WWE Raw Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction, Highlights Before Crown Jewel 2024

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of the go-home edition of WWE Raw before Crown Jewel.

In addition to tying a bow on the feuds that will culminate in matches at Saturday's premium live event, WWE had a lot planned for this week's show.

Here is a look at what was advertised:

• LWO vs. The New Day vs. War Raiders (No. 1 Contender's match)
• Dominik Mysterio vs. a former world champion
• Zelina Vega vs. Ivy Nile
• Sheamus vs. Ludwig Kaiser
• Seth Rollins will appear live

Let's look at what happened on Monday's episode of Raw.

Raw opened with a few shots of people arriving at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania and a recap of Jey Uso losing the IC title last week.

When the show went live, he made his way to the ring through an excited crowd.

Jey spoke briefly before asking Jimmy Uso to join him. Big Jim thanked him for his work on SmackDown and said they needed to be together to take down Solo Sikoa and The Bloodline.

Jey said they still had a lot of stuff to fix in their relationship, but if they were going to reunite, it wouldn't be as somebody else's henchmen. Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa attacked them, and Jacob Fatu soon joined them while Solo looked on from ringside.

The Usos eventually turned the tables and took out all three men. The segment ended with the reunited twin brothers standing tall as Sikoa and his boys were sent away by general manager Adam Pearce and security.

While it feels like a lot of this part of the Bloodline story is being rushed, this was a good segment. Jey having issues that need to be resolved makes sense, so it will be interesting to see how he and Roman Reigns interact on SmackDown.

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• The way WWE feels the need to show off the Crown Jewel title at the beginning of every episode is hilarious. They wear white gloves but never touch the belt, which makes the gloves pointless. 
• Jey's line that fans no longer confuse them was a good one because it's so real. It used to be hard to tell them apart when they had the same hair, gear and makeup. 

Sheamus was back in action this week as he took on Imperium's Kaiser. They immediately started trading punches after their initial lockup.

Kaiser took control and sent Sheamus out of the ring with a sliding dropkick. He seemed to catch The Celtic Warrior off guard, but the Irishman eventually turned it around.

Sheamus has made a reputation for himself as being one of the hardest-hitting wrestlers in WWE, so it should surprise nobody to hear he and Kaiser left some welts on each other.

The German is an incredibly reliable worker who always makes his opponents look good, so this ended up being a fun encounter that ended clean with a Brogue Kick to give Sheamus the victory.

A run with the intercontinental or United States title would be great for Kaiser in the near future.

Result: Sheamus defeated Kaiser

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• The announcers noted that Sheamus has had 252 televised wins in WWE. 
• There was a moment at ringside when The Celtic Warrior fell down and didn't look like he meant to. 
• The way Sheamus broke the guillotine choke by slamming Kaiser into the steel steps was awesome. 

The next matchup featured Nile taking on Vega, but both competitors had members of their stable at ringside for support.

Vega began by slapping the taste out of Nile's mouth and kept control until she hit a meteroa from the apron, sending us into a commercial break.

We returned to see Vega in control and setting up for a moonsault. She almost missed her opponent completely but still made the cover for a two-count.

The Creeds saved Nile from Code Red, and they ended up in a fight with Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde. Nile used the distraction to hit a uranage for the pin and the win.

This was a pretty uneventful match with a predictable finish. A couple of awkward moments didn't help, nor did the fact that much of it took place during the break.

Result: Nile defeated Vega

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Sami Zayn made some good points when talking to Jey backstage about how The Bloodline is no longer his business. 
• Even the camera angle WWE used couldn't hide how far off the mark Vega was with her moonsault. 

Rollins came out to deliver a promo about his upcoming match against Bronson Reed, but the big man called him out to the parking lot for a fight.

The camera followed The Visionary from the arena to the parking lot where he and Reed began brawling. Rollins ended up stomping his rival on the hood of a car, but Reed was back up a moment later and put Rollins through a few tables with a Death Valley driver.

The next match saw three teams compete for a shot at The Judgment Day's tag titles. Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, Erik, Ivar, Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee were all looking to get one step closer to gold.

Lee, Ivar and Kofi started the match. The two high-flyers teamed up against the powerhouse before Kingston rolled Lee up for a near-fall.

Triple Threat tag matches are always a mix of chaos and fun because a member from each team is always legal, unlike Fatal 4-Way tag bouts where only two competitors are legal at once.

Woods started using some dirty tactics in an attempt to win and got booed by the crowd, which seemed to upset him. Kingston tagged in and hit a dive onto everyone to put New Day back in the driver's seat.

This match lasted through two commercial breaks, giving all six men time to shine individually and as duos. Everyone worked well together to make this an entertaining and hard-fought contest.

Chad Gable showed up and pulled Mysterio out of the ring with an Ankle Lock, paving the way for the War Raiders to pin Kingston for the victory.

Result: The War Raiders defeated LWO and New Day

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• The way Reed threw a garbage can at Rollins perfectly was very funny. 
• R-Truth had a hilarious backstage segment with The Miz and Pete Dunne. 
• The War Raiders ditching the Viking gear was a good call, but it means we will probably never get another Viking Rules match. 
• Erik and Ivar tossing Lee over the top rope onto everybody else was a good spot. 

Dirty Dom was told earlier in the show that his mystery opponent was Damian Priest, so he asked the rest of The Judgment Day to stay backstage to prove he could defeat a former world champion.

This played out exactly as you would expect. Dom tried to cheat while Priest used his size and power advantage to dominate whenever possible.

The match started with less than 15 minutes left in the show, and it included a commercial break, so they had enough time not to feel rushed but not enough to do anything spectacular.

This felt more like a random encounter than the blowoff to their feud, so the result didn't feel as important as it should have felt.

Predictably, the rest of The Judgment Day showed up and interfered while distracting the ref. Priest fought back with a steel chair, but Dom rolled him up with a handful of tights to steal the win.

The Archer of Infamy grabbed Dominik and hit the Razor's Edge before striking him several times with a chair. It felt like this was designed to get a pop from the crowd, but it felt like reactions to it were minimal.

Result: Mysterio defeated Priest

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Dom got some decent heat during his entrance, but it was nothing like what he used to get. 
• Dom's boots used to be very white, but they are more of an off-white color now. He needs to keep his gear clean. No wonder white gear is so uncommon outside of pay-per-views. 
• Morgan is really great with her facial expressions. 

Going from a three-hour format to two hours has had positive and negative effects on the Raw roster.

On one hand, the show feels more streamlined; on the other, fewer talents are featured in the ring every week.

This week's show included four matches. Sheamus vs. Kaiser and the Triple Threat tag team match were worth watching, but it's a little disappointing that the biggest highlight from this week's show was a parking lot brawl between Rollins and Reed.

The biggest surprise was how little this felt like a go-home show before a PPV. Crown Jewel was addressed in a few videos, but most of what we saw had nothing to do with any of the matches that will take place this weekend.

Grade: C+