Monday Night Raw Review - December 1, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss Confronted and Challenged Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY

I'm glad Ripley addressed SKY's unfinished business with The Kabuki Warriors, but the focus should be shifting to SKY vs. Asuka soon since Ripley beat Kabuki Warriors at Crown Jewel and again at Survivor Series. I know they successfully teamed with Flair and Bliss in WarGames, but there's no reason for them to be facing each other, especially since Ripley and SKY shouldn't be regulars in the women's tag team ranks going forward.

LA Knight def. Jey Uso in a The Last Time Is Now Tournament Semifinal Match

These two had issues from August through October, but WWE moved away from them feuding for some reason without ever paying it off. Consider this the payoff, I guess. Neither guy will be mistaken for a master mat technician, but they had a quality contest, largely thanks to them both being as over as they are. Knight advancing was the correct outcome and Uso's post-match meltdown was intriguing. He was "crashing out" back in October, but like the storyline with Knight, it was abruptly dropped and it looks like they're going back to it.

Intercontinental Champion and AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan Addressed The Judgment Day

Morgan's return was one of the few highlights from Survivor Series, so I'm glad she was able to address her absence here as well as the state of Judgment Day, reference they've done a lot of losing lately but that they intend to get their gold back. That's actually the least interesting thing WWE can do with them at this point, so although no tension was teased, hopefully we're getting closer to Mysterio and Morgan breaking away from the faction.

World Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Dragon Lee def. The New Day

Let the record show that New Day did nothing to deserve a shot at the titles. I honestly couldn't tell you the last meaningful match they won on television. Rather, it's pretty obvious this match was only made so Styles and Lee could defend their titles and remind viewers that they're champions. It was a nice outing, but the best part was easily the finish. Kingston practically floated in the air after Lee kicked him on the ropes before Styles caught him mid-air for the Styles Clash.

Bron Breakker Addressed World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk

The rest of The Vision was with Breakker in the ring and Paul Heyman even cut a brief promo, but this was all about Breakker and hyping up his now-official World Heavyweight Championship clash with Punk on the January 5th Raw. He spoke with excellent intensity and proved he's ready for the opportunity. This is what I'd like to see more of from Breakker, and I'd absolutely pull the trigger when he faces Punk and put the title on him then. Why wait?

Gunther def. Solo Sikoa in a The Last Time Is Now Tournament Semifinal Match

Reportedly, Sikoa was always scheduled to beat Penta in last week's quarterfinal match, even if Penta didn't get hurt. I didn't have the highest of hopes for this bout given the heel vs. heel dynamic and that Sikoa hasn't had many standout matches in the last year, but this far exceeded my expectations and ended up being damn fun with some suspenseful nearfalls. Call Gunther a miracle worker, but Sikoa deserves props for the strong showing he had here as well.

Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY vs. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss Ended in a No Contest

As previously noted, I'm not sure why these teams felt the need to face each other, but it was an entertaining main event, nonetheless. The resurgence of the women's tag team division has been refreshing over the last month or so and it looks like it's leading to some sort of multi-team match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. Morgan standing alongside Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez without any issues to close the show was notable, but they shouldn't be on the same page for much longer.

Overall Show

For those wondering, no, there was no real follow-up the angle with the masked man from the end of Survivor Series, which tells me they're going to hold off on the reveal for a bit. That would be fine if WWE didn't already take forever to pay off other stories. At any rate, was this an "epic" show as Triple H hyped it up to be coming into it? Not at all, but it was a good episode for what it was featuring fallout from Survivor Series and setting stuff up for the coming weeks.

SEE MORE: Raw Reviews