Monday Night Raw Review - January 31, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Champion Bobby Lashley Denied Brock Lesnar's Challenge; Adam Pearce Announced Lesnar for the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match

This reminded me a lot of the opening segment on the post-WrestleMania Raw in 2015 when Seth Rollins boasted about winning the WWE Championship and Lesnar came out in his gear demanding a rematch. The crowd desperately wanted to see it (and I don't blame them), but Lashley ultimately denied his challenge and got great heat for it. Lesnar was just terrific here. He confirmed he'll be challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38 but will first enter the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE title for some reason. That worries me as I don't think Lesnar should regain the gold and Lesnar eating another pin unnecessarily isn't a smart idea, either.

Rhea Ripley def. Nikki A.S.H.

I know this hasn't been the hottest rivalry on Raw recently, but I'm surprised this wasn't advertised in advance considering Ripley and Nikki have been feuding all month. However, I'm not complaining if this was intended to blow it off so Ripley can move on to bigger and better things. They had a quality contest and I'd be fine with them having another match because they work well together, but I see no reason to revisit this considering Ripley won in clean fashion.

The Miz def. Dominik Mysterio

There was no setup for this match, though it might be kicking off a mini feud between Miz and The Mysterios. Miz lost to Edge both times they faced off on pay-per-view, so this was a necessary win for him in order to get some of that heat back. It was too short to be anything out of the ordinary from an in-ring standpoint, but it accomplished what it needed to and we may be going back to tension being teased between Rey and Dominik.

Kevin Owens Hosted The KO Show with Seth Rollins; Austin Theory def. Owens in a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match

The KO Show with Owens and Rollins was an entertaining segment. They play off each other exceptionally well and it was interesting that Owens took exception to Rollins automatically qualifying for the Chamber because of his performance at the Royal Rumble. I don't know how I'd feel about Owens turning on Rollins already, not to mention it's a 'Mania match we've seen before and all the other countless matches they've had over the years. Owens played the babyface role in the qualifying match that followed with Theory and it featured plenty of excellent action. Hopefully Theory will be given more of a chance in the Chamber than he did in the Rumble.

Angelo Dawkins def. Dolph Ziggler

I know Ziggler isn't billed from Ohio, but he's an Ohio native like Dawkins, so a hometown hero had to win here. Granted, the crowd clearly wanted Dawkins to win more than Ziggler because you could almost feel the crowd's apathy for Ziggler, but it's better than Dawkins getting embarrassed in his hometown by someone not from Ohio. They had a perfectly solid match that lasted longer than I was expecting. Dawkins winning was a pleasant surprise. Maybe the Bengals heading to the Super Bowl had something to do with it?

Raw Tag Team Champion Chad Gable def. Riddle in a Scooter Race; Riddle def. Otis in a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match

The scooter race had been going on backstage since the start of the show and ended at ringside with Otis cheating to help Gable win. RK-Bro won last week's spelling bee, so it was only logical for Gable to get the upper hand here. Gable has the ability to turn segments that should be stupid into comedy gold and this was no exception. Pearce announced the bout that Riddle vs. Otis would be made an Elimination Chamber qualifier, so that raised the stakes and made it more meaningful. Riddle is at his best when he turns it up a notch in the ring, so I'm glad we got that side of Riddle in this match. It was very well wrestled with both guys having strong showings.

Bianca Belair def. WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Carmella

I love Belair's energy, but I wish she was a bit more serious after coming up short in the women's Rumble. Instead, it was business as usual for her here. At any rate, Belair beat Carmella's partner Queen Zelina last week, so I guess it made sense for her to knock off Carmella this week. They got an average amount of time and had a nice little match. I'm curious where Belair goes from here if the WrestleMania matchup ends up being Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey.

AJ Styles def. Rey Mysterio in a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match

These two had a match or two on Raw over the United States Championship back in 2019, but I remember them not living up to the hype for whatever reason. This, however, was an absolute blast. Both guys are in the twilight of their respective careers, but they can still go and have kickass matches. I just wish WWE treated both guys like the legends they touted them as more often. Styles was the right person to advance and I hope he's one of the last men standing in the Chamber if he doesn't win the whole thing.

Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch Confronted Ronda Rousey Before Being Challenged by Lita

I'm among those in favor Rousey returning to WWE because of her star power and the possibilities that her winning the women's Rumble creates, but good lord, she is still abysmal on the mic. She got better toward the end of her last WWE run when she was really heeling it up, but she came across like she genuinely couldn't have cared less in this segment. If she doesn't switch up her robotic speaking style, it's going to be a long road to WrestleMania for her. It was cool seeing her and Lynch interact again, but with Ripley promising to reveal on SmackDown who she wants to face at WrestleMania, all signs point to her choosing Charlotte Flair. Lita confronting and challenging Lynch came out of nowhere, but I'm all for it. It's another name for Lynch to beat ahead of WrestleMania and it'll be Lita's first real program since coming out of retirement. It's certainly an attraction for WWE's latest Saudi Arabia pay-per-view.

Overall Show

Elimination Chamber is in less than three weeks, so it was wise to not waste any time in announcing all of the participants in the WWE Championship Chamber. Granted, Lesnar and Rollins not having to qualify was silly, but the three qualifying matches we did get were all excellent. Those were the highlights of the show along with Gable's greatness and Lita's surprise appearance at the end. They built the entire episode around Rousey's return and it simply didn't deliver because she exuded zero energy on the mic. This road to WrestleMania might be rough for her from a promo standpoint. All in all, this was an above-average edition of Raw with the Elimination Chamber stuff and emphasis on the in-ring action helping out a lot. It was an enjoyable three hours.

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