WWE RAW 10/5/2026: 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Roman Reigns will be defending his title against the LA Knight at Money in the Bank, and so one of his limited use tags has been cashed in for this Monday so they can talk questions. Overall, there shouldn’t have been much to dislike.

Knight can talk. It might be the only thing he can do great. Although I think his character is being disgraced. it almost feels like a shadow of his original feud with Reigns and Bloodline, it’s a personal thing and he’s massively over with the crowd. And Reigns is Roman Reigns. He might slur his lines now and then, but he’s got this aura where you just let it slide and it flies away, he’s a very solid talker.

But they don’t really have much to talk about right now. Reigns is rarely present; He last defeated Penta in a title defense in Mexico City, and Knight attacked him to start the feud. Meanwhile, most of the story has been a version of Knight saying he wants a chance at Reigns, Bloodline telling him no, and Reigns not being here, them fighting to wait, rinse and repeat.

Reigns was finally here, but Knight had said everything that needed to be said before, and it was really to Reigns’ advantage to hear it again. Reigns felt disconnected, which may be the point, but it doesn’t really make for compelling television. It’s implied that he feels out of touch as champion, which has always been part of the charm, but not because he doesn’t care about the product or the competition in front of him. Rather the opposite; he outwitted his opponents while taking steps to defeat his opponent by recognizing them for what they were.

Now he just appears and reminds everyone who he is, scolds who he is against, calls for recognition and leaves. It all seemed a little shallow and one-dimensional. There’s not a lot of material for them to work with and it really feels like it’s all about filling in the gaps until the show and the game rolls around. It’s just annoying when it’s the top title program, and especially when, as said, it’s one of the limited appearances Reigns will make.

Written by Max Everett

The women’s division on WWE SmackDown hasn’t been my favorite thing lately, so the fun women’s tag team match that actually got some time tonight was one of my favorite things on Raw. Sol Ruka and Lola Wies teamed up to face Doomsday’s Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez, and with Liv Morgan in her No. 1 contender match for the show’s main event, she was thankfully absent from the ring.

It was Perez who picked up the win for his team, something the star desperately needed heading into this weekend’s Money in the Bank ladder match. I thought Rodriguez was going to win over Ruka in the latter part of the match until Ruka countered the Tejana Bomb. Perez got the win, however, with a sneaky pinfall on Vice after he accidentally hit his Ruka with his spinning back.

Nothing fancy, but a win is a win. Perez hasn’t been on a winning streak in 2026, as his only recent victories have come as an MITB qualifier and in a #1 contender’s match for the AAA Reina de Reinas Championship. While this certainly wasn’t an all-important win, Perez needed one in the “W” column and I’m glad he has some momentum behind him heading into Saturday.

The match itself was good and entertaining for a fairly lackluster edition of Raw that has continued outside of the 946 storyline and the main event of the #1 contender’s match. I thought Ruka looked good tonight and she and Vis worked really well together. Wizz was obviously so ready for the main roster, it’s clear in his matches, and I’m glad WWE promoted him right away to the MITB match.

It was a fun way to highlight three of the six women in the ladder match, and I wouldn’t mind seeing the Women’s Intercontinental Champion mix it up on Monday night, although I’m curious to see who Rodriguez’s next opponent will be. I really hope Perez has to climb the ladder and capture the briefcase on Saturday, but to be honest, I’d be fine with any of these three Raw contenders winning the fight.

Posted by Daisy Ruth

I understand the idea of ​​Solo Sikoa joining forces with The Usos in an attempt to take down The 946 in a six-man tag team match next week, but that doesn’t mean I’m committed to the decision to line him up with his family once again.

WWE spent several weeks establishing a babyface partnership between LA Knight and Sikoa as Sikoa sought to forge his own path outside of his family image. When Sikoa joins forces with The Usos, it once again feels like a step backwards in the story WWE was originally trying to tell here, and it makes things seem a little more convoluted than they need to be. I understand that Sikoa wants revenge against the 946, but if that’s the case, there’s no reason for WWE not to wait until after Money In The Bank so that Knight can copy Sikoa before Sikoa thinks about copying someone else from within The Bloodline. I know there will be those out there who enjoy this, but it’s not for me personally and something I was really excited to see (especially as a babyface Sikoa fan).

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Lyra Valkyria has been doing some really good character work lately, and she showed it off in tonight’s backstage segment with Byron Saxton. Saxton asked her about losing to IYO SKY and Valkyrie asked why she wasn’t on top of the women’s division. “I always do what is necessary. What else should I do? I’m the complete package, everyone knows I have what it takes and it all depends on him.” He said he split up Bayley’s team and beat him twice, but Bayley cost him a shot in the MITB ladder match and that’s why he didn’t beat SKY.

As she questions how to end it, Bailey walks in and finds it funny that Valkyrie is in control of the situation. He said it would be over when he said it was over. Bayley and Valkyrie have not only been one of the few bright spots in the women’s division, but WWE in general. Bayley is one of the best in the business and Valkyrie is one that WWE needs to deal with. He has ring talent, mic skills and character work. If WWE really wanted to create new stars, Valkyria should have been near the top of the list.

Bayley and Valkyrie have been a lot of fun, but also considered the essence of the storyline by not relying on tropes for women in WWE (like being fierce or fighting for a man). They are always intriguing and capture my attention. Every time they step into the ring, they have great matches. While the encounters are repetitive, they also keep them fresh and interesting. I’m really interested in where this story goes. Even if Bailey just ends his contract, they have plenty of story to tell in the time they have left.

Written by Samantha Shipman

In the main event of tonight’s Raw, we got the most obvious result possible, and while I don’t hate the fact that the Women’s World Championship match at Money in the Bank is going to be a triple threat, I think it should have been decided from the start. I love a good women’s main event on the red brand because that really rarely happens anymore, but this was an overblown mess.

With Morgan complaining about the “Santiago Screwjob” where special guest referee Lynch counted out Whacker’s title return to his native Chile, and with Lynch telling Whacker that he earned the gold by helping him out, I feel like Whacker would have called the triple threat right away. I guess it would have been too many weeks between that house show and Money in the Bank for WWE to book any interesting feuds between these three women, so they went the route of a #1 contender’s match that turned out to be a mess.

I didn’t think the Morgan-Lynch match was bad, and it was actually really fun until we got the obvious interference from Doomsday contestants Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. The women were pretty relentless in distracting the referee and beating on Lynch, and it finally took Walker down. Instead of taking them out, however, she got up on the apron in the form of Jessica Carr, who eventually turned around to see Rodriguez handing the title to Morgan. He kicked out Doomsday, and a furious Morgan argued with Walker while still on the apron, and both would-be challengers casually took him out.

Vaquer is usually booked smarter, so this was a little weird for me, but he let his temper get the best of him and caused the DQ in an already extremely chaotic fight. He called the triple threat, which Adam Pearce officially announced. This could have been official and hyped weeks ago when WWE had already set up the perfect storyline with the Lynch-assisted “Santiago Screwjob” to Vaquer, but they didn’t follow through.

This match is sure to be a good one on Saturday and we finally got to the triple threat. I just didn’t need to see another overbooked, disqualification finish tonight, even if it was the women in the main event spot.

Posted by Daisy Ruth

I’m not the biggest fan of Oba Femi’s The Vision program, mostly because we’re just killing time until WWE finally crowns the man at WrestleMania. That said, you can’t argue with a fired-up Femi with a mic in his hand, and that’s what we got on Raw.

It helps that the promo segment came after Femi single-handedly cleared The Vision from the ring, which is much more entertaining than The Ruler falling into a numbers game. I also continue to enjoy Femi helping out Jevon Evans, her longtime rival in NXT. But mostly this segment worked because Femi is so good on the mic. Nothing he says feels forced or stale, it just flows naturally, even when the material can come off as cliche. Not everyone can pull off the time-honored “your a** belongs to me” line without it coming off as too cheesy or cheesy, but Femi came off as if she was the first person to ever say the words. Overall, it was a great way to sell the match, because as much as we all love Bronson Reed and are excited to have him back, Bronson Reed really has a mountain to climb on Saturday. In Money in the Bank, a draw for this match equals a draw for any Oba Femi match, meaning Oba Femi is bada**. He felt like himself tonight with both the physical work and the mic work, and suddenly I’m that much more excited to see Pham vs. Reed this weekend.

Written by Miles Schneiderman