-I wouldn’t say that the show opening promo with Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss was groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a blast seeing the women’s tag division open the show. Flair and Bliss vs. Ripley and Sky was the right match to do at this point and they got there.
Fans don’t want to see an angry Jey Uso
-Most people must have figured that Jey Uso was losing to LA Knight this week in the Last Time Is Now tournament. With Gunther on the other half of the bracket, it was tough to envision a scenario in which WWE would book Jey against him again. Alas, Knight did win. Smart booking. Jey Uso losing it after the loss and destroying parts of the ringside area was curious. If it’s a heel turn for Jey, that’s a giant mistake. He’s one of the most over babyfaces in the company. If it isn’t a heel turn, but simply character nuance, that’s a mistake too. Fans want to have fun with Jey Uso and watch him win. A Jey Uso without confidence is old news at this point.
-Bravo, Dominik Mysterio. Once again, Dominik delivered a promo that was on the mark in terms of tone and content. Dominik calling himself the greatest of all time is top notch heel work and the audience reacted to it in a big way.
From The Takedown on SI
-Look for more drama inside The Judgment Day moving forward. Liv Morgan claimed her spot at the head of the group after returning at Survivor Series and based on body language this week, that didn’t seem to sit well with Finn Balor or Roxanne Perez. The Judgment Day is not The Bloodline, so WWE needs to strike when the iron is hot on their inevitable implosion.
Can Dupri deliver on heightened expectations?
-WWE ran an absolute gem of a vignette this week with Natalya and the WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion, Maxxine Dupri. It was intense, edgy, and showed a totally different side of Dupri’s personality. Great hype for her. Here’s the thing, though, can Dupri live up to that hype? As good as the video was, it dramatically increased expectations for Dupri and it’s reasonable to wonder whether she’s talented enough to reach them.
-It’s obnoxious that WWE is trying to get fans to believe that Seth Rollins was the masked guy who interfered inside of WarGames on Saturday night. Why on earth would Rollins want to help Bron Breakker and The Vision after they turned on him and put him on the shelf not too long ago? The storyline makes no sense.
-Yikes, if you’re The New Day, you’re looking in the mirror going, “uh oh.” They did as clean of a job as there can be this week on Raw. Clearly, they are not a priority. That said, it was a strong win for AJ Styles and Dragon Lee. They need to pad the resume a bit and this match did that. Plus, it was a very fun match. The stomp into the Styles Clash finish was the only “epic” part of Raw this week. If you haven’t seen the spot for some reason, here you go.
Authentic Breakker
-Welcome to the game, Bron Breakker. Breakker wasn’t perfect in delivery and the script wasn’t pristinely written with witty one-liners. It was still a top 10 promo of the year. Why? It had something that not a lot of WWE promos have these days and that’s authenticity. Breakker brought it and found a genuine voice. It was intense and significantly helped sell Breakker vs. Punk for the world title on January 5. Thumbs way up. If Breakker continues on this path, there will be no stopping him.
-Gunther just doesn’t miss these days does he? He and Solo Sikoa had a wonderful match this week, even if it was awkward watching Gunther wrestle as the babyface at times. The two men beat the absolute tar out of one another and were able to generate some real moments of doubt that Gunther would win. Of course, he did, and he’s one step closer to that retirement match with John Cena.
-An interesting little backstage encounter with Logan Paul and Rey Mysterio. Paul wants the IC title all of a sudden? This could be the beginning of seeing all the championship belts around the waists of talent in The Vision.
In search of? A better non-finish, finsh
-Too bad the main event ended in a non-finish. I get the idea here — try and position as many teams as possible in line for the women’s tag titles. WWE has to be smarter with the non-finishes, though. Why would The Kabuki Warriors interfere, so that two teams have legit claims to a title shot instead of just one? It’s nonsensical and easy to see the mission was simply to get through the match because they wanted to have it, but didn’t want to show a winner.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media Newsletter HERE.
Follow Zack Heydorn on Bluesky @zackheydorn.bsky.social