Monday Night Raw Review - January 2, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Bloodline’s Hostile Takeover Led to a Brawl with Raw Superstars

This followed a similar formula from two weeks ago with The Usos, Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa starting the show by attacking everything in sight. This time, everyone they attacked two weeks ago came out to brawl with them and Adam Pearce cut their chaos short, leading to him booking The Bloodline in separate matches later in the show. You can't do this every week with The Bloodline, of course, but I liked the way they went about executing this.

Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair def. Alexa Bliss y Disqualification

I realize this more of an angle than a match, but as a match, this wasn't very good. Belair and Bliss didn't click too well and there were several awkward moments and transitions. They've never worked one-on-one on TV before, so maybe they need time to develop better chemistry. Even the angle was lame with Bliss attacking the referee and Bliss after being trigged by the people wearing Uncle Howdy masks at ringside. We knew something like that was coming, but I'm not a fan of Bliss being tied up with all of the Bray Wyatt stuff. I'm all for her turning heel again, but I don't want that "dark" version of Bliss back. The non-finish was logical, though. For the record, the crowd sat on their hands for all of this, which was slightly surprising given how over Belair and Bliss normally are. They did chant for Bliss to attack Belair one more time and that was more surprising considering Belair is from Tennessee (where this show emanated from). On a side note, the bell never rang for the disqualification (due to Bliss attacking the ref), but the outcome was listed as a DQ win for Belair on WWE.com.

Solo Sikoa def. Elias in a Music City Street Fight

This was basically a Symphony of Destruction match (Elias' specialty) with a different name. They already had a standard singles match last month, so adding a stipulation was appreciated. I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I'm not too high on Elias being competitive with Sikoa, but they made the most of the weapons around ringside and that finish on top of the piano was nasty (and I mean that as a compliment). The interference from that artist Hardy (no, not Matt or Jeff) was whatever.

The Bloodline (Sami Zayn and Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos) def. Kevin Owens and The Street Profits

From an in-ring standpoint, this was the entertaining affair you'd expect it to be given the talent involved. Unfortunately, it didn't accomplish anything other than solidifying Bloodline's dominance, so I wouldn't blame anyone for calling it a waste of time. I wouldn't have Montez Ford beat Finn Balor two weeks ago only to lose here. If nothing else, they were able to hype up the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match for Friday's SmackDown with Drew McIntyre and Sheamus coming out afterward.

Dexter Lumis def. Chad Gable

It's bizarre that we got a random match between Lumis and Gable but no real follow-up with The Miz and Bronson Reed. Yes, we got a quick vignette for Reed later on which was better than nothing, but we should have heard from Reed and/or Miz instead of getting Lumis against Gable, which didn't serve much of a purpose aside from giving Lumis a rebound win following his loss to Miz two weeks ago. This was perfectly fine but felt like filler.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai and IYO SKY) def. Michin and Becky Lynch

Bayley bringing up beforehand that Damage CTRL was born in Nashville was a nice touch. Lynch wanted a rematch with Bayley after Bayley cheated to beat her the first time, but Bayley wisely declined. They can save it for the Rumble, but I can easily see it happening on Raw before then so their focus is fully on the women's Rumble match. The subsequent tag team matchup that followed was solid and featured a much-needed win for Damage CTRL.

United States Champion Austin Theory def. Seth "Freakin" Rollins

Theory and Rollins have proven in the past they have terrific chemistry together and thus this was an excellent main event as expected. In fact, this was when the live crowd was at their hottest. They received plenty of time and made the most of it. Theory retaining was the right call considering his reign is just getting started and the door is open for a rematch after Theory cheated to beat him.

Overall Show

There was also a quick video package for Cody Rhodes that focused on his return to the company last week, and since there are more installments to come, it's safe to assume they will culminate with him announcing his entry into the men's Rumble (which he'll hopefully win). Other than that and the main event, this was a fairly tame show, and that's disappointing given it was the first Raw of the 2023. Nothing was actively bad and most stuff served a purpose, but nothing was overly exciting, either. I know the Rumble isn't until the end of the month, but you'd think there would've been more hype for the event on this episode.

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