Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: The good and bad of what may have been AJ Styles’ final Raw as an active wrestler, the brand’s final push for the Royal Rumble

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

WWE Raw Hits

CM Punk vs. AJ Styles for the World Heavyweight Championship: The company either crammed in matches for Styles with Shinsuke Nakamura and Punk during the last eight days of his career, or they went with these matches to swerve fans into thinking that Styles will hang up the boots on Saturday. Either way, I’m happy we got to see both matches. Styles and Nakamura had the stronger outing, but they also had the benefit of a clean finish, whereas Styles and Punk had the unsatisfying “apparent no-contest” caused by Finn Balor’s interference. Punk vs. Styles was still entertaining enough that I hope they run this back with a better finish if Styles’s in-ring career continues past Saturday. On a side note, Gunther was at his arrogant best during his sit-down interview with Michael Cole. It felt a bit rushed, but the build to Styles vs. Gunther has been strong.

Adam Pearce and The Vision: The announcers did an effective job of telling the story. Michael Cole played up the possibility that Pearce would be hesitant to punish the heel faction after receiving a phone call from a mystery person last week. Meanwhile, Corey Graves suggested that Pearce chose to put all of the Vision members in the Royal Rumble because he expects them to implode. Pearce and Nick Aldis are excellent authority figures. They are believable while performing basic GM duties, but they also have the acting chops to handle bigger roles when called upon.

Stephanie Vaquer, Rhea Ripley, and Iyo Sky vs. Raquel Rodriguez, Liv Morgan, and Roxanne Perez: A fun opening match with good action, including some believable near falls for the Judgment Day trio. It was good to see Vaquer back in the ring after a recent injury. It was a good call to have her play up that she aggravated the injury, as that helps make her seem vulnerable heading into next week’s title match with Rodriguez.

Otis and Akira Tozawa vs. Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods vs. Bravo and Rayo in a four-way to earn a shot at the World Tag Team Titles: A soft Hit. The match was fine, but they made the outcome too obvious. Otis and Tozawa got a pep talk from Maxxine Durpi on a recent Raw and then expressed interest in the tag team titles. They were also the only team advertised for this match on last week’s show. Was telling a weak story worth making this match outcome so predictable?

Rey Mysterio vs. Austin Theory: A soft Hit for a solid match and a good post-match beatdown. Rey getting hurt was unfortunate. One can only hope that it was just a scare. At age 51, you never know how many WrestleMania events he has left in him. It would be a shame if he were forced to miss one.

WWE Raw Misses

Royal Rumble build: The Miss is more about the overall build than this particular show. WWE waited too long to start the build to the Royal Rumble this year. Cody Rhodes was the first wrestler to declare for one of the Rumble matches on January 16, just 15 days before the show. They’ve crammed in some Rumble entry announcements since then, and are in a pretty good place when it comes to the two singles matches, but they just haven’t made the overall event feel as big as it should. And it’s a shame because they have a strong lineup with the two Rumble matches, a potential retirement match, and a world championship match. As for the go-home edition of Raw, it was a fine show overall, but it failed to get me more excited about the Rumble than I was going in.

AJ Styles and Je’Von Evans: The intentionally awkward backstage segment was a strange choice for Styles for what may have been his final appearance on Raw as an active wrestler. They found time for this, but they had Evans declare for the Rumble match during a commercial break on the U.S. feed? Strange.

(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.)