By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Gunther’s promo: A simple and effective promo. Gunther was appropriately dressed in black, as he established his goal of forcing John Cena to submit in his final match. In a perfect world, they could have done an angle or a promo exchange between Gunther and Cena. Even without Cena being present, the company did an excellent job of constantly plugging his last match for Saturday Night’s Main Event.
AJ Styles and Dragon Lee vs. “The War Raiders” Erik and Ivar for the World Tag Team Titles: More good than bad. Lee had a hell of a time trying to power up Ivar. He took the words “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” to heart by failing twice before stubbornly pulling off an awkward move on his third try. Perhaps he would have been better off following the advice of WC Fields, who added to that famous quote by saying, “Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.” Erik and Ivar pulled off some of their impressive double-team moves before the champions retained, as expected. It’s great to see the tag team titles defended more frequently than they were when Finn Balor and JD McDonagh were champions, but it’s not doing the rest of the division any good to simply announce matches rather than building up teams to feel like worthy challengers.
Iyo Sky vs. Kairi Sane: Asuka’s interference on behalf of Sane, and the involvement of Rhea Ripley, helped make this a soft Hit despite the predictable outcome. I assume this is leading to Asuka and Sane defending the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles against Ripley and Sky, but they also seemed to be setting up a bigger match involving more teams on last week’s Raw.
Lyra Valkyria vs. Roxanne Perez: A soft Hit for an entertaining match until the rough finish that saw Liv Morgan lying on her back while trying to kick Valkyria. She missed with the first kick, and the second one didn’t look much better. On the bright side, the fans are getting behind Valkyria more than they have in the past, and the suplexes she performed on Perez were impressive. It was also a solid night for establishing the dynamic of The Judgment Day members now that Morgan has returned. She was clearly bothered by Raquel Rodriguez not telling her that she was going to attack Stephanie Vaquer, yet Morgan did her best to put on a happy face in front of Rodriguez.
WWE Raw Misses
Logan Paul vs. LA Knight: The match was passable, even if the mystery masked man’s interference already feels like something that is going to get old in a hurry (the longer it’s dragged out, the more I worry that he’ll get involved in the CM Punk vs. Bron Breakker match for the World Heavyweight Championship on January 5). The Miss is more about The Vision’s flat post-match attack on Knight. They beat him down, the show went to commercial, and then Paul and Bronson Reed checked in for round two by beating him down again in the backstage area. The Vision attacks feel repetitive, and it doesn’t help that cocky babyface Knight isn’t a sympathetic figure. Normally, I’d question why a babyface’s friends didn’t try to help him, but Knight’s character doesn’t have any friends. On the bright side, it was good to see some attention paid to establishing the dynamic between Paul and the other Vision members, who seem to be tolerating him more than truly accepting him.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
Any thoughts on the Natalya/Dupri training segments?
You haven’t put in your two cents yet.
I’d like them more if they were for someone such as Ivy Nile. I get that they are trying to toughen up Maxxine Dupri, but the question is whether she can back it up in the ring. I have my doubts, but I hope she proves me wrong.