WWE Raw results, highlights (Aug. 18): Naomi announces pregnancy, relinquishes title

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The Women's World title scene has to hit the reset button after "WWE Raw" in Philadelphia. Last week, the champion Naomi was set to defend her title against the former champion Iyo Sky, until she was declared medically unfit to compete earlier in the day. On Monday night, it was revealed why.

The best pregnancy announcement of all time?

There was a hunch that Naomi would miss a significant amount of time, and that will be the case, as she and Jimmy Uso are officially expecting a child. However, Naomi halted her early character-breaking to maintain her heel work and kicked "Raw" general manager Adam Pearce out of the ring. This was hilarious, and the Women's World Champion did her best to keep it up, but the crowd's chants were making it difficult for her not to break character.

Ultimately, she delivered another excellent promo, bragging that she "Netflix and chilled" while warning the roster that she'll be coming for her belt nine months and some change from now.

So, now it's about figuring out where to go from here. Admittedly, this couldn't be any more perfect for Stephanie Vaquer, who already had her title shot coming up at Clash in Paris. She already felt like the favorite to get the nod, at least in my eyes, but now, how does WWE not put the title on her ASAP? Nonetheless, she needs to be put back on TV.

This feels like a fairly solid opportunity to introduce the teased "new" Bayley into the fold. Still, it's challenging to pinpoint which direction the company will take when Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky are pursuing their own paths. More on that later.

EC Dub, EC Dub, EC Dub

Seth Rollins' "Vision" kicking off shows just to introduce themselves has gotten tired very, very quickly. What wasn't tired was being in Philadelphia with Paul Heyman, who channeled plenty of references to days past when he ran the land of extreme, ECW. Once interrupted by Jey Uso (because he was wrestling Bron Breakker in the main event), Heyman called back to several ECW legends, ranging from Sabu to New Jack to Rob Van Dam, and even Tommy Dreamer, who took some wild shots.

Uso's mic work was, as usual, mediocre, and this segment primarily served as a means to build up to the Breakker match later on, which was adjusted to "Extreme Rules." Talk about an easy way to prevent a DQ.

That didn't mean it wasn't obvious what was going to happen.

Overbooking, predictability, stupidity

There is still no good reason, in kayfabe, why The Vision wouldn't just come out immediately for matches their members are in, especially in matches without disqualifications. Regardless, they did — because, of course, they did. But thanks to Roman Reigns, CM Punk and LA Knight, Uso still got the win.

Alright, where do we even start? How about with Uso looking like a complete moron in-story?

After two spears and a handful of healthy chair shots, Uso went for a Uso Splash rather than the pin. That was the catalyst to have Bronson Reed pull the referee out of the ring (and his shoes) to incite the most predictable overbooking imaginable, as everyone already mentioned (along with Rollins) arrived on the scene.

This was the most moderate, half-hearted, and borderline uncreative way to avoid doing the awful DQ finishes. Breakker and Uso are good together. They always have been. There has been no good reason for Uso to be shoehorned into this, though. 

The Vision can't be a long-term stable, otherwise they will quickly reach Death Riders territory, if they haven't already for some viewers. (They're still the "Seth Riders" to me, dang it.)

Sky is still the limit

Raquel Rodriguez deserves better, especially after her match against Iyo Sky, which she lost clean via an Over the Moonsault after Sky took out Roxanne Perez — who beat Sky by roll-up last Monday. Sure, that was because of the mix-up with The Kabuki Warriors, but Rodriguez is a great talent in her own right. I've been pushing for her to get better treatment, so at least the loss came to the former champ, and WWE's very best.

This match was excellent, and some of the highlights saw Rodriguez counter a Sky suicide dive, rolling with her and launching her into the ring post. Sky simply can do no wrong right now. She could wrestle a broom and make it awesome.

Ultimately, this match is seemingly going to lead to where I want to see it go: A Sky alliance with Rhea Ripley, who made the save after the match when Perez attacked. Sky admittedly erupted after being overwhelmed by The Kabuki Warriors and Ripley arguing backstage, but this is the easiest path to bolstering the tag team division that one could ask for. Especially when it's so desperately needed, considering The Secret Hervice stood tall over Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair on "SmackDown."

🍦 Nerf of the Night

WWE essentially mentioned Natalya's outside wrestling appearances just to bury them. If Killer Kross' departure was any evidence of it, WWE really doesn't want wrestlers to get over on their own. Natalya felt that in full force when she lost a relatively quick title match against Becky Lynch. Not only that, she tapped to the Disarmher, which is the complete opposite of what her "Lowkey Legend" character would have done — even with the worked-in arm injury she was selling.

It would have been cool to see Natalya get the win here, regardless of what she could do with that outside WWE character. But either way, the contrast of the Intercontinental title is stark to the U.S. on "SmackDown."

Lynch went on to attack Maxxine Dupri and Akira Tozawa, which progressed toward Lynch vs. Nikki Bella, who made the save and stood tall over Lynch. It's whatever, but no one should be expecting Lynch to lose that match.

👍 MONDAY NIGHT MONEY 👍

1. Penta pinned Xavier Woods after he hit a Mexican Destroyer. There were some New Day shenanigans, but it was a good, wholesome match. Let's please get Penta doing something of significance now because The New Day have practically become low-key heel jobbers.

2. Another Bayley vignette progressed what appears to be an impending evolution — or descent into madness. These have been excellent so far, and really hit on Bayley's past gimmicks.

3. Angry Pearce is the best Pearce, as he screamed backstage to separate Rusev and Sheamus to announce their Donnybrook match at Clash in Paris. When examining their matches so far, it's safe to assume that it will be absolute madness.

👎 RAW DEAL 👎

1. Uso's promos still include him mentioning "tapping out Gunther." This. Is. Insane.

It's almost as if Triple H wants to bury Gunther, but knows he can't or something. Are we supposed to completely forget that Gunther beat Uso clean the last time they wrestled? Hence why Uso is no longer the champion. What is this, man? Why is this being hung onto?

2. Unless there were some mic issues, the Philadelphia crowd was painfully silent for Sky's entrance — a shameful reaction for the best wrestler in this company.

👑 Uncrowned Gem of the Night 👑

It's nice to see that DQs are starting to fade, or at least occur less frequently. When they do, we get to see seriously epic matches like The Judgment Day vs. Mr. Iguana and Dragon Lee.

Everyone involved in this match worked together wonderfully, but specifically, JD McDonagh and Lee. Some of the sequences they delivered ruled. To the extent that the limited story depth was here, it didn't matter.

Iguana is just good, over wrestling fun, no matter the ring he's in. Aside from being fun all around, it furthered the interconnection with AAA and Dominick Mysterio's upcoming world title match against El Hijo del Vikingo. If chaos is going to ensue, it can happen after the match is over. This was great.

👑 This might have been a much better show on the scoring scale than I'm giving it credit for, but it ultimately just didn't feel that exciting or entertaining, despite some very solid matches. I give this show a Crown score of: 6.5/10. 👑