WWE Raw - 9/2/2024: 3 Things We Loved And 3 Things We Hated

While the nation celebrated Labor Day, the Superstars of the WWE put on another edition of "WWE Raw." This week's episode had both the jet-lagged fallout from WWE Bash In Berlin, as well as the promise of the build to October's Bad Blood PLE.

It was a surprisingly eventful holiday edition of "Raw," not only due to the debut of new play-by-play commentator Joe Tessitore but also for the number of injuries and the heaps of drama that played out in Denver, CO's Ball Arena. The following will not be an in-depth detailing of the night's results, that's what the results page is for. Instead, we'll be charting the highs and lows of Monday's show.

Without further ado, here's the best and the worst of the first "Raw" of September.

WWE has not always been a promotion known for its in-ring bona fides. This has been turning around, especially on PPVs but we are reaching an unprecedented level of competency in the midcard of weekly shows like "Raw" and "SmackDown," thanks in no small part to "WWE NXT."

The Triple Threat match between Ilja Dragunov, Dominik Mysterio, and Dragon Lee was a blisteringly fast-paced bit of competition, which would not have looked out of place on a Tuesday. It is becoming a fairly regular occurrence that the midcard of "WWE Raw" is feeling more and more like "NXT," as the famously entertainment-focused sees more and more of its running time taken up by, for lack of a better term...Moves, or "Movez" as some might call it colloquially. The match was not without its WWE soap opera charms, as Dominik Mysterio was chased off midway through the match by Damian Priest but Mysterio held his own against the speedy Lee and Dragunov.

The other Triple Threat of the night, which saw Sheamus, Braun Strowman, and Ludwig Kaiser battle for the final spot in the Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender Match was much more typical of WWE, though still a thoroughly solid match, all three men have had multiple opportunities to show off in recent weeks, whereas the first Triple Threat felt more like a showcase of oft-underutilized talent, giving their all in their moment in the sun.

Written by Ross W Berman IV

At "NXT: No Mercy" Pete Dunne cost Joe Hendry the "NXT" Championship through his attack on special referee, Trick Williams. On Monday's episode of "WWE Raw," Dunne cost Sheamus an opportunity at the Intercontinental Championship after he beat the Irishman to a pulp with a shillelagh. After his attacks on Sheamus, Dunne got into Jackie Redmond's face after she referred to him as "Butch." On the upcoming episode of "WWE NXT," Dunne will face off against Williams.

Is this Dunne-mania?

No, seriously, can you consider this a push for Dunne? I understand that visibility is everything in this industry — Hendry found his way into WWE programming through his viral musical hit, Becky Lynch became "The Man" after the image of her broken and bloodied face made rounds in the community, and John Cena did not become a sixteen-time world champion by not being the face of the company. However, it feels like Dunne is not being visible, he is being overbooked for no discernible reason.

Overusing an individual feels like a crazy problem to have, especially because there are people fighting tooth and nail just to get featured on television. However, Dunne's overexposure on WWE programming is, at the very least, kind of weird. I would even go as far as to say that Dunne's exposure throughout two of WWE's three brands ultimately hurts him. Dunne's involvement with multiple people feels disjointed, unreasonable, and potentially harmful to multiple people.

All of Dunne's feuds are, on their own, sensible. He hates Sheamus because of the de-individualizing experience of being a Brawling Brute, and I'm sure he has his reasons for going after Williams. However, his gripes with Sheamus and Williams are, to my knowledge, unrelated. Dunne doesn't have a reason to be fighting two wars at the same time, so why is he? It is confusing to the viewer, and because this is an art form that is based on the viewer's latent opinion, this confusion can remain and sour the storylines Dunne is working so hard to handle on the two shows. They also run the risk of burning Dunne out, considering the enormous amount of effort he takes to ensure great performances. It is not that Dunne is a bad performer that the overuse is problematic, it is that it is extraneous for no discernible reason. There is no reason Dunne can't finish out his story with Sheamus, and then head over to Williams (or vice versa)!

By overusing Dunne, WWE also underuses other performers who are fully capable of accomplishing the same goal. Why are we using one guy for two separate storylines, when twenty men are rotting away in catering? I'm not accusing Dunne of being selfish or unwilling to put other guys over. This seems like a booking problem, where Dunne is being overloaded with opportunities (what, you're going to say no to Triple H and Shawn Michaels?) that would better be used by someone else, from all perspectives.

This isn't Dunne-mania. This is something else, something insensible.

Written by Angeline Phu

There are quite a few things I'm a sucker for in my professional wrestling fandom, and it's spooky stuff (especially as we move into the Halloween season) when it has a good, meaningful story behind it, and even more so, I'm an absolute sucker for stipulation matches. When American Made's Chad Gable called out Bo Dallas' Uncle Howdy tonight, following the rest of the Wyatt Sicks getting involved in their one-on-one match last week in the main event of "Raw," I was hooked. When he mentioned an eight-person mixed-tag team match? Sold. When Gable went as far as to mention the match would be a street fight? I was pretty ecstatic, and I'm definitely looking forward to something more interesting on "Raw" as we're in between premium live events. I would imagine this would be the main event of next week's show, and it has every reason to. I'm guessing at this point that it will be Erick Rowan, Dexter Lumis, and Joe Gacy competing alongside Nikki Cross, with Howdy once again watching from his rocking chair on the ramp, but there aren't any rules in a street fight, so he has to be in there to mix it up as well.

A street fight between these two teams has the potential to be incredible. It's been reiterated time and time again across various reports there won't be anything supernatural involving the Wyatt Sicks, but I bet Taylor Rotunda has some ideas up his sleeve of how to make this as interesting as possible without toeing that supernatural line. I would expect a few callbacks to the late Bray Wyatt throughout this match as well, little Easter Eggs, if you will, maybe like the lights turning red for a short portion of the match, ala Hell in a Cell 2019, or something like that.

Dallas' delivery accepting this promo was excellent as well, and it will never not be jarring just how much he sounds like his late brother. He mentioned just how many days it's been since Wyatt's death, 375, and said his "sanity crumbled, and his path is in the void," which makes me think we're definitely getting some allusions to Wyatt. This feud between Howdy and Gable and both stables has been kind of a slow burn, but I don't hate how long it's been going week-to-week to get to the good stuff, like Howdy's in-ring debut last week. This upcoming street fight, however, is hopefully going to take the cake on anything the Wyatt Sicks has done so far. I expect as much brutality as WWE can safely put on TV at this point, which will give the Wyatt Sicks fodder for video vignettes and promos for weeks going forward.

Written by Daisy Ruth

After just losing the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on Saturday at Bash in Berlin, the Unholy Union of Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn are once again the number one contenders for the belts they just lost to the hottest women's tag team in WWE right now: Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. Meaning, they're being set up to fail, and likely fall back into the shadows of the women's division. I hate to say it because I really like these women in the ring, but it has always felt like the Unholy Union were set to win the belts in their native Scotland at Clash at the Castle just over 75 days ago, just because they're, well, they're Scottish, and the other Scots booked on the show were inevitably going to lose. Thankfully, WWE had enough sense to keep the belts on them for a little while after the premium live event, but they had so few title defenses during their reign that it was still pretty obvious what the company's plan was.

Now, Fyre and Dawn are set to take on Cargill and Belair once again, and while I don't think they're going to get squashed (and thankfully, their Bash in Berlin match was pretty good, so it's not too terribly much of a chore to watch again), they're bound to lose. There's no real reason for the Unholy Union to have the tag team gold now that Cargill and Belair have them back, especially since they're so over with the fans. There is also no story between Fyre and Dawn moving forward for any kind of tease of dissension to lead to a larger story, like there is with Belair and Cargill. I think the new champions will have the belts through WrestleMania season so they can drop them and then feud against each other on the "Grandest Stage of Them All" when Cargill has more matches under her belt to really be able to go in a WWE-style.

While I don't necessarily love that WWE seems to be using the women's tag gold as a prop for an eventual Belair and Cargill feud, it's still better than having Fyre and Dawn as champions, though I do feel bad for them. They could benefit from taking a trip to "WWE NXT" again and mixing it up with some of the great talent around there for a little while, especially around the Halloween season, and that's not to diminish their skills; it would just make for good stories on Tuesday nights. To make a long story short, I hate the fact that we're getting this match again despite how serviceable it was in Berlin, and not something just slightly more fresh, like IYO SKY and Kairi Sane versus the champions. If Belair and Cargill are going to hold on to the titles, the rest of the tag division needs to be much more interesting to appear as credible challengers.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Following "Bash in Berlin", CM Punk finally got a win over Drew McIntyre. On "RAW", he had his victory speech, which was punctuated by an attack-hooded man that was very obviously "The Scottish Warrior". Punk was brutally attacked when he was thrown into the announce table repeatedly and Claymore'd out of his shoe.

As security tried to stop McIntyre, he yelled that he was taking the bracelet. He did just that, except he intentionally broke the bracelet and shoved the beads into his nemesis's mouth like they were thumbtacks. He hit one more Claymore that caused Punk to be stretchered out of the arena. This bit came off as laughable, especially with the beads being used like a threat. The fact that this storyline has revolved around a bracelet for weeks is just dumb. The feud has gone on entirely too long and it's obvious that they are running thin on ideas to make it continue until "Bad Blood".

McIntyre's entire personality has been Punk since injuring him at Royal Rumble. This feud has lasted nearly as long as a pregnancy. McIntyre has become more and more obsessed with Punk. Somehow holding a bracelet hostage gave him the upper hand. Now there is no bracelet. Did he give up his leverage? Maybe he should've stolen Punk's shoe as collateral. That is what this feud has devolved into. I can't wait for this feud to be over...until Mania season.

Written by Samantha Schipman

It seems as though we might have an answer as to who GUNTHER's next challenger will be for the World Heavyweight Championship, and that man is Sami Zayn.

Zayn and GUNTHER have no shortage of history with one another after their months-long feud for the Intercontinental Championship, and a potential story between the pair already writes much of itself with their past of one another. It's clear that Zayn hasn't forgotten their past with him bringing up the Intercontinental Championship in his promo (albeit calling it a stepping stone to the World Heavyweight Championship) and GUNTHER being visibly afraid of facing Zayn in the ring once again having been dethroned by him during WrestleMania 40 as Zayn himself pointed out.

Zayn is undoubtedly one of WWE's biggest stars and has been for quite some time, but he hasn't really done anything on television since wrapping up his storyline with Bron Breakker at WWE SummerSlam by dropping the Intercontinental Championship to him. It's nice to see him back in the main event title picture and feels like it's the right place for him to be right now with GUNTHER looking for his next challenger. While CM Punk might have also called his shot tonight, it's unlikely that he'll chase the World Heavyweight Championship until after his feud with Drew McIntyre is over with it looking more and more like that won't be anytime before WWE Bad Blood in October and the Premium Live Event would serve as the perfect place to have Zayn and GUNTHER clash for the title with Punk presumably occupied otherwise.

Written by Olivia Quinlan