The biggest winners and losers of last night's RAW (August 3)

The lead-in to RAW was promoting the return of Shane McMahon in a transparent hailmary to secure better ratings. This made many a fan groan, but what we got was unexpected and could be interesting. Elsewhere, many balls were up in the air as SummerSlam approaches in only a few weeks.

With the "biggest party of the summer" well over the horizon, who got the most and least out of this critical episode of Monday Night RAW?

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RAW Winner: Apollo Crews

Apollo Crews returned to RAW last night, carrying the old United States Championship belt. He defeated MVP and claimed the new belt for himself. MVP complained about conditions like the lighting and demanded a rematch at SummerSlam.

Whatever happens from here, Crews returning to reclaim the mantle of being the undisputed United States Champion is good for him. The match was nothing special, but he'll have a prominent place in a "big four" WWE pay per view event, which is a huge boost for him compared to last year.

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RAW Winner: Shayna Baszler

Shayna Baszler didn't win a decisive victory against Sasha Banks last night, but she inserted herself into the title hunt, which compared to what she was doing a month ago, is a major step up. Earlier this summer, she couldn't find her way on television. Now she's made it clear she's waiting in the wings.

I can't say that the prospect of another Shayna Baszler title reign excites me, since it wasn't that exciting in NXT, but in terms of booking favorability, this week can only be counted as a win for her.

We now await to see what happens as SummerSlam comes closer. Asuka will get her expected rematch, after last week's match ended so weirdly.

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RAW Winners: Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan

Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan defeated the IIconics in a nondescript tag team match on RAW last night. It was nothing major, but it does mark a step up for them compared to what they were doing. That singles push for Liv Morgan we started to see ran out of steam a long time ago.

Now we simply wait to see what happens in the coming weeks and whether or not they'll build up any momentum from this.

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RAW Loser: Nia Jax

This was weird. That's really the only way one can describe it. Nia Jax was written off television in this odd segment for attacking one of WWE's producers. She went from the prospect of feuding with Shayna Baszler for a title shot, to having herself written off TV, and it all happened so quickly!

The real reason for this doesn't yet seem clear, but the only thing we can say for sure is that her prospects for Jax having a meaningful run on the red brand have, for now, been reduced to nearly zero.

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RAW Winners: Shane McMahon and DABBA-KATO

Shane McMahon answered the question about his reappearance by introducing "RAW Underground", which appears to be something akin to the classic movie Fight Club, down to the lighting and atmosphere, complete with the scantily-clad women of the Attitude Era.

DABBA-KATO stood out here in the first segment. He was formerly Babatunde, who appeared in 2018's Greatest Royal Rumble, but has otherwise been absent from WWE's programming since then. If he's going to rule this RAW Underground, it's an opportunity for him.

The whole thing needs to be fleshed out, but at least it's novel and potentially interesting.

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RAW Losers: The Street Profits and Angel Garza and Andrade

This entire thing was just a train wreck and really discredited both the RAW Tag Team Champions and their challengers. It feels like the company doesn't know what to do with those titles, which is a perpetual problem at any rate.

It feels like we can only wait for this rivalry to be over, which has done no favors to anybody involved in it.