Monday Night Raw Review - January 27, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Seth "Freakin" Rollins, World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Logan Paul Interrupted Each Other

The timing of this segment was interesting because it was exactly one year ago on the Royal Rumble go-home edition of Raw that Gunther confronted an injured Rollins and planted the seeds for a future feud between the two. It still hasn't happened yet, and honestly, I think there's a better chance we see Gunther vs. Paul at WrestleMania 41 than we do Gunther vs. Rollins, just based on recent rumors and reports. Nonetheless, this was a good segment to tease the possibility of Rollins and Paul winning the men's Rumble.

World Tag Team Champions The War Raiders def. The Judgment Day ("Dirty" Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh)

Mysterio replaced Finn Balor in this World Tag Team Championship rematch from last month. I thought that meant it would be nothing special, but this may have been better than the original encounter. Granted, it wasn't given a ton of time, but the action was excellent and all four guys busted their asses. There was actually a point down the stretch where I feared Judgment Day would get the belts back, so the nearfalls were well done. Fingers crossed McDonagh is okay after that scary bump on the commentary table early on.

Rey Mysterio def. Xavier Woods

Mysterio previously defeated Kofi Kingston. Woods getting a match in his hometown of Atlanta was cool, and obviously their losses are supposed to add to their growing frustration. Of course, they need to win eventually, so hopefully WWE has something significant in mind for them heading into WrestleMania. This was a quality contest and Woods' own family rejecting him was fun (similar to Kofi Kingston's mother doing the same to Kingston last month).

Jey Uso Vowed to Win the Men's Royal Rumble

In a not-so-shocking development, Uso yet again failed to win when it mattered most at Saturday Night's Main Event, so his Rumble story is simple: He wants to win so he can get another opportunity at WrestleMania. No, I don't think he's winning, but you can't deny that he's a dark horse. This was short and sweet and accomplished what it needed to. The crowd will clearly be behind Uso no matter how many times he falls short.

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Naomi and Bianca Belair (Non-Title)

It's worth noting that WWE.com is officially recognizing Naomi as one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Belair. It's about time. I can totally see Morgan and Rodriguez winning the tag titles to free up Belair and Naomi for whatever they're going to do heading into WrestleMania, especially if Naomi was indeed the one who attacked Jade Cargill. This was a solid match, though the crowd was quiet at times.

Drew McIntyre Confronted Paul Heyman; McIntyre def. Sami Zayn

Heyman made a surprise appearance to announce that Roman Reigns would be the cover star of WWE 2K25. He spoke about that for a bit before hyping up Reigns' involvement in the men's Rumble. That would've packed more of a punch had, you know, Reigns bothered to show up himself. The segment picked up once McIntyre emerged to remind Heyman of how he was basically the catalyst behind The Bloodline's creation. I doubt we end up getting Reigns vs. McIntyre anytime soon, but they should absolutely interact in the Rumble. McIntyre and Zayn had yet another well-worked match and I like that McIntyre remains undefeated against Zayn. It should be a big moment when Zayn finally beats him.

CM Punk Confronted Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes

McIntyre continued to attack Zayn following their match, which led to Rhodes making the save. Kevin Owens aided McIntyre before Zayn accidentally kicked Rhodes in the corner. That felt like the ending to the episode, so the stuff after the commercial break with Punk and Rhodes was a welcome bonus. Rhodes seemed out of it for the first half, but otherwise, this was a strong segment to sell viewers on a potential Rhodes vs. Punk match at 'Mania. They did this on last year's go-home Raw before the Rumble, too, so we'll see if it actually amounts to something this time.

Overall Show

Needless to say, this edition of Raw was all about building toward Royal Rumble and I thought it did an extremely effective job of that. Much like last year's Rumble go-home show, they got fans excited for various feuds we may or may not see on the road to WrestleMania. The hype for the women's Rumble hasn't been nearly as excellent, but there's a lot of intertwining stories in the men's Rumble and the outcome feels genuinely unpredictable. This was a thumbs-up effort and the less-than-three-hour runtime combined with the smart pacing ensures the show breezes by.

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