7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (23 Sept - Results & Review)

5. Dom-Dom Behind Bars

WWE Raw Rhea Ripley Liv Morgan Dominik Mysterio — WWE

Typically, WWE’s exposition-heavy opening segments are a bore, dragging on and reciting entire plotlines for the thick-headed to follow along.

Raw’s opening Monday night did feature some exposition-as-story-recap once again, but the norm was broken up by Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan arriving in a “lucha lowrider” (available for sale as a Mattel toy!), and Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman brawling backstage. Liv proceeded to talk about how she took everything that mattered to Rhea Ripley, drawing Mami out for the confrontation.

After some back and forth, Rhea traced Dom’s history of getting involved in Women’s World Championship matches on Liv’s behalf, which provided the justification for the stipulation for their Bad Blood title match: Mysterio will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage. What a fantastically fun reveal with a tremendous visual - the weaselly, slimy Dominik stuck in a cage trying to help Morgan from 15 feet above the ring.

What’s more, this came after Liv bragged about being smarter than Rhea, and she immediately checked the toxic couple. Of course, Morgan and Mysterio will spend the next two weeks plotting how Dom can give her the edge, but the very notion of Dom-Dom losing his mind in the shark cage while Liv struggles below should make for an entertaining match on the night.

Scott Carlson

Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.

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