RAW Takes 11/1/21

Monday Night Raw Recap with Dakota Mayes

BECKY LYNCH VS. BIANCA BELAIR: RAW WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

The show started with this huge fast-paced, and hard-hitting title match. Becky disrespected Bianca at the start but paid for it. This confrontation seemed to be technical prowess vs. raw power as the Est may be the foil to Becky's signature armbar. Any time she tried to lock it in, Bianca lifted her up for a KOD. There were many near falls throughout as they wanted to put the other away as quickly as possible. Becky accidentally pulled off a turnbuckle but purposely sent Bianca into it, followed by a tights-pulling roll-up victory. This may be the last match for the two, and the end of the feud as Beks is talking about facing new opponents later in the show and caught the eyes of Liv Morgan. If this is the new direction for the champ, then it may finally be Liv's chance to shine by earning a spot in women's championship contention.

REY MYSTERIO VS. AUSTIN THEORY

Before the match, Theory tried some of his fake fanboying by asking Rey for a selfie, which drew out Dominick's anger from his loss last week. Theory gave Rey as much as he could handle while throwing insults at both Mysterios during the bout. The words started to get to Dominick, though. Theory hit Dominick, which caused him to slap Theory before Rey could hit a 619, resulting in a disqualification victory for Theory. It appears the heel meant for this to happen. Not a bad tactic. I'm not sure if they are still slowly driving a wedge between the Mysterio's. Rey has stated he doesn't want to feud with his son, but Dominick's costing his father a match makes me wonder.

FINN BALOR VS. CHAD GABLE

Gable's technical skills had Finn grounded in the early portion. He utilized the ankle lock and attacked Finn's ankle throughout the match, almost leading Balor to tap out and leaving him hobbling for the rest of the bout. They put on a good showing. I feel like Finn's selling made Gable look more dangerous by the end. The prince ultimately got a roll-up victory, and he rolled out quickly before Otis could attack him.

STREET PROFITS VS. DIRTY DOGS

RK-Bro was on commentary for this match. I'm not sure if the crowd was genuinely uninterested in the match or not because they chanted "we want Randy" the whole time and kind of buried the match until Omos came out and distracted the Profits, causing them to lose. Omos took them out as well as Riddle, who Randy tried to stop. Randy was clearly frustrated and eventually took off his vest to go at Omos, but the camera cut to the next segment before we could see what happened, which was kind of confusing. It makes me think Riddle went off script, which may have put Randy in an awkward position as it would have been strange if he hadn't helped his partner.

DAMIEN PRIEST VS. T-BAR: NO DQ

The action of the match is hard-hitting from the start as the two were ready to pick up right where they left off last week. A table got introduced quickly, and they each tried and put the other through it without success. T-bar had the upper hand throughout the commercial break as he wore down Priest. He wrapped him up in the ropes and literally broke kendo over Priest's abdomen, which caused him to tap into his bad side and tee off on T-bar with a chair before putting him through the table and getting the pin. Apollo Crews then came out and declared himself as the next contender for the United States Championship.

BIG E VS. KEVIN OWENS

Before the match, Rollins offered to help KO win in return for a future title shot (if he wins the gold), but KO refused. Rollins then pointed out KO's lack of success on SmackDown and how his "just keep fighting" gimmick isn't working for him.

Owens ended up slamming skulls with Big E during the match, dazing both, and Kevin clearly saw Rollins hit Big E behind the referee's back but tries to capitalize despite having given his word not to. He gets rolled up instead, and Big E wins. He tried to apologize to Big E afterward, claiming he didn't know what Rollins had done. The champ was having none of it and hit Owens with a big ending to close the show. Owens has seemed somewhat desperate to turn the misfortune he's seen in the past few months around in these past couple of weeks. This may have played into his actions at the end of the match. I'm eager to see where this goes from here.

Dakota Mayes is our resident wrestling expert at The Pyrrhic. Be sure to keep on top of all the latest in news, previews, and reviews in the world of professional wrestling right here with Dakota at thepyrrhic.com. Want more WWE? Check out this: Smack Talk - Smackdown Review

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