4 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (14 Sept - Results & Review)

3. A Great Start To The Night

Given everything that happened over the weekend in WWE and its lucha libre brand AAA, the company had a unique opportunity to really highlight recent happenings and harness some of the crazy energy and momentum that had been built up in recent days.

And WWE didn’t waste any time, opening the show with Raw GM Adam Pearce and AAA GM Rey Mysterio (in a neck brace after being chokeslammed through a table while on a backboard by Omos) welcoming everyone. Rey immediately brought out new Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer to speak about the joy of winning the title in her home country of Chile.

This drew out Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio, looking haggard and naked without their world titles. The powerless power couple tried to put down Vaquer and Rey, with Dirty Dom receiving the deafening boos that he used to get before WrestleMania 41. (Even if for only one night, it was great to hear the nuclear heat for Dominik once again.)

But before things could go downhill, new AAA Mega Champion El Grande Americano appeared to defend Mysterio, triggering an impromptu tag match with El Grande teaming with Vaquer against the Judgment Day. The match itself was pretty standard, but it played out like a well-worked house show bout, complete with Vaquer performing a 619 on Dominik and Liv.

The rest of the Judgment Day attacked for the disqualification, with the two former champions clearly indicating they wanted their titles back. But the other highlight had to be Dominik grabbing his dad by the neck brace and dragging him into the ring to attack him, finally laying him out with a frog splash. The father-and-son conflict has not escalated beyond a war of words in recent years, making this attack scan as a bigger transgression.

Even with the impromptu match, this still was a hot opening to the show that set the tone for the night.