Monday Night Raw Review - January 17, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and Doudrop def. Liv Morgan and Bianca Belair

Morgan and Belair both announced themselves for the women's Royal Rumble before the bout. Lynch also didn't pretend Doudrop was a threat to her title at all because she claimed she let her win last week, but at least Doudrop generated some momentum by winning for their team. The match itself was extremely brief, but it accomplished what it needed to. I liked that we got barely any interaction between Lynch and Belair because that should be saved for WrestleMania 38.

Kevin Owens Hosted The KO Show with Seth "Freakin" Rollins; Owens def. United States Champion Damian Priest (Non-Title)

I'm slightly surprised the Rollins and Owens alliance is still going. With Rollins beginning a feud with Roman Reigns over on SmackDown and RK-Bro losing the Raw Tag Team Championship to Alpha Academy, it looked like there was no reason for them to continue teaming. However, I'm not complaining because they're entertaining together. They hyped up Rollins vs. Reigns at the Royal Rumble with that segment and segued seamlessly into Owens vs. Priest. It was a solid match and Owens winning should set up a championship rematch one of these weeks.

RK-Bro Crashed Raw Tag Team Champions Alpha Academy's Graduation Ceremony

I'm not going to lie: Most people probably hated this segment and thought it was stupid, but I found it to be humorous, largely because of Chad Gable. Riddle played his role well, but Gable held the whole thing together and his delivery was fantastic. Randy Orton wearing the cap and gown was the cherry on top. It was established that RK-Bro has to beat Alpha Academy in an "academic challenge" (yes, like in Billy Madison) in order to earn a rematch for the titles.

Austin Theory def. Finn Balor

No explanation was provided as to why Balor had been missing from Raw since late December. That said, I'm glad they picked up where they left off and had a chance to finally have that rematch that was advertised for a few weeks ago. This hasn't been much more than your standard midcard feud, but they work well together and this was another quality contest from them. Theory winning was the right call, but I really wish WWE knew what the hell to do with Balor.

Nikki A.S.H. vs. Rhea Ripley Went to a No Contest

When it was said backstage that this match would be happening on this show, I was completely baffled that it wasn't announced ahead of time. Well, now we know why, and I'm totally with this being more of an angle instead. I have no idea why Carmella and Queen Zelina had to be out there insulting Ripley from a storyline standpoint, but they were wise to hold off on doing the match. I look forward to Ripley eventually kicking Nikki's ass because the superhero shtick is so damn dumb.

Omos def. Reggie

I know it's only been a few weeks, but this Omos push just isn't working. I know people will argue that guys like Theory and Priest are as over as Omos is, but at least they can go in the ring and can talk. Omos simply has his size going for him. This was a serviceable squash for him and Reggie is the perfect person for him to be beating, but I don't know what more you can do with Omos beyond this sort of stuff (other than toss the 24/7 Championship in the garbage which would be wonderful). I fear he'll have a dominant run in the Rumble and I have no interest in that whatsoever.

The Miz and Maryse Attacked Edge and Beth Phoenix

Edge and Phoenix have gotten the better of Miz and Maryse at every turn since Day 1, so it was only a matter of time before Miz and Maryse got one over on them. That's exactly what happened here with Miz and Maryse luring them out to the ring, Miz beating up Edge at ringside, and Maryse laying out Phoenix with a purse that was loaded with a brick. It was a simple segment that accomplished what it needed to.

The Street Profits and The Mysterios def. Apollo Crews, Commander Azeez and The Dirty Dawgs

This is basically what's left of Raw's tag team division at this point. Don't get me wrong, it's noticaebly better than SmackDown's, but it still isn't much. Street Profits and The Mysterios are over, but I don't think the same can be said about The Dirty Dawgs and the duo of Crews and Azeez. This was a well-worked eight-man tag team affair that gave the babyfaces their win back from last week and offered a small preview of what to expect in the Rumble with Rey tossing Dominik over the top rope afterward.

Bobby Lashley def. Seth "Freakin" Rollins by Disqualification

WWE really loves their heel vs. heel matches lately, don't they? Thankfully, this is one of the few matches the company hasn't done to death over the years, so it felt fresh. The action was enjoyable despite the dynamic, but you could see that non-finish coming from a mile away because neither guy should be losing before they challenge for a championship at the pay-per-view. They ended the show on a high note by having Lashley take out Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin (R.I.P. Hurt Business) and The Usos lay out Rollins. It was a cool moment, even though it further solidified that the Brand Split is meaningless.

Overall Show

In addition to everything written about above, we also got a great video package hyping up Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley at the Rumble and the announcement that there will be a weigh-in with them next week. The latest Alexa Bliss therapy vignette was... not as great, to say the least. I typically hate the "let it play out" excuse from fans because that's rarely ever the case with WWE, but I do have some hope that it's leading to her changing up the awful character because why wouldn't she make a surprise return instead? The rest of the show was largely business as usual. They lost me by the third hour, which hasn't been the case too much in recent months to be honest, but it was a solid show on the whole that furthered several stories and built toward the Rumble.

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