WWE Raw returns live tonight at 8/7c on Netflix from AllState Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, as the road to WWE SummerSlam 2026 continues.
‘WWE Then. Now. Forever. Together.’ kicks things off as always.
Sami Zayn Confronts Cody Rhodes, Gunther Attacks
We then shoot inside AllState Arena, where we see Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn bumping into “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes ahead of their main event title tilt later in the show.
Zayn tells Cody he knows he’s here to reclaim the Undisputed WWE Championship, but insists tonight won’t be his night. Before their verbal exchange can escalate any further, Gunther storms into the scene and blindsides Rhodes in vicious fashion.
Following a brutal assault, Gunther turns his attention to the champion, issuing a stern warning to Zayn before attacking Rhodes once more. “The Career Killer” leaves “The American Nightmare” laid out and bloodied as officials rush to the scene.
Seth Rollins Kicks Things Off
Inside the arena, we hear “Burn it down!” Out comes Seth Rollins as advertised to officially kick off tonight’s show. He makes his way down to the ring as fans sing along with his theme. He settles inside the squared circle and gets on the microphone.
Rollins begins by welcoming everyone to Monday Night Rollins. He’s the visionary, revolutionary Seth “Freakin'” Rollins. He loves this building. The fans chant for CM Punk. Seth says he couldn’t care less about that guy right now, his business is the World Heavyweight Championship, SummerSlam and continuing to own Roman Reigns.
Roman is not here tonight. Seth doesn’t like it either, but Roman didn’t come either because he didn’t think it benefitted him, or the check wasn’t big enough. From day one, Roman has been the chosen one. Nobody ever wants to hold him accountable. The Shield debuted as a trio, but it was made clear that Roman was the chosen one.
Roman was going to the big star no matter if he couldn’t cut a promo or wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag. That didn’t sit right with Seth. There’s a bunch of little boys in the front row, he was that boy. He sat in the stands and wanted to be a pro wrestler his entire life.
He wanted to main event WMs and be the biggest star in the industry. To watch those dreams be handed off to somebody else broke something in him. Every decision he made after that is in response to watching his dreams being handed to somebody he didn’t think deserved it.
He broke up the Shield and cashed in at WrestleMania’s main event to stick close to Roman Reigns. It was petty, but he believed that he put in the work and believed in himself he could still achieve those dreams. They weren’t running the same race. A couple of years back, Roman said something about him that changed everything for him.
He admitted he worked ten times less than Seth and made ten times the money Seth did. He said it with such bravado that Seth wanted to puke. It wasn’t about the money or living in a mansion, the reward was the work. The ability to come in and make something of himself.
Roman has to beat Seth at SummerSlam because he needs to justify what he’s been trying to prove to himself the last 15 years, that he’s not a fraud. Seth needs to beat Roman just as much, he needs to prove to himself and the 5 year old version, through sacrifice, hard work and dreams you can still achieve greatness.
On that note, LA Knight makes his way to the ring. He catches the microphone and walks circles around Seth. There was no way that for two weeks in a row he was going to sit here and listen to this again. Roman and Seth bored everyone to sleep every week with the same old trash.
They bloviated all over each other, all they had to do was talk about how great they were and Seth got a title shot. LA remembers when you had to win matches and tournaments to get title shots. They both lost in the first round, but LA’s not making a claim for nostalgia’s sake.
Brother brother brother brother, they’re the greatest of all time, greatest at what? LA hasn’t been here as long as Seth, he’ll never catch him as far as world title shots go. When business was starting to peak a couple of years ago, who was on top? He’ll give credit to Cody, but everyone was saying LA Knight (Yeah!)
He was making his rise, but got cut off by the Bloodline, then cut off by the Vision. Here we are again, the Bloodline’s trying to stuff him down again but they can’t. Roman and Seth are the two biggest vomits in the business, they can’t stop LA because he must rise. Seth says he doesn’t like LA, but he respects him.
LA is a shining example of everything he described: hard work, hustle and grind, he believes his time will come. Right now, Seth can’t worry about LA because he has to go to SummerSlam and get the title he never lost. After he gets it back, LA can be the first person he puts in the dirt. Seth storms off.
LA turns around after talking some trash directly into the camera. He then walks right into a Jimmy Uso superkick. “Big” Jim is still mad about the last few weeks, and talks some trash at Knight before leaving through the crowd as the explosive opening segment comes to a close.
Backstage
Adam Pearce yells at Gunther, then Nick Aldis appears! He’s on leave! Gunther tells him he’s a failed wrestler and a failed GM. Aldis is mad that Pearce poached his SD main event for Raw, and says Pearce is doing a pretty crappy job of running both shows.
WWE World Tag Team Championships
The Street Profits (c) vs. Bron Breakker & Austin Theory
We return inside the arena, where the upbeat sounds of the official entrance tune for The Street Profits hits the house speakers. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins, the reigning WWE World Tag-Team Champions, make their way out and head to the ring as we cut to a pre-match commercial break.
The show returns and we see Ford and Dawkins settled into the ring. In the Gorilla position, Paul Heyman approaches The Vision and talks down to them for failing in their mission with Joe Hendry and others last week. He tells them to go get the tag-team titles back or don’t come back to him.
With that said, the theme for the challengers hits and out comes The Vision duo of Bron Breakker and Austin Theory, accompanied by Logan Paul, who still has his arm in a brace. The four men involved in this opening tag-team title tilt stare each other down.
The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this one. Ford and Breakker kick things off for their respective teams at the onset.
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