The season premiere of Monday Night Raw set the bar high.

The episode was bookended by excellent multi-person battles and featured five key takeaways. Here’s what you need to know.

• Three new Bad Blood matches confirmed, another almost certain.
• Jey will challenge Bron Breakker for his Intercontinental title.
• The feud between Drew McIntyre and CM Punk takes on a new dimension.
• Bronson Reed is back with great courage.
• The Wyatt Sicks have finally arrived.

The Wyatt Sicks show their wrestling skills

Yes, they have been on WWE programming for months, but on Monday the faction showed us what they are made of in Calgary, Alberta.

The season premiere of Monday Night Raw from C-Town began with the voice of Joe Tessitore.

It takes some getting used to, but there’s no doubting what official Raw commentary sounds like when the voice of such an established sports commentator brings his brand to the show. To prepare us for the 8-man street fight, a video reminder of the Wyatt Sicks vs. American Made feud played, but we had no idea what we were about to see.

American Made showed up dressed as Tommy Dreamer and Sandman. The Canadian crowd pelted Chad Gable, Ivy Nile, Julius and Brutus Creed with chants of “You suck.” It was great to have this match outside of the United States, where American Made’s patriotism wouldn’t stop them from their planned heat.

The Wyatt Sicks had one of their most celebrated performances since their debut. It almost felt like a PLE, and when the match was over, it became clear why it felt so special. The Wyatt Sicks used Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis, Joe Gacy, and Erick Rowan for the match, and they all delivered.

Wyatt Sicks emerged victorious when Lumis pinned Julius Creed with a leg drop from the top rope, but there were plenty of memorable moments before that. Gable performed a version of Chaos Theory on Rowan outside the ring.

Nikki Cross hit Gable – yes, Gable – with her own belly-to-back suplex. Brutus Creed hit a Brutus Bomb on Rowan outside the ring. Lumis and Gacy were impressive together throughout the match.

This one was pretty much the best you can get in street fighting outside of the PLE.

Here is a breakdown of the other segments.

New Bad Blood matches announced

The feud between the Terror Twins and Judgment Day is in full swing.

Liv Morgan will defend her Women’s World Championship against Rhea Ripley on October 5 at Bad Blood. This will be the first official match of the upcoming PLE. Additionally, Finn Balor entered the center of the ring to challenge Damian Priest.

He challenged Priest to a match at Bad Blood. Of course, he accepted his challenge and Priest was overwhelmed as the rest of Judgment Day overwhelmed him. Rhea Ripley tried to come to Priest’s aid while she was on crutches due to her knee injury in the story. Liv Morgan tried to intercept her and was briefly successful.

Ultimately, Judgment Day outmatched the outnumbered duo and had to be saved by Jey Uso. It will be interesting to see how this trio gels together and if Uso’s admiration for Ripley develops into a larger storyline.

Braun Strowman and Bron Breakker have a solid and intense mic session

Before the Fatal Four Way match to determine Bron Breakker’s next challenger for his Intercontinental Championship, Braun Strowman did a promo about how he persevered despite the rib injuries he sustained in his match against Bronson Reed.

Breakker interrupted the interview and told Strowman he hoped he would win. Breakker is getting stronger on the mic and his presence on the screen is undeniable.

Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair successfully defend their titles, but is Jade injured?

Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair defeated the Unholy Union in a fairly standard tag team match, but towards the end Cargill appeared to have sustained an injury to his left thigh or buttock.

She suggested an injury and we should look for updates on this throughout the week.

LWO vs. Judgement Day

Judgement Day wasn’t over yet and Cruz Del Toro shaved off his beard. Those are the two most notable things about this section.

A clash between them and LWO was announced for later in the show. Zelina Vega is the strongest member of their faction on the mic. The powers that be would do well to use her as the voice of the group. Instead, Dragon Lee, who will face Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio, who will face Finn Balor, took over the mic duties.

The message got across, but Zelina could have given the section more impact.

Bret Hart Segment

A Calgary legend, Bret Hart, came into the ring with Wade Barrett and Tessitore. This was a bit of a sloppy handoff from Tessitore, who seemed a little confused about how the Survivor Series announcement was going to go.

The Big Four PLE will take place in Vancouver on November 30. Hart’s presence was a nice part of the meeting between Sami Zayn and Gunther. The two will face off at Bad Blood for Gunther’s World Heavyweight Championship, despite the latter having rejected Zayn’s challenges over the past two weeks.

Zayn won the ringside fight, which will continue to develop over the next few weeks.

This segment was cool because it looked like Gunther was really nervous in the ring with Hart.

Bron Breakker confronts everyone in the Fatal Four Way

Breakker continued his strong mic work when he confronted Pete Dunne. Sheamus attacked Dunne at the end of the mic session, and it would be difficult to find a man in WWE with more enemies.

Dunne is at odds with the guys in the IC title picture, Trick Williams in NXT, and Sheamus.

Dragon Lee vs Dominik Mysterio

The two have had some excellent matches together in the past. Monday’s match was a nice addition to the catalog, but it ended up being a Liv Morgan attack that helped Dom to the win.

We would all be lying if we didn’t admit that the chemistry between Dom and Liv is even better than that between Ripley.

Natalya joins Zelina Vega and Lyra Valkyria to face the Pure Fusion Collective

As a tribute to Calgary, Natalya teamed up with Zelina Vega and Lyra Valkyria to face PFC in a match that was for the locals only due to the lack of a draw.

The fact that USA switched to picture-in-picture during part of the match proves this concept. WWE sent the locals home happy by letting Natalya’s hot tag sequence lead to the win for her team.

Drew McIntyre delivers another masterful promo and gets a HIAC match at Bad Blood

The Scottish warrior is still in his pocket and we could be on our way to another classic match.

He’s doing the best work of his career without a title around his waist. He’s carried his share of the burden in this feud with CM Punk. McIntyre took verbal aim at Barrett, expressing his disappointment in the man he considered his friend.

He threatened Barrett that he would interfere in his affairs. Raw GM Adam Pearce ended the argument and announced a new Bad Blood match.

Pearce hit the nail on the head by announcing a potentially epic Hell in a Cell match to end the feud with Punk.

Karrion Kross is working on The Miz and The New Day could still have problems

Karrion Kross’ sole purpose on WWE programming is to turn people into villains. He had been working on Xavier Woods, but he turned his attention to The Miz, who looked like he was dressed for a funeral.

Another brief misunderstanding between Kofi Kingston and Woods suggested that there was still discord within the ranks. When Odyssey Jones was released from WWE, there were doubts as to whether this aspect would continue.

It’s one of the understated, interesting angles in the center map.

Finn Balor beats Rey Mysterio in a no contest

Balor prevailed over the legendary luchador by eventually putting him in a submission hold and refusing to give up. Balor forced the match to be forfeited and allowed Mysterio to continue hitting him after the match.

Joe Tessitore delivers his first outstanding commentary on a WWE moment

The Fatal Four Way was epic and decided the #1 contender for the IC Title. It started slow and built up to a layered and exciting finish. Bronson Reed returned to destroy Braun Strowman by throwing him through a table.

Although nothing has been confirmed, the two could have a devastating match at Bad Blood. Dunne has enough to do with Trick Williams and Sheamus. Ilya Dragunov isn’t quite ready, but Jey Uso was overdue.

He went over when he stole the pin after Dragunov hit Dunne with an H-bomb, and Uso broke up the deal with a splash to get the pin. Breakker confronted him as the show went off the air.

WWE delivered with the premiere of the Raw season and set the bar high for the coming weeks.