WWE Raw results, highlights (Nov. 18): Rhea Ripley returns to declare War Games

You can't have a proper women's War Games match without Rhea Ripley. That's right — after the latest "WWE Raw," "Monday Night Mami" is back angstier and gothier than ever!

*Whispers* She's back...

Ripley is awesome and one of the very best in the world right now, a bonafide superstar whose presence is immediately felt whenever she's on screen. We knew she'd circle back into the Liv Morgan equation sooner rather than later. Whether their saga ends at Survivor Series remains to be seen — I have my doubts — but their feud is a good inclusion to a War Games match, which she declared after charging down to the ring wearing a face mask and greeting Morgan with a head-butt.

It was a perfectly badass Ripley moment and incited a brawl. Before that, Morgan did her spiel, claiming to be the best ever, yada, yada. She was fine on the mic, but Nia Jax was better with her limited time, scanning Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, telling them she doesn't like or dislike them.

There's a lot of intertwining with this War Games match, and my only problem is that it's shoe-horned and blatantly obvious compared to the other side with the men. The Bloodline story couldn't be any more perfect for a War Games (for lack of a better word) war. On the women's side, would it hurt to dwindle the numbers? What's wrong with doing a trios War Games match? More often than not, the more bodies, the less likely it is to get a certified banger classic match.

It's at least worth experimenting with. Maybe this time around wasn't ever going to be the right opportunity to try it, but there's always next year.

Monday Night Raw-lins indeed.

Speaking of the men's War Games match — or as I've proudly coined it, "The Bloodline Civil War Games" — Seth Rollins is going to be a part of this and it was obvious as soon as he was confronted last week.

As I said a few weeks back, predictable isn't bad as long as it's good. Rollins has remained adamant that the Bloodline saga is a battle not at all worth it for him and he'll never help a tyrant like Roman Reigns. Now, he's either a liar or we'll get a big old swerve. His involvement could easily lead us to reignite the Reigns feud somehow mid-match, but this is a hard one to read.

I really wanted to use a Bronson Reed pun right there. Not sure you guys could have handled it.

Each side of The Bloodline (minus Solo Sikoa and Reigns) came out at the start of Rollins and Reed's main event match. They brawled their way out of the arena and the duo gave us another solid showing.

Reed keeps looking like a monster, surviving Lionsaults, springboard sentons, Frog Splashes, and Pedigrees — all for Sikoa to get him a distraction win with a Tsunami Splash.

I feel like there's a better way to get Rollins to accept the invitation in this whole thing, but it looks like we're taking the "beat him and make him lose" route. Ultimately, watch CM Punk take over at the event he returned to WWE at a year ago. There's that big old swerve I teased.

PUSH OF THE NIGHT

This is the progression I'm talking about. Ludwig Kaiser shined bright last week and got to do so again this week, and frankly should get a hot singles run to grab a title.

The start of how we got to his big moment was a little comical, though. WWE wrote this like a scene that directly proceeded Kaiser and Gunther's opening interaction in last week's show. Are we just supposed to believe they didn't talk at all after that? My intelligence was greatly offended.

Overall, the interaction between the two was stellar as Gunther told his protege to be his own man, sprinkling in some German and sending him on his way.

To show his impending (and hopeful) evolution, Kaiser decided to take matters into his own hands and ruin the Intercontinental title banger between Bron Breakker and Sheamus. The DQ win for Breakker was the only downside of that match, but Kaiser taking out these two dudes of all dudes was awesome and made him look like an actual threat. Especially compared to how easily he lost to Damian Priest last week.

You could argue he could have looked stronger had he not done it toward the end of a hard-hitting match. Either way, this is what he needs, and I love that it came at the suggestion of Gunther. Instant capitalization and manifestation.

👍 MONEY 👍

1. Kaiser is a double winner tonight because we're seeing the snowball effect of a great character. More, more, more. Give me more, WWE!

2. Lyra Valkyria got a very solid vignette on this episode of "Raw." In an ever-talented women's roster across the board, she has still found a way to feel missed, and that's thanks fully to her talent and freshness. This did its job. She's getting better and better as a speaker, and everyone should look forward to what she does upon return.

3. The War Raiders got the win over The Judgment Day (Dominick Mysterio & Carlito), looking like the strong and viable tag team they are. Their War Machine finisher is awesome and poor Carlito sold it like a champ. It feels like we're heading to them turning on "Dirty Dom," but I don't expect that to turn into a team alongside the big boys or anything weird. I sure hope not anyway.

4. We got a tale of the tape for Rollins vs. Reed. It had some kind of silly stats on it, but that's always fun to see some real fight elements thrown into your pro wrestling. WWE has admittedly added a couple of these little elements lately and they've been welcome inclusions.

However, I apologize for killing kayfabe, but we all know the numbers definitely lie in pro wrestling.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. The Kaiser-Gunther segment started so strong and then floundered unbelievably. After Kaiser walked off, Priest was seen randomly sitting at a table backstage before he gets attacked by Gunther. He was legitimately about 15 feet away from them.

A nice little rear-naked choke attempt from Gunther was thwarted and then Priest just kicked him low and scolded him. That's it. That is your World Heavyweight Champion. Adam Pearce then randomly shows up all casual to do nothing as Priest tells him things are all good.

As the legendary Cris Carter would say: Come on, man.

2. We all love a good botch as long as nobody gets seriously hurt, right? No, just me? Well, if you do then go watch the LWO vs. American Made match and wait for Ivy Nile to go through the wrong ropes on a pull-down spot. Tough.

3. Dakota Kai also got a vignette on tonight's "WWE Raw." Unfortunately, it wasn't great. Kai's promo work just isn't great and she's had no reason to be taken all that seriously yet. This also came after she already returned and reunited with Damage CTRL. It was late. Poor timing in several ways.

4. Alpha Academy ran into Kofi Kingston backstage and asked about Xavier Woods, who came out of nowhere and completely ignored The New Day's opponents next week to talk about their own troubles. Honestly, this was some more "so bad it's entertaining" work like the Gunther and Priest stuff.

The losers of it all are Alpha Academy, who Woods made look like total chumps by ignoring them and then talking trash after Otis tried to say something.

I will say, that guy is WWE Chris Farley, and you can't not love that.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

Breakker and Sheamus! It's Breakker and Sheamus. Did I mention Breakker and Sheamus?

Everyone knew this match would be great and it was. Man, Breakker, in particular, is a freak. Along with being the night's Uncrowned Gem, he hit the spot of the night, sentoning off the top turnbuckle to the outside on Sheamus. For his size, that looked incredibly painful.

This was bittersweet because of how missed of an opportunity it was. A strong story about Sheamus' Grand Slam championship pursuit with the Intercontinental title could have been built, but it just goes to show how quality these guys are. Sheamus still provides great energy at this stage in his career, as does Breakker, who sold like a madman on moves like Sheamus' counter knee to his spear and a White Noise off the top rope. The crowd was justifiably hyped because this ruled all around.

I still don't know why there are two "k's" in Breakker, but when he's this good, I can get over it.

👑 I give this show a Crown score of 6/10. 👑