The pressure cooker that’s been heating up finally exploded on “Raw” when the Judgment Day destroyed Finn Balor.

“Dirty Dom” had been looking for Balor to confront him after getting involved in his match last week. Although he was cursed by Danhausen before the match, Mysterio blamed Balor. Mysterio had ordered JD McDonagh to get the ring bell hammer, but Balor stopped him because Mysterio previously said he wanted to do it on his own. Balor told Mysterio tonight that it was for his own good and said “maybe you are a spoiled, little p****!”

Mysterio struck Balor and McDonagh tried to calm Balor down, but he responded with a Pele Kick. When he grabbed Mysterio by the throat, McDonagh pulled Balor off. Balor charged at Mysterio and McDonagh took him down with a clothesline. Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez joined in before it became a four-on-one assault. Balor briefly fought back before Mysterio hit him in the face with the ring bell hammer. He then put it in his shoe and connected with a 619 to Balor. He followed with a Frog Splash and McDonagh attacked him with a chair. As the refs tried to stop him, Mysterio connected with another Frog Splash with the chair laid across Balor’s stomach.

Balor joined Judgement Day in June 2022 when they turned on Edge and kicked him out. Balor was the one who added McDonagh to the group.

Oba Femi made his “WWE Raw” in-ring debut on Monday against Rusev, after the “Bulgarian Brute” called him out last week for a match. While Femi has been wrestling quick matches over on the blue brand, his most recent a victory over Johnny Gargano, he had only taken out the War Raiders in the ring as they awaited a tag match.

The men traded big strikes in the ring to kick off the match until Rusev ran into a big boot by Femi. “The Ruler” sent them both over the top rope with a clothesline. Rusev tried to battle back, but Femi reversed an Irish whip to send Rusev into the stairs. Rusev sent his opponent into the ring post, then hit a spin kick to him near the commentary desk.

Back in the ring, Rusev tried to take Femi off his feet, but only had him staggering. Femi threw Rusev across the ring like it was nothing, but followed it up with a Fall from Grace power bomb for the victory.

Penta completed his first defense of the Intercontinental Championship over El Grande Americano during “WWE Raw.”

The bout was originally scheduled to pit Penta against the OG Americano, otherwise known as Chad Gable, but prior to the match he was shown in a backstage segment with Danhausen. As has been the case since last week, Danhausen asked Gable if he wanted to team with him, and Gable said no. So Danhausen opted to curse him, and the segment closed with Los Americanos – Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate – following behind him. 

When the match came to start, it was Ludwig Kaiser’s iteration of El Grande Americano that emerged, and he would go on to challenge the champion. There were moment where it looked as though the impostor was going to take the title, at one point tying Penta to the bottom rope by his mask tassel to lay offense in; he had to untie him to make the cover, allowing Penta to kick out of the eventual pin attempt. 

Penta fought back with high-flying offense and sought to finish things with the Mexican Destroyer, only for Americano to avoid it and land a Death Valley Driver for a close near-fall. And then once more Penta switched momentum with a DDT and set up for a springboard Destroyer, connecting with it at last to get the winning pinfall, and thus the title retention. 

Penta won the title from Dominik Mysterio last Monday, similarly after Danhausen had cursed Mysterio in a backstage segment.

Nile had an impressive showing in the gauntlet against Bayley. She was able to counter a Bayley-to-Belly and a Rose Plant throughout the match and hit a delayed vertical suplex that had Bayley in the air for an extended period of time. She hit a second rope suplex then a swinging uranage, but Bayley was able to roll out of the ring and compose herself. Bayley hit an elbow drop off the stairs to Nile on the apron, followed by a Bayley-to-Belly back in the ring to eliminate Nile to go one-on-one with Asuka.

Bayley took the fight to Asuka immediately, but Kairi Sane interfered on the outside. Bayley got Asuka into a knee bar, but “The Empress of Tomorrow” was able to roll to the bottom rope. Bayley almost had the match won with a running knee, but Asuka kicked out and the bout rolled on.

When Sane went to interfere again on the outside, Valkyria ran back out to help her tag team partner. Asuka caught Bayley’s attempt at an elbow drop and got her into the Asuka Lock, but Bayley fought out of the hold to hit a Rose Plant for the victory.