Welcome to Bleacher Report’s live coverage of WWE Raw on October 9 in Omaha, Nebraska.

After their match was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago, Becky Lynch finally stepped into the ring with Tegan Nox to defend her NXT women’s title.

That wasn’t the only action we got from the women’s division this week. We also saw Nia Jax take on one of the only women in WWE who can match her for power: Raquel Rodriguez.

In addition to those contests, we saw Kofi Kingston take on Ivar in a Viking Rules match in the hopes of putting the New Day vs. Viking Raiders feud to bed once and for all.

Let’s take a look at everything that happened on Monday’s episode of Raw.

Raw opened with a video recapping the action from Saturday’s Fastlane. Seth Rollins kicked things off in a Cruella de Vil-style fur coat to give a promo.

He said being the world champion has been the greatest honor of his life, but he is just getting started. He almost made it sound like he was injured to tease the crowd, and the fans chanting “Thank you, Rollins” certainly helped him sell the ruse.

Drew McIntyre arrived with a little wave to the champ as he got into the ring. The Visionary correctly assumed The Scottish Warrior wanted a title match and seemed fired up to compete.

However, McIntyre told him he wanted the match but only when Rollins is back to full fitness. He proposed Crown Jewel on November 4 as the time and place.

This might have been the most cordial segment ever to lead to a title match, but as soon as McIntyre left the ring, Damian Priest attacked the champion from behind and called for The Judgment Day to bring his Money in the Bank briefcase.

But McIntyre grabbed the case from Dominik Mysterio and hit him with it before throwing it back toward the stage. This gave Rollins time to recover and knock The Archer of Infamy out of the ring.

Booking the world title match for Crown Jewel and giving us a tease for a MITB cash-in was a fun way to open the show, especially since it showed Priest is no longer asking for Rhea Ripley’s permission to use his contract.

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

The first match of the night was the Viking Rules bout between Ivar and Kofi Kingston. This came about after Ivar lost to Xavier Woods last week and then beat down both members of The New Day.

It didn’t take them long to take the fight out of the ring and begin using weapons. Ivar threw Kingston into some of the wooden shields that surrounded the ring, but the former WWE champion was the one who brought a table into the equation a few moments later.

As Kingston began to take control after putting Ivar through it, Valhalla jumped on him from out of nowhere. Woods came out and baited her into running into the barricade, but then Ivar crushed him against it, too.

When Kingston went for Trouble in Paradise, Ivar caught him and slammed him through a table. He finished off the New Day man with a moonsault for the win.

This was more entertaining than expected, but these Viking Rules matches have exceeded expectations every time WWE has used the stipulation.

Ivar has looked great in his solo outings recently and it’s awesome to see WWE using him while Erik is injured instead of just shelving him.

Result: Ivar pinned Kingston with a moonsault

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

Two of the most powerful women in WWE clashed when Nia Jax and Raquel Rodriguez met for a match. This came after weeks of Jax attacking random women on Raw.

They wasted no time turning this into a physical battle. They weren’t going for lockups and headlocks, they were trying to knock each other’s head off.

The fight spilled out of the ring after Jax propelled Rodriguez into the ring post so hard that she ended up falling through the ropes.

One of the most famous spots in a match like this is having the babyface try but fail to pick up the larger heel before finally lifting them up successfully. They did that in this bout, but the moment she succeeded was with a powerbomb instead of a bodyslam.

The match was going well until Rhea Ripley attacked Jax to cause a DQ. Shayna Baszler also entered the ring and ended the segment by nailing the Australian with a knee to the face.

Even though this match was between Jax and Rodriguez, Baszler and Ripley stole their thunder a bit by setting up a possible title bout.

Result: Rodriguez was disqualified when Ripley attacked Jax

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

Michael Cole was in the ring after a break to welcome the new undisputed WWE tag team champions, Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes.

Cole asked Rhodes is he still planned to “finish the story.” The American Nightmare said Fastlane was a great moment for him and Uso and that he’s excited to be a tag team champion.

Before Rhodes could address his pursuit of the universal title, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens came out to discuss getting a shot at the tag titles. Zayn said it should be him and Owens holding the belts but he was still happy for the new champions.

KO did not have mixed emotions and said he wasn’t happy to see them holding the titles at all. Rhodes said that not only do they accept the match, but they can also do it on Monday’s show.

This was a pretty straightforward segment, but the four men involved are all pros, so it was entertaining enough.

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

After Ricochet recovered from Nakamura’s attack, he competed in a No. 1 contender’s match against Bronson Reed and Chad Gable to find the next challenger for the Intercontinental Championship.

Even though Ricochet and Gable were opponents, they often found themselves working together against their much larger rival.

These are three very different kinds of wrestlers. Gable is the technician, Ricochet is the high-flyer and Reed is the powerhouse. They were able to work together to use each of their unique styles to produce a highly enjoyable Triple Threat bout.

The moments when Gable and Ricochet were together were fun and fast-paced exchanges, and Reed using his power and size to perform moves on both opponents at the same time were the best parts of the match.

Reed was able to secure the win with his patented Tsunami splash from the top rope.

Result: Reed pinned Ricochet with the Tsunami

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

JD McDonagh was looking to prove his worth to The Judgment Day by taking out the man who stopped Priest from cashing in earlier in the show, Drew McIntyre.

The Scot easily dominated his smaller opponent until Dominik Mysterio provided a distraction that allowed McDonagh to target his opponent’s knee.

The former cruiserweight champion had to rely on Dom’s help more than once to keep himself in the fight. But whenever McIntyre had more than a moment to recover, he would take the Judgment Day wannabe down.

He drilled the Irishman with the Future Shock DDT before lining up for the Claymore for the win.

This was exactly what it needed to be, which was a glorified squash match that showed McIntyre’s dominance and exposed McDonagh’s weaknesses. It wasn’t a long or memorable match, but it accomplished what it needed to.

Result: McIntyre defeated McDonagh with a Claymore

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa gave an interview with Wade Barrett to talk about reuniting DIY, but Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci attacked them out of nowhere.

The next match on the card was the NXT women’s title bout between Becky Lynch and the woman she was supposed to face a few weeks ago, Tegan Nox.

Since both of these Superstars are babyfaces right now, this match started off clean. They were going for takedowns and counters, rather than trying to punch each other in the face.

Bouts like this can be a breath of fresh air because the performers have to rely on their technical ability more than usual. Both women are great at what they do, but you never know how a first-time encounter will go.

This was a solid bout that made Nox look better than she has in a long time. The Man always makes her opponents look good, but the Welsh wrestler was clearly putting all of her effort into this because she knew this opportunity was her chance to prove her worth on the main roster.

After surviving everything Nox had to throw at her, Lynch defeated her to retain the NXT Women’s Championship.

Result: Lynch defeated Nox

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

The main event of the night was given almost half an hour at the end of the show, so all four competitors took their time with the entrances and introductions.

Sami Zayn and Cody Rhodes started for their teams and fought through a commercial break. Once the show returned, Jey Uso tagged in to square off against one of the only people he can call a friend in WWE.

Kevin Owens eventually tagged in and was much more aggressive when he started fighting with Jey. When they took the fight out of the ring, Rhodes and Zayn joined in.

We returned from another break to see KO and Uso back in the ring, with Rhodes and Zayn back on the apron.

As expected, this was a highly entertaining match. You had four veterans in this bout who have all had experience as part of a tag team, so they could have put on a good match without even trying.

Rhodes and Uso were able to get the win, but The American Nightmare had a bad landing on the back of his neck when he hit the Cody Cutter. He seemed fine afterward, but that was a scary bump.

Result: Uso and Rhodes pinned Owens to retain the tag titles

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

The first Raw after a PPV can sometimes be light on the action because WWE spends so much time setting up the next set of feuds, but this week’s show had some really solid wrestling.

Lynch vs. Nox, the Triple Threat involving Gable, Reed and Ricochet, Ivar vs. Kingston and the main event tag title bout were all entertaining in different ways.

The non-wrestling segments were also strong this week. Several storylines were addressed and advanced, and a few matches were set up for both next week’s Raw and Crown Jewel on November 4.

All in all, this was a strong week for the red brand. With WWE loading up Tuesday’s NXT to compete against AEW Dynamite, it looks like we have a great week of wrestling ahead of us.

Grade: B