For the past few months, I have been very happy with how WWE has been in the Triple H era. Especially now that Vince McMahon is gone for good and isn’t involved in creative. However, there have been a few things that Triple H has not done well creative-wise. One of the main ones is how Judgement Day has been booked. Especially when Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley left, it’s all been downhill from there. It just got worse for the faction as a member of their faction is injured and his name is JD McDonagh. With that injury, it’s time to face the facts, it’s time to end this faction for good.
I want to start by discussing the obvious with JD McDonagh. On Last Monday’s episode of Raw, JD McDonagh along with Dominik Mysterio faced the War Raiders in a tag team match. He suffered a massive bump when going for a springboard moonsault outside of the ring and his head landed on the announce tables. The craziest part was, he finished the match and waived doctors away from him.
JD McDonagh did go to the hospital and he later posted a response on his X/Twitter account. He revealed that he suffered broken ribs and even punctured his lungs, which is going to keep him out for multiple months. I got to say, he got lucky because that bump looked nasty. Watching that live at home, I legit thought he was concussed and he could have broken his neck.
While Raw on Netflix has been great, the injury bug is starting to appear for the show. Ilja Dragonov had a serious knee injury and who knows when he will be back. Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane of Damage Control suffered injuries. Bronson Reed Broke his ankle and is likely out for many months. Now JD McDonagh is hurt, which is a massive blow to the Raw Tag team division if there is any. I honestly can’t name another Raw Tag Team not named the War Raiders.
To be honest, ever since Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley left the Judgement Day, this faction has been a mess booking-wise. I have hated how Finn Balor has been booked after he betrayed Priest and it makes no sense that Balor never beat Damian Priest on PPV once. Ever since that feud ended, Finn Balor has been going nowhere and it’s just been disappointing. Remember when Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh were Raw Tag Champions last year? Yeah, I did because they barely defended them.
Liv Morgan used the faction to get the Women’s title, but her feud with Rhea Ripley went too long. Also, I am in the minority here, but I was not a fan of the booking of the Ripley and Morgan feud. Especially when Morgan was harassing Dominik in the workplace in the middle of the Janel Grant lawsuit. This made the whole thing super problematic and WWE got lucky that there wasn’t yet another bombshell report about another Vince McMahon’s Alligation or in the Janel Grant case.
I loved it when Raquel Rodriguez was added to the group as an extra muscle for Liv Morgan. She was one of my favorites when she was NXT, but my goodness her booking has been terrible too. Especially with how she runs away when she’s supposed to protect Liv Morgan. She should have gone to the finals of the Women’s Intercontinental Championship Tournament but got eliminated in round 1. It just feels like WWE missed the opportunity to build her up in this faction.
As for Carlito, I am more surprised he is still employed after that whole “Got to Learn Chinese” fiasco when talking about Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane, two Japanese wrestlers. The fact he didn’t get that line approved by Creative, he’s lucky he got a pass.
The only one from this faction that has been booked decently is Dominik Mysterio and the craziest part is he’s 27. He is going to wrestle for so many more years, he has the ability to become a world heavyweight champion in this company. The sky is the limit with Dominik and it will be interesting to see where he is in 5 years.
Another thing that bugged me was the seemingly canceled feud with the Wyatt 6. It was originally rumored that the Judgement Day was going to feud with the Wyatt 6 and seeds were planted of a feud happening around Survivor Series. After all, it would have been perfect for War Games. However, it just didn’t happen and Wyatt 6 is now in a feud with the Final Testament Faction, which has been terrible. Cancelling this feud has been a big negative for both factions and it should have happened by now. Now it’s likely not happening with Wyatt 6 now “transferring” to Smackdown.
After all of this, I am just about done with this faction and it needs to end now. It’s already jumped the shark and every member needs to go their separate ways. If you want to keep Dominik with Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez for a future story, I am fine with that, but everybody else needs to go their separate ways. It just feels like a tremendous wasted opportunity because Judgement Day 2.0 could have been something special and it just hasn’t worked. As for JD McDonagh, I wish him a speedy and healthy recovery. That bump looked nasty and it could have been worse. Get healthy and we will be happy to see you back in the ring.
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