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Akira Tozawa Trains With Alpha Academy, Lynch Stares Down Ripley, Gunther Retains | Raw Fight Size

Wrestling
Colin Tessier Oct 17, 2023 1:17AM

Here is your post-Monday Night Raw fight size update for October 16, 2023.

- Akira Tozawa trained with Alpha Academy (Otis and Chad Gable), who then challenged the New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) to a match.

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- Indi Hartwell confronted NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch backstage. Lynch said she would go to Adam Pearce to make their match official. Rhea Ripley showed up and briefly stared Lynch down.

- Gunther defended the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Bronson Reed.

- Sami Zayn opened the show and commented on Kevin Owens getting moved to WWE SmackDown. He noted that he had mixed feelings, as he knew Owens would do great things on SmackDown. Zayn also stated that he was ready to stand on his own and prove he was at the world title level. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest, Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley) interrupted. Ripley said they wanted to get rid of Zayn permanently. Jey Uso made the save.

- Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso defended the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against Finn Balor and Damian Priest of The Judgment Day. Dominik Mysterio got involved, and Sami Zayn eventually took him out. Jimmy Uso interfered and cost Jey the match, as Priest and Balor won the titles.

- Adam Pearce announced that Rhea Ripley will defend the WWE Women’s World Championship against Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Raquel Rodriguez, and Zoey Stark at WWE Crown Jewel.

- WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins came to the ring and discussed his upcoming match against Drew McIntyre. He called McIntyre out and asked him why he was talking to Rhea Ripley backstage. McIntyre told him to mind his own business. Rollins warned McIntyre not to mess with The Judgment Day. They continued to go back and forth, and Rollins vowed to beat McIntyre, who wouldn't have any excuses.

- Michael Cole missed the show, and Kevin Patrick filled in for him.

- Ricochet faced Shinsuke Nakamura in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The bout spilled throughout the arena and into the crowd. During the match, Nakamura hit Ricochet with the GTS. Nakamura used nunchucks to inflict punishment on Ricochet. Nakamura sent Ricochet crashing through a table. Nakamura scored the win with a Kinshasha.

- Both Xia Li and Jade Cargill confronted NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch backstage.

- Johnny Gargano took on Ludwig Kaiser. The broadcast team noted that Tommaso Ciampa was not cleared to compete. Giovanni Vinci interfered, and Gargano attacked him. The distraction proved to be costly, as Kaiser scored the win.

- Sami Zayn got frustrated with Jey Uso as he was clearly upset about Kevin Owens moving to SmackDown. Uso walked away, and Zayn chased him down to apologize. They hugged, so the issue was apparently behind them.

- WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley faced Shayna Baszler. They battled back and forth. Nia Jax came out, and Raquel Rodriguez took the fight to her.Zoey Stark got involved as well. The match ended in a disqualification, and the brawl continued after the bell. Stark stood tall.

- Piper Niven defeated Natalya. Tegan Nox made the save when Niven and Chelsea Green attacked her after the bell.

- Drew McIntyre told Sami Zayn he proved himself and stepped up as a leader, but he didn’t feel that way when he saw Zayn embracing Jey Uso and trusting him. Zayn disagreed with McIntyre and told him to put The Bloodline behind him. He said he could understand having trouble doing that. McIntyre told Zayn that he couldn’t relate, as he had never been a world champion, and he would never be one if he kept acting the way he has been. Zayn challenged him to a match next week.

- WWE highlighted Bad Bunny’s success.

- Becky Lynch welcomed Jade Cargill to the big time

- Indus Sher (Jinder Mahal, Veer Mahaan, and Sanga) briefly appeared.

- Gunther scolded Giovanni Vinci and told him to do his job against Johnny Gargano next week.

- Damian Priest commented on his title win.

- Drew McIntyre teased the return of his “Broken Dreams” theme song.

- NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio and Nathan Frazer got into a heated confrontation backstage. Frazer then said he would pay a visit to NXT on October 17.

- Check out the card for the October 23 episode of WWE Raw here.

- On Raw Talk, Drew McIntyre made it clear that he won’t just forgive and forget about The Bloodline.

Click here to catch up on our coverage of the October 16 episode of WWE Raw. For a full review, check out the post-show podcast on our YouTube channel.

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