Monday Night Raw Review - January 10, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bobby Lashley and MVP Confronted WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman

​Not counting their interaction at the Day 1 pay-per-view, this marked the first face-to-face encounter between Lesnar and Lashley. It was a long time coming. Lashley talked about how Lesnar has been ducking him for 20 years, whereas Lesnar called him a "wannabe Lesnar" and that he had no idea who he was. This was short, sweet and exactly what it needed to be. They didn't give away their best stuff before the Royal Rumble and that was key. Better yet, MVP and Heyman never went at it, meaning we still have that war of words to look forward to at some point.

Alpha Academy def. RK-Bro to Win the Raw Tag Team Championship

​​Well, this was quite the surprise. I assumed Alpha Academy would get a title shot after beating RK-Bro last week and lose, but I'm actually all for them becoming champions after all the great work they've done over the last year as heels. The match itself was entertaining and Otis pinning Randy Orton clean was probably the biggest shock. I assume this sets up Orton and Riddle for a one-on-one match at WrestleMania 38, but the split probably won't come until after the Royal Rumble. Expect tension in the Rumble with one of them accidentally (or intentionally) eliminatating the other.

Apollo Crews and The Dirty Dawgs def. United States Champion Damian Priest and The Street Profits

I know Priest retained his title against Dolph Ziggler last week and Street Profits beat Crews and Commander Azeez, but the babyfaces had nothing to prove against the heels here. As a result, it felt like filler to get the babyfaces to the Royal Rumble and I'm not sure why they had to lose. It was a perfectly solid six-man tag team affair, but I'm ready for Priest to move onto other opponents. Hopefully he will coming out of the Rumble.

Seth "Freakin" Rollins def. Big E

​Rollins attempted to offer an explanation beforehand for why he's able to challenge Roman Reigns (a SmackDown Superstar) for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble, and it sucked. Would it have been that hard to have him say that he never got the one-on-one title shot he earned a few months ago before it turned into a multi-man match at Day 1? Nevertheless, he and Big E had a really good match together. It was the first time they've ever gone one-on-one on the main roster, so I wish they would have saved it or at least advertised it in advance. Rollins needed to win if he's going to facing Reigns at the Rumble, but hopefully they have a plan in place for Big E heading into WrestleMania 38 so he doesn't get lost in the midcard shuffle.

Nikki A.S.H. Attacked Rhea Ripley

This is what we've all been waiting to see happen for weeks now. The only surprise was that it was Nikki who turned heel and not Ripley. Ripley tried to work things out and peacefully part ways, but Nikki refused to let the team break up before attacking Ripley. Although Nikki could go for a delusional superhero character as a heel, I rather she ditch the superhero shtick all together. It's impossible to take her seriously while she's wearing that dumb mask and I think her acting like a "supervillain" would have a short shelf life as well.

Omos def. Nick Sanders

Sanders was some random local athlete about half the size of Omos. You can tell from the camera angles alone that they're trying to get Omos over as this huge threat, but he unfortunately doesn't have the in-ring ability to back it up. That was pretty evident when he faced AJ Styles (you know, one of the best in the entire company) last week. Thankfully, this was booked more like a straightforward squash, so his weaknesses weren't on display as much. Was his interaction backstage with Reggie supposed to set up a match between them for next week? If so, can Omos somehow win the 24/7 Championship from Dana Brooke so he can throw it in the trash?

The Miz and Maryse Interrupted Edge and Beth Phoenix on The Cutting Edge

WWE sure does love their talk shows. However, I didn't have an issue with this one because Edge and Phoenix obviously have such strong chemistry as a couple and it was fun seeing them go back and forth before Miz and Maryse came out. This didn't accomplish much outside of further the feud ahead of the Rumble. Miz and Maryse surely aren't a threat to Edge and Phoenix, so hopefully they'll do something in the next week to put more heat on them.

AJ Styles def. Austin Theory by Disqualification

I wouldn't have given this away for the first time without any prior hype. I know that sounds silly given it's Austin Theory, but he's a star on the rise and this would've been a big match to do down the road (and I guess still could be). What we got from them was fine, but it was a brief bout designed to further the feud between Styles and Grayson Waller ahead of their match tomorrow night on NXT. Theory was protected in defeat having not been pinned and I anticipate the eventual (full-length) rematch.

Doudrop def. Liv Morgan and Bianca Belair in a Raw Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Match

I honestly didn't know who would win coming into this contest and that added to my enjoyment of it. It was also wise to position it as the main event for that very reason. All three women are talented, so this was a quality Triple Threat. Morgan already challenged for the title twice and lost, so I had less interest in her winning than the other two. Belair would have been a good choice, but I didn't want WWE to book Belair vs. Lynch for the Rumble when it could instead be saved for WrestleMania. Sure enough, Lynch cost Belair the win here, so that indeed appears to be the direction they're going in. I know Lynch vs. Doudrop has a heel vs. heel dynamic, but so does Rollins vs. Reigns and Lesnar vs. Lashley, so why the hell not? It should be well wrestled and Doudrop is a new name Lynch hasn't beaten yet, so I have no issue with the outcome.

Overall Show

You know it's Royal Rumble season when we get a show like this. That isn't to say it was as bad as it was a few months ago pre-Draft, but there more unnecessary matches than usual, all designed to fill time before the pay-per-view. That said, we did get developments in the Raw Women's Championship picture, the two Rumble matches, an official heel turn from Nikki, and new Raw Tag Team champions crowned, so it was somewhat newsworthy. As has been the case for a month or two now, I thought they did a decent job of filling the three hours and leaving me satisfied. Throw in some solid wrestling and I don't have many complaints.

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