WWE Raw Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from Sept. 25
Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of WWE Raw on September 25 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
WWE hyped up six segments ahead of this week's show, which is a big increase from the usual review for its weekly shows.
Of the three announced matches, two were for titles and featured members of The Judgment Day. Dominik Mysterio defended the NXT North American Championship against Dragon Lee while his brothers-in-arms, Finn Bálor and Damian Priest, defended the tag belts against Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
The other bout WWE announced was Bronson Reed taking on Otis. We also heard from Cody Rhodes, Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre in different segments.
Let's take a look at everything that happened on Monday's episode of Raw.
Opening Segment
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The moment Raw went on the air, Cody Rhodes' music hit and he made his way out to a huge pop from the crowd.
He spoke for well over five minutes before being interrupted by the group he was just starting to talk about, The Judgment Day. This led to Rhodes and Dominik Mysterio trading insults until the stable decided it had heard enough.
All three men prepared to attack when Jey Uso arrived to stand next to The American Nightmare. The Judgment Day were going to attack anyway, but Zayn and KO showed up to make it four-on-three in favor of the good guys.
JD McDonagh showed up with some steel chairs, but Priest hesitated joining them, which allowed the babyfaces to maintain the upper hand. All four took out The Archer of Infamy last to end the segment.
This was a solid opening. It set up multiple things for the show and kept a couple of storylines going nicely.
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- While Dom was talking, you could tell WWE was only playing the audio from his mic in the arena and not from the direct feed they have from the mic. It was pretty funny when he finally got upset about all of the boos.
- Priest's reaction when he realized he was alone against all four rivals was great.
Otis vs. Bronson Reed
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If you like big meaty men slapping meat, then the first match on this week's card was for you. Otis and Bronson Reed are both over 330 pounds, so this was truly a kaiju battle for the ages.
Early in the match, the two men collided and sent each other out of the ring with the impact. After trading shots, Otis was the first to score a takedown on his own with a clothesline, but Reed didn't stay down long.
Both showed off their power by picking each other up at different times. This wasn't a long match, but it didn't need to be in order to be fun. This was the kind of bout we almost never see anymore in WWE, so it felt unique.
Reed picked up a clean win with a Tsunami. This match is everything Big E would want it to be.
Winner: Bronson Reed
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- Why are the facial expressions in the image above so funny?
- Wade Barrett using Big E's quote and talking about him was great. It's hard not to miss the New Day man whenever his name comes up.
- Reed picking up Otis for a Samoan drop was incredibly impressive because he did it with one arm.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Ludwig Kaiser
3 of 9Tommaso Ciampa has his sights set on the intercontinental title Gunther currently possesses, but he had to face Ludwig Kaiser before The Ring General would even give him a second thought.
Kaiser had control until Ciampa took him down with a Thesz press. Both men pride themselves on their conditioning and technical prowess, so everything we saw here looked crisp and was sold well.
This was a good contest that gave both competitors a chance to perform without Gunther being there to distract from their performance.
Ciampa took out Giovanni Vinci with a knee, and the ref checking on him cost Kaiser the pin. The Blackheart capitalized and hit a huge knee to score the pin.
This did two things well: It made Ciampa look like a credible threat to Gunther's title reign and set up Kaiser and Vinci to be on The Ring General's bad side when he sees them again.
Winner: Tommaso Ciampa
Grade: B
Notable Moments and Observations
- Becky Lynch and Tegan Nox had an exchange backstage before this match. It was clearly designed to explain why the Welsh wrestler didn't answer the open challenge last week as planned. Adam Pearce booked her to face Natalya for a shot at Lynch's title.
- Ciampa is always more entertaining when he is allowed to have a little fun. The way he mocked Imperium's way of standing at attention was funny.
- Ciampa's ripcord knee looked great from the angle they used.
Natalya vs. Tegan Nox
4 of 9Tegan Nox and Natalya were both trying to push Adam Pearce to give them a title shot, so the WWE official booked them to face each other to see who would get to challenge Lynch.
While this match was positioned as a young talent taking on a veteran, Nox is no rookie. She has 10 years of experience already at just 28 years old, so it was nice to see her show some of the skills she has developed in this contest.
This feels like the first time since she returned last year that we have really gotten a chance to see how Nox wrestles.
While most of the match was fine, the ending felt a bit abrupt. Nox hit The Shiniest Wizard for the win, but something about how it all happened felt anticlimactic for some reason.
Winner: Tegan Nox
Grade: C+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Natalya's sitout powerbomb was nice.
- This match was pretty short and would have benefitted from a few more minutes.
- Surprisingly, Natalya is one of the few people on the main roster who has been in the ring with Nox more than once. She and Tamina have had a couple of matches against the Welsh wrestler and Shotzi in the past.
Dominik Mysterio vs. Dragon Lee
5 of 9Seth Rollins said he was giving Shinsuke Nakamura one more opportunity to accept his offer for a title match before he moves on to someone else.
The Artist answered his rival with a pre-recorded video telling him he wanted a Last Man Standing match.
The next match saw Dominik Mysterio defend his NXT North American title against Dragon Lee, which made this the latter's first match on the main roster.
These two have met before in NXT, so both went into this knowing what to expect. However, this time Dom didn't have Rhea Ripley at ringside to interfere on his behalf.
The Judgment Day man looked good in this match. We are used to seeing him have a partner or someone at ringside, so getting to see him stand on his own two feet as a Superstar for once allowed him to show off how much he has grown as a performer.
High-flyer Lee and Mysterio earned themselves a "This is awesome" chant as they worked toward the finish. After a hard-fought match, Dom was able to pick up the win and retain his title.
Winner: Dominik Mysterio
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Michael Cole did a great job giving fans a short description of Lee during his entrance. It's nice to see he isn't being portrayed as a rookie just because he is new to WWE.
- The corner dropkick Lee hit looked nasty. It's surprising Dom didn't have a bloody nose after it.
- Lee always has awesome masks, but the one he had this week was especially cool with how it blended the Mexican and American flags.
- Lee's hurricanrana from the apron looked fantastic.
Nia Jax vs. Zoey Stark
6 of 9Nia Jax gave an interview with Michael Cole that turned into a fight between her and Zoey Stark.
After they were pulled apart by officials ahead of a commercial break, we returned to see them begin an official match.
Stark came out of the gate hot with a couple of dropkicks, but Jax was able to swat her out of the air when she tried to hit a third.
Stark tried to lift her rival up on her shoulders but couldn't quite do it, so the former women's champion took advantage of the situation and hit a leg drop to the back of Stark's neck.
This bout didn't do anything to help Stark, but it was a decent way to bring Jax back into the fold.
The match wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. It was just kind of fun.
Winner: Nia Jax
Grade: C
Notable Moments and Observations
- The crowd was giving Jax a ton of heat. It will be interesting to see if she can maintain it.
- Stark has such a nice dropkick. She gets great elevation.
Kofi Kingston vs. Drew McIntyre
7 of 9Drew McIntyre appeared on Miz TV this week to talk about choosing not to save Jey Uso when he was being attacked recently.
The New Day came out and criticized the Scot for how he treated Uso. McIntyre told Kofi Kingston to get in the ring for a match as the show went to a break.
When the fight got started, the New Day man used his speed to hit several strikes before The Scottish Warrior put him down with one vicious chop.
These two have been in the ring together dozens of times over the years, so they had enough chemistry to make this a decent contest without even trying.
McIntyre became more aggressive as things progressed. Ivar then attacked Xavier Woods at ringside, which distracted Kingston and gave the Scot an opening to hit a Claymore for the win.
If the goal is to turn McIntyre into a heel, he is well on his way. This was a fun encounter that made him look like a beast. Ivar attacked Kingston, and the Scot decided not to help.
Winner: Drew McIntyre
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- McIntyre repeatedly telling The Miz to shut up was funny, but the headbutt he hit was even funnier.
- The Scottish Warrior is going to be a great heel if WWE fully turns him. He is in a much better place in his career than he was during his last run as a villain.
- The Miz seemed to disappear during the break. He must not have wanted revenge for the headbutt McIntyre gave him.
- Ivar hitting a moonsault was nuts.
The Judgment Day vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
8 of 9The main event of this week's show was the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match between Priest and Bálor of The Judgment Day and the two men they beat for the belts, Zayn and Owens.
As soon as the ref called for the bell, all four were brawling. Zayn and KO sent their rivals out of the ring early, which sent the show into a break not long after returning from the last one.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that this was a good contest. All four men have track records of being reliable and entertaining performers, so they would almost have to try to have a bad match at this point.
This was an exciting way to end the show, especially for the live crowd. As expected, Dom showed up toward the end in an attempt to interfere. Jey Uso, JD McDonagh and Cody Rhodes also arrived as a huge brawl broke out at ringside.
The ending was a bit overbooked, but we eventually got the finish where McDonagh used a title belt to knock out Zayn so Priest could get the win.
Winners: The Judgment Day
Grade: B+
Notable Moments and Observations
- Cole made a few mistakes while announcing this week, such as saying "Sami Owens" instead of Sami Zayn. Maybe he is just short on sleep. He's usually good with that stuff.
- The way this week's show was laid out was kind of weird. It felt like the commercial breaks either weren't spaced out properly or WWE was running low on time toward the end and had to make some adjustments.
- Owens was doing a lot of great selling with his facial expressions. He is so good at making it look like he is in excruciating pain.
The Final Word
9 of 9The good thing about Raw is that it tends to be consistent. The bad thing about Raw is that consistency can also be boring.
This week's show was decent, but it feels like every edition we have seen for months has been the same way. It's not good enough to just be good enough anymore. WWE needs to make its shows must-see TV again.
We have Raw, NXT and SmackDown every week, which doesn't even take into account NXT Level Up and Main Event. WWE has a lot of hours to fill, but it has more than enough talent to do that, and a lot of those people just sit on the sidelines most weeks.
The matches involving members of The Judgment Day and Otis vs. Reed were the highlights on a show that had few memorable moments. Again, Monday's show was good, but it needs to be better than that to keep people tuning in every week during the NFL season.
Grade: B-
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