Cody Rhodes Starts the Show, DIY VS The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh)
Cody Rhodes arrived to start this week’s episode of Raw and Cody talked about how he’s going to go on and win the Royal Rumble for the second straight year. This statement was then interrupted by Drew McIntyre who praised Rhodes before he told him that he needs to start being himself again. This ultimately resulted in both guys making it clear that they will be the one’s standing tall on January 27th, and whilst this was alright, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as some of McIntyre’s previous promo segments over the past month.
Grade: C+
After R-Truth handed Damian Priest a bunch of money as part of the cut for The Judgment Day t-shirts he’d been selling, the first match of the night saw DIY take on The Judgment Day’s Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh. A few factors including the lights, set, and the fact that it wasn’t the largest crowd due to weather issues meant this whole show felt like a bit of a house show which was great to see and it was especially true during this match as all four guys fit that “house show” style of wrestling. The crowd were also right behind Johnny Gargano which was great to see, and yeah, I really enjoyed this match. In the end, “The Judgment Day B” were no match for Ciampa and Gargano who nailed McDonagh with Meet in the Middle to pick up the victory.
Grade: B
Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell VS Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, Gunther Returns to Raw, Ludwig Kaiser VS Xavier Woods, Akira Tozawa VS Ivar
After Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell asked Adam Pearce for an opportunity, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven walked in demanding another rematch for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Pearce decided to book a Tag Team match between the four women instead and I have to say, it was a strange one. The (former) Way work so well together whilst I really like the team of Chelsea and Piper, but something didn’t quite click here. Especially the ending as Candice pinned Green after a weird couple of sequences, but I’m not going to judge this too harshly mainly because I’m hoping this was part of a big storyline (involving Chelsea and the referee).
Grade: C
After a Nia Jax video package, Damian Priest walked into “The Judgment Day Clubhouse” to show off his money before he told JD McDonagh that he doesn’t get any because he’s “not on the t-shirt”. This made me laugh. Ludwig Kaiser was then on the stage to welcome back Gunther and I really like it when he does this. Gunther laughed about everyone saying they’re going to win the Royal Rumble when that’s something only “The Ring General” is capable of doing before the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time praised Ludwig Kaiser for his actions last week. This brought out the returning Xavier Woods who was incredibly angry with what happened to his buddy Kofi Kingston last week. We then got a match between Kaiser and Woods and what I liked about this was it felt like both guys really wanted to hurt one another. In the end, Xavier’s anger got the best of him as he hit Ludwig with a chair to cause the Disqualification in a moment that made Woods look like “a mad man”!
Grade: C+
After Bronson Reed made it clear that he’s going to be a Champion soon, Ludwig Kaiser attacked Xavier Woods in the back only for Jey Uso to come to Woods’ aid. Akira Tozawa then made his way down to the ring as it was time for the Junior Cadet (of Alpha Academy) to go one-on-one with Ivar. Ivar dominated Tozawa for the most part only for Maxxine Dupri to cause a distraction which was enough for the Japanese Superstar to hit an assisted powerbomb to get the shock victory. However, it didn’t mean much as Valhalla and Ivar then beat up their rivals after the match to make it look like they actually won the night.
Grade: C
Becky Lynch Interrupts Rhea Ripley, The Judgment Day VS The Miz and R-Truth, Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark VS Tegan Nox and Natalya
Ivy Nile made it crystal clear that she was going to make Valhalla pay whilst Chad Gable was going to take on Ivar next week. Rhea Ripley then made her way down to the ring as the Women’s World Champion wanted to address her division. Before Rhea could really say much though, Becky Lynch’s music hit as The Man arrived to talk about the comparisons between the two stars. In the end, Becky said she wants to win the Royal Rumble and go on to face Ripley at WrestleMania and The Eradicator clearly felt the same way. Ripley-Lynch is a “Big Time” match and I definetly want to see it.
Grade: C+ (only because it was quite short)
Seth “Freakin” Rollins said he will remain as the World Heavyweight Champion come the end of the night before it was time for The Judgment Day’s A-team to take on The Miz and R-Truth. This match consisted of Truth basically believing he was teaming with The JD, only for Finn Balor to continuously beat him up. However, Damian Priest seemed less interested in doing this until the very end where he dropped Truth with South of Heaven before Balor pinned him to get the victory. This was very odd, especially the bit when Truth started handing out money to Finn.
Grade: C+
After Jinder Mahal stated his intentions for tonight’s Main Event, it was time for yet another Tag Team match as Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark took on Tegan Nox and Natalya. Shayna and Zoey destroyed Tegan Nox in this one as Nox was barely able to get any offense in whilst Natalya was eventually able to “run wild” courtesy of a hot tag. In the end, though, it didn’t matter as Nattie passed out in Baszler’s Kirifuda clutch, and yeah, I really don’t want or need to see Nox and Natalya team up ever again!
Grade: C
World Heavyweight Championship: Seth “Freakin” Rollins VS Jinder Mahal
And in the Main Event, Seth “Freakin” Rollins put his World Heavyweight Championship on the line against “The Modern Day Maharaja”, Jinder Mahal! Seth Rollins became outnumbered pretty quickly as Indus Sher’s Veer and Sanga arrived at the start whilst “Senor Money in the Bank” Damian Priest also made his way down to ringside. This was actually a pretty close-fought contest that got very interesting when Drew McIntyre arrived to brawl with Priest to the back. This distracted the referee and this allowed Veer to deliver a cheap shot to Seth which brought out a pretty good near fall. However, after this, the referee got distracted again which allowed the man with the Million Dollar Arm to wreck Rollins with Priest’s Money in the Bank Briefcase before Mahal hit the collos for a genuinely brilliant near fall. Who would’ve thought that I would’ve brought into Jinder Mahal becoming World Champion in 2024?! In the end, a Stomp was enough for Seth “Freakin” Rollins to retain his World Heavyweight Championship, and overall, I thought this was pretty fun stuff. However, Drew McIntyre brawling with Damian Priest didn’t make much sense when you consider McIntyre’s chances of beating Seth Rollins.
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