WWE RAW 7/10/2023: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s completely subjective and wildly opinionated review of "WWE Raw!" As distinct from our live coverage of the show, this is where we draw a line in the sand between the things that got us out of our seats and the things that didn't really land. This week's "Raw" had a lot on both sides of the equation, as we continue the build to what could shape up to be a pretty decent SummerSlam.

While The Bloodline has completely crumbled over on "WWE SmackDown," much to the delight of the fans (and the ratings), "Raw" has its own unstable faction in the form of The Judgment Day, who were last seen arguing with each other after Finn Balor and Damian Priest each cost each other a World Heavyweight Championship victory in the span of three days. "Raw" promised a ton of JD content this week, but did the material deliver? What about GUNTHER's feud with Drew McIntyre, Becky Lynch's feud with Trish Stratus, or the return of Logan Paul? To answer these questions, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/10/23 episode of "WWE Raw."

Of course, The Judgment Day and The Bloodline aren't the only stables having internal problems, though Imperium's issues are somewhat less compelling.

McIntyre and Riddle vs. Imperium was a pretty standard tag team match with a pretty standard finish that didn't really advance the McIntyre/GUNTHER feud in a meaningful way, but did tease a potential divide within Imperium. After Vinci got pinned, GUNTHER and Kaiser abandoned him on the ramp, presumably because he's the one who lost? It's a strange choice, since it's not like Kaiser has been covering himself in glory lately; he and Vinci almost never win TV matches as a tag team, and certainly never as individuals. If we had to guess, we'd say the Imperium/Vinci split is a swerve and he'll show up at SummerSlam to help GUNTHER beat McIntyre (not everyone can slowly break up with each other at the same time, can they?) but it's always possible WWE is changing up the Imperium lineup. It would suck for Vinci, but it might be better for the group overall, which doesn't have much going for it right now outside of the Intercontinental Champion.

While the match between GUNTHER and McIntyre will probably be great, this feud isn't working for us so far. Too much Riddle, not enough direct interaction between GUNTHER and McIntyre themselves. We have no idea what to make of McIntyre and Riddle's backstage declaration that they're going to rid WWE of dominant factions, and we're not really looking forward to GUNTHER mauling Riddle again next week — unless the beating takes him off TV.

We honestly didn't expect "Raw" to be your one respite from our near-daily complaints about various women's divisions, but the women of the red brand killed it again this week. Becky Lynch and Zoey Stark had possibly the best match of the night (that we're very happy wasn't called off for medical reasons) and while there were some Trish Stratus related shenanigans involved, it was nonetheless a huge win for Stark, by far the biggest of her career. Stark is really the person who has benefitted most from the Lynch/Stratus feud; she's a tremendous in-ring talent who needed this exact kind of environment for her first main roster storyline, and she's thriving as a result.

Shayna Baszler vs. Emma was much shorter, which is a shame in one sense just because it's a Black and Gold dream match in an alternative universe. But in the universe we live in, it makes all the sense in the world for Baszler to squash Emma like a grape (which she did) and for that to lead to another scuffle with Ronda Rousey. We're not normally a huge fan of the "heel runs from babyface because 'not tonight' or whatever" trope, but Rousey's post-match run-in was very well-executed, with Baszler not backing down for an instant and the two trading submission attempts and countering each other on multiple occasions. Baszler didn't ultimately leave the ring because she was afraid; she left it to get out of Rousey's armbar. Just good stuff all around, and we're looking forward to Rousey vs. Baszler as much as we've looked forward to any of Rousey's matches.

Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville vs. Kayden Carter and Katana Chance wasn't nearly as good, sadly, but it was still nice to see two straight weeks of women's tag team matches, which will become a hat trick next week when Green and Deville challenge for the titles. Meanwhile, WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan had a fun backstage confrontation with Rhea Ripley, with Rodriguez apparently lined up as Ripley's next challenger. To top things off, almost nothing on "Raw" got a reaction from the Buffalo crowd like Maxxine Dupri graduating from Alpha Academy (she actually got "You deserve it" chants!) and Valhalla stealing her new letter jacket — which Corey Graves hilariously justified by saying "that's what Vikings do, they pillage" — was really the only part of the entire episode that had anything resembling real stakes. Say what you want about "Raw," but it's currently using its female talent more effectively than any wrestling show this side of Impact.

At this point, everyone has known for weeks that Cody Rhodes and Brock Lesnar are having their third match at SummerSlam. It was the obvious end point of their feud from the jump, it was always going to happen, it's fine. All we have to do now is get there. But we still have almost a full month before that, and if future segments building Cody/Brock are going to be as boring as this one was, it's gonna be a long ride.

The problem here seems to be that not even Cody seems to know why his character wants to fight Lesnar a third time. Last week's episode made it seem like their feud had gotten so personal that they couldn't keep their hands off each other. This week, Cody didn't even really seem upset with Brock, talking about him like he's some kind of metaphorical life obstacle that everyone has to overcome rather than an actual person whose head Cody wants to cave in. His promo made it sound less like he was challenging a former world champion to a wrestling match and more like he was trying to inspire all of us to work hard to pay off our student debt. It feels like any potential character motivations have gotten lost in this feud, and Rhodes is now out here trying to sell Lesnar as an impersonal mountain he has to climb despite the fact that, you know, he's already beaten Lesnar. It was a weird promo that took the story in a weird direction, and all we can do is hope things get back on track from here.

"Raw" has now given Ricochet a microphone for the second week in a row, and while that's normally a terrible idea, he actually did pretty well! On a night when Cody Rhodes would also end up talking about how much he loves the fans, Ricochet's appeal actually came off as far more sincere. It's not the kind of thing he usually gets to do, and you got the sense that he really was grateful for the crowd's continued support and is preparing to take what could be the next major step in his career.

Because don't get it twisted — Ricochet is the prime beneficiary of a feud with Logan Paul, whose singles matches to this point have come against The Miz, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns — all current and/or former world champions. Ricochet is the one making a big jump here, and that actually played into the storyline here, as Paul refused Ricochet's challenge to a match on the grounds that Ricochet just wants to get famous off his name. It's a very heel thing to say, but it works all the better because it has elements of truth. Paul continues to be way too good at this whole professional wrestling thing than he has any reasonable right to be, but what's even more impressive at this point is that Ricochet felt like he belonged in this spot. Not only did he pull out his famed "NXT" spot, diving out over the top rope and landing on his feet outside the ring, just in front of Paul, but he also hit Paul with a beautiful Sliced Bread off the ring apron to the floor. Combined with his improved mic work, a storyline that could have been embarrassing for Ricochet has already elevated him, and should continue to do so going into SummerSlam, and a match we suddenly can't wait to see.

The Miz vs. Tommaso Ciampa was actually a pretty damn good match all things considered. We just have no idea where it's going, and we're starting to get anxious. Absolutely everything points to the eventual appearance of Johnny Gargano and the reunification of DIY, his tag team with Ciampa from "NXT" — Gargano himself has teased it on TV, Ciampa pulled out a signature DIY taunt during the match, and Miz won the match with help from Bronson Reed, the same way he won the ladder match against Gargano ally Dexter Lumis. It only makes sense that this is leading to Ciampa and Gargano vs. Miz and Reed, right? Can there be any other destination?

Maybe we just need to be more patient, but we're feeling slightly uneasy. Gargano is reportedly fully healthy and ready to return, and yet he didn't appear in his hometown of Cleveland last week and he didn't get involved here, either. We really don't want Ciampa to end up like Lumis, who hasn't had anything to do since his own aforementioned Miz feud ended, and frankly we also want more for Reed, who feels like he should have gotten somewhere in the last seven months beyond "once again helping The Miz win matches." For the time being, we'll sit back and trust that there's a reasonable endgame here, but we are beyond ready for Gargano to show up and assuage our fears.

"Raw" has increasingly been built around The Judgment Day in recent weeks, and this episode managed to perfectly demonstrate the art of building an "A story" that carries through the entire broadcast.

While things weren't looking entirely rosy in the goth group last week, it seemed like WWE was planning on slow-burning this thing at least a little bit, so it was initially odd to see Finn Balor come out by himself, get on the mic, and just start airing out his issues with Damian Priest. Apparently it seemed weird to Rhea Ripley as well, since she and Dominik came out to ask what the hell Finn was doing. We really enjoyed the way Rhea held the mic down as she tried to talk Balor down quietly, especially because it emphasized the split between Balor, who was more than ready to air everything in front of the fans, and the rest of the stable, who clearly wanted to handle things privately — even Priest's recent in-character interviews have indicated as much.

Later, Balor and Priest did seem to work things out backstage as Ripley asked them to (though Balor still seemed slightly hesitant) and they ended up getting themselves into a six-man tag main event after their interference in the Seth Rollis/Dominik Mysterio rematch was fought off by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who Ripley had threatened moments before. After they weren't featured on TV at all last week, it was great to see Sami and KO again, with Owens continuing the fantastic work he's brought to his character recently, and their partnership with Rollins is beyond natural, given that all three men have roots in the late-2000s independent scene.

Rollins and the tag champs lost the match, however, and more importantly, they did so in a way that seems to have completely restored Judgment Day's cohesion. With Zayn about to hit a Helluva Kick to likely end things, Ripley grabbed his foot from the outside, halting his momentum. This allowed Priest to hit Zayn with South of Heaven, followed by a Coup de Grace from Balor that earned the victory. It was a brilliant narrative decision, capping off an episode-long story of The Judgment Day coming back together and giving Balor and Priest an obvious reason to pursue the tag titles, which we really, really hope they do. Sure, Priest could go after them with Dominik while Balor faces Rollins again, but that's not where the money is. The money is in Balor and Priest as a team, their friendship and commitment to each other getting tested as only tag team wrestling can test them, particularly when they're up against a team like Zayn and Owens, who are the most committed to each other. For the time being, we love this direction, and we appreciate WWE taking clear narrative steps Judgment Day together (for now) as The Bloodline officially falls apart.