Dominik Mysterio Escapes WWE Raw With the NXT North American Championship

Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest just saved Dominik Mysterio's unlikely championship reign on Monday Night Raw.

By Connor Casey

Dominik Mysterio pulled off another unexpected NXT North American Championship defense on this week's Monday Night Raw, scoring a major upset on Sami Zayn. The reigning Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion challenge Mysterio to a match at the start of the night and looked to have things wrapped up when he countered Mysterio's 5-Star Frog Splash and tossed him into the corner with an Exploder Suplex. He stepped back for a Heluva Kick, only for Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley to distract him by attacking Kevin Owens on the entrance ramp. Mysterio rolled up Zayn for the win.

Mysterio won the title in shocking fashion on last week's NXT against Wes Lee, then survived a title defense against Butch on last week's SmackDown. He'll face Mustafa Ali this weekend at the NXT: Great American Bash event and will likely have Ripley as his backup.

NXT: Great American Bash (2023)

  • NXT Championship: Carmelo Hayes vs. Ilja Dragunov
  • NXT Tag Team Championships: Gallus vs. The D'Angelo Family
  • NXT Women's Championship: Tiffany Stratton vs. Thea Hall
  • NXT North American Championship: Dominik Mysterio vs. Mustafa Ali
  • Roxanne Perez vs. Blair Davenport

Related:

WWE SummerSlam 2023 Card & Rumored Matches

  • Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Tribal Combat Rules)
  • World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
  • SmackDown Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair 
  • Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar 
  • Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler (Yet To Be Confirmed)
  • Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre (Yet to Be Confirmed)
  • Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus (Yet to Be Confirmed)
  • Ricochet vs. Logan Paul (Yet to Be Confirmed)
  • Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. TBA (Rumored)1

Sami Zayn on Eventually Becoming WWE World Champion

Despite losing to Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber back in February with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on the line, Zayn remains optimistic that he'll eventually become a world champion in WWE. 

"It would have been kind of perfect, a storybook ending, if I had dethroned Roman. Sure, of course, but if you look at more five years from now, ten years from now, the totality of where it all lies, I think you will see that it is one great chapter, hopefully, in a story," Zayn said in an interview with Xfinity this week. "For sure, unquestionably, whether it was the right or wrong decision, the way it ended, there is no question that had it gone my way that night in Montreal or at WrestleMania or something with Roman, unquestionably it would have been a moment that would have definitely been replayed many times. I still think what we did was very special and as you can see by what has continued to happen with The Usos and Roman, that story still has some special moments. This is one of those things where you just need time to see where it all falls.

"I don't know if this is a valid comparison, but it's almost like when Brock (Lesnar) beat Undertaker and ended the streak," he continued. "It was such a shocking moment that you kind of didn't know what to make of it. I remember watching it live with Juice Robinson. He was so frazzled by it, 'I need five years to know whether this was the right call or not.' It's kind of true. You had to wait several years to see all the consequences and ripple effects of that moment. It took five years to see 'this all goes back to do that.' Maybe it was chapter one, for me personally, in this huge story that is my quest to one day win the big one."

Trending Now: