Johnny Gargano made his long awaited return to at the end of Monday Night Raw to save Tommaso Ciampa from Imperium.
The shock comeback – which marked Johnny Wrestling’s first TV appearance since May – came after his former tag team partner’s Intercontinental Championship match.
Ciampa and GUNTHER met in the ring earlier in the night for a contract signing which was intended to make their match official for next week.
The two stars exchanged strong and passionate words about how much the IC Title means, before Adam Pearce confirmed the bout would take place later in the show.
This sparked a brawl, and set up a blockbuster main event between two incredibly talented stars who delivered in a big way.
Ciampa looked strong here, with no Ludwig Kaiser or Giovanni Vinci at ringside to distract him, but eventually he fell to GUNTHER’s sleeper hold.
The champ was joined by Kaiser and Vinci for the beatdown, but Gargano made his triumphant return, with the reunited DIY hitting their finisher on Kaiser to end the show.
As an aside, the main event saw fans light up the arena with their as a spontaneous tribute following.
Rhea Ripley returns with warning for Dominik Mysterio, Shinsuke Nakamura destroys Seth Rollins and more
Raw kicked off with chaotic scenes as Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler were fighting in the aisle, with Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea Ripley joining in the madness.
As Jax, Baszler and Rodriguez brawled up the ramp, the Women’s World Champion laid out security guards and stood tall before bringing out the Judgment Day’s Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest, blasting them both for how the last few weeks have gone.
She warned Dom that if he doesn’t on Tuesday’s NXT, he may as well not come home to her.
Priest wasn’t scheduled to compete which meant his match with Jey Uso was pulled, and Main Event Jey came out to flirt with Ripley, all leading to another great brawl with JD McDonagh and Cody Rhodes also getting involved.
Ludwig Kaiser (who has been tasked with keeping Giovanni Vinci in check) and his tag partner overcame Alpha Academy in a thoroughly entertaining clash between four great athletes.
Bronson Reed continued to build momentum as he beat poor Cedric Alexander, who did get some early offence in before he fell to the Tsunami.
Erik is out with an injury and Valhalla wasn’t at ringside either as Ivar took on Xavier Woods in a fun match which saw the New Day man roll up his opponent for the win, but the Viking Raiders took out him and Kofi Kingston after the bell.
Seth Rollins came out to address his rivalry with Shinsuke Nakamura, but he got absolutely battered by the King of Strong Style before their Last Man Standing Match this weekend.
Tegan Nox – who earlier found out Becky Lynch wasn’t cleared to compete due to – ended up taking on and beating Chelsea Green, which Natalya came out to help neutralise the presence of Piper Niven.
Drew McIntyre came out to explain his actions and insisted he won’t be everyone’s saviour considering no one helped him against The Bloodline.
The Miz came out to rant about last week, leading to a match between the two which interestingly ended with McIntyre exposing the turnbuckle, slamming the A-lister into it and hitting the Future Shock DDT rather than the Claymore.
WWE Raw airs Monday nights at 1am on TNT Sports 1.
