WWE RAW Review: 16th October 2023: Cody Rhodes/Jey Uso vs. Judgment Day for the Tag Titles

An action-packed season premiere saw the Undisputed WWE Tag Team championships and the Intercontinental Championship on the line!

Sami Zayn opened the show feeling sad that his tag partner Kevin Owens is now on Smackdown. He says it’s an opportunity for him to show he’s a World title calibre superstar but he’s struggling with losing Owens due to Jey Uso being traded to RAW. Cue the Judgment Day interruption and they attack leading to Jey Uso coming out to make the save – although Sami isn’t pleased to see Jey! Good melodrama to start the season premiere.

Shinsuke cut another good subtitled Japanese promo promising to squash Ricochet like a bug.

After a break, Jey and Sami argued backstage about Owens being moved to the other brand. Jey has his partner and the titles while Zayn has neither and it’s because of Sami. Jey walks away and Sami chases after him to apologise. All seems well for now.

Ricochet vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Falls Count Anywhere here and a great opener. They did a great job of putting over the intensity of the rivalry with brawling while also delivering Ricochet’s dives. Ricochet hitting a SSP from the top of the stand was a superb visual while I enjoyed Shin just destroying Ric with nunchucks. The Kinshasa was countered by a kickflip but Shin kicked out of the 450.  Good finish too as Ricochet gets kicked off the top rope through a table setting up the Kinshasa for a Shin victory. It’s fantastic to see Shinsuke Nakamura and Ricochet in featured roles on RAW with a main roster crowd that are into it. ***3/4

Chelsea Green and Piper Niven got into it with Tegan Nox backstage and Nox threatened to beat Green up. Nox had more of an attitude here and it worked. Worth noting that Nikki Cross was hanging about in the background which seemed random.

GUNTHER VIGNETTE VIDEO FUCK YEAH

Piper Niven vs. Natalya

This was okay. Piper’s a decent monster wrestler while Nattie’s technically fine without being a show-stopper. It was clunky at times but they got through it. Nattie accidentally knocked Chelsea off the apron and the distraction allowed Piper to hit a running crossbody to win. **

Natalya tried to fight off the tag champions but got beaten up until Tegan Nox ran out to save her. Nox seemed to get more of a reaction here which is a good sign.

Damian Priest tried to convince Judgment Day to go after Drew McIntyre but Rhea comes in to put a stop to it. Why does Rhea not want JD going after Drew I wonder hmmmm?!

BURN IT DOWN. The World Heavyweight Champion, Seth Rollins, came to the ring for a promo. Seth is confused by Drew’s recent actions so Rollins calls him out. Drew has this super confident (almost cocky) look about him and the two have a back-and-forth about whether Drew’s working with Rhea Ripley. Drew says Rhea came to talk to him and what they discussed is none of Seth’s business. Rollins brings up Drew’s failures over the past few years and Drew blames all the excuses so Seth tells him to get over it. DREW IS SEETHING. Rollins says when he loses again, Drew will only have himself to blame. GREAT SEGMENT.

Ludwig Kaiser vs. Johnny Gargano

No Ciampa at ringside as he sells an injury from last week’s beatdown by Imperium. Solid shorter match that never really kicked into that next gear. I think Gargano’s fantastic and Kaiser also performed well here as his push continues. They teased Kaiser and Vinci having issues but the key moment saw Vinci get involved and it led to Kaiser winning with the Sister Abigail-like finisher. ***

Becky Lynch is walking backstage when she’s approached by The Way. Indi Hartwell wants a title shot and Becky agrees. She then bumps into Rhea in a bit of a WrestleMania tease.

Drew complained to Sami about forgiving Jey Uso and a match is made for next week. Drew v Sami sounds GREAT.

Rhea Ripley cut a pre-match promo saying this is her division and Mami will always be on top.

Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler

Good hoss battle. Rhea sold an elbow injury which was perfect for Shayna’s offense. Great spot where Shayna counters a Riptide into an armbar so Rhea just powers out of it with a deadlift bomb. Nia Jax turned up but Raquel fought with her at ringside and Zoey Stark came out of nowhere to get involved too. Stark ended up kicking Rhea for the DQ. It was good before the TV finish. **3/4

The brawling continued after the match with Zoey Stark laying out Nia and Rhea. A five-way for the title to see who is the biggest bad-ass? I don’t hate it.

Becky is with Adam Pearce and the match with Indi is agreed. Xia Lee turned up wanting a shot on her own time before Jade Cargill walked into shot. Becky tells her to get in line.

Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso cut a backstage promo on their main event. 

Gunther (c) vs. Bronson Reed for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Fantastic title match. It’s really cool when they switch it up like this and have Gunther actually work from underneath. As usual, everything in a Gunther match had a purpose and meant something making viewers feel like there’s no filler in a match. Reed MORE than held his own and showed his talent but this is another feather to his bow for Gunther. Gunther took a beating and hung on in there until tiredness took Bronson’s power away. Bronson got a good near fall from a superplex and Gunther had to dodge the Tsunami. That led to desperation from Gunther as he hit the top rope splash for a two count and the powerbomb retained the title. Gunther gave Reed LOADS in defeat and it made for a better title match. AND STILL. ***3/4

The Miz complains about not being booked to open the season premiere but Nia Jax interrupts completely disrespecting Miz. She says she’s still standing after receiving everyone’s best shot. On RAW, she does the squashing.

Rhea Ripley went into Adam Pearce complaining so he books the five-way match for Crown Jewel as punishment. Indus Sher entered the office as the segment ended.

Alpha Academy had a training regime and Gable says he’s still coming after the IC Title. He and Otis are also coming after the tag titles bringing in the New Day. A match is made for next week.

Imperium congratulate Gunther backstage and Gunther praises Kaiser for his win. He says Vinci needs to do his job by making Gargano leave on a stretcher next week.

Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso (c) vs. Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Balor) for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships

Excellent main event with a shocking title change. They had 14 minutes and made the most of it with a multi-layered match. Jey was the face being worked over for a while leading to a hot tag from Cody that petered out with Dom’s interference. Eventually, Jey got a hot tag of his own but the finish was chaotic. Really good work from Balor and Priest in slowing down the faces and the control segments were really punishing. Cody ends up being hit with the Razor Edge through the announce table but when Jey starts dishing out Roman-like spears, it seems like he will get the win for his team. However, Jimmy Uso turned up, superkicked his brother and Finn hit the Coup De Grace to win back the titles. Really great TV main event with stakes and four good workers. Can’t ask for much more than that. Cody/Jey losing the titles so soon is a legit surprise but this sets up JD v Alpha Academy and DIY as future tag title feuds so I’m happy with that. ****

A very decent RAW ended with Judgment Day having all the gold again.