Raw recap & reactions: Don’t miss, King - Cageside Seats

WWE is back overseas, and that meant an earlier than normal start time for Monday Night Raw. The trade off is usually a much better crowd, but they seemed pretty tame in large portions of the show. Which is strange because I quite liked it overall. Let’s waste no more time, shall we? OOOOOOO-BA! OOOOOOO-BA! Yes, I spent a little too much time considering how many “o’s” to put in that sub headline to get across how awesome it is when the fans simply chant for Oba Femi. They did just that at the start of this week’s show, gearing up for the King of the Ring Finals at Night of Champions and a showdown with Jey Uso. Oba’s promo was simple — destiny has been kind to him so far, and she is still on his side. He considers victory a foregone conclusion, such that he’s already considering what to do after he becomes King of the Ring. Does he go after the WWE or world heavyweight championship? The fans made clear they want Femi vs. Roman Reigns, not Femi vs. Cody Rhodes, for what it’s worth. There was something fascinating about Jey Uso making his entrance then, not because he interrupted but because the chief criticism of Jey is that he’s all flash and no substance and the crowd reaffirmed this in its own way, showering him with cheers while he made what felt like the longest entrance of all time, and then ran it back once he got to the ring. It genuinely felt like an attempt at getting Femi over even more with the segment of the fanbase who feels that way. Oba is the opposite of Jey — all substance, and backing up every bit of his big talk. Jey, who was completely blown up and breathing heavy through his entire promo, simply said Femi was overlooking him like everyone else always has. He’ll win the King of the Ring like he did the Royal Rumble and the world heavyweight title while being overlooked. Compelling enough. Oba was cool as a cucumber when he responded: if you shoot, don’t miss but even if you do, you’re getting destroyed. In the end, Jey was right — Femi is not worried one bit about him but rather his cousin, The Tribal Chief. Go tell him he’s coming. Hot damn, this was fantastic to build to not just the King of the Ring Finals but also the pending Femi vs. Reigns match, whenever it may happen. Sorry ain’t cutting it When Chad Gable’s ego blew up, the man was completely out of control. He made life hell for those closest to him who were nothing but good to him. When he lost his mask in Mexico and lost his identity as El Grande Americano, it forced him to confront the man he had become. That man was a mess, who had to make amends to the many people he hurt. The way you do that is through extreme ownership and accountability. Apologies are largely useless, if we’re being honest. A simple “I’m sorry” doesn’t actually say much. That’s why I appreciated that he called Maxxine, Akira Tozawa, and Otis out to the ring and laid out exactly what he did, made clear he understood how and why it was wrong, and then apologized. Maxxine wasn’t buying it, and I  appreciated that even more. Because that’s really how it is, isn’t it? She called out that this apology was selfish, it was for him, and they don’t actually need him. He’s not sincere, and never has been. Otis and Tozawa have big hearts and want to forgive him, but she’s not buying what he’s selling. Why believe him? And you know what? That’s fair. It’s a valid response, even considering the apology as sincere, which it certainly seems to be. The fans didn’t love Alpha Academy walking out on Gable, and he looked devastated. But the other side of making the apology for the wrongs you’ve done is accepting the consequences of your actions. Your remorse doesn’t change the hurt you caused, it simply opens the door to forgiveness and a path forward, if there is one. It’s important that everyone has the choice on whether or not to walk through that door. Maxxine, for now, is choosing not to do so. Gable has to accept that. This was fantastic in every way.  All the rest * Paige got a nice homecoming when she used the RamPaige to pin Lyra Valkyria to retain the tag team titles alongside Brie Bella. But that’s not where the action was. Instead, Bayley picked her partner up after the loss and told her “you’re the best.” Lyra responded by snapping and beating the trash out of Bayley. My only issue here is Valkyria was doing the thing where she was stopping mid beatdown to consider herself like she was unsure and then continued on anyway. There is far too much of that in WWE heel work these days, like a misplaced attempt at depth. I wish the heels would just own it and full send when they break bad. * Ethan Page defeated Dragon Lee in a solid television match that saw the former use a low blow to score the victory. They’re taking the time to establish him on the main roster. We’ll see how well he catches. * Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan is pledging to humiliate Iyo Sky by both beating her to win Queen of the Ring and then taking Rhea Ripley’s women’s championship at SummerSlam. It sure would be something, huh? Sky got the better of her here and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happens this weekend. * If it wasn’t clear Solo Sikoa has no interest in joining forces with The Bloodline, he made it so when he showed up on this show and Spiked Jimmy Uso during his match against LA Knight, leading to Big Jim’s defeat. We are once again headed for more family turmoil. I’m sure you’re terribly excited for it. * The Vision kinda suck, huh? The Street Profits won the world tag team titles from them here thanks to Austin Theory being incredibly stupid, Joe Hendry showing up to scare off Logan Paul, and Bron Breakker being a big dumb overly aggressive guy. I will say they did great to show an interview with Seth Rollins crediting the Profits before assisting them in their victory. It was a fun way to close out what was a pretty damn good show overall. This was one of the better episodes from the red brand in a while. Grade: A- Your turn.