WWE Raw notes: Ciampa secures U.S. Title match, The Usos defeats Mysterios, Belair vs. IYO SKY

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Originally published at WWE Raw notes: Ciampa secures U.S. Title match, The Usos defeats Mysterios, Belair vs. IYO SKY

There were two Triple Threat matches on Monday Night Raw with the winners of those respective matches competing in a singles to determine the next challenger to the United States Title. Ciampa outlasted Dolph Ziggler and Chad Gable and in addition to that, AJ Styles bested The Miz and Mustafa Ali. Ciampa and Styles met later in the show and Ciampa got the win with assistance from Miz. Ciampa will take on Bobby Lashley for the U.S. Title next week.

In the main event, The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defeated Dominik and Rey Mysterio to retain the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships. Post-match, Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest & Rhea Ripley) ambushed Dominik and Rey.

Earlier in the night, Edge said that he was going to end Judgment Day and he made the save for Rey and Dominik, but accidentally speared Dominik who was shoved into the spear by Ripley.

.@EdgeRatedR just speared @DomMysterio35!!!@FinnBalor @ArcherofInfamy @RheaRipley_WWE #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/5qDzV45JHD

— WWE (@WWE) August 2, 2022

Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair went one-on-one with IYO SKY. The match resulted in a DQ as Bayley and Dakota Kai brawled with Alexa Bliss and Asuka who were ringside to even the numbers in support of Belair. Kai, SKY and Bayley interfered in a singles match between Bliss and Asuka earlier in the show.

HERE. FOR. THIS.#WWERaw@BiancaBelairWWE @AlexaBliss_WWE @WWEAsuka @itsBayleyWWE @shirai_io @ImKingKota pic.twitter.com/eU9SFyxHBI

— WWE (@WWE) August 2, 2022

The first hour of Raw was commercial free.

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Loved the amount of solid wrestling on the show. Will never be a fan of a match going 15+ minutes just for a non-finish, but bell-to-bell, every match was a good watch. And I loved the U.S. Title retrospective… I don’t like the “two world titles” thing, but as long as you have a split roster and a unified world championship, both shows need a main belt, and this felt like a step toward that.

It already feels safe to say that Triple H is going to do things his way, but also naĂŻve to think that:

  • he thinks EVERYTHING that Vince did was a bad idea
  • he is going to bury his father-in-law by immediately changing everything.

So we might still have to deal with silly shit like guys losing their first name, etc. for a bit, but hopefully bucking that trend going forward.

TBH, I think the product will be fine. The most interesting things to me are going to be how Triple H navigates what he can’t “fix”:

  • booking a live, three-hour show every week really is hard/impossible even if you agree with the booking philosophy.
  • the fact that WWE is a publicly traded company trumps any/all major booking decisions

And above all else, let’s hope he’s secretly got some junior producer waiting in the wings, learning how to direct a wrestling match without cutting the camera every eight seconds. Learn quick, you recent film school graduate.

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Has Ciampa ever used Project Ciampa in NXT before? I marked out huge seeing that.

Overall a solid episode of RAW other than the brutal finish in Io/Bianca. Promos were miles better and sounded like real people speaking

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Is that the powerbomb onto the knees? If so, I remember he used it for sure against Gargano in the CWC, but dont remember a specific time in NXT.

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I remember seeing it before, and I’ve never seen a Ciampa match outside of WWE or NXT. So yes, probably one of the 30-minute Gargano matches.

But definitely a rare move for him to bust out… especially since Monday was his first main roster singles match to surpass 10 minutes.