might be ready for him to be a babyface again.
- There was an awkward moment when it seemed like neither guy knew what to do, but they moved on quickly.
- The way Priest slid across the announce table was pretty funny.
- Riddle's Fisherman's superplex looked awesome.
Ricochet vs. Bronson Reed
4 of 8Bronson Reed and Ricochet may have stepped into the ring together a few weeks ago, but they had some unfinished business after the former interfered in the latter's match with Shinsuke Nakamura last week.
The One and Only exploded out of the corner with a dropkick in an attempt to get Reed off balance right away. It worked for a moment, but the big man was too powerful to put down with a few strikes.
Nakamura walked down the aisle holding his shoulder as the high-flyer tried to make a comeback. Toward the end, Reed threw Ricochet into Nakamura, which led to The King of Strong Style attacking him to cause a disqualification.
Ricochet yelled at Nakamura until Reed took both of them out. Eventually, both men worked together to superplex Reed. They earned a chant from the crowd that can't be repeated in polite company.
Even though this was a good match with some fun spots, it felt like both men were holding back a lot. We know they can go harder than this so, hopefully, we get to see that someday.
Winner: Bronson Reed by DQ
Grade: B-
Notable Moments and Observations
- Ricochet still has one of the coolest entrances in WWE. He should get a grand arrival at the next WrestleMania. The company would come up with something cool for it.
- The way Reed leveled Ricochet with a right elbow looked great. The One and Only sold it perfectly.
- The way the announcers cleared out of the way because they thought Reed might crash through their table was funny.
Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shayna Baszler
5 of 8Rollins and Bálor had a long exchange that led to them agreeing to have a title match at Money in the Bank.
Before the break, Raquel Rodriguez made her entrance for her match against Shayna Baszler.
Ronda Rousey was by her partner's side while Rodriguez was all by her lonesome. When they locked up, it was immediately clear that Baszler was giving up a lot in the power department.
Rodriguez missed a kick and The Queen of Spades made her pay for it with a kick to the back of the knee. She then began to focus on her opponent's leg with her offense.
Thanks to a distraction and an assist from Rousey, Baszler was able to steal the win with a roll-up.
The match started out fine but ended up being too short to accomplish much of anything.
Winner: Shayna Baszler
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
- The crowd sang throughout almost the entire segment with Rollins and Bálor. It would only quiet down when The Visionary tried to speak. It was funny but it also went on a little longer than it should have.
- Baszler bringing her black belt with her to the ring was an extra level of badass.
Chad Gable vs. Erik
6 of 8Chad Gable had Otis and Maxxine Dupri by his side for his match against Erik of The Viking Raiders, who had Valhalla and Ivar with him.
Erik quickly asserted his dominance by focusing on his power game, but once Gable was able to push him off the ropes, he hit a diving headbutt to cause some damage.
Valhalla ran around the ring to attack Dupri and ended up getting taken down by an arm drag. Gable ended up getting the win with a leapfrog into a sunset flip in the corner.
It's always nice to see Gable get a win, and it's great to see WWE investing in this feud, but this match felt short and pointless in the end. The few moves we saw looked fine, but it wasn't enough for this to be considered entertaining.
Winner: Chad Gable
Grade: D+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Dupri's new gear is an interesting look.
- Erik, Ivar and Valhalla had cool face paint this week.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser
7 of 8Owens and Zayn ran into Imperium backstage and after KO blew a gasket, this was turned into a tag title match.
The intercontinental champion and Zayn kicked things off for their teams. The titleholder dodged a chop and tried a few of his own, but Gunther brushed off his chops and took him down with ease.
We returned from a break to see Zayn and Kaiser in the ring. KO tagged in for a few moments before tagging back out. This led to Gunther making a blind tag and almost knocking Zayn's head off his shoulder with a running boot.
It looked like Imperium had the match in hand as the show was coming to a close, but The Ring General just couldn't keep Zayn down for the three-count.
Riddle tried to interfere but took a boot from Gunther for his trouble. This left The Master Strategist to finish off Kaiser with the Blue Thunderbomb for the win.
As expected, this ended up being the match of the night. All four guys had sufficient time to do what they do best, and even though the outcome was predictable, the titles being on the line made this feel more like a main event.
Winners: Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Changing Gunther's entrance music was almost as bad as changing his name for no reason. His old theme ruled, and WWE should use it again.
- Owens' hothead gimmick has become the best thing on Raw. He makes every segment he is in the funniest thing on the show.
- Zayn has a great deep arm drag. He does it similar to the way Ricky Steamboat used to.
- Gunther is one of the most convincing pro wrestlers in the world because everything he does looks like it hurts his opponent. He actually takes good care of his rivals if you really pay attention.
- Kaiser's feet got caught on the middle rope when he did a suicide dive, and he almost had a bad landing.
The Final Word
8 of 8This week's Raw had a few highlights, but as a whole, it fell short of last week's show by quite a large margin.
A few promo segments felt clunky, some matches were unnecessary filler, and a number of the storyline developments were about as predictable as it gets.
However, WWE did set up two more matches for Money in the Bank and found the final entrant for the men's same-titled bout, so at least we got some progress on the pay-per-view.
Zayn and Owens vs. Imperium was the Match of the Night, but Riddle vs. Priest was a close second.
Grade: C
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