WWE RAW 8/10/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s weekly review of "WWE Raw," the show that saw Penta advance in the No. 1 contender's tournament for the right to challenge Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight title in Mexico City! We have some thoughts about that, as well as pretty much every other part of the show — though in fairness, we don't have much to say about Dragon Lee vs. Dominik Mysterio or the Big Cass attack that followed.

If you missed Monday's episode, never fear — you can always catch up via our "WWE Raw" 8/10/26 results page, which can help you out with absolutely everything you missed, free of our writers' commentary. If our writers' commentary is your thing, however, this column right here is the place to be, because this is where we provide our subjective opinions about the matches and segments that stood out to us the most. From Oba Femi's standoff with Bron Breakker to Solo Sikoa vs. Jey Uso in the main event, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 8/10/26 episode of "WWE Raw!"

This show was really, really, boring.

Nothing — literally nothing of note — happened. Everything that did happen felt like just an advertisement for a show that the company gives a little more care about. Stephanie Vaquer and Becky Lynch continued to argue over the right to be just the second challenger in a 115-day title reign. LA Knight continued to complain about the Bloodline, Roman Reigns, and the fact he hasn't got a title shot. Lending to his grievance if this wasn't actually a scripted show would be the fact that Reigns will be defending his title in September when the show goes to Mexico City. But he will be defending the title in a throwaway tournament of luchadors competing for the right to inevitably lose to Reigns.

Bron Breakker continued to ask literally anyone with a set of vocal chords if they thought Oba Femi was the future, and then they had the good old "confrontation while held back by a bunch of officials." The Women's Intercontinental Champion was in action ... in a tag team match alongside Roxanne Perez against Sol Ruca and her mystery partner: IYO SKY. Austin Theory faced Akira Tozawa in the battle for Maxxine Dupri, which just feels like a Dhar Mann sketch that has the indignity not to end. Dominik Mysterio faced Dragon Lee because he was annoyed he wasn't considered by his "dead-beat" father Rey Mysterio to be in the luchador's tournament to lose to Reigns. Lee won, so there would be no development there.

Not one person watching tonight's show would know any different if they missed it and watched next week's. And that is more than likely true for many of the past however many shows. There's a severe lack of depth or development to anything, everything feels done for the sake of doing it or to fill hours of TV that simply have no care put into them.

The coordinates have been put in the GPS, but these weekly shows are mere mile markers on the way to better things happening eventually when the right state pays the right price. It doesn't have to be this way but for a company that makes money purely from existing, it's the path of least resistance that appeals most.

Written by Max Everett

Sometimes AAA talent appears on WWE programming, but it hasn't been a large focus — though The War Raiders, Rey Fénix, and Dominik Mysterio have defended AAA titles on WWE TV. Last week, we saw AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio approach Roman Reigns with an idea for Reigns to defend his title in Mexico.

A tournament was announced to determine who would challenge Reigns for the title. The tournament started tonight with a match between Penta and Laredo Kid. While Penta was the obvious choice to advance, Kid was able to be showcased. The tournament is filled with AAA stars such as El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner, La Parka, and Psycho Clown. El Fiscal will be making his WWE debut during the tournament. It's nice for AAA to get some shine on WWE programming and introduce new talent to WWE fans who may not go out of their way to watch AAA.

Having Reigns defend his title against AAA stars is important and it should be treated as a big deal. His opponent should also be treated as a big deal and a weekly tournament on "Raw" is a good way to do that. It's nice to see WWE put in some effort with AAA on Netflix and make them feel important outside of Worlds Collide shows.

Written by Samantha Schipman

I've seen a lot of wrestling fans on social media stoked that Oba Femi and Bron Breakker are on a collision course headed right toward one another, but I just don't think this is the right time at all to run this feud, as there's really no good loser. These guys aren't exactly on an even playing field when it comes to fighting for the title of "The Future of WWE."

Femi should win with the run he's been on since being called up to the main roster, but if Breakker loses, that's only going to hurt him further. You can't exactly run DQ and messy finishes forever once you kick this off in the ring.

Femi was extra hot there for a minute, coming off another victory over Brock Lesnar in the main event Hell in a Cell match to cap off night one of SummerSlam, but WWE failed to capitalize. Not that Femi isn't still mega-over with crowds, of course, but the time to do something interesting with him immediately has passed. Not to mention whatever the heck is or isn't going on with his King of the Ring victory and title shot. The faster we speed toward Money in the Bank in October, the less likely that title match will happen for Femi, and with this Breakker feud seemingly on the horizon, I think all of us Oba Feminists can kiss that goodbye. WWE has nothing for him to do until closer to WrestleMania 43, so I guess Breakker feud it is.

I don't love Breakker's whole staring off into the distance thing during backstage segments, and tonight, staring off ringside like he expected Femi to come out and interfere in Akira Tozawa's match against Austin Theory, like he had anything to do with it. And he didn't, until Breakker attempted to spear Tozawa after the match, which is what brought out "The Ruler" for their latest stare down. This time, they were physically kept apart by security, with Michael Cole making the comment that things were "going to pop off" soon.

I don't love Breakker being concerned about Femi being "the future of WWE," since Breakker hasn't done anything noteworthy since January, when he lost a title match to CM Punk after carrying around the gold like he owned it there for a few weeks. Paul Heyman also further proved this feud is going to happen soon during a backstage segment, by telling Breakker he was going to respect Femi until Breakker gave him a reason not to. It's inevitable at this point, and it gives both men TV time, but I don't think things are going to end well for Breakker, who deserves much more.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Liv Morgan's storylines have largely revolved around Dominik Mysterio and other Judgment Day business over the last few months. For that reason, the Women's World Championship has felt very pushed aside which was amplified by the fact that Morgan had yet to defend it on WWE programming until she retained against IYO SKY at WWE SummerSlam Saturday earlier this month. However, it looks like that may be no more with Stephanie Vaquer and Becky Lynch both having their eyes on Morgan's title fresh off their returns to WWE.

Was there anything inherently special about what either Vaquer or Lynch said to the audience or to one another? No, but it didn't really matter to me what the content of their segment was. The thing that ended up mattering more to me is that WWE is finally giving attention to the Women's World Championship and making it feel important by trying to build up actual tension between Liv Morgan, Lynch, and Vaquer. Yes it may be a little played out given that Vaquer's most recent feud was with Morgan and Lynch has had her fair share of Women's World Championship related storylines, but I'm willing to look past that given how much it seems that all three women are working hard here to build up something engaging. It may not have been the most unique thing WWE has done, but "Raw" was in desperate need of having the Women's World Championship back and it was still one of my favorite things to come out of this edition of the show.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

What an entirely odd position to be in, having gone from being a proponent of Solo Sikoa returning to the Bloodline fold in a growing want for him to be relevant and prevalent once more, to actually quite enjoying the babyface arc he was on, only for Jey Uso to beat him in a match stipulated to bring him back to the fold anyway. Yet, that is the position of this writer by the end of Monday's "WWE Raw."

Sikoa had tried as best as WWE creative had allowed to get over as the dominant heel, having served reasonably well as the "Tribal Enforcer" of the Bloodline, only to then try and fail to usurp Roman Reigns as "Tribal Chief" after already starting a faction called the New Bloodline that he then had to rename MFT because the OG Bloodline was back (kind of). By the end of it all he was a bit of a joke, a heel who would profess his greatness only to then stare at the lights or win in a match with copious interference.

Recently, having been brought back into the orbit of the Bloodline back in its full power, and adding new members like former MFT Jacob Fatu, Sikoa had been experiencing a little more credibility as the goofy and funny babyface. He even started that way during Monday's show, completely outshining Jey in an exchange that riffed on the very ridiculousness of this Bloodline resurrection run.

That predicated the singles match between them being booked for the main event, with either Jey winning and forcing Sikoa to fall in line, or Sikoa winning and getting to be left by his entertaining self. This is WWE, and the worst option should always be the one taken, so Jey won that match with interference from his brother Jimmy.

LA Knight had been bemoaning the Bloodline all night as has been his sole character trait for the last however long it has been (too long, that is the point). But at this time when it was important to be there for his ally in that fight, the man he had won against the Bloodline at SummerSlam with, and actually hugged after, he was nowhere to be seen.

Nice, solid predictably boring work to undercut something exciting emerging. No one can say WWE doesn't have a modus operandi.

Written by Max Everett

It hasn't been too terribly long since we've seen IYO SKY on WWE TV, and she and Women's World Champion Liv Morgan went to war at SummerSlam, but it still felt good to have her back. SKY was revealed as Sol Ruca's mystery tag team partner against Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, and the pair made for a really fun team.

While I'm sure many fans thought Ruca was getting a big surprise as a partner, a "WWE NXT" call-up or a return, SKY coming back to help get revenge against Judgment Day made sense (though Danhausen did offer up his help, for a discount, to Ruca backstage, in a short segment that made perfect, quick, but cute, use of the "Very Nice, Very Evil" one tonight). While a surprise would have been cool, it was nice to see SKY doing something fun like this, and not focused on the Women's World Championship. While I love her in the chase, and as champion herself, of course, it's nice to give some other parts of the women's division some more depth on the show.

The match was slightly all over the place at points, but I still thought it was fun, and the women thankfully got a good amount of time. I shouldn't be commending WWE for having a women's match on the show, but with Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer's promo segment, complete with Morgan attack, earlier in the night, you can never be too sure at this point if other women are also going to get time.

If reports that some in WWE aren't thrilled with Ruca's work on the main roster are true, I hope her work tonight with SKY proved them wrong. She didn't look bad at any point, and she had a beautiful counter to the Pop Rox and landed a really solid Sol Snatcher right after.

As I was watching this match, I also realized that I want to see the Women's Tag Team Championships appear on "Raw" more often, or at all, really. Perez and Rodriguez work so well together, they should have another shot at them at some point, after some wins. I think SKY and Ruca could work together for a few weeks to challenge for them, as well. Pair the babyfaces together for a bit to help Ruca work on her in-ring if there are really some backstage who are worried about it.

"Raw" hasn't exactly been off to the hottest restart since SummerSlam, but this match was an easy watch, and SKY being back can only mean good things.

Written by Daisy Ruth