Monday Night Raw Review - December 2, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Seth "Freakin" Rollins Brawled with CM Punk Before Exchanging Words with Sami Zayn

What an excellent opening segment. Not only did Punk establish his goal going forward of wanting to headline WrestleMania in a world title match, he also effectively rekindled his rivalry with Rollins. Well, at least Rollins attempted to. I love how Punk mentioned how Rollins was more concerned with him than the other way around now that Rollins isn't a champion anymore. Their brawl was brief, but what we then got from Rollins and Zayn on the mic was even better. They successfully set up the night's main event in the process. Every minute of this near-30-minute opening segment felt must-see.

Raquel Rodriguez and Women's World Champion Liv Morgan def. Damage CTRL (Kairi Sane and IYO SKY)

It was announced that SKY will finally get her shot at Morgan's Women's World Championship at Saturday Night's Main Event. This served as solid preview of that, even though Rodriguez pinned Sane for the victory. Personally, I didn't mind that because it did make Rodriguez look like a threat going into the Women's Intercontinental Championship tournament and her match next week against Rhea Ripley, who attempted to attack the heels afterward but got laid out.

Dakota Kai def. Katana Chance and Shayna Baszler in a Women's Intercontinental Championship Tournament Quarterfinal Triple Threat Match

Kai spoke about wanting to be a champion again in a vignette that aired for her a few weeks ago, so she's an early favorite to win this tournament. She was definitely the choice to go over as the Women's Intercontinental title would suit her well. This was an enjoyable Triple Threat, even though the crowd was quiet at times. The three women worked hard and tried to get them into the action.

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods Turned Their Backs on Big E

Initially, I was annoyed when I realized this wasn't closing the show, but then I realized they wouldn't have to rush anything by having it happen in the middle, so that was a smart call. There was so much excitement and buzz surrounding this segment that I was worried the ultimate endgame could be disappointing, but they stuck the landing with Kingston and Woods shifting their frustration with each other toward the returning Big E instead. No, Big E still isn't cleared to compete (as far as we know), but they sure planted the seeds for a hell of a comeback storyline for him if he is eventually cleared. While I would've preferred to see New Day break up entirely, giving Kingston and Woods a heel edge by betraying Big E is still an interesting direction to go in. This was a stellar segment and easily the best thing these guys have done in at least five years.

World Heavyweight Champion Gunther def. "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio (Non-Title)

Gunther granted Mysterio a match with him just to bother Finn Balor and drive a wedge between the two. He also acknowledged that Mysterio beat Damian Priest not too long ago, so I'm glad that wasn't completely forgotten about. They may as well have put the World Heavyweight Championship on the line here, but maybe they didn't want to make it too obvious that Gunther was winning. This was essentially a glorified squash, but the crowd had fun with Mysterio's brief flurries of offense. We found out afterward that Gunther will defend against Balor at Saturday Night's Main Event.

R-Truth def. Pete Dunne

These two have been doing silly backstage segments for weeks (most of which have been relegated to Raw Talk if I'm not mistaken), and what we ended up getting was a throwaway two-minute match with Truth scoring the upset. Then again, can it really be considered an upset when Truth has beaten a handful of notable opponents this year in singles and tag team matches? It's weird that Dunne went from beating Sheamus and Kingston to then losing to Truth so quickly, but hopefully he can bounce back from this.

Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Sami Zayn

We know what these two are capable of in the ring together from when they clashed for the World Heavyweight Championship last year, but this was less about the actual wrestling and more about the storytelling. In that respect, this was great stuff with Zayn being convinced that Rollins was the one who attacked Jey Uso beforehand and Rollins taking advantage of the fact he was distracted. Drew McIntyre returning afterward to attack Zayn (allowing them to rekindle their rivalry from this time a year ago) was the icing on the cake, but is he just the red herring because someone else actually attacked Uso?

Overall Show

It's safe to say this was one of the best editions of Raw all year if not the very best. Honestly, it had a post-WrestleMania vibe to it with everything that happened and the two hours flew by. The opening segment and the New Day segment were fantastic and they ended the night on a high note. We also got hype two new match announcements for Saturday Night's Main Event and the kickoff to the Women's Intercontinental Championship Tournament. Here's hoping this is a sign that WWE doesn't intend to phone it in for the holidays.

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